My new system vs my old one.

[Deadassassin]

So, just as a test I posted my old system on craigslist and amazingly someone actually offered to buy it for $1200. My old system was:

Case: HAF 912 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
CPU: AMD FX-8150 (overclocked to 4.2GHz with stock voltages on everything) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103960
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
MoBo: Gigabyte 990XA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128510
RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) Geil 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144477 (exact one doesn't exist on newegg anymore)
GPU: XFX HD 6950 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150523
SSD: 64 GB Crucial M4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148441
HDD: Recertified 750GB Seagate 7200RPM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148782
PSU: Raidmax 630W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152035
Fans: 4 Rosewill 120mm blue LED fans (they were actually very quiet and good fans for what they cost) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200062
OS: Windows 7 Home http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
DVD Drive: DVD burner (think it was Lite-on, not sure) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289
Card Reader: Rosewill card reader http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103
Other: Rosewill wireless card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166033

Needless to say I took the offer considering some of my parts were over a year old and the offer was for more than it would have cost to rebuild the exact same system with all new parts. However when it came time to order new parts I went with a very different system. I am curious what people think.

Case: HAF 912 (I really like that case) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
CPU: i5 2500k http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
CPU Cooler: I will get that later, don't plan to overclock right away. (will most likely go with a 212 EVO again when I do get one)
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-B3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Low Voltage G. Skill Sniper 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461
GPU: EVGA GTX 560 ti http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130623
SSD: 180 GB Corsair Force 3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233220
HDD: None, I may use an old laptop hard drive I have sitting around if I need more storage
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233220
Fans: Cooler Master 200mm Red LED http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103072
OS: Windows 7 Professional (got it for like $8 from my school, yay) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116992
DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118067
Card Reader: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820342002

So as you can see (counting my windows for only $8) I ended up making a few dollars, and that is just newegg prices, I found a quite a few of these components cheaper on Amazon, I ended up spending $1150 total (plus made about $22 dollars to spend on Amazon by using my credit card and paying it off completely the next day). This new setup will also be much easier to just throw a second graphics card into if I ever feel the need to do so, the power supply is more than capable of handling 2 GTX 560s.

My biggest concern is the motherboard, I have seen quite a few mentions of getting stuck in a boot loop. But it had the perfect features for what I wanted and was a great price, so I decided to take a chance on it. If I have issues with it I can always return it I suppose, then just find something similar within $50 of it (which would be easy to do).

I will see first hand just how much of an upgrade it is come this weekend. The rest of my components should get here today and tomorrow (amazon beat newegg on shipping speed this time around). I could have gone ahead and bought the cooler, but decided I would rather wait and play with the idea of water cooling for a while. I don't intend to overclock unless I actually start to see some lag in games or just feel like my computer is going too slow.

Let me know what you would have done different, do you think it was worth selling my old one for the little bit of cash and changes to my computer? I saw it as a great opportunity to give intel a shot, my 8150 was great, but curiosity almost always gets the best of me in the end and I just had to see if there was any noticable difference. Either way, both computers are much more power than I will need in a long time, I just like to tweak things and see the differences.

*Edit: Realized I had put the wrong name to my new motherboard. At least I had the right link to it.

 

[Crush3d]

This system looks pretty good to me. Definitely pretty sweet that you could sell your old one.. It's always fun to get that new system feeling and it's fun to build them!

 

[g-unit1111]

My biggest concern is the motherboard, I have seen quite a few mentions of getting stuck in a boot loop. But it had the perfect features for what I wanted and was a great price, so I decided to take a chance on it. If I have issues with it I can always return it I suppose, then just find something similar within $50 of it (which would be easy to do).

I have a higher end Gigabyte Z68 board (the UD3P) and I have heard of the boot loop issue before but I've never experienced it myself and my board is running perfectly fine after 6 months now.

Let me know what you would have done different, do you think it was worth selling my old one for the little bit of cash and changes to my computer? I saw it as a great opportunity to give intel a shot, my 8150 was great, but curiosity almost always gets the best of me in the end and I just had to see if there was any noticable difference. Either way, both computers are much more power than I will need in a long time, I just like to tweak things and see the differences.

The thing is I don't think I would have done anything different. I have a really similar build to what you just bought (except i3-2120 instead of i5-2500K) and it's been really great so far. I'm thinking of upgrading the CPU to the i5-2500K but I might wait and get the i5-3920K when it's available if it's not incredibly expensive. The HAF 912 is a great case for the price. The only thing I would have done differently is gone with a smaller SSD and a larger secondary storage solution, but that's about it.

 

[Deadassassin]

Well just figured I would post that I got my new system set up.

It seems to run games more smoothly than my old one, and is just a little more responsive overall. The larger SSD is amazing. Windows boots up in about 10 seconds, much faster than my old Crucial m4 64 GB (took about 20 seconds), I was very suprised by that change.

Overall it feels like a huge upgrade when the cost of components is basically equal. One thing I do really need to do is get my 212 EVO ordered, the intel stock fan really is as bad as I have seen people say, it will easily go over 60C when gaming, and I couldn't let prime go for more than a minute before the temps were trying to go past 70C... and were still climbing.

Keep in mind these differences are with my old CPU being OC'd to 4.2GHz, while my i5 2500k is still at stock.

What I lost:
-Storage (64GB SSD + 750GB HDD vs 180GB SSD, not a big deal though I still have 80 GB free and nothing to install for quite a while)
-Appearance in WoW (It seems like WoW had a much sharper look before, its not very apparent as far as the actual characters and environment, but I can see a small difference in text and on my icons; I can't figure out why, all settings are the same, monitor settings are the same... no idea. Really not a big deal to me though)
-Audio quality (old motherboard had much more options for audio hookups and had little to no feedback through speakers, my new system will occasionally have static sounds coming through my speakers if I have them on but no sound playing)
-USB ports (went from 8 USB 2.0 on Motherboard to 4 USB 2.0 on motherboard, both have 2 USB 3.0)
-SATA III ports (old Motherboard had all 6 SATA ports as SATA III, new motherboard has 2 SATA III and 4 SATA II)

What I gained:
-Higher FPS in WoW (had 42 minimum in Org before, now 58 minimum; both with max settings on everything)
-Faster computer startup (20 seconds vs 10 seconds)
-Much quieter (My old XFX 6950 was very audible... annoyingly so, while my new evga GTX 560 TI remains almost completely silent; changing 4 of the 120 mm fans to 2 200mm fans also helped a little, but the old 120s were not that loud to begin with)
-"Smoother" feel to Skyrim (both had 60 fps, but new setup seems to play more smoothly... hard to explain but very apparent to me when playing)
-Diablo 3 Beta performance boost (I would occasionally have bursts of lag before from certain spells or when I first came into a new zone, but now it is completely smooth)
-Fast loading on everything (all my files are on my SSD now)
-Much larger PSU for future upgrades
-More power efficient

Other thoughts:
I really prefer the new red lighting to my old blue lighting, not quite as bright.