Keep and fix 'old' pc or get a new one?

[Jafon]

Hello everyone and thx in advance for attention.

 

I'm a noob at pc making and things like that but I love playin mmorpgs and in order to enjoy them, smtimes I have to get new pc (cpl years ago I got this one cuz old one 6y old cudnt even handle league of nubs anymore).

 

Here are my specs:

AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight core processor 4.0GHz

16 gb ram

AMD Radeon R9 200 / HD 7900 Series

a wd 2tb hd (that wd diagnostic software says is dmgd -but uh it works)

a 250gb ssd

 

Here are the issues:

in order to play games (even league) I have to use the old catalyst control center due to what follows:

Im sorry since its in  italian, basically it shud be to control amount of energy being sucked by pc in order to get the max off cpu. When I made thread abt this on amd forums they started tellin me its abt GPU n not CPU. Tho I read CPU.

Also, in order to play anything I have to run like:

Still on amd forums they said to run with new amd suite software, and putting on it a 20% general graphic card overclock.

Actually, smhow the setting I'm using atm seems its makin even the pc in general faster, not just a graphic card thing. (But anyway Im a noob so lol)

 

While playing bns or games like dmc, pc fans go crazy, splitting fire, and smtimes pc crashed. Lately its bns closing itself or pc crashing

(I had in 20mins:

-bsod

-bns client closin self on the bns symbol u get b4 client opening

-bns client closing by self randomly without error or bugsplat

-pc crash -all frozen, a bzzzzz sound in my headphones-)

 

Also, if I stand too long on arena q or xserver instance selection window, screen starts gettin poixelated n then I get an ESET (my antivirus) msg that graphic drivers were dmgd n have been restored, and smtimes I have to reboot pc in order to fix it all. The only way to bypass that is to lower to 0 that 'booster' I showed earlier, till I get into loading screen n such. PRETTY ANNOYIN RITE? Obviously support cudnt help me.

 

Other issue is that I'm a melee and cant do bw/owpvp/ssp due to 5ms in ctrl f and optimized for combat settings. And I'd wanna start streaming as soon as I get my fiber net.

 

So, any advice? Should I replace pieces in my actual pc, or is it way more profitable (also on the long run -usually I keep a pc alive for 5-7y, this one lasting 2y is sad for me-) gettin a new pc done?

In case of making new pc, the cash availability is from 1k to 2k euro, but lower the better due to economical crisis xD

Thx for any info and again for attention.

[Jafon]

bump

[spongemike]

Download Cpu temp to check your cpu and gpu temp. Maybe all ti needs is for you to clean the dust. But the hardware does seem a bit outdated.

[iamyellow123]

Hey Jafon, I had similar problems to you and here's some things that worked out for me.
Like spongemike said, it may be as simple as cleaning out the dust. I also recommend getting HWMonitor to check all your temperatures. See exactly what is overheating.
But in terms of outdated hardware, I'd beg to differ. There's no reason to keep upgrading year to year, bi-annually, nor tri-annually.

 

Worth mentioning: I'm running on the same exact processor, only 8GB of RAM and my video card is the MSI Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr.

I bolded the video card because in my situation, there were problems that arose over time due to the quality of the thermal compound they used during the time of manufacturing. They went "cheap" on this part. But the card was and still is a great card. So I opened up the card to find dried out, gritty, and crusty paste-- residue. I cleaned it off with 90% isopropyl alcohol, applied new artic silver thermal compound and boom, the temps dropped severely from 60C idle/~75C max load to 34C idle/~54C max load. MSI Twin Frozr stock cooler btw!

So this made me curious about the CPU, idle temps weren't an issue, but I found that over time, the temps at load were rising higher and higher. But I wanted to kill the rat before it made a home, so I checked the thermal compound. I'm not using a stock cooler, but I used the thermal compound that came with my CPU's stock cooler; low and behold, it wasn't grade A either, almost as corroded looking as my GPU. Changed that compound out with artic silver and BAM, idle temps dropped by 2C back down to 32C, and load doesn't go anywhere near the ~77C anymore. Back down to ~68C @ max load.  Bam, like brand spankin' new.

So in short: check the dust, check the thermal compound and check your numbers again.

[Grimstar]

The PC u have atm aint so bad, but if i can recommend 1 thing, buy a intel cpu. I've been having these weird skill delays, while my ping and fps were fine.

 

Atm i have a amd fx 6300 6 core cpu, while a friend of mine has a 5 year older intel cpu, and he runs things smoother then me. I even tested his pc at my home to check if it wasnt my internet, and while i had skill delays on my pc, he didnt have any problems. I hear alot of complaints about AMD CPU's and mmorpg's, AMD might have more cores on their cpu's, but intel's quality of single core performance is ALOT better, most mmorpg's only use 1-2 cores.

Weird thing is, i have my old pc hooked up till the parts i ordered arrive, which has a intel q9300 cpu 2.5 ghz 2 core, and it runs bns better then my "newer" amd fx 6300 3.5 ghz 6 core.

 

I'm never buying AMD again, since i'm so dissapointed in their stuff, i rather pay some extra money for intel. I'm not saying AMD is bad, but for mmorpg's i recommend a intel cpu.

 

PS. bns doesnt ask alot from your videocard, it's the cpu and ram that get used alot more.

 

 

[Bardo]

Hi Jafon. Your CPU shouldnt be the problem. It's more likely to be your graphics.

You dont say what system your running. Is it Windows7? or what?

 

Also, have you always have problems in games? If so, it could be that your PSU is to little. AMD and ATI can take a lot of power sometimes.

 

If you wanna upgrade no matter what.

Then you should think of Nvidia and I7 perhaps. It can last a long time. Since nothing really req. anything higher than I7.

16Gb Ram is more than enough.

Your SSD and HD is also fine.

Dont go for Windows10! Loads of people that plays A LOT, have loads of problems. Stay on Windows7(if you got that.)

What Nvidia card, i would go for the normal GTX980 and thats because it will last a long time.(remember get a new PSU if you upgrade.)

 

[Doomexu]

I got amd fx8300 and hd6790 video card i know what u mean i had that to(Warframe frozed image and bzz sound on speaker..sometimes blue screen)

-pc crash -all frozen, a bzzzzz sound in my headphones-)  that's because you'r cpu isn't stable with settings on bios or poor ventilation for your specs

So this is what i do with my processor and now i can play all games with no fuss ro dah.Because the stupid cpu(stock cooler)+criket motherboard.Be aware ..summer is coming...

1)disable all power saving things (optional) ..why?Because sometimes it changes the voltage from cpu(lowers it) and u will have chances to get blues.

• HPC Mode - Recommended - Enabled - Prevents Throttling when Socket Temp gets high. (In some cases it may cause freezing - if this occurs its recommended to disable)

 

2)disable turbo core..why?because your temperature will rise like hell and the cpu throttle option will auto activate(what it does:lowers the cpu frequency from let's say 4000mhz to dno 3500-3000)so the cpu won't burn.So u will get fps issues and higher temps letting this on, if u don't have a good cooling system.

 

3)+tricky part so look on internet (fx 8350 stock settings/voltage)set manually the cpu voltage(bios was setting my cpu voltage to high and it was heating like crazy) it was set at 1.35 while i only needed 1.17v(for my fx8300) cus i have stock cooler and a not so good motherboard.

For fx8350 (link) set the voltage lower than :

#1: 4200 MHz, 1.425V
#2: 4100 MHz, 1.4V

so for 4000mhz set lower than 1.4v (look on bios to see what's lower than 1.4 and put that)

1.425v is if u have turbo mode on+not so good cooler+not so good motherboard=heating like crazy

All i can say this is safe..the not safe one is if u increase above 1.425v so don't worry

 

4)download cpu-id and show your temperature

 

If u changed and u got no "let it go" or brr sounds while playing activate all the power savings and test again..if it's ok then it's from voltage.if not it's from power saving thingy.If it's still playing let it go..follow bellow.

 

5)now the hard part optional this is for stability purpose download Prime95 it's stresses your cpu in order to see if it's stable when it's stressed.( your cpu temperatures will rise while running this so look at cpu-id temps ..if it reaches over 65 close stop Prime95)On menue:test>stop

 

While running that after u changed the bios settings: Picture how to run it Option>Torture test

 

-if it reaches the temperature of 65-66 without any restart/blue screen it is stable but u need better cooling(don't know what is the safe temperature on your processor i only know over 61 isn't recommended for amd fx)but u got a 125w i got a 95w cpu so it's debatable.

 

-If it restarts/blu screen when not reaching this temps this means it isn't stable because the voltage is to low(NEVER GO PAST 1.425v)

 

-If u get any error picture (after a while a text should appear on the red marker ERROR:rounding was 0.5 less than 0.4)this means the system it's not stable because of other reasons (north bridge speed to high or low).It's about other setting problem for me was bios>northbridge(nbspeed) was 2200 and i lowered to 2000 and never got that error again.

Quote

After it's stable try activating all power savings and test again if it's ok then let it be(for me it isn't)

 

For the graphic card problem(catalist control center crashed) that's because the overclok it's not good or the temperature is to high like very high.

 

After it's stable but u have problem only from heating u could try but u will not likely like it tho. 

bios>numbers of coress>1core per unit it will make a true quad core from intel well kynda.

What it does:Deactivates the not so real cores of amd and let the real ones all the chache(2 people sharing the same bowl of food now 1 people share with nun)

The AMD FX-8350 has 4 modules with 2 cores in each module. Each 2 cores in the module will share resources. Yes, there are 8 cores in total, but they are not separate, and are not hyper-threading. This is a good cost saver for AMD.
Intel quad-core CPUs will have 4 modules with a core in each module.

So it will run like an Intel.The downside..well u have 4 cores with better performance than 8 core setting(Amd)

This is for games that not utilise more than 4cores..some games utilise more cores so it's better to not follow what i say.But if u are like me playn b&s it's gud:D u will have lower temps and better performance.For me the temp droped 8degrees lower.

Now i can enjoy bns better from 8cores 3.3mhz to 4cores 3.7mhz same temp(or 4cores 3.3mhz lower temp)

[Jafon]

Thanks alot everyone for advices, meanwhile u were writing em, I found the technician who made my pc and gave it to him, just yesterday it came back.

So, he made a professional cleaning of hardwares, formatted and reinstalled OS (win10) and latest cpu/gpu drivers.

He put the pc throught stress tests, ran heavy games like last metal gear solid and such for hours in order to test temperatures and performance. Everything was pretty good for him. So he brought the pc back, I've open multiple games and no issue, but now there's a fresh new crappy issue on blade and soul.

 

- So, just as note, cpu temperature while playing aint high, and gpu one isnt raising like hell neither-

I open game, play 30sec/1min, screen starts turning in squares -like pixelated, but lets say 2cm x 2cm squares-, after a bit I get an eset (my antivirus) message that graphical drivers have been fixed(idk if its the proper word, im translating) and time another 30 sec it's back to the same issue, till I get a proper graphical crash and have to force reboot.

Im goin to open a ticket but Im aware that as usual ncsoft support wont be able to say sht lol.

(Radeon crimson v.16.5.1 anyway its what has been installed).

I had same pixelating issue earlier anyway but just on cross server lobby, and to solve it I was forced to lower CPU by catalyst, to raise it again after I went into loading screen.

(Turned off turbocore from amd overdrive btw as doomexu adviced, and my V are at 1.3 -as they were-)

 

Aside than anything else, ty doomexu for advices :)

and thanks everyone else too.