Debating repowering my tower.

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I was talking with someone the other day about our PCs and he pointed out that my motherboard is going for $200 on ebay. The mind boggles. But looking at the other parts, I might be able to get 300-400$ out of my Motherboard, CPU and RAM.
I was looking at some Ryzen stuff and I can put together a pretty good kit to replace my parts for around $800. Then I can put my parts on ebay and recoop nearly half that money.
For reference, this is my current setup:
Cooler Master HAF 942 (OG HAF)
Corsair RM850x supply
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
Intel Core i7 980X @ 3.85GHz
Prolimatech Megahalems w/ 2x Fractal Venturi 120mm
Mushkin Redline 12GB (3x 4GB) DDR3-1600
XFX AMD R9-280X 3GB For Monitor #1
Nvidia GeForce GT 520 for Monitor #2, #3
Samsung 830 256GB for OS
Adaptec RAID 6805 PCIe card with AFM 600 cache protection module
-4x Toshiba MG03ACA200 2TB drives in RAID 10 (Primary Storage; Programs, games and most of my personal files)
-3x Toshiba MG03ACA300 3TB drives in RAID 5 (Bulk storage; large files, backups, and etc)
-An additional MG03ACA300 drive for Hot spare

Literally Ive changed every part on this machine from the original build in January 2010 except for the motherboard and the Megahalems.
Im very happy with how it runs, for a 8,9 year old machine. My main concern is one of the parts I haven't changed, the Mobo or the CPU going TU on me and taking me out. This machine has run 24x7 since it was built. And also I find I lack RAM at times. Really would like to move up to at least 32GB.

So with that in mind, this is what I am considering;
ASUS Prime X370 Pro
AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (probably just run the stock cooler unless my chip is a good one and can OC well)
Corsair LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3000

Right around $779 on Amazon +tax of course.

The detriment to this is, the lack of PCIe lanes... My current X58 setup has no lack of lanes; and so I have the AMD card in the top X16 slot, the Nvidia card in the middle X16 slot which is in x8 mode because the Adaptec card is in the bottom x16 slot also at x8 mode. The Adaptec card is PCIe 2.0 x8. So, its perfect for this setup. The Nvidia card can't push enough pixels to need the full 16 lanes anyway. 4 or even 1 would be fine for what it does.
None of the boards I have looked at for the Ryzen really have enough lanes. Which is a issue with the whole design, not a motherboard thing. If I go this route, I will have to drop the GT520 and go a different route for my other monitors. Likely end up going back to a dual, which I can handle. The third was more of a, "I have the port and this free monitor, lets plug it in!" It also might be feasible to find a low profile card and add one of those PCIe adapters to put it in a x1 port.
My low buck "hacky" method Ive done before is to count the pins on the connector, mark with a sharpie and the saw the connector down. It works! Take a 16 lane card and turn it into a 1 lane card.

Really on the AMD boards all you have besides the main x16 slot is, a x16 slot at x4, along with 2 or 3 x1 slots. So the x4 is definitely going to be absorbed by my Adaptec. 2GB/s is plenty for my arrays. Most I get it 300-400MB/s from either. Though I have been dreaming of adding a SAS expander so I can put another 4 drives, SSDs of course and put the OS on a RAID 0'd set of SSDs. In that case I'd really like to have all 8 lanes, but I think Ill live with it.
Then I have to watch what x1 PCIe ports I populate, either with the hacked video card or something else, as a couple are shared with the x4 slot and populating one would cut my Adaptec to a single lane, which I would notice...
I really need the lane capability of a sTR4 based solution, but that would cost me quite a bit more.
Hmmm, decisions.
 
I currently have an Asus X58 Sabertooth running a Xeon X5680. X58 platforms still perform really well and if your's does everything you need then there is really no need to replace it. The same level of performance would cost more than the $250 you might get for the MOBO, CPU, and RAM.
 
How much and what kind of Ram are you running in your Asus asand? I see the Xeon badged version of my chip can address 288gb. If I could address 8 or 16GB sticks then I might be inclined to keep my system.
 
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The concern is real. Capacitors on the Processor power supply would be my main concern after 9 years. These are usually the weak point on a mobo.

Sounds like you are are ready for an upgrade anyway and to build and rebuild a system like you have means you are particular about your parts.

I'd say go for it if a downed PC will cause you great disconfort. if you have a backup limp along with that one while you build your next rig, run this one like you stole it.

Add more ram if you like but I don't see many people using up 8Gig let alone 12. Are you doing large picture, movie or engineering cad work? If so just snap in more ram and drive on.

Generally the newer architectures have higher memory BW and will deal with larger memory faster than older chipsets.

I'm on a I7-6700K @ 4GHz with 16 gig. Wont need anything faster for quite some time.
 
Originally Posted by 928
Why not have a look at these? Find the configuration you want- they were all built to order.
can hold 192 gigs of ram, 4 hard drives etc no matter what you do, you won't have a box like this
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...+800.TRS1&_nkw=hp+z+800&_sacat=0

overview-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wtk4kCGzY



My late friend loved those HP Z800 ebay deals. He'd search and search until he found a great price on the units he wanted. Often finding them in the $300+ range. One for the hangar, one for the shop, one for the cabin, one for the home and one for the kid.

His kid even hacked a faster video card into one for gaming. I don't recall the specifics, but it took a little effort to get great gaming video performance out of it.

Oh, and if you do this, make sure to get the fastest processor option. His kid's games were (slightly) restricted by processor speed and not his video card.
 
To remain on the same level, I really think you should consider Threadripper or another Intel enthusiast offering.

Regular Ryzen is relatively consumer oriented and I think you'll be pretty disappointed in trying to replace a EE chip with such.

That or sell the R9-280X and pick up a 4GB 1050TI or 3/6GB 1060 to drive all 3 displays.
 
Originally Posted by redhat
To remain on the same level, I really think you should consider Threadripper or another Intel enthusiast offering.

Regular Ryzen is relatively consumer oriented and I think you'll be pretty disappointed in trying to replace a EE chip with such.

That or sell the R9-280X and pick up a 4GB 1050TI or 3/6GB 1060 to drive all 3 displays.


I'm in agreement with this.

If your current rig is still reliable and does what you need it to do, holding out will always net you better gear later on.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
Originally Posted by redhat
To remain on the same level, I really think you should consider Threadripper or another Intel enthusiast offering.

Regular Ryzen is relatively consumer oriented and I think you'll be pretty disappointed in trying to replace a EE chip with such.

That or sell the R9-280X and pick up a 4GB 1050TI or 3/6GB 1060 to drive all 3 displays.


I'm in agreement with this.

If your current rig is still reliable and does what you need it to do, holding out will always net you better gear later on.


Yeah, that was my concern as well. Hmm. Well...I suppose if I hold off a year Ill be in an even better place to consider revamping it.
 
Before you decide to hop up your present box, do some research on z800's. They are not just a warmed up consumer box,
but designed from scratch to do film editing, heavy cad design etc. The motherboard has a ton of expansion slots and the components
are the best available. They were designed to run intricate programs 24/7 without crashing. The reason they are so affordable is typically
they are leased for 3 years and turned in on the latest model, then wholesaled to the aftermarket.
 
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