Upgrade options or complete rebuild? Worthy upgrade case for Antec Solo II?

[logitechbro]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking to upgrade my 2012 era computer due to the video card throwing up artifacts and crashing under load recently.
My current system:

Antec Solo II

HP ZR2440w

GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-

Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G

Crucial MX100 500gb

Western Digital Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache

ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

Seasonic X750 Gold

Approximate Purchase Date: next few months
Budget Range: ~1500-2000
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, surfing, Adobe CS
Are you buying a monitor: Not for now, maybe a surface monitor if they release one
Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, CPU, probably RAM, GPU, ?power supply, ?case
Do you need to buy OS: No
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: microcenter, newegg
Location: MA
Parts Preferences: 3/4 prior computer builds have been intel CPU AMD GPU
Overclocking: Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No
Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: GPU seems to be failing

I really like the Solo II but I'm wondering if anyone knows of a better similarly sized case.

Thank you!

 

[Voluman]

Hm, seems a RX580 choice to me
Maybe an i7 or xeon for cpu
Budget is in usa dollar or what are those numbers?

 

[logitechbro]

Thanks! Budget in US dollars. I can focus on just a videocard first this next month. Then further down the line any changes with the new Ryzen might make a rebuild more economical.

 

[_UV_]

CPU - 500
VGA - 500
mobo - 300
RAM - 300 (DDR4 3200)
cooler - 50-100
doesn't matter what you get (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) for such prices per category would be 3-5 times faster, you PSU will be good enough for next 5 years

 

[FreedomEclipse]

doesn't matter what you get (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) for such prices per category would be 3-5 times faster, you PSU will be good enough for next 5 years

I second this. The power supply is a keeper, the case can also be a keeper but thats personal preference - the airflow might not be as good as other cases but its not the worst thing in the world.

Consider waiting for the AMD Ryzen 3000 series of chips before making ANY move. If you dont go AMD (which im highly recommending you do if Ryzen 3000 benchmark leaks and Intel quaking in their pants is anything to go by) It has been stated that Intel are going to be dropping current CPU prices by 15% so if you hang on just a little bit longer, you could save yourself a fair chunk of money.

With regards to RAM DDR4 3200 is good but DDR4 3000 shouldnt be overlooked either and it normally works out a fair bit cheaper for 3000Mhz ram for almost no difference in performance, so youre saving money in that could be put towards other things in that department too.

If youre dead set on keeping the Antec case, consider upgrading all the current fans to Noctua Redux fans or Corsair MLs if your budget allows. though Noctua Redux fans are honestly so cheap its a complete no brainer if you cant afford forking out for the Corsair ML fans. Redux fan dont have RGB either so have a regular side panel compared to cases of today with windowed and tempered glass side panels means you can have the ugliest noctua fans on the market and nobody would know.

So just hang on.

 

[logitechbro]

Thanks, I've read a bunch of people claiming power supplies should always be upgraded and it's helpful to hear that that's not necessary. Changing the case fans is a good point too as the computer's been a bit noisier lately. Appreciate the advice on waiting for the AMD Ryzen 3000 series, I'll hold off for a bit longer.

 

[Mac2580]

CPU - 500
VGA - 500
mobo - 300
RAM - 300 (DDR4 3200)
cooler - 50-100
doesn't matter what you get (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) for such prices per category would be 3-5 times faster, you PSU will be good enough for next 5 years

I agree as well, I would trade both my PSU's for yours. I would get a GTX 2060 at that resolution, but given your budget I think a GTX 2070 would be a better choice for future proofing.
Usually I prefer/am a little bias towards Intel CPU's, but I would opt for the Ryzen 3900X over the i9 9900K, even if the single thread performance is slightly worse. Other than that, solid advice from FreedomEclipse above.
FYI: For now try drop GPU clock speed to stock (Reference) levels and increase GPU fan speed to 80%. I have seen this many times on older AMD cards, usually Gigabyte ones with outragous clocks though.

 

[logitechbro]

Appreciate your input on Ryzen despite your similar bias towards Intel. I found the GPU clock adjustments very helpful and I'm seeing more stability for now. Thanks

 

[Mac2580]

The 3700x would be my choice right now, that and one of these Nvidia Super (2060 or 2070) cards. Yeah my R7 260x used to black screen and artifact alot back in the day and I fixed it like this. Checking GPU clocks vs stock was how I found this website.

 

[bonehead123]

If your rig was mine, I would sell/ditch everything except the PSU, HDD, SSD, and perhaps the DVD drive like, yesterday...

After selling the rest, and with the budget you listed, you will be able to (affordably) move into the current generation of parts and get massive improvements in just about every thing you do.

In any event, wait a week or so to decide on AMD or Intel, 'cause with the new Ryzen releases, all previous generation parts (from both sides) should start to drop significantly over the next few weeks.

I would also suggest you also invest in a moderately-sized (250-500GB) M.2 drive for your windows install, keep that Crucial SSD for your games, and the Red HDD for back-ups/storage uses....

But don't wait too long on the new ram & M.2, cause with all the nonsense in Chieena & S. Korupea last week, those prices are bound to start creeping up again shortly and will most likely skyrocket quickly once it starts....

 

[logitechbro]

Thanks for the input, I'll be waiting to see how pricing settles between Intel and AMD with processors. With the GPU I'm contemplating a 2080 and hoping for a deal over the next few weeks with 2080 Super releasing. Good call on the M.2 drive, I'll definitely add one to the list.

 

[logitechbro]

Component	Current part	Upgrade part	Estimated Price
Case	Antec Solo II
Monitor	HP ZR2440w
Motherboard	GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro LGA 1151 ATX Intel Motherboard	149.99
Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor	Core i7-9700K	329.99
Memory	G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-	Ballistix Sport LT 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2K16G4D32AESE	125
Graphics Card, vx	Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G	RTX 2080 super	700
Hard Drive (SSD)	Intel 330 180gb SSD SATA 6gb	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB	120
Hard Drive (Mechanical)	Western Digital Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache
Optical	ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
Power Supply	Seasonic X750 Gold
Mouse	G500
Keyboard	Coolermaster quickfire pro mx brown
CPU Cooler	stock intel	Noctua NH-D15	100
Total Cost			1524.98

I've priced this out from microcenter and newegg and this seems like a decent deal with price drops on the i7-9700K and motherboard. How does this look?

 

[sam_86314]

Component	Current part	Upgrade part	Estimated Price
Case	Antec Solo II
Monitor	HP ZR2440w
Motherboard	GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard	Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro LGA 1151 ATX Intel Motherboard	149.99
Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor	Core i7-9700K	329.99
Memory	G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-	Ballistix Sport LT 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model BLS2K16G4D32AESE	125
Graphics Card, vx	Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G	RTX 2080 super	700
Hard Drive (SSD)	Intel 330 180gb SSD SATA 6gb	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB	120
Hard Drive (Mechanical)	Western Digital Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache
Optical	ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
Power Supply	Seasonic X750 Gold
Mouse	G500
Keyboard	Coolermaster quickfire pro mx brown
CPU Cooler	stock intel	Noctua NH-D15	100
Total Cost			1524.98

I've priced this out from microcenter and newegg and this seems like a decent deal with price drops on the i7-9700K and motherboard. How does this look?

I'd go for a similarly priced X470 board and a 3700X over the 9700K and a Z390 unless you plan on overclocking your CPU. Intel still has that going for them.

Problem is it looks like Zen 2 chips are out of stock everywhere.

 

[logitechbro]

Thanks for the quick suggestion. Looks like people are having some issues with bugs and bios updates for the new processors with x470 boards so I might wait a bit longer. Any recommendations? I'm thinking of the Asus crosshair 7 but there's a big thread on issues getting it to work well with the new ryzen.

 

[sam_86314]

Thanks for the quick suggestion. Looks like people are having some issues with bugs and bios updates for the new processors with x470 boards so I might wait a bit longer. Any recommendations? I'm thinking of the Asus crosshair 7 but there's a big thread on issues getting it to work well with the new ryzen.

I have an MSI X470 Gaming Pro, which is a lower-midrange board. I got it because it has a slightly beefier power delivery setup than a lot of B450 boards. When I built an AM4 system for a friend, I used an Asrock B450M Pro4 (Not an X470, but it would work).

Just do research on the boards and pick the one you like.

 

[logitechbro]

Current part	Upgrade part
Antec Solo II
HP ZR2440w
GA-Z77X-UD3H LGA 1155 Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X570-F or ASUS Prime X570-Pro or Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor	r7 3700x
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10D-	Ballistix Elite 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 3600 or Sport 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR 3200
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 OC with Boost 3GB DDR5 DL-DVI-I/SL-DVI-D/HDMI/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11197-03-40G	RTX 2080 super or 2080 regular on sale
Intel 330 180gb SSD SATA 6gb	XPG GAMMIX 1TB S11 Pro
Western Digital Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache
ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS
Seasonic X750 Gold
G500
Coolermaster quickfire pro mx brown
stock intel	stock

Thanks for the suggestions, this is an updated list. For now I'm looking at the Asus ROG Strix X570-F because it's in stock at the local microcenter but I'm open to suggestions.
One last issue - trying to choose between 16gb of DDR 3600 or 32gb of DDR 3200 and still not sure if the lesser amount of 3600 will make any meaningful improvement.
Thanks!

 

[logitechbro]

A one year update: the Asus x570f has been solid and I went a bit overboard with 32gb of 3600 ram and a 2080 super. Very happy with the performance of the components you all helped select.
Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 197986]

Thanks, I've read a bunch of people claiming power supplies should always be upgraded and it's helpful to hear that that's not necessary. Changing the case fans is a good point too as the computer's been a bit noisier lately. Appreciate the advice on waiting for the AMD Ryzen 3000 series, I'll hold off for a bit longer.

Well, if PSU can handle, it's okey, mine gave up giving enough power, but then again, it was a bronze from 2011.