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It's high time that I upgraded my PC as it's now really needed and here's why.
I built a 2700K based PC with 16GB RAM back in November 2011 which was so good and fast in games, plus further CPU performance improvements per generation were so marginal, that it just wasn't worth upgrading. So, by late 2023 it was somewhat overdue to say the least, but I still didn't get round to it for various reasons. To be honest, other than a few of the very latest games, performance was still reasonable and with the variable refresh rate monitors that we have now, gaming at the highest frame rates really isn't the priority that it once was since there are no dropped frames with VRR that lead to annoying judder / stutter, so all you see is smooth gameplay. This has to be one of the best innovations in PC gaming of the last decade.
Then, one day in December, with the PC idling on the desktop, the motherboard suddenly died with a literal bang! The screen went black and multiple loud thumps sounded through the speakers, plus a slight telltale burning smell. Unsurprisingly, it didn't respond to the power switch after that. After a bit of basic troubleshooting, I confirmed that my trusty PC of 12 years was dead. It may not seem like it when a PC is new, but all hardware has a certain lifetime which will be reached sooner or later and now mine had finally reached it.
Note that while the CPU and supporting components had remained constant, I'd upgraded the graphics card many times, with the latest being a now aging MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio and a damned fine card that is, too. With fan stop in 2D mode, it's so cool and quiet, even when gaming hard. That will also need replacing, but not until the NVIDIA 50xx series are out, which will be around the middle of next year and the price will also be a big factor in what I get. For now, I just drop the resolution and details down if I have to. Again though, not such a pressing requirement with VRR.
Luckily, I'd bought a used lower end rig off a friend to use for file backups, but hadn't pressed it into service yet, so replaced my 2700K rig with that as a stopgrap measure. It consisted of the following:
So, what to replace it with? It was a choice between the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, or the Intel i9-14900K for the heart of my new PC. It took me a while to make up my mind due to various factors, but while the AMD is currently king of the hill for gaming performance by a significant margin (see reviews) it's not widely available yet and isn't necessarily as fast as the Intel in other tasks. Plus, I want to upgrade my PC right now, especially as I've just bought the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which I'm playing online with friends. Performance in that game with my current rig is poor, with 20-40fps on average, leading to lots of stutters, hitching and unevenness, even with VRR as the framerate is just too low. Heck, I did a quick benchmark at 1080p which showed the CPU to be 100% the bottleneck! It's high time to upgrade, hence, I went with the 14900K.
So, today, 18.11.24, I finally pulled the trigger and bought the components I needed, delivery due tomorrow. I was able to buy all of them from amazon.co.uk, no Marketplace, ie directly off Amazon which has reliably ensured no problems for me over the years, unlike Marketplace. They are:
This is what it takes for a no-compromise system though. I could have gone with 32GB RAM, but I want 64GB because I can and will also help with running virtual machines, so what's the point of saving a few pounds, but then hankering for the better product from day one? It's a recipe for immediate frustration and it's really not that much extra money in the long run.
I went with the big Noctua cooler since my NH-D14 has performed so flawlessly for 12 years and in fact has not failed, plus the new one has received superlative reviews.
With the latest Intel 0x12b microcode update fixing the overvolting issues that were slowly destroying the CPUs and resulting lower temperatures, I should even be able to overclock it to some extent, although I'm gonna be careful with that and likely return it to stock afterwards. I prefer long life over a slight gain in performance and a reduced life with a rig this expensive.
Other components in my PC remain the same:
I'll be getting an M.2 SSD for it at some point, but not urgent.
I got the seriously overpowered Corsair PSU because I wanted the best quality and most efficient PSU at the time, along with the control software, which is this one and was well worth the £400 asking price. I think other PSUs approach it now, but I'm not sure it's been beaten yet, not even by Seasonic.
Note that the Samsung 256GB drive has worked flawlessly for almost a decade now (how time flies) and has no bad blocks, so perhaps it would be wise to replace it soon before it begins to fail.
I couldn't use the sound card with this mATX board, but I don't think it's going into the new rig either since it's no longer supported by Creative and the outdated W10 drivers have intermittent crackling and distortion problems, plus may not even work on W11. Also, onboard sound is pretty good nowadays, even the one on this old mATX board. Shame, as I really like this card for its fantastic sound quality and its advanced processing features. I'll have to try it and see.
UPDATE 19.11.24
All the parts have arrived, are in perfect condition with all seals intact and I'll be building my new rig soon. Note that I'm going to do some before and after benchmarks, too. I expect the differences to be massive.
I built a 2700K based PC with 16GB RAM back in November 2011 which was so good and fast in games, plus further CPU performance improvements per generation were so marginal, that it just wasn't worth upgrading. So, by late 2023 it was somewhat overdue to say the least, but I still didn't get round to it for various reasons. To be honest, other than a few of the very latest games, performance was still reasonable and with the variable refresh rate monitors that we have now, gaming at the highest frame rates really isn't the priority that it once was since there are no dropped frames with VRR that lead to annoying judder / stutter, so all you see is smooth gameplay. This has to be one of the best innovations in PC gaming of the last decade.
Then, one day in December, with the PC idling on the desktop, the motherboard suddenly died with a literal bang! The screen went black and multiple loud thumps sounded through the speakers, plus a slight telltale burning smell. Unsurprisingly, it didn't respond to the power switch after that. After a bit of basic troubleshooting, I confirmed that my trusty PC of 12 years was dead. It may not seem like it when a PC is new, but all hardware has a certain lifetime which will be reached sooner or later and now mine had finally reached it.
Note that while the CPU and supporting components had remained constant, I'd upgraded the graphics card many times, with the latest being a now aging MSI RTX 2080 Gaming X Trio and a damned fine card that is, too. With fan stop in 2D mode, it's so cool and quiet, even when gaming hard. That will also need replacing, but not until the NVIDIA 50xx series are out, which will be around the middle of next year and the price will also be a big factor in what I get. For now, I just drop the resolution and details down if I have to. Again though, not such a pressing requirement with VRR.
Luckily, I'd bought a used lower end rig off a friend to use for file backups, but hadn't pressed it into service yet, so replaced my 2700K rig with that as a stopgrap measure. It consisted of the following:
- CPU: Intel i5-4590 at 3.30GHz. While two generations newer, this has a lower clock speed than the 2700K, isn't overclockable and has only 4 cores without HT. Yeah, I can notice the difference, even on the desktop. Oh and W11 says No to running on it
- Mobo: Asus mATX
- RAM: 8GB DDR3
- Cooler: Budget Cooler Master
So, what to replace it with? It was a choice between the new AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, or the Intel i9-14900K for the heart of my new PC. It took me a while to make up my mind due to various factors, but while the AMD is currently king of the hill for gaming performance by a significant margin (see reviews) it's not widely available yet and isn't necessarily as fast as the Intel in other tasks. Plus, I want to upgrade my PC right now, especially as I've just bought the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 which I'm playing online with friends. Performance in that game with my current rig is poor, with 20-40fps on average, leading to lots of stutters, hitching and unevenness, even with VRR as the framerate is just too low. Heck, I did a quick benchmark at 1080p which showed the CPU to be 100% the bottleneck! It's high time to upgrade, hence, I went with the 14900K.
So, today, 18.11.24, I finally pulled the trigger and bought the components I needed, delivery due tomorrow. I was able to buy all of them from amazon.co.uk, no Marketplace, ie directly off Amazon which has reliably ensured no problems for me over the years, unlike Marketplace. They are:
- £438.99 CPU: Intel i9-14900K
- £249.99 Motherboard: MSI MPG Z790 CARBON WIFI
- £154.99 Crucial Pro DDR5 64GB (2x32GB, CP2K32G56C46U5)
- £127.95 Noctua NH-D15 G2 (standard)
This is what it takes for a no-compromise system though. I could have gone with 32GB RAM, but I want 64GB because I can and will also help with running virtual machines, so what's the point of saving a few pounds, but then hankering for the better product from day one? It's a recipe for immediate frustration and it's really not that much extra money in the long run.
I went with the big Noctua cooler since my NH-D14 has performed so flawlessly for 12 years and in fact has not failed, plus the new one has received superlative reviews.
With the latest Intel 0x12b microcode update fixing the overvolting issues that were slowly destroying the CPUs and resulting lower temperatures, I should even be able to overclock it to some extent, although I'm gonna be careful with that and likely return it to stock afterwards. I prefer long life over a slight gain in performance and a reduced life with a rig this expensive.
Other components in my PC remain the same:
- Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
- PSU: Corsair AX1600i
- System drive: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD
- Data drive: WD Blue 4TB HDD
- Game drive: WD Blue 8TB HDD
- Optical drive: Asus DVD writer
- Sound card: Creative: SoundBlaster Fatal1ty X-Fi (see below)
I'll be getting an M.2 SSD for it at some point, but not urgent.
I got the seriously overpowered Corsair PSU because I wanted the best quality and most efficient PSU at the time, along with the control software, which is this one and was well worth the £400 asking price. I think other PSUs approach it now, but I'm not sure it's been beaten yet, not even by Seasonic.
Note that the Samsung 256GB drive has worked flawlessly for almost a decade now (how time flies) and has no bad blocks, so perhaps it would be wise to replace it soon before it begins to fail.
I couldn't use the sound card with this mATX board, but I don't think it's going into the new rig either since it's no longer supported by Creative and the outdated W10 drivers have intermittent crackling and distortion problems, plus may not even work on W11. Also, onboard sound is pretty good nowadays, even the one on this old mATX board. Shame, as I really like this card for its fantastic sound quality and its advanced processing features. I'll have to try it and see.
UPDATE 19.11.24
All the parts have arrived, are in perfect condition with all seals intact and I'll be building my new rig soon. Note that I'm going to do some before and after benchmarks, too. I expect the differences to be massive.