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Hastelloy

Golden Oldie
Golden Oldie
May 11, 2006
697
8
125
Stone, UK
Hey all,
So when i built a PC last time i got criticised (probably rightly so) for buying both a GPU and an APU.

(previous specs)
Old System Specification
- Case: Xigmatek Alfar Case - Black
- Power Supply: Corsair GS 600w PSU
- CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.80GHz Overclocked to 4.40GHz Quad Core APU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 (Socket FM2) DDR3 Motherboard
- Cooler: Corsair H60 CPU Cooler
- RAM: Patriot Viper 3 "Red Venom" 8GB DDR3 PC3-15000C11 1866MHz boosted to 2133MHz Dual Channel
- Primary Hard Drive: Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s (Capacity: 256GB, Sequential Read: 540MB/s, Sequential Write: 520MB/s)
- Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD (Upgrade Options Available)
- Graphics Card: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express (overclockable)
- Sound: Onboard 7.1 Audio
- Optical Drive: OcUK 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Drive
- Wireless: Asus USB-N10 Micro USB Network Adapter Wireless-N 150Mbps



Now the time has come for me to re-visit my PC as my secondary (which has finally given up the ghost on its dual core processors) is now in need or replacement. In the interest of budget i thought that i would just get some new parts and play around with what i already have making the above PC into my new secondary and having another crack at the whip for my main.

Any comments on how i could improve (without breaking the bank) and where i may have gone wrong this time are appreciated. Im still learning :)

New System Specification
- Case: Coolermaster Elite 430 All Black Interior Mid Tower Case with Side Window
- 7x CoolerMaster 120mm Sickleflow Fan - Blue LED
- Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W Fully Wired 80+ Bronze (to be swapped with the supply from the above machine)
- CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K 3.5GHz Socket 1150 6MB L3 Cache (overclocked to 4.5 if stable)
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 Socket 1150 HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX
- Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO AMD Intel Processor Cooler (Still not found somewhere in stock)
- RAM: 2x Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600MHz C11 XMS3 (Not sure if i will swap these for the above red venom or not, most likely not)
- Primary Hard Drive: Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO
- Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate 2TB BARRACUDA 3.5" SATA-III Hard Drive - 7200RPM 64MB Cache
- Graphics Card: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express (overclockable - taken out of the above machine as the AMD SHOULD be fine on its own for most games on medium/low res)
- Sound: Onboard i believe is 7.1 Audio
- Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB 24X Internal DVD Writer with SATA – OEM
- Wireless: Asus USB-N10 Micro USB Network Adapter Wireless-N 150Mbps (taken from the above PC)

I think that all the parts are compatible but if i have missed anything please point it out to me ASAP, cant really afford to be braking stuff!

No pics as of yet as im still in the process of putting it all together =)

Cheers guys
 

Hastelloy

Golden Oldie
Golden Oldie
May 11, 2006
697
8
125
Stone, UK
old spec was about 1,200 at the time. The new one has come to a total of £650 including another copy of win8
 

Hastelloy

Golden Oldie
Golden Oldie
May 11, 2006
697
8
125
Stone, UK
no point changing build imho the increase isn't worth the money

in truth, it wasn't a case of changing for the sake of change, as I mentioned above I run 2pcs. As the other 1 had given up the ghost it was either buy a handful of extra components and swap around with what I already have to improve my main pc whilst also being able to use the remaining parts to create a secondary PC which will still run majority of games for the next x amount of years.. or buy a prebuilt/second hand. Im mainly playing archage at the moment and my main still runs on highest resolution lagfree but my secondary pc is able to manage medium settings which is fine given that its predecessor could barely run it at all :D
im just not sure if I could have spent more wisely i.e. was torn for the cpu cooler between the oc'able 212 evo CM hyper or the CM hyper tx3 evo slight difference in price with varied reviews.
 

Koriban

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Aug 18, 2006
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So I said I'd get round to this at some point :P

Few questions: What are you aiming for? An elite gaming desktop as your primary and using any spare parts for a secondary?

What's your budget, if any? Ideally you want to sort your primary out with the best it can offer, taking only the best parts from the secondary where the increase in performance isn't worth the increase in price for a replacement part. Once your primary is good to go and top-notch you'll just want to fill in the things you've taken from your secondary with any spare parts you can find.

Personally I'd replace the GPU with an Nvidia GTX780 (Nvidia/Intel perform better together), but the HD7970 will do okay if your holding your budget. The GPU you've chosen is very good and good for overclocking (I used this previously in a build for a friend)

I'd actually highly recommend getting a soundcard. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but the quality of sound is a vast improvement providing you get the appropriate jack headsets. Makes a huge difference in FPS games for example where you need to know where your opponent is.

If you're playing wireless and not wired (no idea why?), please get the best possible wireless card available. TP-Link is genuinely a good shout. Otherwise if the signal has to travel through walls, you'll find yourself getting packet loss at random times and ruining your gaming/online experience. (Having a good router is also a must)

Other than that, your spec looks very good. You should be fine with most if not all modern games. It may not be worth upgrading anything until they release these new 3d-realistic-graphic games that are rumoured to be showcased, as by then the specification may have bumped up a notch. Essentially, they'll be releasing games in the future that my GTX Titan will only just about manage to run on ultra, but will look absurdly amazing. Nividia are already working on realistic water/fluids and it looks pretty impressive.
 

d1craig

LOMCN Veteran
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Aug 12, 2010
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that PSU doesnt look like it would power a gameboy mate.

most important thing to upgrade when playing games is GPU > CPU. obviously 8gb of ram should be planty but if i was to get a new pc now i would go for 16gb ram.

new cpu out now, new motherboards (x99), and new ddr4 ram that is suppose to be a hell of alot better/faster than the ram most of us use now. guna have a big premium on it though...

i dont see the correllation between intel/nvidia working better myself though. intel cpus are better than amd end of. you will see an improvement when using an intel cpu over an amd cpu in any circumstances. its the cpu that controls how well any gpu does really, being the main runner of everything connected to the motherboard intel will be better.
 
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Martyn

Smir.co.uk
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Mar 24, 2003
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old spec was about 1,200 at the time. The new one has come to a total of £650 including another copy of win8
is that all.. i recently spend £500 in a cpu/mobo/psu.. nothing else.. lol :s

---------- Post Merged at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:44 PM ----------

suppose if its just mir you play prob a good build for it
 

Hastelloy

Golden Oldie
Golden Oldie
May 11, 2006
697
8
125
Stone, UK
is that all.. i recently spend £500 in a cpu/mobo/psu.. nothing else.. lol :s

---------- Post Merged at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:44 PM ----------

suppose if its just mir you play prob a good build for it

not playd mir for a good few months, likin archage/battlefield atm ;) and cheers kori.
must stress that yea 'thts all due to budget constraints, if I had more money the ofc would have better options ;)
 

Warlock

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Jul 13, 2003
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Been a while since ive even looked at parts but i will give you my 2 cents either way.

Case - The CM 430 is an ok case, it will hold a decent build and is pretty cheap. I couldnt recommend my case more tho.. little more expensive but for the money the best you can buy, great looks/airflow/space/removable drive cage/cable management.. has it all. And its always good to have a case you can use again.
http://www.ebuyer.com/522987-fracta...ium=products&gclid=CIfu5Lfx4MACFVGWtAodOzQACA

PSU - Right so, yes Corsair do good PSU's but their lower prices ones have no got the best reputation, i know its not going to be doing anything intense on the power side but still you want reliability. Bit more expensive again but as i said you want reliability and seasonic do that best. Personally i would go with a bit more juice on the power end.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w...plus-gold-single-rail120mm-silent-fan-atx-psu

CPU - You cant go wrong with a new i5, cracking little CPU, personally i would save a few quid and if you can get the 4670k get that.. the difference in 100mhz is nothing and your going to be running a decent cooler on it so clocking it that(if your not already planning on going higher) is a peice of cake.

Motherboard - Thats a hard one.. Gigabyte always make solid performing boards, it is their budget board but i imagine it will hold up on that end. You may also want to consider a Z87 chipset as you can run it with that CPU and the difference between the chipsets you more than likely will not take advantage of, by this i mean M.2 Support, but that entirely up to you.

GPU - As you will know its a great little GPU, had my mates for a while between builds.. handles anything with ease so no need to look into changing that at all i would say. Personally i havent had a problem running any game max setting on my 7870XT nevermind a 7970.

Cooler - The Hyper 212 Evo is a great little cooler, for the money you cant go wrong, also they have them available on Scan at the moment so if you decided to purchase anything from there and your a member of AvForums i think you still get free delivery on order over £50? been a while since ive looked/used it

Ram - Once again Corsair are solid when it comes to their ram, my only thing to say on that is pay an extra couple of quid and get the Vengeance kit instead.

Your drives listed are absolutely fine so not to worry there, and as Koriban stated up top, get yourself a dedicated soundcard... you may not think but it can make a massive difference in the quality of sound when gaming.
 
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