Basic Gaming build - with learning curve

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

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

SterlingArcher

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

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.

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!

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

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.

Xenoronin

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

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 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?

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.

Monotype

RAID 1 = Mirror.

Xenoronin

Cheers! Showing off my noobness with RAID.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

K.O.Kiki

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

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.

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.

nozzferrahhtoo

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

TerrorFirmer

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

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

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.