Need help upgrading my (whole) PC for the upcoming games

[iSpook]

Hello everyone.

I've just found this website after looking for some information, but since I have a specific "question", I just registered to ask it here, because here seem to be a lot of professionals around this topic.

I have a custom PC and I've had it for some time. It takes some time to boot up and recently made sporadic, unhealthy noises (Kind of like a high-pitched vibrating. I don't know the source). I'm not sure if it's able to run all the games that are up and coming (for example, Watchdogs, Titanfall, Batman and Battlefield 4 etc.) smoothly.


Here are my Specs

OS: Win7 64-Bit (I have Win8 in my shelf, was too lazy to install it, also heard a lot of bad things about it)

CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10 GHz

RAM: 2x Corsair 4 GB 667 MHz (DDR 3 1333)

Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)

Hard Drive: 1TB (WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1)

Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster P2270 HD


(Not sure, If its neccessary to know the Monitor and the Hard Drive but whatever.)

I do know, that when building a custom PC, the parts have to kind of work together, compliment each other, for maximum performance. I know how to completely build a PC myself, someone taught me that.

I just don't know what works together, what is neccessary (or not) and whats worth its price. Speaking of the price, it should be affordable (Christmas's coming up though ) but it should also last for a few years.

If there is any more information needed, I will provide it.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[robax91]

If you are looking for a new build, here is one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1MnPX

Points of intrest:
1. FX-6300 - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-3.html - Affordable, can be overclocked and has multiple cores.

2. GTX 760 - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html - Newest architecture, high efficiency, quiet, cool, and a strong card for the money.

3. Kingston Hyper X SSD - Amazing SSD for the money @ ~500mb read/write. Install your OS and maybe a few games or programs you want to load instantly, keep your media or non multiplayer games on the HDD.

4. Vengence 8GB 1866DDR3 RAM - Snappy, cheap, and low profile.

5. H60 cooler - Liquid closed loop system. Quiet, keeps CPU cool, makes PC more mobile (not having to worry about heavy air mounted solutions, and Complements the 760 because it is a non blower design.

6. ASRock Extreme - Great features at a low price.

7. TX850 - Unless you already have a better PSU, sometimes it's good to get a new one with a new build. Every year you use an old PSU has more chance to fail and could take out your motherboard or other components. Cheap, good reviews, and enough power for future SLI config.

I didn't add a case because those are usually good until you break them. This config should be a really good bang/dollar setup. If there was a budget or if you have brand loyalties, this can be changed. Hope this helps.

 

[iSpook]

Thanks for your quick answer.

I was actually surprised about how cheap this whole thing is even with a SSD (I heard these are fucking expensive). If it stays below the 800 mark that'd be great. My brand loyalties are Intel and NVidia.

Now you've brought up more questions though .

1. SSD I've heard that you can only put on and delete things from SSD's so many times before they become useless (354,- is a big investment in a thing that has a tinyer life span than a normal HD). Also, If I were to get a SSD, can I keep the Win7 on my current HD or do I have to remove it to make it work like an external HD?

2. Liquid Cooler The liquid cooler thing. Are these things safe? What if they leak and do you have to refill the liquid in there? My PC is in a room that's pretty warm during the summer. Would that be a problem for that stuff?

3. Motherboard My current motherboard - http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dh67bl.html

I hope you're able and so kind to give me a new build with Intel and NVidia preferences. I'm reading all of my PC information from SIW. If there is any information that would make the solution better and more precise, just tell me.

Thanks again.

 

[robax91]

1. A lot of SSDs are rated for 1 million hours and yes, they are limited by the # of read/writes, but a mechanical hard drive eventually fails as well. My SSD has a tool that estimates the life span. It says I have 98% life span left and that's after 5 months of heavy usage/gaming. You can either make your OS and favorite programs (a few games or photoshop etc) go on the SSD for really fast loads or I guess you could just use the SSD as a separate drive for games that need better loading times. If you are wondering if you have to remove the OS from your HDD, no you can have it on both but set it up to load from the SSD to get the speed benefits, only keeping it on the HDD as a hot swap drive for another PC maybe. If you don't want the OS on the SSD then you probably can go without it.

2. They are closed loops. They are very sturdy and work great. I have the H70 by Corsair. You will never have to refill it and NEVER OPEN IT, rather good luck getting it open unless you destroy it. Also, water has a more stable temperature than air, so if it gets really hot in your room for some reason, the water should warm up gradually instead of instantly with air.

3. If you want to keep using that motherboard, keep in mind it's chipset. I don't think it allows overclocking but if you aren't going to overclock anyways then you can keep the current CPU/mobo.

That said, this build would be very nice imo:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1Mt1n

Sadly it's around $900.

1. Save money and stick with old mobo/CPU but lose performance.
or
2. Spend more, get more performance and features along with the unlocked CPU so that you can overclock to further future proof the mobo/CPU combo.

Hope this helps.

 

[roguecatfish]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B85M-G43 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $800.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-08 18:56 EDT-0400)

I think that this build is the best bang for your buck at the $800 price point you were looking for.

GPU: The 760 is a re-branded 660 Ti with better features and newer architecture so it will last you quite a while before it can't handle modern games.

CPU: The CPU is part of the new haswell series, unfortunately with your $800 budget I couldn't fit in a 4670k but if you want to spend the extra $40, go for it.

MOBO: The board has all the features that you need for this build at a good price point with no extra things that you don't really need.

Case: The case is a silent optimized case that I run in my own build, if you want to downsize to a cheaper case though, feel free.

PSU: Corsair is a company well known for making excellent power supplies, this is 80 Plus Bronze so it will be power efficient, and incredibly reliable.

RAM: The ram is made by Mushkin which is a good ram company, it comes in at 1600 speed but you can overclock it if you would like. The motherboard supports 32GB of ram so you can easily upgrade it to 16GB in the future.

Optical Drive: The optical drive is completely optional, if you would rather save the fifteen bucks and just install the OS on a flash drive, be my guest but it's always nice to have just in case.

EDIT: I just saw that you already have a 1TB hard drive so you can either remove the hard drive from the build I put above and get yourself an SSD (Recommend the 840 Series Samsung), upgrade to a 4670k, or just save $60, your choice.

 

[iSpook]

Thanks for both of your answers.

But how is it, that the i5-3570K costs just as much i5-4670K. And since I already have a i5, might it be more worth it to get an i7?

Could you guys maybe look at each others builds and tell me what's best of both (you may also remove the 800 price mark for the sake of greatly increased performance).

Thanks for helping me noob out

 

[robax91]

What matters in my opinion is getting the cheapest quad core with an unlocked multiplier so that I will be somewhat future proof. If the cost for the motherboard and CPU of the haswell chip is the same as the ivy bridge, then you should get it, otherwise you are paying for features that won't make a difference and that you might never use. And no, according to extensive benchmarking, even on tom's website, an i7 is not considerably better than an i5 for gaming. There are a handful of titles that hyper-threading makes a difference in, however the difference may only be 1-2 fps, which could also be because of other hidden factors.

My take is to spend the least amount to get what works, because new stuff comes out every year. Get something that works well for the price but not so expensive that you don't want to upgrade 4 years down the road.