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Basic Gaming build - with learning curve

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Ah right I guess I was only looking at more current CPUs in the new line rather than anything else. I have also seen the AMD 6300 recommended in quite a few builds around here so when I checked it out it seemed to be the best bang for buck in its line.

    But its true, an "older" line with build in Graphics is likely all I need for an office PC. I always have to resist the urge to go totally current when I am building a PC. Not easy for me :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    I think I will go with the cheapest. Replacing a Dimension 9150 does not need much :) The 5600 is better but not 30 euro better for a cheap low power build?

    I am liking the MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 recommended above with it's onboard LAN, WLAN and Bluetooth and Sata 6GB. The only others I am seeing on Geizhals with those features (but running Sata II) are the Zotac A55-ITX and gigabyte Gigabyte GA-F2A85XN. But neither of those appear to have any features worth their higher price tags.

    As both the MoBo and CPU come from Hardwareversand AND MeinPaket.de I can probably get them both from one supplier, likely with Delivery Cost free.

    So unless there are any other arguments I have missed I think I will go with this combo?


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Looking for 2x4GB of 1600 DDR3 throws out 126 results with very little price difference between them. If I limit this to CL9 then I still get 82 results ranging from about €45 to €70.

    Anything to choose between them for the above Mobo and CPU?

    Is low profile worth paying for such as the Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP DIMM Kit 8GB?

    Is low voltage better for a lower power low heat build? The cheapest there seems to be G.Skill RipJawsX DIMM Kit 8GB?

    Or just save 15 euro with the "normal" versions of each of the above options?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,299 ✭✭✭✭BloodBath


    These are the best value atm.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Great, thats one of the ones I had picked out above myself.

    So thats the CPU, MoBo and Ram picked out. Off to look at SSDs now :)

    I could get addicted to this.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Ok SSD in the 120-128 range start at €66 and I get 210 results so lets play with some filters :)

    153 use the Sata 6 that my MoBo should support.

    106 of them have speeds great than 500wr/350re.

    Price and speed wise the best of these appear to be:

    Intenso Top III SSD 128GB - €81
    ADATA Premier Pro SP900 - €83
    Super Talent SuperNova 128GB - €84

    The last one appears to be much the fastest. The first one has a Cache: 256MB.

    What do we think?


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Right so. An office system, but nippy, with four priorities in order of importance:

    1) Power Consumption should be as low as possible.
    2) Noise Levels should be as low as possible. (So passive or semi passive PSU would be nice)
    3) Space taken up should be as low as possible but allowing external access to everything offered by my board. The current 9150 I have is 7.4 x 17.5 x 17.5 so it MUST be smaller than that.
    4) Plain case, no flashy lights or the like.

    Fixed now: Mobo, CPU, Memory, Driveless solution.
    Changeable: Everything else.

    Budget: €500

    I threw the following together as a template (Drawing slightly on the Toms Hardware "silent but deadly" article) but let me know what can change, what is incompatible, what I have forgotten, and so forth.

    Item Type|Item|Price
    CPU|AMD 5400K|45
    MOBO|MSI FM2-A75IA-E53|75
    Memory|G.Skill RipJawsX DIMM Kit 8GB|55
    |||
    SDD|Super Talent SuperNova 128GB|85
    PSU|Sharkoon SHA350M Bronze 350W ATX 2.3 (semi-passiv)|35
    Cooling|Cooler Master Hyper 412S|25
    Cooling|Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe M12-S1|15
    CASE|SilverStone Temjin Evolution TJ08-E schwarz|80
    OS|Windows 7 download pay later option|45
    CPU Paste|?????|10
    ||470


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    What about the samsung evo as an ssd?
    http://www.hardwareversand.de/Solid-State-Disk/85975/Samsung+SSD+840+EVO+Basic+120GB+SATA+6Gb+s.article
    That's a pretty good all rounder.

    If you wanted to save money, the Sandisk ultra plus is ok value.

    I don't really like the look of that PSU. The reviews seem do think that it's just ok, so you could probably do better. You could go with a smaller case too, if you wanted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Yeah the case I picked out from an article of a similar build on toms hardware. Looks like I can save 50 euro by going for the AeroCool QS-200 Lite. Around the same size but much cheaper and seems to be a good all rounder of a case.

    Whats a good silent PSU then? Fully passive ones come in a lot more expensive. I chose that one as it was the only cheap semi passive I saw. Are there good quiet options? Maybe with better efficiency and hence better power consumption? Power consumption is more of a priority for my than noise levels, but noise is higher for me than saving space


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    What about the 450W golden green?
    http://www.hardwareversand.de/400+-+500+Watts/41092/Super-Flower+SF450P14XE+Golden+Green+Pro+80plus+gold.article

    With a lowish load on it, it should be fairly quiet.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    So my build from post #22 (which I have been very happy with, thanks all) above died last night. After running some tests the failure was a complete failure of my SSD drive. CHKDSK and Formatting can do nothing. It is a brick.

    I was told these OCZ drives last around 40,000 hours..... 4.5 years..... so looks like that prediction was right!

    So given I am on a budget at the moment.... and given I only ever used 55GB of the old drive (It was for OS install only, everything else was installed and run on my 2x1TB Harddisks that were configured as a single 1TB RAID Drive)...... I am not looking for anything too big or fancy..... and around another 4-5 years value out of it.

    Options therefore seem to be:

    Samsung SSD 850 Evo 250GB, SATA (MZ-75E250B) - €85
    OCZ Vertex 460A 240GB, SATA (VTX460A-25SAT3-240G) - €105
    OCZ Vector 180 240GB, SATA (VTR180-25SAT3-240G) - €115
    OCZ AMD Radeon R7 SSD 240GB, SATA (RADEON-R7SSD-240G) - €120
    Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, SATA (MZ-7KE256BW) - €120

    Questions therefore are:

    1) Assuming I would be happy with 4-5 years, is there any reason here to go further than the 850 Evo?

    2) Is there anything to recommend the OCZ drives oever the Evo at all? And if so which one, and why?

    3) Other than the fact it is meant to last longer (and 10 year warranty) is the 850 pro worth €35 more?

    4) I am assuming all these SATA drives are compatible with my build :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭Xenoronin


    Samsung Evo is pretty damn reliable. No need to go for the Pro, no benefit that you'd notice.
    It's completely compatible with your build.
    There is no OCZ drive which I can think of that is better than the samsung offering. They are the market leaders atm for a reason :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,767 ✭✭✭SterlingArcher


    So my build from post #22 (which I have been very happy with, thanks all) above died last night. After running some tests the failure was a complete failure of my SSD drive. CHKDSK and Formatting can do nothing. It is a brick.

    I was told these OCZ drives last around 40,000 hours..... 4.5 years..... so looks like that prediction was right!

    So given I am on a budget at the moment.... and given I only ever used 55GB of the old drive (It was for OS install only, everything else was installed and run on my 2x1TB Harddisks that were configured as a single 1TB RAID Drive)...... I am not looking for anything too big or fancy..... and around another 4-5 years value out of it.

    Options therefore seem to be:

    Samsung SSD 850 Evo 250GB, SATA (MZ-75E250B) - €85
    OCZ Vertex 460A 240GB, SATA (VTX460A-25SAT3-240G) - €105
    OCZ Vector 180 240GB, SATA (VTR180-25SAT3-240G) - €115
    OCZ AMD Radeon R7 SSD 240GB, SATA (RADEON-R7SSD-240G) - €120
    Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, SATA (MZ-7KE256BW) - €120

    Questions therefore are:

    1) Assuming I would be happy with 4-5 years, is there any reason here to go further than the 850 Evo?

    2) Is there anything to recommend the OCZ drives oever the Evo at all? And if so which one, and why?

    3) Other than the fact it is meant to last longer (and 10 year warranty) is the 850 pro worth €35 more?

    4) I am assuming all these SATA drives are compatible with my build :)

    Forget the pro. Hell for an extra 20 euro you'll get an extra 250gb.

    French amazon - Samsung Evo 500gb 145 euro.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Thanks for that. I rang one of the suppliers of it and using my famed sweet talking methodology managed to the get the PRO version for the price of the EVO version. Yay me! With free delivery.

    Alas the payment method I had to use for this (Bank Transfer rather than credit card) means I must wait 2 days for the payment to arrive before they will even ship the product. So I guess that is me PC free until Monday or Tuesday.

    Time for some Gym and Ingress I guess!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭Xenoronin


    Always be careful with Bank Transfers btw, a few people got burned by HardwareVersand when their parent company went under. I think most got their stuff or money back but the main issue is that you have no one to go (other than solicitor letter or court I believe) to if you don't receive your stuff. Usually it will never happen but always prefer paypal or credit card :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Thanks, good advice, certainly in Ireland. I am based in Germany however and there are a few good protections and things here. But I also tend to stick with only top rated suppliers too. And this supplier seems to be very highly rated.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭Xenoronin


    Ahhh, missed the location :D Yeah, it is pretty popular over there as we have noticed. People seem pretty happy with that company.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Well the drive arrived and I am typing to you from the newly Fresh installed Windows 10.

    In the old system however I had my 2 1TB Samsung HDDs in a Raid format. So I had 1TB of space from 2x1TB of drives.

    Now however my D: Drive is showing up as a 1.81TB disk. But all my stored files are still there.

    Does this mean the Windows 10 install has somehow dropped or changed my RAID configuration, or what has happened?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭Xenoronin


    If you had the drives in RAID 0 (Mirror) then that's what it looks like to me. I haven't touched RAID so I'd back up those files and then reconfigure your RAID.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,710 ✭✭✭Monotype


    RAID 1 = Mirror.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,307 ✭✭✭Xenoronin


    Cheers! Showing off my noobness with RAID.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    So years on I am still going great with my build and playing games on it. With the exception I replaced the SSD with a new Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, SATA (MZ-7KE256BW) a year ago.

    Mostly playing the Witcher and Mass Effect games on nearly maximum graphics settings and no problems. Was grand.

    Just installed Batman Arkham Knight however and for the first time I now have a game that is too much for my build. Frames and lumps of the picture flickering or dropping entirely even on the lowest settings. So time for a new Graphics card I think. Also intend to buy the new Mass Effect when it comes out in a couple months.

    But, as usual, can not justify going TOO high on price.

    As I have been very happy with the 1GB PowerColor Radeon HD 6870 PCS+ up until now, whats a natural budget progression from this to ensure I can play Batman and next Mass effect 4 on a reasonably high setting?

    On my local (German) Price engine it shows the cheapest option is:

    Gigabyte Radeon R7 360 OC (Rev. 2.0), 2GB GDDR5 @ 105 euro.

    But under 150euro there are a few 4GB options from Gainward, PNY, Zotac, Gigabyte, MSI, Palit and KFA2.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    I would go a GTX1050Ti 4GB @ €170 if you plan having it a similar length as the HD6870, which is very long in the tooth at this stage. You should get €40 back for it by selling it 2nd hand.

    If budget is really tight, then get a GTX1050 2GB at around €125. It's way faster than the R7 360 which is not a great card, and it's massively faster than the HD6870 also.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Interesting thanks, I looked up the the PCWorld review of the cards and it bears out your recommendation as being one of the best for Budget Gamers. Faster, cooler, and less power hungry than many direct rivals.

    And while the price difference there is 170 to 125, over here in Germany the basic version is 120 but the Ti version only 145. So seems it would be silly to opt for the basic version at all with only 25 euro in the difference.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    The only question now is which is the best version to buy :)

    https://geizhals.de/?cat=gra16_512&xf=132_2048~9810_7+1981+-+GTX+1050+Ti

    The prices vary from 145 euro to 188 as shown.

    I am not seeing huge difference between them except in the size of the card which appears to vary greatly.

    There also appears to be "OC" version from some manufacturers like MSI.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    PART|Description

    CPU|Intel Core i5-2500K, 4x 3.30GHz
    MOBO|MSI P67A-GD65, P67 (B3)
    CASE|Cooler Master HAF912 Plus
    Graphics|4GB MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti AERO
    Memory|Mach Xtreme Black Diamond 8GB CL7
    DD|Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, SATA
    PSU|XFX Black Edition 850W ATX 2.3
    Cooling|Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
    Paste|Arctic Cooling MX-4
    OS|Windows 10 Professional 64Bit
    Wireless|ZyXEL NWD-270N, 150Mbps

    So the above is my current build. Wondering if there is any point in upgrading anything on it at the moment.

    The last change that was mach was the 1050ti so not looking to change that.

    But anything else worth updating?

    If I added 8GB what would be the perfect match for the memory I have now, given the company that made it does not appear to be in business over here any more.

    How often do people re-do the CPU paste by the way? I never have.

    I still use the Logitech 5.1 speakers from my original Dimension 9150 from 2004 and they do not play well with the on-board sound of my MSI and windows 10.

    Basically they work as 2.1 or something now even though the windows 10 control panel sees all 5.1 and can play test sounds through them all. No meddling with settings seems to get 5.1 to work in games or you tube or anything else though.

    So is there any point getting new speakers, installing a sound card for 20 or 30 quid, or both?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,751 ✭✭✭✭K.O.Kiki


    PART|Description

    CPU|Intel Core i5-2500K, 4x 3.30GHz
    MOBO|MSI P67A-GD65, P67 (B3)
    CASE|Cooler Master HAF912 Plus
    Graphics|4GB MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti AERO
    Memory|Mach Xtreme Black Diamond 8GB CL7
    DD|Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB, SATA
    PSU|XFX Black Edition 850W ATX 2.3
    Cooling|Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
    Paste|Arctic Cooling MX-4
    OS|Windows 10 Professional 64Bit
    Wireless|ZyXEL NWD-270N, 150Mbps

    So the above is my current build. Wondering if there is any point in upgrading anything on it at the moment.

    The last change that was mach was the 1050ti so not looking to change that.

    But anything else worth updating?

    If I added 8GB what would be the perfect match for the memory I have now, given the company that made it does not appear to be in business over here any more.

    How often do people re-do the CPU paste by the way? I never have.

    I still use the Logitech 5.1 speakers from my original Dimension 9150 from 2004 and they do not play well with the on-board sound of my MSI and windows 10.

    Basically they work as 2.1 or something now even though the windows 10 control panel sees all 5.1 and can play test sounds through them all. No meddling with settings seems to get 5.1 to work in games or you tube or anything else though.

    So is there any point getting new speakers, installing a sound card for 20 or 30 quid, or both?
    I'd upgrade the wi-fi card to a PCI-Express model, e.g. Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I

    CPU paste does wear out, so it wouldn't hurt to clean & reapply.

    You probably don't NEED more RAM, but if you do I'd just trade the current stick & buy a 16Gb dual-kit.

    If you want lower noise/CPU temps, get a Noctua cooler.
    Spotted one on Adverts: https://www.adverts.ie/other-hardware/noctua-nh-u14s/15446505

    Haven't a clue about 5.1, all I know is that sound cards kinda suck these days.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    If not already overclocked, the 2500K will benefit hugely from it in quite a few CPU hungry titles where it doesn't do very well. Depends on what you're playing really, to know if it'll make any difference in your case.

    If you're not into overclocking, an €80 i7-2600 is an upgrade and can still do a pretty solid 60fps in everything and the 2500K would get you back most of that, so the actual cost would be about €20. A €120-140 3770 would be a bigger upgrade either.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    Where are you seeing those prices? Over here those CPUs are coming in over 250 euro.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    Ebay IE or UK. I see i7-3770's for €110.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,624 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    if you haven't done it already there is an overclock button on the motherboard that will bring it up to 4.2ghz
    it's not the prettiest overclock settings but at this stage it shouldn't matter


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,349 ✭✭✭nozzferrahhtoo


    There seems to be a setting in the bios for doing it too. Just a multipler (by standard set to 33, but can be put up as high as 42) which can be changed at any time.


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