Look at the CPU benchmarks. I would only bother with the expense of a CPU and motherboard upgrade for an overall performance gain of at least x5. Beware Windows 10 might not activate unless you have a retail license which is transferable between PCs.
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Upgrading from Ryzen 7 3700x
- Thread starter PHXAZCRAIG
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5x? when's the last time you did an upgrade, then?
I last built a desktop PC in 2012 using an i5-3570K CPU and Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard. The best ' bang for the buck' currently is the Ryzen CPU. I'm looking at the option of something like an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT to give up an 8x better CPU benchmark and a c. £200 Asus or Gigabyte X570 motherboard. The cost of this worthwhile upgrade is somewhat higher than I anticipated and it's currently hard to find those CPUs to buy.
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yeah, I got burned like that...
My Lenovo laptop died, and I tried to move the hard-drive over to a new laptop...nope win XP checked and gave an error message about only working on Lenovo...
Using all the cores/threads takes multi-threading, which takes experience to write software for (instead of making the software run slower!! or have crazy bizarre crashes and data-corruption)
I've done alot of multithreading programming and the use cases can get dependent on other system components
Many threads trying to read/write to the same hard-drive can use the drive at 100% - but the program would take longer, since most of that %100 is just seeking from one location on the drive to another. What works great on an SSD might not work right on a hard-drive.
Heck, it might even cause thermal issues and damage the drive...
How much memory do you have? Processing more than a single image at a time means extra demands on the memory, possibly causing memory thrashing, as the OS has to keep juggling the virtual memory, ie what's in physical memory vs what's on the drive
Same with the GPU. Some of the GPUs today come with a huge amount of ram! So that programs (like games) don't have to keep swapping memory around from disk/CPU/GPU memory spaces
sludge21017
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That's not really a burn. A burn would be if you bought the full retail, had it on your Lenovo and moved it, and then it wouldn't.
To me I felt burned. And no matter how you want to justify it, I'm never going to like the experience.
And if the OP is going to do some major hardware upgrades, they should be aware that their current installed windows might not work, due to it being keyed
If I had known this installed windows was "keyed" to Lenovo, I would have replaced it with another Lenovo. But how keyed was it? Maybe you think you have the answer, and maybe it's an accurate answer, but to me, under time constraints and needing a laptop, it just wasn't worth the risk
Since I couldn't be sure if this specific key would work on any Lenovo, or just this particular laptop, I gave up and went for a new laptop.
It's not like Microsoft was going to lose a windows sale, since every pc laptop comes with windows pre-installed. And how does a negative customers experience help Lenovo?
Obviously you're ok with these business practices but I'm not. And as a consumer I'm positioning my tech so I can move elsewhere...
Hopefully this will be my last windows laptop...
Morris0
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Microsoft is very clear about this.
Full retail licenses can be moved
Cooperate licenses can be moved
OEM licenses can not be moved
System builder licenses can not be moved
Education licenses include limited installs
For those of you feeling burned, the license limitations are clearly stated on packaging and when you click "accept"
Morris
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The only time I've seen a hardware upgrade make Windows fail activation was a complete motherboard swap a couple of years ago after the old board failed.
AFAIK each OEM motherboard contains a unique product key.
Since I have retail licenses, I did a chat session with Microsoft support and they gave me new product keys.
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It wasn't keyed to Lenovo. It was keyed to that actual system. And it cost Lenovo (and you) 20 or 30$, not the 100-150 retail price. Though as Austinian notes, it's usually a hurdle you can get by.
Oh shucks! It was in the click-terms and services! Which can be changed anytime/all the time, at the company's discretion!!
No wonder I was confused!
Here's a fun task...go and get exact copies of all the licensing terms you've agreed to, over the years...
part of the trick, of course, is that it must be the exact version, not some generic version...and also a list of all the "terms and conditions" that were changed, at any time that the manufacture wants...you do have a list of all the updates, right?
People dump product/companies all the time, if their not happy
A much better solution would have been for windows to put up a "nag screen" (instead of not working at all) and provide the user (me) the opportunity to buy a license to run on the new hardware...I would have done it, and it would have save me a lot of time and frustration...Heck, at the time Microsoft was begging people to upgrade to win10..so it would have been win-win
Morris0
Veteran Member
Upgrades to Windows 10 were and still are free. The license policy dose not change on the printed copies or the copies I have on DVD and they match today's web site. Look in the mirror, your failure to read is the cause of your frustration.
Morris
Thanks for the responses, everybody
The windows message box that came up was pretty specific, saying it was for Lenovo only or something like that. I don't remember the exact phrasing...
anyway it's all moot now and in the past. My new laptop is a solid upgrade, having many more cores/threads/memory, etc. AMD is the aggressive new competitor in the x86 space, and they delivered the goods.
It's was just the complete and unnecessary hassle of the thing. (I know not everybody will agree with me.) As I mentioned in the other post, a better solution would have been for windows to come up with a "nag" screen, allowing me to immediately purchase a license. I would have snapped it right up
pretty sure you could have done exactly that.
But sounds like you've moved on. Just slightly loaded with a few chips on the shoulder.
no chips on my shoulder.
Anyway, I thought it worth mentioning since if others are going to upgrade their systems, they should know to check out the existing licensing terms, gather any required information from windows first!! With contact information
And I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done "exactly that" since windows was stuck on the message screen.
So how exactly would I have entered in a new license key? And with no contact information displayed, how would I know how to contact them? Microsoft? Lenovo? And without the existing licensing info including whatever serial numbers they wanted, I'm thinking the would have me do all kinds of techie stuff, to find it.
My goal as a consumer is to reduce the "tech tax" to as close to zero as I can get it. On my own time, I'd gather do my own personal stuff
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This was an XP install, yes?
"My Lenovo laptop died, and I tried to move the hard-drive over to a new laptop...nope win XP checked and gave an error message about only working on Lenovo..."
I can't remember XP's activation setup, that was so long ago, but perhaps you'll find that Windows 10 activation is more obvious and also more permissive.
32GB 3600 RAM
Yes games for sure, and some software, unfortunately Lightroom is not one of them. Lucky the way I PP and the functions I use do not require for me to spend money on a really expensive GPU because LR is using the CPU at a 100% plus the RAM and SSD. Still, LR is okay, but when it comes to speed it still needs to be improved big time to keep up or match the capabilities of the Ryzen 3900X.
Thats why when some one asks if they should upgrade but they already have a pretty darn decent AMD CPU my answer is no is not worth (changing) it because there won’t be a huge upgrade in performance. If the piece of software you are using will take tremendous advantage of the CPU then yes please get it because THAT is what makes it an upgrade, not necessarily the hardware itself.
sorry about the confusion, it was version win8.1
I think this has become a dead topic, esp since I've moved on. And no complaints about my new laptop either.
It wasn't easy to do, so I gave up and moved on...like any normal consumer would.
I think technical people forget that ordinary consumers just don't want to f**ck with tech issues, we just want it to work
Anyway, thanks everybody for all the posts and suggestions...
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