Thoughts on an upgrade.

[JimBrown 596]

It has been quite a few years since I last built my current PC. Things have changed, and I have not been keeping up. To that end, I'd like any comments anyone has on the following upgrades.

Current system:

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.00GHz
G Skill 32GB (4 x 8GB) Dual-Channel DDR3-2134
ASUS Z97-A Motherboard
LG ULTRAWIDE (3440x1440@50Hz)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (ZOTAC International)
500GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO (SATA (SSD)) (Boot drive)
250GB ADATA SX900 (SATA (SSD))
5589GB Intel Raid 0 Volume (3 x 2TB SATA HDD)
7451GB Hitachi HzW RAID 0 external USB 3.0 Device (2 x 4TB SATA HDD)

Obviously, I'll be keeping the 2080 TI. 😉 I'll also be keeping the case (CoolerMaster HAF). As for storage, I'd like to add a 500GB NVMe SSD to replace the old 250GB SATA SSD, which has my games and a few other things on it.

I'm partial to Intel CPU's on ASUS motherboards.

Here's the list of hardware that I'm considering upgrading to:

Intel Core i9-10920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core
Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus PRIME X299-A ATX LGA2066 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 CL15 Memory    
Gigabyte AORUS 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
EVGA G5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Anyone see any issues with this upgrade?

Much thanks,

...jim

[Fielder 3,645]

How come Avsim doesn't have a 'jealous' smilie? That would be me.... 😕

[Ixoye 1,813]

Looks great 👍

[horrido 1]

Talk about CPU limited, wink.  You are in the same boat as I.  I've got an I5-6500, which I think is the same generation as your I7.  I even have your MB I think - an Asus B150, with 16 meg of Gskill RAM. On top of that, I have a RTX 2080S in the system, and I'm CPU choked too! 

 I ordered my new hardware a few days ago, and it is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  I got a I7-10700K, and the Gigabyte Aorus Pro MB.  I like Gigabyte MBs, despite my current Asus MB being rock solid.  Got a WD Blue 1Tb M2 SSD to add to my existing 500Gb SSD.  I'm using my old case I purchased in the 90s (!), which I still use after numerous upgrades.

Edited August 22, 2020 by horrido

[Bob Scott 7,716]

Do you have a reason for the X299+HEDT chip instead of the Z490+Comet Lake CPU?  The 10-core 10900K and a Z490 mobo are cheaper, and the i9-10900K overclocks very easily to 5GHz+  The HEDT chips are quite a bit more difficult to overclock.

Also, a 12-core CPU on an NH-D15S is really gonna be a stretch.  Anything over 8 cores really ought to be water-cooled, unless you intend to only run at stock speeds.  Even at stock, a 12-core HEDT CPU is a lot for that cooler.

[JimBrown 596]

3 hours ago, w6kd said:

Do you have a reason for the X299+HEDT chip instead of the Z490+Comet Lake CPU?  The 10-core 10900K and a Z490 mobo are cheaper, and the i9-10900K overclocks very easily to 5GHz+  The HEDT chips are quite a bit more difficult to overclock.

Also, a 12-core CPU on an NH-D15S is really gonna be a stretch.  Anything over 8 cores really ought to be water-cooled, unless you intend to only run at stock speeds.  Even at stock, a 12-core HEDT CPU is a lot for that cooler.

Thanks for the comments.

I'm not concerned with cost. (But don't need to go to insane cost like a 10980XE...) I also do not like overclocking, preferring a rock solid stable system.

I'm also not a fan of water cooling, preferring air cooling. If you think the NH-D15S is not quite up to the task, do you have any suggestions on an alternative? I do note that the NH-D15S can have a second fan added (if there is room).

[Bob Scott 7,716]

2 minutes ago, JimBrown said:

Thanks for the comments.

I'm not concerned with cost. (But don't need to go to insane cost like a 10980XE...) I also do not like overclocking, preferring a rock solid stable system.

I'm also not a fan of water cooling, preferring air cooling. If you think the NH-D15S is not quite up to the task, do you have any suggestions on an alternative? I do note that the NH-D15S can have a second fan added (if there is room).

Even without overclocking, the Comet Lake CPUs are going to be faster.  The 10920X has an all-core turbo speed of 4.3GHz...the 10900K's all-core turbo is 4.8GHz stock.  The 10900K has slightly more L3 cache at 20MB vs 19.25MB on the 10920X.  The advantages of X299 are more PCIe lanes, useful if you wanted to run multiple GPUs at x16 or a big multi-drive RAID array, and quad-channel memory, which is something of a moot point in a sim with the CPU at 4.3 GHz.

I use a dual-fan NH-D15 on the 8-core i9-9900K in my portable box, and it's adequate (but just barely so) for the job.  With 50% more cores on the 10920X, I'd be concerned it might not be able to keep up under a heavy all-core load.

That said, I don't think there are any air cooling solutions more capable than the NH-D15 out there...the next step up would be a 2x140 or 3x120mm AIO water cooler.

[JimBrown 596]

Alright, after comparing specs and such, you've convinced me.

Also, the original list above had the wrong RAM listed. I've corrected that. And, I figured I might as well go with a 1TB NVMe SSD.

Here's the new upgrade list:

• Intel Core i9-10900K 10-Core 20-Thread Unlocked
• Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
• ASUS Prime Z490-A LGA 1200
• Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Memory    
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe PCI-E 1TB SSD
• EVGA G5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

If I run into temp issues with the CPU, I'll add a second fan to the cooler... If that does not take care of it, I guess I'll have to look into an AIO water cooling setup.

Thanks,

...jim

 

[G-RFRY 1,708]

If this for MSFS i would save on the CPU and spend on the GPU 3000 series possibly 1500 +

[JimBrown 596]

4 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

If this for MSFS i would save on the CPU and spend on the GPU 3000 series possibly 1500 +

Like I said initially, funds are not of much concern. I do plan to upgrade the 2080 TI to a 30xx once they are out.

Might even leave it in the system and crypto mine with it. It's currently earning about $100 CAD per month. $80.00 CAD after electrical cost. But that's not the main purpose of the rig. I have a mining rig for that, currently earning $375 CAD a month. $300 CAD after electrical cost. ROI on that was done six months ago.

[GCBraun 2,390]

Pretty solid setup and similar to what I have. Currently enjoying very good frames on MSFS, DCS and P3D @5K and VR (not on MSFS, of course). I will also be getting a 3090 once it is out as it will definetely be needed once the higher-end add-ons start coming out for MSFS.

That K ship is screaming for an OC, though. Even with that air-cooler you should be able to have 5Ghz on all cores without any stability issues.

[JimBrown 596]

So I ended up purchasing the following:

• Intel Core i9-10700KF 10-Core 20-Thread Unlocked
• Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
• ASUS Prime Z490-A LGA 1200
• Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Memory    
• Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe PCI-E 1TB SSD
• EVGA G5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Spent a day dismantling the old PC, thoroughly cleaning the case and assembling the new bits. With proper cable management this time. 😉

Had some surprises along the way. The new system booted up just fine from the old boot drive. Nice! (But will be doing a clean install at some point...) Had to download and install some Asus drivers and such of course. And update the BIOS. The big surprise was the old three HDD Raid array was recognized and available. With all my data still there! Didn't have to restore from my backup. Saved about six hours there!

Formatted the NVMe drive and copied all my game files to it from the Raid drive using the Steam Library move function. Of course, that did NOT move the MSFS data. Got around that by manually moving the MSFS data to the new drive then starting MSFS 2020. It couldn't find the data so asked me to specify a folder to install the data. Told it where I moved the data to, and it figured things out, checked the files, and happily used them in their new location.

Did some mild overclocking using the "AI" stuff in the Asus bios. Running at 5.0 ghz most of the time. Idles down quite a bit when not busy.

Did some flights around my home town of Ottawa, Ontario and was seeing a solid 50 fps with buttery smooth scenery. Also did a quick flight around New York (which I had not done until then) and was seeing 35 to 45 fps, and again smooth.

And that is with all settings at "Ultra".

All in all, I'm quite happy.

...jim

[Bob Scott 7,716]

Be careful with that AI overclocking...it tends to be super aggressive with the voltages.

It'd be a good idea to run HWInfo and watch the voltages under various load conditions and make sure they pass the sanity test.

 

[JimBrown 596]

1 hour ago, w6kd said:

Be careful with that AI overclocking...it tends to be super aggressive with the voltages.

It'd be a good idea to run HWInfo and watch the voltages under various load conditions and make sure they pass the sanity test.

 

I appreciate the advice! However, I've never really been "into" overclocking, so not sure what to look for. Can you give me an idea of what "sane" voltages would be?

Thanks,

...jim

[Bob Scott 7,716]

CPU core voltage: Anything over 1.40v would be an immediate no-go, over 1.35v would be a yellow flag. 

CPU Vccio: not over 1.20

CPU System Agent: not over 1.20