Upgrading gaming PC

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

maloviv

Honorable
Aug 9, 2014
60
0
10,630
I live in israel and in less than two weeks I'm going to the U.S.
I would like to upgrade my current PC and buy the small parts in the U.S because it's cheaper.
I use my PC for gaming, I'm not looking to run everything at best settings 60FPS but I wanna upgrade to run stuff at decent quality.
I use 2 1080P monitors and plan to get windows 10 when it's out if there are no problems.
I don't have a set budget but try to keep low.
big stuff like a case and motherboard give me a model and I'll buy it here.

I would like to get a new CPU, so a new motherboard.
I don't see a reason to get an I7 so I'll go with an I5 unless the difference is worth the price

I would like 16GB of RAM, I don't know what the standard speed but I'm sure it's more than my 1333HZ, so I don't really know where to aim with RAM.

I would like to get an 240GB or 256GB SSD.

I wan't case because my current one is very small, I don't the sizes exactly but I want at least a mid tower, to fit everything inside and not crumbed.

what I currently have and plan to use is an ENERMAX NAXN 600W PSU (if I need to get a stronger one do tell), a 1TB HDD, a GTX770, disk drive.

after reading through the thread I came up with this build, how is it? (if I get a GPU it's probably gonna be a 970)

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/whgFLk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/whgFLk/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $638.95

 
Sort by date Sort by votes
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($74.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($208.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($98.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($94.73 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($133.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1478.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-24 08:36 EDT-0400

Something like this, I guess. You can ignore the pieces you don't need. The main questions would be whether you're going to overclock (you definitely should), whether you'll be able to get hold of a broadwell desktop (i5 5675C), which parts you'll wind up buying in the US, and whether you'd prefer micro ATX instead of full ATX. To me full ATX is an anachronism, as micro ATX still has room for 2 graphics cards, which is one more than almost everyone ever installs. I selected a micro ATX board, but you could replace it with the Maximus VII Hero if you wanted to go full ATX. If you go micro ATX, you might want to grab a Define Mini instead (or whatever case appeals to you). If you're not overclocking, then you'd basically want to discard all these suggestions, as they're a waste of money. You'd want an i5 4690, a cheap $100 motherboard, and no aftermarket CPU cooler (the stock one is fine for stock clocks).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


if I don't upgrade the GPU can my current PSU support everything?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($98.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($94.73 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1168.44

Call it $850 without the GPU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have decided to go with an i5 4690k for possible overclock.
and with 850 250GB EVO SSD.
but I have now clue about the other parts.
I'll probably open a new thread for a motherboard and case. (so no reason to suggest one's now)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
the ram could be better and for a better price. Pick up 2 kits of these from amazon for cheaper.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231689&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DpQrBm

CPU: Intel i5 4690K $229.98 NCIX US
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 $94.99 Micro Center
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 $54.89 OutletPC
SSD: Crucial MX100 256GB $99.00 Amazon
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM $47.99 Best Buy
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB $239.99 B&H
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case $59.99 Micro Center
PSU: XFX Core Edition 750W 80+ Bronze Certified $64.99 Newegg
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Prem 64-bit $85.75 OutletPC

Total: $977.57


I chose i5, because it's pretty much all you need for gaming and it's a bit cheaper than Xeon and a lot cheaper than i7.
8Gb because you can later add more if you feel like it, and 8Gb is enough for gaming.
Also, GTX960 is enough for 1080p gaming and 2 screens.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you're trying to clock DDR3 up as high as 2133/9 the difficulty goes up substantially when you're using all 4 DIMM slots, and even more so if the modules aren't perfectly matched, so getting 2 different kits may cause you to have to detune it a bit to get it to work. You would almost definitely have to use 2T timings. If you want 16GB of RAM, either get 2x8GB, or get 4x4GB in a single matched kit. 2133/9 is a pretty tough target to hit with RAM, so don't be surprised if you wind up having to loosen up the timings when you are using multiple kits.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

is there a difference in performance between 2X8GB and 4X4GB sticks?

and another questions, is there a reason to overclock the CPU immediately after building the PC? and if not is the stock cooler good enough?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Most people prefer 4x4 if possible and the motherboard supports quad channel.
smaller RAM sticks in quad channel is kind of faster than dual channel of bigger RAM sticks.

Think of it like a road:
Dual-channel 2x8Gb is ultra-wide road with 2 lanes for cars
Quad channel 4x4Gb is normal road with 4 lanes for cars.
Speed limit is same on both.

They can handle same amount of cars, but the one with 4 lanes will have less traffic on each lane so there is less cars in row.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
^^ Ram wise

Z97 is better used with Dual channel RAM
X99 is better used with Quad channel RAM.
AM3+ is best used with Dual channel RAM
FM2 is also best used with Dual channel RAM.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any of the above can handle quad channel but optimal performance on the dual channel.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Actually there's a reason NOT to overclock the PC right after you build it. Once you have all your parts in, the first order of business is to get your OS installed and updated, drivers installed, etc. You don't want to have an untested and potentially unstable overclock going when you're doing all that important stuff. Once you've got Windows running and all your drivers installed, then you can start fiddling with the CPU overclock.

There is no need for an aftermarket CPU cooler if you aren't overclocking the system unless you are running in an extremely hot environment, or you are going for an extremely quiet system.

Answering your first question last - on a Z97 or lower system (a dual channel system) there is no advantage to using a quad channel kit. Only in an X99 (or similar) board that has support for quad channel (which means there will be 8 DIMM slots) will you see higher memory bandwidth using a quad channel arrangement. All the non-extreme, non-server boards only have 2 channels (4 slots). The disadvantage is that when you are overclocking the memory, things get more difficult when you use 4 modules instead of 2, and you may wind up having to sacrifice a little speed to get all the modules running.

The memory manufacturers sell matched kits which have a better chance of being able to accomplish a good overclock. This is helpful, and should be utilized. If you buy non-matched memory, even if they're all the exact same make and model, there's a greater chance that they will not work perfectly together, meaning you couldn't expect to overclock as much. Even when you have a matched kit, though, they say sometimes you have to drop your command rate to 2T instead of 1T in order to get 4 DIMMs running at their advertised overclock speed. I have a matched 4x4GB in my system, though, and managed to get it going at 1T anyway. I bought them because they were substantially cheaper than 2x8GB at the time. If I were shopping for memory for a Z97 system today, though, I'd always get 2x8GB.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

makes sense.

what about DDR4? what advantages does it have over DDR3? and is it worth the price?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote



Right now, it's not worth paying the premium for it. Also the current DDR4 are still on the lower side of the clock speed. As well as using the first versions of the module. It's better to wait for it to mature.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The quote you're responding to there is not exactly correct, or at the very least it's misleading. It's assuming that a motherboard has support for quad channel — which most don't. Only motherboards with some version of socket 2011 have support for quad channel, so "most people prefer 4x4" is implying that most people have an extreme edition or Xeon CPU — which of course they do not. Most people are using a motherboard with dual channel support, in which case using 4 modules instead of 2 will not increase your memory bandwidth at all, and in many cases will slightly decrease it (if you have to reduce the overclock on the modules).

So yeah, the rare people who are using an extremely expensive X99 board and extreme edition CPU, they would prefer a quad channel memory kit, because for them it is faster. For everyone who is on a dual channel motherboard, the only reason they should want to plug 4 memory modules in is if they want 32GB of memory, or they started with 2x4GB and want to add another 2x4GB down the road.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
thanks for clearing that up.

I made a build, what do you think? (if I buy a GPU it's going to be a 970).

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dRT2Mp
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dRT2Mp/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($136.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($108.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $645.84
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom