Looking for a motherboard upgrade

[Saggee]

Hi there,

Who am I: Somewhat tech-savvy but a novice when it comes to PC upgrades.

I too am looking to upgrade a few things from this exact computer "Omen 870-213w" and would love help and guidance. The component I care most about upgrading seems to have an impact on the other parts of this PC from a compatible standpoint: a new CPU.

I am thinking of upgrading the CPU to either "Intel i7-9700k" or "Intel i5-9600k", most likely going with the former. Through online research, the thing I've been reading is that these CPUs are newer and are not compatible with the stock Motherboard the Omen 870-213w comes with, meaning that I would need to get a Motherboard that works with the above mentioned CPU choices. But then there is another component that will be affected: the RAM (DDR4 2133, PC4-17000 MB/s). 

It seems the memory specs compatible with those two CPUs I mentioned must be DDR4-2666, meaning I will also need to upgrade the ram. Essentially, the big question I have is how do I make sure that the DDR4-2666 RAM & Intel i7-9700k CPU will be compatible with a Motherboard, that will then also be upgradeable on this specific PC.

In short, I understand that in order to upgrade my CPU on this PC, I'd also need to upgrade the Motherboard and RAM, which I am willing to do. I'd just like some help in:

1) Confirming if what I said above is true

2) Some recommendations with contextual explanation as to why the recommended PC parts are compatible with the CPU, Motherboard and RAM

3) What I need to be cognizant of while upgrading (Power supply, fan cooling, etc.)

4) Any other information you can share to help me understand what I'm trying to do a little better.

Thank you soo soo much to anybody even reading this and responding. Much appreciated!

Kind regards

[Photoray002 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Saggee 

Thanks for using the HP forum for your inquiry. 

I must say up front that the HP forum does not do support for DIY projects like building your own PC. Essentially this is what you are describing you are going to do when you replace a motherboard from a different MFG. As far as a "contextual explanation as to why the recommended PC parts are compatible with the CPU, Motherboard and RAM", I'm not going to go into a long explanation of how a PC works. Ill let you do your own homework. 😉

Things to consider...

Why are you needing to upgrade a 7700 to a 9700K? You plan on Overclocking?

If so, you are correct that you need a new motherboard (mobo) to do that. That case only uses a Micro ATX form factor mobo.

Plus the wiring to the case might be a little different than what a standard MFG case has. It can be connected mostly, but might take some extra work on your part.

The biggest obstacle will be air flow and the ability to add better cooling like a dual fan radiator. You don't have room for much cooling upgrade. You would be better off buying a new case for your new mobo with better airflow and cooling options.

The only way to know what is compatible with a new mobo is to look up the manual/specs for that mobo and see what its MFG recommends.

Personal opinion: I would save up and build a whole new system, if that's what you really want, and use this Omen for a backup or 2nd PC. Its up to you. Hope that helps.

[Saggee]

Hi @Photoray002,

My apologies for posting a DIY question on the support forum - I greatly appreciate your fast response and thank you for the explanations you provided. I think from a budget standpoint, you are correct about starting new because of the casing, cooling and all other things you mentioned that will be affected.

To answer your question, I wanted to upgrade the 7700 to a 9700k for gaming purposes. I don't plan on overclocking but I wanted a better performing CPU at base clocks. I feel the GTX 1070 video card it comes with works just fine, but from what I've read, a low-end CPU can hinder the GPU's full potential and I'm experiencing progressive hitches and stutter since buying this in March 2019 (even though I'm storing absolutely everything on my HDD and only have the programs of the 2 games I play stored on the SSD). And also, I wanted to make the switch to potentially upgrade my GPU in the future as well but I definitely hear you on your personal opinion from a budget standpoint.

Thank you for your help and if you have any last thoughts you'd like to share, I welcome any new information to help me grow in my PC knowledge.

Kind regards

[Photoray002]

"from what I've read, a low-end CPU can hinder the GPU's full potential and I'm experiencing progressive hitches and stutter since buying this in March 2019"

The i7 7700 is not considered a low end cpu, its just not the fastest up to date version.

Also it sounds like you purchased a used system if you only bought it 6 months ago?

Your stutters in game can be caused by a lot of different factors.

• What game is it?
• Is it the only game that does this?
• What settings are you playing at and what are the FPS when this happens?
• Are you gaming at 1080p 60Hz or higher monitor specs?
• Is everything up dated (game, drivers and Windows updates)? etc. etc.

The i7-7700 is not going to hinder the GTX 1070. If it did, the difference would be so small its insignificant. Different games take a toll on resources differently too. Some games are CPU intensive, some GPU intensive.

I would maybe do some more troubleshooting and research before I dumped money into a new system right away.

Just saying. 🙂