Project Reality Forums

Hey guys,

planing to update my system (core2duo e7400 and nvidia 9800gtx+) after 4,5 years in service. I guess I dont need new chassis, power supply, ssd, hdd, dvd-rw, peripherals, cooler, etc. and can use all the money on the core parts (CPU, GPU, Board, Ram). Budget is 500-600 EURO top. Usage is gaming. Plan is to get a system to be sufficient for the next years. Im not a graphic addicted, dont need ultra settings and fancy stuff. Just want a system which will allow me to play new titles in 3-4 years.

It seems like you cant save money with using older parts, since newly released parts have better price efficiency.

CPU:
Intel Core i5-4570, 4x 3.20GHz ~170 EURO

Guess this CPU is surplus requirements, but you cant really save money with taking an older i5-3... Dont know anything about AMD, wouldnt exclude them

GPU:
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 WindForce 3X OC Rev. 2.0 ~230 EURO

or
MSI R7950 TF 3GD5/OC BE Twin Frozr III ~260 EURO

Guess there isnt much difference between those cards. Game pack is nice, but not worth the 30 € for me.

Board:

Not that many boards for 1150 socket, and not much price difference. Guess I dont need the z87, dont plan to overclock. Dont need a second PCIe16, dont plan for SLI (should I?). There are some differences in the onboard sound. Unsure if its worth paying for a better chip (ALC1150 or ALC892).

ASRock H87 Pro4 ~75 EURO

or

ASRock Fatal1ty H87 ~95 EURO

would be a candidate. Not sure about ASRock, hated that company for low quality boards 5 years back, but have heard they got better.


Ram:

Guess there is no need for more that 8GB. DDR3-1600 and CL9 should be fine in my opinion:

Kingston HyperX blu. DIMM XMP Kit 8GB PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-27 (DDR3-1600) ~60 EURO


Hope I am on the right track,

cheers

I would srsly consider a GTX 770 though... And maybe also even some kind of i7 core [maybe even "Sandy Bridge" generation one (i7 2700 for example), I am happy with my (i7-) 2600K, just my (GTX) 570 (cool Gainward Phantom model) is getting quite old now... ]

But at LEAST really get the i5 4670 (running @ 3.4 GHz, holy 200 MHz more than the 4570!) !


I would really go for Intel & Nvidia hardware and an ASUS motherboard. Also I highly recommend Gainward and EVGA graphics

Thx for the reply Daniel,

Daniel wrote:I would srsly consider a GTX 770 though

770 is around 50% more expensive than the 760. I am not sure if its worth the money...

Daniel wrote:... And maybe also even some kind of i7 core [maybe even "Sandy Bridge" generation one (i7 2700 for example)

Intel Core i7-2600 would be 230 EURO
Intel Core i7-4770 would be 250 EURO

Is the hyperthreat thing really something I could use? Ive read that games probably wont use 8 threats the next years. Any other difference I miss between i5 and i7?

Daniel wrote:But at LEAST really get the i5 4670 (running @ 3.4 GHz, holy 200 MHz more than the 4570!) !

Intel Core i5-4670 is only 15 EURO more than 4570. Maybe i could gain from the 200mhz. First wanted to go for the i5-4430, because everyone told me cpu power wont be the problem. Guess I went for the i5-4450, because its in the middle of the i5-44..

The nvidia 770 and one of the i7 cores alone would use up all my budget. With board and ram I would pay around 750 EURO instead of 600 top. I could spent the money, but it should really be worth it. Not so sure about it right now...

Only differences between i5's and i7's is hyptherthreading as you mentioned and a bit larger cache... These you probably won't miss during gaming.. The biggest difference is through the GPU, CPU's tend to have little to do with gaming nowadays, especially in terms of high graphics.

I'd say the 760 is easssily good enough! what you've built looks to me like a great setup! Just a warning on the PSU front, check it has the correct connectors & stuff , dno whether that PC was built by yourself? If so, you're all good to go tbh .


Although in terms of CPU, look at the 4670k, the potential to OC later is not something to be missed, as generally Intel CPU's overlclock very easily upto the 4GHZ mark, no voltage changes or anything...

Pedz wrote:Although in terms of CPU, look at the 4670k, the potential to OC later is not something to be missed, as generally Intel CPU's overlclock very easily upto the 4GHZ mark, no voltage changes or anything...

I have some experience with overclocking, but i dont know if I will go for it. Would need a z87 chipset, some better rams, a better cooling concept, maybe a new psu. Dont know if its worth the effort. OC wont help me now, since the cpu is now fast enough without oc, but could potentially give me a power boots when the cpu gets older. I planed this with my last cpu. Was able to oc it when it was new, but now - when i really would need the extra speed - the system is old and seems to get unstable if I try to oc. Probably the hole plan to oc to extend the live span of a system is flawed...

About the PSU:
Cant find any data sheet about me psu. Its a 5 years old enermax. It has got the double 6pin/8pin graphic card connectors needed for the 760 and enough watt according to enermax power calculator. Has anything else changed in the psu standards? Any new cables I missed?

Hannes_Sbg wrote:I have some experience with overclocking, but i dont know if I will go for it. Would need a z87 chipset, some better rams, a better cooling concept, maybe a new psu. Dont know if its worth the effort. OC wont help me now, since the cpu is now fast enough without oc, but could potentially give me a power boots when the cpu gets older. I planed this with my last cpu. Was able to oc it when it was new, but now - when i really would need the extra speed - the system is old and seems to get unstable if I try to oc. Probably the hole plan to oc to extend the live span of a system is flawed...

About the PSU:
Cant find any data sheet about me psu. Its a 5 years old enermax. It has got the double 6pin/8pin graphic card connectors needed for the 760 and enough watt according to enermax power calculator. Has anything else changed in the psu standards? Any new cables I missed?

For OC'ing I'm not sure you'll need a different mobo (although not certain, most are unlocked?) Ram wouldn't need to be better, not affected by the CPU clock anymore, cooling wouldn't really need to be improved with minor OCing (3.8-4Ghz) and power would be marginal, but haswell uses less than your current, so wouldn't require a better PSU. Just for info, and mainly an overclock will eek out a few more FPS (2-5 in some games), so I can see your point in not bothering . About reducing the lifespan, that's not really something to worry about, so long as you're not over-volting it, I have mine on constant 4.5 OC (from 3.4), and it runs fine and never crashed from CPU.


PSU info, only things to make sure you have is, the correct HDD power connnectors (assume so, as you're going to reuse your current HDD's), also make sure your HDD's are compliant with your new Mobo( Probably SATA?, not old school IDE, unless you have a converter?)

Other than that, 8 Pin CPU power cable and I think 24Pin Mobo power, 6/8 pins for graphics cards, otherwise they're the same, as they've always been .

Pedz wrote:About reducing the lifespan, that's not really something to worry about, so long as you're not over-volting it, I have mine on constant 4.5 OC (from 3.4), and it runs fine and never crashed from CPU.

Was talking about expanding live spawn of a system. CPU would not limit me now, but it could in 3 years. Idea behind is buying a system npw that would allow me to OC it then. As I wrote before, I had this idea when I bought my last CPU. Didnt work well...

Pedz wrote:PSU info, only things to make sure you have is, the correct HDD power connnectors (assume so, as you're going to reuse your current HDD's), also make sure your HDD's are compliant with your new Mobo( Probably SATA?, not old school IDE, unless you have a converter?)

Other than that, 8 Pin CPU power cable and I think 24Pin Mobo power, 6/8 pins for graphics cards, otherwise they're the same, as they've always been .

Thx for the info, PSU seems to be ready for the new system.