UPDATE: New Rig WON'T TURN ON!!!

[Mantrousse]

UPDATE:

PC is all (as best my knowledge serves me) set up... but, it won't turn on, .

Basically, when I first hit the power switch, all 'lights' and fans briefly zip on, literally for about half a second, then stop dead. Then, if you try again, nothing happens... if you wait a bit and/or turn the PSU off then on, the single light flicker happens again. The green light on the MB is constantly on, which I think means power is being supplied to it correctly... so I'm really confused.

Details that may help: optical is in SATA 1, SSD is in SATA 2, old HDD (with old OS/files/etc still on it; was planning on booting from SSD, as Windows 8 is in the optical drive currently, then wiping old HDD from there) is in SATA 3; 4 case fan's 4-pins are each plugged into each other, then into one 4-pin power connected to PSU (I'm sure this should be fine, as had similar set-up on old rig).

Can't think of anything else other than a part being dead. Absolutely depressed right now.

Please ask me ANYTHING about this that may help you... i.e. how it's wired, anything to do with the parts, etc.

May take it to a shop tomorrow for assistance, as not great at solving these things myself. Thanks for the help.

P.s. Can take pics if you need them.
_____
Original post:

Hi, all.

Currently running a rig I made in 2008 which has served me honorably since then. Unfortunately, since then, I have fallen completely out of the loop with computer hardware, and am primarily a console gamer (I have a YouTube channel), and have no idea what the standard is these days, what are the best parts, and what I should buy. So, was hoping you guys could help out. Here's what I'm looking for:

My spec is very simple, and is pretty much outlined in the title of this thread. It will primarily be a gaming PC, with the aim of running the latest games at as high settings as possible within my budget, as I want to get back into it, and add PC gaming footage to my YT channel.

It also needs to handle editing programs like Sony Vegas, and recording/rendering programs like XSplit (for which I've bought a membership, but my current computer cannot handle). For XSplit, I'd need to be able to render + stream at 720p.

As far as my research has gone, I think all the above should all be reasonably accessible for between £700 and £800. I'm looking to buy the rig in about a month/month and a half (in September), so let me know if I should wait until then to reeavulate. But, if there's no new pieces of hardware that'll be gamechangers, then let's get going now!

!!!NO PERIPHERALS NEEDED!!!

Current rig

Case: Antec 900
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Gfx card: HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB
Memory: GeIL 4GB 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2
Hard drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB
Powersupply: Corsair HX 520W

Let me know if you need anymore details. But yeah, basically, I just need some help building a beast gaming + editing/recording PC for my budget!

Looking forward to hearing from you.


-P

 

[Knufire]

Do you need more storage space?

Your current PSU and case should be fine if you don't want anything new there.

 

[Theocnoob]

Are you willing to reuse your Antec 900 and your HX 520? It'll save you some money.
People will likely suggest you go to an AMD 6300 or 6350 to save money on the CPU. Probably a 7870 and 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Or you can reuse your 500GB to save more money. The more you reuse the better.

 

[Knufire]

Pounds are worth more than dollars, he's looking at 1100ish USD.

 

[Mantrousse]

Well, my friends, I've got to be honest, it didn't even cross my mind to think about reusing anything! Are you sure that's viable? All these parts have been ticking away for >5 years! Surely they're not going to be performing as they should? Makes sense that the case would be fine, though, hehe.

Regardless, would that power supply be able to take a newer, (MUCH) more powerful GFX card? And will the processor be able to do the things I ask (like XSplit), and newer titles on good settings, plus possibly recording at the same time? I mean, isn't my motherboard completely ancient by now?!

Excuse all the questions, like I said, very much out of the loop. Thanks so much for getting back to me so swiftly, btw. Really appreciated.

 

[Mantrousse]

Pounds are worth more than dollars, he's looking at 1100ish USD.

Yes, and this! I'll probably be buying my parts from OverclockersUK if you want a reference for what I'll be able to afford.

Thanks again, guys.

 

[Knufire]

Scan.co.uk seems to be the preferred store for UK posters here.

 

[Mantrousse]

Scan.co.uk seems to be the preferred store for UK posters here.

Ty, will keep this in mind.

 

[Knufire]

 

[Mantrousse]

View attachment 131034

Wow, that looks beastly! And that would all fit in with my current case, w my current HDD, etc? Though, I think instead of SSD, maybe I would just get a 1TB normal, and replace current (think current is getting on a bit, though not sure how to check [has been ok since installing Windows 8]). What do you think? Not sure SSD would benefit me that much, though please tell me if it would.

Any other ways we could scale back the price just slightly, without losing any/much performance? I love the addition of the after-market CPU cooler btw.

I'm assuming that GFX card, CPU, and motherboard, are beastly, i.e. can run the current top games at top spec? They look insane. One question, though. Current CPU tech confuses me a little. For instance, current rig is E8400 @3GHZ, and the chip you linked only says 3.4GHZ. Is that x4 since it's quad-core? Apologies for this absolutely noob question. Ofc completely understand the chip you linked is far better, just need to be explained how.

Any other details, please let me know. You're a top man, Knufire!

P.s. Though, could get rid of SSD + heatsink and save ~£124... Very tempting. Would that hinder performance at all? I.e. Would stock cooler + Arctic Silver do the job, or would the after-market one you linked greatly improve performance/safety from hardware failure.

 

[Theis]

Wow, that looks beastly! And that would all fit in with my current case, w my current HDD, etc? Though, I think instead of SSD, maybe I would just get a 1TB normal, and replace current (think current is getting on a bit, though not sure how to check [has been ok since installing Windows 8]). What do you think? Not sure SSD would benefit me that much, though please tell me if it would.

The SSD will boost up load times. If some extra speed here and there does not bother you, it shouldn't matter. Though, I believe a lot of the people on the forum would tell you to get an SSD.
Even though your HDD is getting old, it could still be used for storage needs.

Any other ways we could scale back the price just slightly, without losing any/much performance? I love the addition of the after-market CPU cooler btw.

A bit of money could possibly be saved if you went with a 7950
Judging from this review the HD 7970 and HD 7950 should be close to equal to each other at the same clocks.(Would also like input from someone else on this matter)

I'm assuming that GFX card, CPU, and motherboard, are beastly, i.e. can run the current top games at top spec? They look insane. One question, though. Current CPU tech confuses me a little. For instance, current rig is E8400 @3GHZ, and the chip you linked only says 3.4GHZ. Is that x4 since it's quad-core? Apologies for this absolutely noob question. Ofc completely understand the chip you linked is far better, just need to be explained how.

Newer chips is stronger clock for clock(architecture) so even if you only ran a newer quad core with only 2 cores @ the same speed as your E8400, the newer chip would win, because of the newer architecture.

P.s. Though, could get rid of SSD + heatsink and save ~£124... Very tempting. Would that hinder performance at all? I.e. Would stock cooler + Arctic Silver do the job, or would the after-market one you linked greatly improve performance/safety from hardware failure.

The stock cooler is designed to run the chip, it will not give you a worse performance over the aftermarket cooler. If you would however like to overclock the CPU, an aftermarket cooler would be needed to keep it happy at the higher clock speed.

I hope I could at least help a little bit.

 

[Mantrousse]

The SSD will boost up load times. If some extra speed here and there does not bother you, it shouldn't matter. Though, I believe a lot of the people on the forum would tell you to get an SSD.
Even though your HDD is getting old, it could still be used for storage needs.

A bit of money could possibly be saved if you went with a 7950
Judging from this review the HD 7970 and HD 7950 should be close to equal to each other at the same clocks.(Would also like input from someone else on this matter)

Newer chips is stronger clock for clock(architecture) so even if you only ran a newer quad core with only 2 cores @ the same speed as your E8400, the newer chip would win, because of the newer architecture.

The stock cooler is designed to run the chip, it will not give you a worse performance over the aftermarket cooler. If you would however like to overclock the CPU, an aftermarket cooler would be needed to keep it happy at the higher clock speed.

I hope I could at least help a little bit.

Wow, helped more than a little bit! Thank you, Theis.

Load times aren't really a bother for me! If it's not decreasing gaming performance, then it's all good. And from your answer, I take it that it won't be doing that (other than load times)?

And yes, would love a second opinion on the GFX card!

Re: the CPU: ah great, that helps me understand it a bit better.

And I won't be dabbling in overclocking, I don't think. I may have built my last PC, but I'm a bit of a noob in general, and wouldn't want to mess up my kit/void any warranties!

Any more thoughts?

 

[Theis]

Load times aren't really a bother for me! If it's not decreasing gaming performance, then it's all good. And from your answer, I take it that it won't be doing that (other than load times)?

No, it will not hurt gaming performance, it would make the map load quicker, but you'd still have to wait on the rest of the players.

And I won't be dabbling in overclocking, I don't think. I may have built my last PC, but I'm a bit of a noob in general, and wouldn't want to mess up my kit/void any warranties!

If you would like to overclock your CPU and not be that scared about destroying it, you could purchase a warranty for the overclocking: Intel Tuning Plan.
And with a guide, the overclocking should not do any damage as long as you follow the guides, there is a lot of great guides on this forum.

 

[Mantrousse]

No, it will not hurt gaming performance, it would make the map load quicker, but you'd still have to wait on the rest of the players.


If you would like to overclock your CPU and not be that scared about destroying it, you could purchase a warranty for the overclocking: Intel Tuning Plan.
And with a guide, the overclocking should not do any damage as long as you follow the guides, there is a lot of great guides on this forum.

Fantastic to the first point, and I'll keep the second in mind if I get the guts, . How much would an OC increase performance?

Also, are you guys SURE I won't need a new PSU?! So paranoid about old parts just dying on me, . Though, don't think I've had ANY PSU issues over the whole 5 years.

 

[Knufire]

If you don't want a SSD and don't want to overclock:

 

[Theis]

Fantastic to the first point, and I'll keep the second in mind if I get the guts, . How much would an OC increase performance?

Depends on the games, games like BF3 multiplayer is very CPU heavy game, and an overclock could possibly give a little boost in there.

Also, are you guys SURE I won't need a new PSU?! So paranoid about old parts just dying on me, . Though, don't think I've had ANY PSU issues over the whole 5 years.

The HX520 should be a quality unit. You could always check it with a multimeter just to be sure that it is outputting the rated volts.

 

[Theocnoob]

Fantastic to the first point, and I'll keep the second in mind if I get the guts, . How much would an OC increase performance?

It depends on the overclock. In CPU intensive tasks you could see a 20% improvement from a 20% overclock.

In gaming generally you won't notice any improvement except in CPU-centric things like Flight Simulator X.

 

[Mjolnir]

But if you're using it as an editing machine too.. If you can squeeze it in I still highly recommend adding an ssd. It increases the overall experience as well. Your ssd generally won't slow down or feel slower over time either like a hard drive would. I can't justify NOT putting an ssd in a new rig if the budget permits it.

Heck my parents rig running a 2.6ghz pentium or celeron ivy bridge dual core with 4gb ram still has a fairly cheap 64gb ssd running it. Makes it feel like it's worth way more than it is. Honestly. It's not about map loading times for me. It's just a better user experience.

 

[Mantrousse]

Wow, everyone on this forum is so helpful. Seriously, can't thank you guys enough.

So, with Knufire's second opinion, and maybe add an SSD? Mjolnir, will it really help the experience that much to justify £80 more, ? That's 14% extra added to the price!

£557~ for a complete step-up in rig seems amazing, though. Any way I could get some more life out of it for a bit more cash (other than SSD for now)?

Thanks for ur time!

 

[Theocnoob]

Just remember that with Knufire's second opinion post there, you won't be able to overclock. You're looking at quite a premium to overclock. 40 or so more on the motherboard, 20 on the cpu, and 30 to 40 for a cooler. But it may be worth it depending on what you're doing.