Building a new rig and need critique!

[baris_]

Hello,

In 2009-2010 I built the rig that you can still see in my signature and you lot helped me then as well (and no, you guys did not advise the 2GB RAM, that is my own doing :$). For my first overclock I got a very nice overclock out of the Q9550 where again you guys helped a lot. It has stood by me all these years but mainly because of the RAM/GPU I cannot even play games on low settings anymore as most games have minimum requirements such as 4-6 GB RAM. Anyway, it is time for a new rig and I've been googling and reading up a lot on the current stuff. Keep in mind I am on a budget and I want to spend as less as possible. I'm keeping the case, the soundcard and the monitor.

What I want to do with it:
Basically all I do is use internet, watch movies and play games such as GTA 5, Fifa 15, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Crysis 3, Battlefield 4, perhaps Assassin's Creed: Unity and Watch Dogs on 1920x1080 at ultra/high settings (perhaps with some AA). The goal is ultra, but if a few games can only run high that is fine as well, I don't wanna put down another 100 or 200$ just for the upgrade from high to ultra. First question: I will try to overclock and get something more out of it, but again I don't wanna spend a lot on a cooler, I was very happy with my hyper 212+ and you can see what I got out of the Q9550, so can I just buy the 212 EVO? It looks to have great bang for your buck results on reviews.

Case: Antec 1200
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Memory cheapest options:
1) Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 MHz CL9 2x4GB - € 69,80
2) G.Skill RipjawsX F3 DDR3-2133 MHz CL11 2x4GB - € 75,20 (seems much better for the cost so that’s why I think there is something wrong with it lol)
3) Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3-1866 MHz CL9 2x4GB - €75,53

Graphics Card:
[Insert your advice]

Harddrive: Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB
Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power 620W (served me well and never had any issues, it is 4.5 years old, can I still keep using it?)

I need the most help with the GPU and the PSU. Obviously the GPU will decide what PSU I need. What GPU do you guys think I need with what I wanted (see above)?

OR I can just keep all this, swap the memory and buy 2x4GB DDR2 and a GTX970 or even GTX980 because if I change all the other stuff I can definitly not afford a GTX980..

Hope it wasn't too much to read. Thanks in advance guys! Regards,

Baris

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Go Z97, it's newer. No reason to get an old chipset.
CPU, if you want to OC then get a K edition. (4790K)

The case is pretty out of date, are you dead set on it?

I'd grab the G.SKILL out of those three.

GPU, EVGA 970 SuperClocked ACX 2.0.

I'd swap PSU's, that one is pushing the limit. Grab a Seasonic G-550.

 

[Theocnoob]

Hello,

In 2009-2010 I built the rig that you can still see in my signature and you lot helped me then as well (and no, you guys did not advise the 2GB RAM, that is my own doing :$). For my first overclock I got a very nice overclock out of the Q9550 where again you guys helped a lot. It has stood by me all these years but mainly because of the RAM/GPU I cannot even play games on low settings anymore as most games have minimum requirements such as 4-6 GB RAM. Anyway, it is time for a new rig and I've been googling and reading up a lot on the current stuff. Keep in mind I am on a budget and I want to spend as less as possible. I'm keeping the case, the soundcard and the monitor.

What I want to do with it:
Basically all I do is use internet, watch movies and play games such as GTA 5, Fifa 15, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Crysis 3, Battlefield 4, perhaps Assassin's Creed: Unity and Watch Dogs on 1920x1080 at ultra/high settings (perhaps with some AA). The goal is ultra, but if a few games can only run high that is fine as well, I don't wanna put down another 100 or 200$ just for the upgrade from high to ultra. First question: I will try to overclock and get something more out of it, but again I don't wanna spend a lot on a cooler, I was very happy with my hyper 212+ and you can see what I got out of the Q9550, so can I just buy the 212 EVO? It looks to have great bang for your buck results on reviews.

Case: Antec 1200
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

Memory cheapest options:
1) Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 MHz CL9 2x4GB - € 69,80
2) G.Skill RipjawsX F3 DDR3-2133 MHz CL11 2x4GB - € 75,20 (seems much better for the cost so that’s why I think there is something wrong with it lol)
3) Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3-1866 MHz CL9 2x4GB - €75,53

Graphics Card:
[Insert your advice]

Harddrive: Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB
Power Supply: Cooler Master Real Power 620W (served me well and never had any issues, it is 4.5 years old, can I still keep using it?)

I need the most help with the GPU and the PSU. Obviously the GPU will decide what PSU I need. What GPU do you guys think I need with what I wanted (see above)?

Hope it wasn't too much to read. Thanks in advance guys! Regards,

Baris

Hi! Firstly, I would not suggest that you reuse your sound card. Get a board with an ALC1150 chip on it. That'll sound much better than your old Xfi I assure you. Nobody uses EAX in games any more so Creative Labs soundcards have no real place in the market any more. The only good cards they ever made were the ones with the EMU chip. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Anyways, you should be looking at a 4790K, not a 4770K. That's a 2013 CPU. 4790K is 2014. It has better thermal interface material between the die and the IHS and better voltage regulation components on the bottom of the package.

Don't get a Z87 board, get a Z97 board.

Yes, you should get the 2133Mhz kit. It's not a steal at that price by any means. If it were 2133Mhz Cas 9 it would be a steal, but it's Cas 11. I still think you should take the 2133.

You really need an SSD. It makes a huge difference to overall system performance. A 1TB unit would be ideal so you could store all your programs and games on it, but since that's pretty expensive, you might want to look at atleast a 120GB model for your OS and most demanding programs.

Given the kinds of games you want to play I would look at, at very least, a GTX 970 or an R9 290. The 290 will be cheaper, and perform just shy of the 970, but it uses more power, runs hotter, and lacks Direct X 12 compatibility. 3 major strikes against it. But again, it's cheaper.

The motherboard I think you should take a look at is the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6.

Yes you can use a Hyper 212 (might as well re-use the one you already have IMO). Be aware that you won't get nearly as impressive of an overclock out of it on Haswell as you did on your Core 2 Quad though, due to changes to TDP, spacing between transistors, IHS application, onboard VRM, etc etc.

 

[baris_]

Go Z97, it's newer. No reason to get an old chipset.
CPU, if you want to OC then get a K edition. (4790K)

The case is pretty out of date, are you dead set on it?

I'd grab the G.SKILL out of those three.

GPU, EVGA 970 SuperClocked ACX 2.0.

I'd swap PSU's, that one is pushing the limit. Grab a Seasonic G-550.

Thank you for your reply! Why the 4790K instead of the 4770 for overclocking? Keep in mind I am on a budget and it will cost me €45 more to buy the 4790K..

As for the case, what do you mean with "out of date"? I know it's old, but that is not my criteria. Is there something wrong with the quality for the build that I want? I'm on a budget and definitly can't spend 150$ on a new case or I'd have to postpone buying everything for months.

G.Skill it is!

Hmm, how is 620W pushing while a 550W is not?

(I may seem rude but these are just questions)!

Hi! Firstly, I would not suggest that you reuse your sound card. Get a board with an ALC1150 chip on it. That'll sound much better than your old Xfi I assure you. Nobody uses EAX in games any more so Creative Labs soundcards have no real place in the market any more. The only good cards they ever made were the ones with the EMU chip. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Anyways, you should be looking at a 4790K, not a 4770K. That's a 2013 CPU. 4790K is 2014. It has better thermal interface material between the die and the IHS and better voltage regulation components on the bottom of the package.

Don't get a Z87 board, get a Z97 board.

Yes, you should get the 2133Mhz kit. It's not a steal at that price by any means. If it were 2133Mhz Cas 9 it would be a steal, but it's Cas 11. I still think you should take the 2133.

You really need an SSD. It makes a huge difference to overall system performance. A 1TB unit would be ideal so you could store all your programs and games on it, but since that's pretty expensive, you might want to look at atleast a 120GB model for your OS and most demanding programs.

Given the kinds of games you want to play I would look at, at very least, a GTX 970 or an R9 290. The 290 will be cheaper, and perform just shy of the 970, but it uses more power, runs hotter, and lacks Direct X 12 compatibility. 3 major strikes against it. But again, it's cheaper.

The motherboard I think you should take a look at is the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6.

Yes you can use a Hyper 212 (might as well re-use the one you already have IMO). Be aware that you won't get nearly as impressive of an overclock out of it on Haswell as you did on your Core 2 Quad though, due to changes to TDP, spacing between transistors, IHS application, onboard VRM, etc etc.

I'll look into the sound thingy, thanks!

Will the difference be that great? I don't mind not overclocking a lot, I just will be trying to get most out of it, even if it won't be a lot..

Will look at Z97 boards.

Will look into SSD's, I fear I won't be able to afford one though.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Thank you for your reply! Why the 4790K instead of the 4770 for overclocking? Keep in mind I am on a budget and it will cost me €45 more to buy the 4790K..

Because you need one of the CPU's with the K on the end of the part number to have an unlocked multiplier to be able to OC properly.

As for the case, what do you mean with "out of date"? I know it's old, but that is not my criteria. Is there something wrong with the quality for the build that I want? I'm on a budget and definitly can't spend 150$ on a new case or I'd have to postpone buying everything for months.

There are a lot of new features on current-gen cases that the Antec doesn't have.
I see now that you own this case, so there's no huge reason to replace it. I read it as if you were going to be buying an old designed case for the new build.

G.Skill it is!

Hmm, how is 620W pushing while a 550W is not?

Age and quality.
That 550W is much better quality, and it isn't 4.5 years old.

(I may seem rude but these are just questions)!

Not rude at all, we all have to learn somehow!!

I'll look into the sound thingy, thanks!

Will the difference be that great? I don't mind not overclocking a lot, I just will be trying to get most out of it, even if it won't be a lot..

You can't OC far on the locked multiplier (non-K) CPU's because the BCLK on the newer Intel CPU's is linked to the PCIe frequency.

Will look at Z97 boards.

I recommend the Z97 Extreme6 as well

Will look into SSD's, I fear I won't be able to afford one though.

 

[Theocnoob]

Why the 4790K instead of the 4770 for overclocking? Keep in mind I am on a budget and it will cost me €45 more to buy the 4790K..


I outlined all the reasons why the 4790K is superior in my first post in this thread. It is not, however, superior clock for clock. So, if you're on a tight enough budget that €45 makes a difference to you, get the 4770K.
Not the 4770. That's as cheap as it is because you can't overclock it. It is not unlocked.


As for the case, what do you mean with "out of date"? I know it's old, but that is not my criteria. Is there something wrong with the quality for the build that I want? I'm on a budget and definitly can't spend 150$ on a new case or I'd have to postpone buying everything for months.

It has some very ancient design characteristics in terms of air flow, drive cages, cable management, etc. Again, if you can afford a modern case, do it. If not, keep your case.

G.Skill it is!

Hmm, how is 620W pushing while a 550W is not?

It's pushing the limit because it is a junk PSU. The power output has nothing to do with it. Get a decent PSU. Not being rude, just realistic. Bad PSUs are dangerous to the rest of your system. The high ripple in their current degrades parts and they are more likely to take out other components in your system in the case of a major failure.

(I may seem rude but these are just questions)!



I'll look into the sound thingy, thanks!

Will the difference be that great? I don't mind not overclocking a lot, I just will be trying to get most out of it, even if it won't be a lot..

Not sure what you're talking about here. If it's the CPU cooler, yes the difference will be great. If you're just gaming though you don't need high overclocks anyways.

Will look at Z97 boards.

You'd be nuts to buy a Z87 board at this point. Z97 is the way to go. Look at that Extreme 6. If it costs too much look at the Extreme 4. The only thing with the extreme 4 is that the audio section of the PCB is not seperated.

Will look into SSD's, I fear I won't be able to afford one though.

It's worth it.

 

[Itachiii]

You can grab a Sandisk UltraII 128GB for 63.99$ on Amazon since you're strict at your budget but I would personally add 20$ more and get the 840 EVO (120GB).

 

[bob4933]

Why are we recommending i7 for gaming anyway. I5 4690k is just fine.


Ssds are cool! Still think you should stick to a spinner if it means it let's you get a better gpu. You can add an SSD later on.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The i7 is being recommended because of the OP's long upgrade time.

 

[pcgamer4life]

IMO, skip the i7, and go with an i5. The i7 will buy you absolutely nothing over the i5 in gaming. Put the extra scratch into a 120gb SSD for your boot drive and one or two of your favorite games, and back it up with a decent sized spinner for storage. An SSD will give you the most tangible benefit for your money compared to any other upgrade. In this day and age, it shouldn't be skipped on a new build, IMO.

 

[rayraysfunhouse]

IMO, skip the i7, and go with an i5. The i7 will buy you absolutely nothing over the i5 in gaming. Put the extra scratch into a 120gb SSD for your boot drive and one or two of your favorite games, and back it up with a decent sized spinner for storage. An SSD will give you the most tangible benefit for your money compared to any other upgrade. In this day and age, it shouldn't be skipped on a new build, IMO.

I wouldn't say it would get him absolutely nothing. It would get him a couple FPS but nothing worth spending the extra money. And depending on how long he will have this system in the future it may be better for him to have the i7 when games start using more cores.

But I am also with you on the i5.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Guys, look at his old build. 5-6 years.
He likes to keep parts a while, the i7 will outlive the i5 in usable life.

 

[rayraysfunhouse]

I agree since it will be used for a long period of time but the question about what his budget is has yet to be asked.

What budget are you looking at for this current build?

 

[baris_]

Well, I will definitly buy it in parts. I will start off with €400 and then I can buy stuff with €175-200 every month, if I spend all of what I have so that in about 3 to 4 months I have everything. I'm thinking about €850 or so..

And yes indeed, I'm not the kind of guy that wants to do changes to his rig every few years. I built this partly in 2009 and 2010 and it lasted me a good 5-6 years and I milked everything out of it - I kept playing new games until I had to play them in medium/high and most games require a 64-bit OS now and 4-6 GB so a change was necessary and I'm not about to spend €125 on 8GB of DDR2 RAM (for some reason it's that expensive). I deem it better to go with a new quadcore (i7) that'll last me another 5. But if the i5 will do that for me as well then that is up for option as well so what do you think?

And of course it's always so enjoyable to actually build it, spend days on doing the wiring behind the motherboard and making it look great and spend days overclocking and finding the sweet spot and doing benchmarks etc.

But yeah since it's a budget build I don't really mind stuff like that windows won't start up in 5 seconds or stuff like that. I'm content with the speed of my programmes right now on this quad and on this terrible RAM. Even without an SSD but with the i7 and the new RAM it will be somewhat faster right? That'll probably be enough for me..

 

[Theocnoob]

Well, I will definitly buy it in parts. I will start off with €400 and then I can buy stuff with €175-200 every month, if I spend all of what I have so that in about 3 to 4 months I have everything. I'm thinking about €850 or so..

I don't know why some people think that's a good idea. A field where planned obsolescence is paramount is not a good field to buy items piecemeal.
You want to buy everything at once. There are some things you can get ahead of time like the power supply and the case but your CPU, GPU, MOBO, even your RAM at this point, are not things you should buy ahead of time.

in 4 months we will likely have Broadwell and the ZXX7 chipset. We'll have GTX 960 and possibly 965Ti, we'll probably have a new line of GPUs from AMD, DDR4 will be on the mainstream platform, etc etc.
Save your money up until you can afford the whole computer, then buy it all at once.

 

[baris_]

I never said it was a good idea, I thought it was just the best I can do. I simply cannot play games at this point and I've played FIFA online since '11 but I can't play 15 because it requires 4GB. I want to make an upgrade. What about upgrading the motherboard, CPU and the RAM at once right now and keep using my GPU for now. Then by the end of april (when GTA 5 will be there) look at GPU's perhaps when the 960/965Ti come out and buy a PSU with it? Any websites that specially announce such things ahead of time, like what the next line will be and when?

 

[baris_]

Also, which i5's are the unlocked ones? Again the K's?

 

[Theocnoob]

I never said it was a good idea, I thought it was just the best I can do. I simply cannot play games at this point and I've played FIFA online since '11 but I can't play 15 because it requires 4GB. I want to make an upgrade. What about upgrading the motherboard, CPU and the RAM at once right now and keep using my GPU for now. Then by the end of april (when GTA 5 will be there) look at GPU's perhaps when the 960/965Ti come out and buy a PSU with it? Any websites that specially announce such things ahead of time, like what the next line will be and when?

Ya but if you have a spare $200 every month, or however much you can spare, why do you need to sink it into some parts right now? Why can you not just put $200 in your sock drawer every month until you have enough for the whole PC? Buy a CPU and mobo now? Then in 4 months a better CPU and mobo come out? Why not just wait? AMD 3XX GPUs, Nvidia 960/965, Intel Broadwell and Z1XX chipset are around the corner.

Also, which i5's are the unlocked ones? Again the K's?

Same deal as the i7s. 4690K and 4670K. Again the 90 is the superior chip. Not in terms of performance per clock but in terms of power regulation and thermal transfer.
If you want to have any kind of compelling experience over the next 5 years in terms of gaming I would advise against a 4 thread chip. Get an 8 thread chip (i7). The writing is on the wall. Current consoles have 8 core processors. As more advanced games are made for them they will be ported to PC with the ability to take advantage of 8 (or maybe even more) threads. Those with 4 thread CPUs will be at a disadvantage. If AMD's 8 cores were better CPUs than they are they would be what I'd suggest but there are way too many knocks against those CPUs and the platform they live on to suggest them. I think you ought to get an i7. If you want a compromise between the i5 and the i7 that will still give you 8 threads but will take away the overclocking ability, look at a Xeon. 4c/8t Xeons go for like $250 USD. A far cry from the i7K's at $330-340.

 

[baris_]

Thank you for your reply and those are some good points. I will ponder upon them and look them up.