Help needed frankensteining or building a new PC

[ScottyMcGee]

Been trying to figure out the best way to get what I want that's also affordable for either upgrading my current desktop or building a new PC. It's quite old, from about 2015, but has held up fairly nicely. However, there are things I want to do that it just doesn't have the power or capacity for. 

To start, here are my current specs: 
Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz
Ram: 16.0 GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 (MS-7817)
OS: Windows 10

My current problems are: 
-Need more RAM to do things like AI processing. For what I want, supposedly at least 64 GB would be acceptable. I also do wish to go back to more heavy-duty computer gaming. It's also possible I may want to putz around with stuff like the latest Unreal Engine. 

-Motherboard is kiiiiiinda old. It still has a JCOM1 port and I don't have any spare JUSB port available to connect the Bluetooth from my Wi-Fi 6 AX200 card. I'd like a motherboard with a total of 4 JUSB slots. I want to add an internal SD card reader in addition to adding the Bluetooth. But my motherboard currently only has two JUSB ports. I tried to use a splitter for the Bluetooth from the Wi-Fi 6 AX200 card, but my computer did not respond well to the use of the splitter - it could not identify it correctly and thus it was rendered useless. This has happened with three different types of splitters already.

-Cannot use a Bluetooth dongle either because for some reason they don't work well with my PC and just ultimately crashes the PC when I restart or shut down. 

-In general, the computer cannot seem to handle the more recent high-speed flash drives (such as PNY Pro Elite USB 3.2) and external devices. I've wanted to use hard drive readers for the longest time but every damn time I use them on my computer they are unreadable. I have returned (no joke) like 4 different types of hard drive readers. My computer either doesn't recognize the device or uses it for 2 minutes, stops working, and then crashes the computer when I restart or shut down. Keep in mind for these situations I have already exhausted all efforts at making sure "the latest driver is installed", so I figured the issue is simply my motherboard being outdated to handle these devices.
 
-Lastly, I maybe want a couple more SATA ports to add stuff. I currently have 4 (main drive, two extra drives, CD drive). Not necessary though but at least 4 to keep what I have. 

All this being said, I figured my needs are much more particular now compared to before, since there are specific things I want. The problem is figuring out if I can make affordable adjustments but there's a question of compatibility with what I already have (i.e. could I still use the same RAM cards I have and just add them plus a new one to the new motherboard?).
I drafted up a new computer based on what I want in newegg, and the total came up to a little over 3k  So. Womp. I was playing around with a couple really old computers and found out the hard way that you can't simply switch hard drives from one computer to another if the new computer has a vastly updated motherboard compared to the old computer. Windows needed to be reactivated. I was putzing around with old Windows XP computers and did not have the product key to reactivate, so that whole idea was shot. Not sure if that would be much of an issue though with Windows 10?

This post was last modified: 01-25-2025, 06:14 AM by ScottyMcGee.

[gorzek]

You don't need a product key to reactivate if you're just transferring the hard drive to a new computer. It'll just make you go through the online activation process.

I think 3K is excessive. What's costing so much? Try making a build on PC Part Picker: https://pcpartpicker.com/

[antipelican]

You're back in 4th gen Intel/DDR3 motherboard. If you get a newer gen Intel, you're going to need to upgrade your motherboard and everything else including ram. Your ram sticks are probably DDR3 and they will not be compatible with a newer motherboard that runs DDR5.

That said, I have been looking into rebuilding my 10th gen Intel PC and found a decent build for about $1500 based around a 14700K.

Unfortunately, I've heard a lot of negatives about the last few generations of Intel chips. Build issues are causing them to die quickly. They run hot and draw a lot of power as well, so if you're going to build around a 13th or 14th gen (not sure if 15th is out yet) you will need to account for probably upgrading your PSU and CPU cooling as well.

I haven't bought the new build I had planned because now I'm thinking about switching to AMD considering Intel's CPU issues, but...then I have to research entirely different parts.

What I would probably recommend is doing some research around recommended specs for the specific programs you want to use and determine what you actually need. I think based on the limited info you've provided you could get yourself a huge upgrade to what you have currently for well under $2k. You probably don't need top of the line specs unless you're doing professional level rendering/Unreal Engine type work. If you want to stick with Intel and are on a budget, you could build a very affordable 10th/11th/12th gen PC that would blow your current build out of the water, and tide you over until Intel gets their shit figured out (hopefully). The disadvantage to this is the motherboard is going to be DDR4 I believe, and you'd have to buy everything again once you decide to upgrade. Otherwise I'd consider a midrange current AMD or Intel 13th/14th gen.