I'm improving my project. I require assistance.
I'm improving my project. I require assistance.
I’m considering replacing some components in my computer and would appreciate your advice.
My system currently includes:
Graphics card: GTX 1070 FTW 8GB ACX 3.0
Processor: Core i7 7700k unlocked
Memory: 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM (two sets of 8x2) – I acknowledge that mixing kits is generally not recommended, but these units were provided as a complimentary gift.
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z270E
Solid-State Drive: Samsung Evo 500GB 850
Hard Disk Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
I plan to purchase a ROG Strix 1080 Ti. However, I’m seeking recommendations for an SSD with a capacity exceeding 1TB and prioritizing speed, regardless of cost. Furthermore, will my EVGA 650W Gold 80+ ATX power supply provide sufficient power for this upgrade?
My case is a NZXT S340 Elite. I believe the graphics card and SSD will fit, but could you verify this? Your assistance is greatly valued. The primary motivation for upgrading from a 1070 to a 1080 Ti is that I recently obtained a 1440p monitor and intend to utilize ultra settings. Regarding the SSD, I am currently reliant on a traditional HDD and would like to expand my storage capacity.
Wishing you the best, Dunkirkman. If you require further assistance or clarification, please don’t hesitate to ask. It would be wise to reach out to the installer who performed the installation and inquire whether they properly registered it with a Microsoft account. Specifically, determine if this was done using a temporary or disposable account that they could provide you with access to – allowing you to manage it yourself now and in the future, or at least long enough to modify the associated email address. If they refuse to do this, you should consider the possibility that your Windows copy may not be genuine. This could potentially shed light on several issues you’ve encountered.
Could you please specify the precise EVGA model number for your unit? Several different EVGA 650w Gold models exist.
Indeed, your graphics card should be compatible. The S340 accommodates cards up to 364mm in length without a front radiator, and 334mm with one installed. Relatively few cards reach these dimensions, and none of the available GeForce 1080 Ti models currently meet them. It's difficult to find a reasonably priced 1080 Ti, as the lowest I’ve seen is currently over $700—at that price point, you could acquire an RTX 2080 for considerably less. Purchasing a used 1080 Ti is generally not advisable, as most secondhand cards currently on the market have likely been used for cryptocurrency mining and should be avoided.
However, if you can locate one from a reputable vendor, that would certainly be a more secure option.
An SSD’s functionality is separate from system memory; furthermore, a 1TB SSD isn't typically the most effective choice. A 500GB SSD coupled with a 4TB hard drive would be preferable for storing games, photographs, movies, and music. If you’re determined to obtain a 1TB SSD, I suggest considering this specific model—it's recognized for its speed and high quality at a competitive price.
PCPartPicker part list
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Price breakdown by merchant
Storage:
Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
($134.99 @ Adorama)
Total:
$134.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-27 16:29 EST-0500
My computer’s power supply unit is available here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00K85X2AW/?tag=pcp0f-20. Furthermore, would a graphics card like an RTX 2080 function with my existing power supply? If it would, I’m considering purchasing one.
Regarding solid-state drives...I've observed their importance. Do you believe they offer substantial value? Or are there superior alternatives available? Concerning the RTX 2080, which model would you select?
As far as SATA solid state drives go, to me, the Samsung 850 and 860 EVOs, Sandisk Ultra II's and Crucial MX’s are the three units that when compared, you take whichever one happens to be the least expensive at the time. They are ALL good and they ALL have about the same throughput depending on the capacity of the model. Higher capacity models typically have better performance than lower capacity units, but by now we've pretty well saturated the SATA 3.0 bus anyhow so in reality there is little difference between them when it comes to performance and that includes the Pro models as well.
A 1TB Pro model might have slightly better random performance, but not enough of it to warrant a much higher price.
If you simply want the BEST overall unit, I'd recommend this one:
PCPartPicker part list
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Price breakdown by merchant
Storage:
Samsung - 860 Pro 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
($280.72 @ Amazon)
Total:
$280.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-27 18:27 EST-0500
Like I said, much more expensive without a lot in return for what you are paying for. Maybe a little more endurance, maybe slightly better sustained random and sequential speeds at just about any queue depth, but you will probably never notice that anyhow on a gaming machine.
That power supply is just “ok”. Not good, not bad. It does however use Capxon capacitors and THOSE are not particularly good for the long haul. I doubt very much if that unit is a few years old that it's able to sustain it’s rated capacity anymore, but it's certainly possible. Considering you can get a very good 750w unit that would give you much cooler and quieter operation, not to mention excellent levels of voltage regulation, ripple and noise, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy an almost thousand dollar graphics card and pair it with a power supply that isn't equally terrific.
I’d recommend one of these if you upgrade your graphics card, and maybe even if you don't.
PCPartPicker part list
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Price breakdown by merchant
Power Supply:
EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
($59.99 @ B&H)
Total:
$59.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-27 18:32 EST-0500
And THIS unit, would be even better, by a fair measure, that:
PCPartPicker part list
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Price breakdown by merchant
Power Supply:
SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
($124.99 @ Newegg)
Total:
$124.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-27 18:33 EST-0500
Even the G3 is 5x the power supply that your EVGA G1 model is. In the end though, yes, that graphics card would be at least “ok” with a brand new G1 650. Those models don't make my list of recommended units however and the fact that it’s likely been around the block a few times just compounds the chances that it might not be good enough.
Click below for a full list of model recommendations:
Spoiler
Let's start with the biggest misconception out there, which is that if a unit has high watts it will be ok or is good. No. Just, no.
There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a light bulb and might in fact be more dangerous due to their supposedly high capacity due to poor or non-existent protections inside the unit.
If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.
Higher 80plus certification doesn’t mean anything, UNLESS it's on an already known to be high quality PSU platform. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.
In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.
Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.
If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification or not is irrelevant.
Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far as I've seen there are really no excellent units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.
I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it’s hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I’d stick to the following if you can.
Seasonic.
Seasonic isn't just a brand, they are a PSU manufacturer, unlike many of the PSU brands you see they make their own power supply platforms AND a great many of the very good PSU models out there from other brands like Antec, Corsair and older XFX are made by Seasonic.
Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.
The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it’s worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.
Most common currently, in order of preference, would be the Seasonic Focus series, then Focus plus, then Prime, then Prime ultra. It's worth mentioning that there are generally Gold, Platinum and Titanium versions within each, or most, of those series, but that does not necessarily mean that a Focus plus Platinum is necessarily better than a Prime Gold. It only means that it scored better in the 80plus efficiency testing, not that the platform is better.
Again, don't let yourself get tangled up in the idea that a higher 80plus rating specifically means that it is a better unit than another one with a lower rating, unless you know that it is a good platform from the start. All these Focus and Prime units are pretty good so you can somewhat focus on the 80plus rating when deciding which of them to choose.
Super Flower
Super Flower is another PSU manufacturer. They also make most of the good units sold by EVGA like the G2, G3, P2 and T2 models.
Super Flower doesn't have a very broad availability for the units with their own brand name on them, and are not available in a lot of countries but for those where there is availability you want to look at the Leadex and Leadex II models. The Golden green platform is fairly decent too but is getting rather long in the tooth as a platform AND I've seen some reviews indicating a few shortcomings on units based on this platform.
Even so, it's a great deal better than a lot of
Alright so, I'll grab that seasonic for sure. As for SSD, if the performance won't be totally noticeable, I might as well go for the crucial. That leaves me with GPU dark. I've been watching videos.... comparing the 2080 and 1080ti. Alot of people say go to eBay and get a 1080ti ftw3 or strix. I know I'll have to keep my eye on the pricing and definitely the seller (to see if he is reputable) but I want your opinion on what you would do. You've helped me alot and I want to use your recommendations. Would you still suggest me getting the 2080?
If so, once I have everything... would you recommend me wiping the OS? If not, obviously just delete the current drivers from my 1070, then install the new ones off the new GPU. Would you suggest me formating any hard drives? I keep my OS on my SSD and I play games on the HDD (because I don't want a poop ton of files on one drive as I mod quite a bit).
I kinda want to clear everything and start fresh, but if it's not necessary then I won't. I'd have to pay the guy to re install Windows 10 so that's a downside. I only mention reformating because again, some things are on my SSD in terms of steam, and others are on my HDD and it gets kinda confusing. Also, I'll be having 3 hard drives so should I ask him to mirror my HDD files onto my new SSD? I want all my games on the new SSD and leave the HDD for pics, movies etc. I don't know if having steam and some files shared between my current HDD and SSD is bad so that's another reason why I mentioned reformating.
Anyway, your help is appreciated/needed.
I've located a favorable deal from a trustworthy vendor for a GTX 1080 Ti FTW3. It's being offered at $900 CAD, originally priced at $1900 CAD.
A secondhand graphics card comes with no guarantee whatsoever. If there’s a problem, you’re on your own.
Indeed, a new card can perform well initially. However, even with a reputable vendor, it’s impossible to confirm whether the seller obtained it legitimately – perhaps from a large batch sale intended for resale, or even if its bios has been altered for cryptocurrency mining. The potential pitfalls of purchasing a used card at that price are numerous, making it an unwise gamble.
This is particularly true when a new RTX 2080 can be acquired for roughly the same cost, complete with a warranty and ray tracing capabilities.
Considering that an RTX 2080 offers similar performance to a GTX 1080 Ti, it seems unreasonable to spend money on a used card without any protection.
Alternatively, consider these alternatives:
[Link to Asus RTX 2080]
[Link to EVGA GTX 1080 Ti]
Adding a warranty is worth an additional $98.
Alternatively, you could opt for a GTX 1080, 2070, or 2070 Ti. These cards should comfortably handle high settings at 1440p resolution.
Hey, could you take a look at the query I submitted earlier when I referenced the ftw3?