Solved PC upgrade advice please..

CB · Jul 29, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Pretty slick.

The video card will work, but nVidia is dropping official support for it next month. And the motherboard has a physical TPM connection as well as supporting Intel's PTT. Should be good to go.

Agree.
Actually I was interested in B460 M Pro that supports Intel Optane chip but it was out of stock.
Everything's been fine so far. Will keep the VGA card until Windows 11 stops supporting its drivers. Smile to myself sometimes. Spent some cash and made a new build just have Windows 11 installed on it.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back to live. :wink:

SIW2 · Jul 29, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
Got a cheap M/B from a local store, an MSI H510M Pro that is equivalent to $85. But it has two m.2 NVME slots.

Do both nvme slots work with 10th gen? Some of those 5xx mobos have one pcie 4 which is only active with 11th gen.

I looked at some of them , but though they run win7 ( in spite of claiming they dont ) a separate graphics card is needed because there are no win7 igpu drivers for intel 10&11 gen cpus.

I would prefer not to use a separate graphics card.

CB · Jul 29, 2021

SIW2 said:
Do both nvme slots work with 10th gen? Some of those 5xx mobos have one pcie 4 which is only active with 11th gen.

I looked at some of them , but though they run win7 ( in spite of claiming they dont ) a separate graphics card is needed because there are no win7 igpu drivers for intel 10&11 gen cpus.

I would prefer not to use a separate graphics card.

Haven't learned much about this mobo. I do use 256 gb m2 NVME plugged to M2_1 slot. I bought the long one. When checked out with BIOS setting it doesn't read it as NVME. Probably only one slot that supports NVME but the other slot needs half length m2. Was not able to use it. Actually it can be, with slightly standing position. But my VGA card already sit on top of it.

I believe you have reason to have one of you PC stays with Windows 7. But separate VGA card is inevitable if windows 7 doesn't support latest intel HD GPU

SIW2 · Jul 29, 2021

There are win7 drivers for intel 8& 9th gen igpu. Also for ryzen apu. Only intel 10& 11th are the problem. It is not really an issue for people who like playing kiddie shoot em up games, because they will use a separate graphics card anyway.

CB · Jul 29, 2021

SIW2 said:
There are win7 drivers for intel 8& 9th gen igpu. Also for ryzen apu. Only intel 10& 11th are the problem.

Yes. Windows 7 is gradually being left alone by MS.

bobkn · Jul 29, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
Yes. Windows 7 is gradually being left alone by MS.

Intel, actually. MS traditionally doesn't originate drivers, although they have made many available through Windows Update.

bobkn · Jul 29, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
Haven't learned much about this mobo. I do use 256 gb m2 NVME plugged to M2_1 slot. I bought the long one. When checked out with BIOS setting it doesn't read it as NVME. Probably only one slot that supports NVME but the other slot needs half length m2. Was not able to use it. Actually it can be, with slightly standing position. But my VGA card already sit on top of it.

I believe you have reason to have one of you PC stays with Windows 7. But separate VGA card is inevitable if windows 7 doesn't support latest intel HD GPU

The short slot isn't for a drive. It uses an "E" key. Incompatible with an SSD. Typical device that goes there would be a laptop-style WiFi adapter.

CB · Jul 30, 2021

bobkn said:
The short slot isn't for a drive. It uses an "E" key. Incompatible with an SSD. Typical device that goes there would be a laptop-style WiFi adapter.

I visited back the MSI website. You're right it is for wi-fi module.
I have one ex laptop wifi+bluetooth card I don't know if it fits in. It has aditional single cable. For antenna naybe.
So. Now I'm curious, why BIOS won't detect my M2 SSD as NVME

glasskuter · Jul 30, 2021

I was straddling the fence about upgrading since my sixth generation i7 still works great. I stumbled onto an Optiplex tenth generation i9 on Dell's outlet. They called it scratch and dent so I worried what I was going to get. It came in today and hasn't got a mark on it. It flies. Got it for half cost of new one. Adding a gpu, ram, or ssd is one thing , but considering the cost of later generation i5s amd i7s added to that of a good motherboard, IMO upgrading an existing machine doesn't make sense in this case.

bobkn · Jul 30, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
(snip)
So. Now I'm curious, why BIOS won't detect my M2 SSD as NVME

Don't feel like rebooting to get into my BIOS settings.

Have you tried CrystalDiskInfo (freeware)? It'll tells you how your drive(s) appear to Windows.

CB · Jul 30, 2021

bobkn said:
Don't feel like rebooting to get into my BIOS settings.

Have you tried CrystalDiskInfo (freeware)? It'll tells you how your drive(s) appear to Windows.

Haven't tried it.
But, I did boot into BIOS. There is a line of menu say "SSD NVMe self-test". When I clicked it, it show the SSD spec, but the line is greyed saying not supported.
Will figure it out later.

bobkn · Jul 30, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
Haven't tried it.
But, I did boot into BIOS. There is a line of menu say "SSD NVMe self-test". When I clicked it, it show the SSD spec, but the line is greyed saying not supported.
Will figure it out later.

Strange. What's your exact model of M.2 SSD?

CB · Jul 30, 2021

bobkn said:
Strange. What's your exact model of M.2 SSD?

V-Gen 256 GB. In it's case clearly written NVMe. See picture attached.
Actually first I bought an Apacer m.2 but it lost on my way home. Riding a sport bike tempted me to head home faster. I found my jacket pocket was empty. Ride back to the store they offered me V-Gen which few bucks higher than Apacer.

bobkn · Jul 30, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
V-Gen 256 GB. In it's case clearly written NVMe. See picture attached.
Actually first I bought an Apacer m.2 but it lost on my way home. Riding a sport bike tempted me to head home faster. I found my jacket pocket was empty. Ride back to the store they offered me V-Gen which few bucks higher than Apacer.

No picture is attached.

Not an "exact" model, but maybe good enough. (I don't know V-Gen. Not sure whether they sell in the US.)

NVME:

SATA:

SATA has two notches at the business end. You would have noticed.

AndreTen · Jul 30, 2021

Kevin Ismail said:
Haven't tried it.
But, I did boot into BIOS. There is a line of menu say "SSD NVMe self-test". When I clicked it, it show the SSD spec, but the line is greyed saying not supported.
Will figure it out later.

Did you set the M2 slot as PCIe?. Some of them can beta set as SATA too.
But i guess, if system boots with it, this is it

barman58 · Jul 30, 2021

@BunnyJ

Jeff, just one thing for you to consider - Photoshop uses the main processor to manipulate images - the Graphics processor is "just" used to display the images, therefore you should concentrate on the processor unless you are also a gamer, (or to a lesser extent Video processing), where the Graphics Processor is much more important

CB · Jul 30, 2021

bobkn said:
No picture is attached.

Not an "exact" model, but maybe good enough. (I don't know V-Gen. Not sure whether they sell in the US.)

NVME:

View attachment 4385
SATA:

View attachment 4386
SATA has two notches at the business end. You would have noticed.

Mine is with just one notch.
I've upgraded BIOS firmware to the latest few moments earlier. Nothing change.

CB · Jul 30, 2021

AndreTen said:
Did you set the M2 slot as PCIe?. Some of them can beta set as SATA too.
But i guess, if system boots with it, this is it

Will check it soon.

badrobot · Jul 30, 2021

glasskuter said:
I was straddling the fence about upgrading since my sixth generation i7 still works great. I stumbled onto an Optiplex tenth generation i9 on Dell's outlet. They called it scratch and dent so I worried what I was going to get. It came in today and hasn't got a mark on it. It flies. Got it for half cost of new one. Adding a gpu, ram, or ssd is one thing , but considering the cost of later generation i5s amd i7s added to that of a good motherboard, IMO upgrading an existing machine doesn't make sense in this case.

Well, you probably got a unit made of salvaged parts from different defective returned machines and was sold for half the price. Nothing wrong with it as long as it is still a Dell certified unit. That's what builders on budget do anyway. They find the best deal for each component, brand new or used, and put them together.
But finding a good deal on off-the-shelf computer brings the same joy as building an expensive rig. The best part in building a new computer is the unboxing of each component... Lol!

BunnyJ · Jul 30, 2021

barman58 said:
@BunnyJ

Jeff, just one thing for you to consider - Photoshop uses the main processor to manipulate images - the Graphics processor is "just" used to display the images, therefore you should concentrate on the processor unless you are also a gamer, (or to a lesser extent Video processing), where the Graphics Processor is much more important

Bingo.. I did some research and the only things a better GPU would help Photoshop with are rather small and I don't use. The 4 core 4 thread works ok and the only time it bogs is when I do a sky-replacement. That's due to the CPU having to execute some AI code I suspect.