Need help with new rig!

Don Tomasino

Hi,

Hard drives have been dying in my computer, I'm fairly sure it's a problem with the power supply or mobo, so I'm going to get some new components but keep some from my current pc.

Parts I'm keeping:
Nvidia GTX260
Intel q6600
4gb RAM
Seagate 250gb 3.5inch HDD

Parts I need to buy, must be compatible with the above:
Motherboard
Case
Heatsink for cpu
Power supply

The pc will be used for photo/video editing, with some gaming now and then. It by no means has to run the latest games though.

If I could get those parts for €200 or so that'd be nice but if it's going to cost more, so be it. I can pay by credit card so buying online is probably the way to go.

I want to buy the parts ASAP.

If there's any more info needed let me know.

All advice is appreciated, cheers!

Don Tomasino

bump

Turns out I really need to get these parts immediately because I need the pc for college work. Any advice appreciated. I just want to find parts that are compatible.

Wossack

I reckon a secondhand lga775 system might be the best bet here..? can swap in your bits then as needed

SterlingArcher

Firstly is your ram DDR2 or 3. Your budget is definitely doable.

Have you been on adverts?
Or is second hand not a route you want to go?

Don Tomasino

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've actually decided to upgrade to 8gb DDR3 ram, so lets say the budget is now €270 or so.

I am not opposed to buying second hand, but at the same time I'd like to play it safe and make sure that this will be a rig that lasts me a good few years. (I know the rig will become outdated very quickly, that's fine)

Any other info I can give to help?

BeerFear

Sell your current pc, your upgrading a dead house. A decent gaming PC can be built for around 400. You could get an I3 or fx6300 with a 7770 for around 400 which would completely destroy your pc. The onboard graphics on the I3 would be stronger than your current card

BeerFear

Item|Price
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.93
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 400W - bulk -|€39.70
AMD FX-6300 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€98.05
PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition, 1GB GDDR5|€83.88
ASRock 960GM-VGS3 FX, Sockel AM3+, mATX|€33.92
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.27
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€358.74

Could use your own hard drive to knock 50 of it but will be slower than a newone. Gtx 620 is also and old awful card. Is the ram you got 240 pin? Would be a Decent gaming PC at medium to high settings

Don Tomasino

Thanks for the advice! I might end up going that way, it seems to make more sense. I've decided to upgrade my ram to 8gb ddr3.

I wasn't aware the GTX260 was crap. Really worse than the onboard graphics of a cpu? Anyway I've no problem selling it and getting something better.

Is that WD blue drive particularly loud/quite does anyone know?

BeerFear

Have you tried running any new games with it? Hard drive is completely silent. Cpu will be pretty quiet as not really in the price range to add overclocking board

marco_polo

The GT260 a bit slower than a HD7770, performance jump is too small to be worth upgrading to IMO, especially if the odd game is very much a secondary function of the machine.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/664?vs=536

J0hnick

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Graphics-Express-Eyefinity-Technology/dp/B00BP5VCOM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386979171&sr=8-1&keywords=radeon+7790

GDDR5 7790 is going for buttons on Amazon right now with free delivery, same GPU as the XbBox-One so worth keeping in mind if Mantle is all its cracked up to be. The 2GB MSI version is 10% cheaper but they wont have it back in stock for another 2 months if you can wait.

Don Tomasino

I'll have to have a think over the whole thing. Don't think I'll upgrade the gpu because of my budget. I can always just buy a better one later on if I need to.

Question, I'm looking at ram on hardwareversand, is there a difference between the cheap brands and the better known ones? For instance how do these compare:

http://www.hardwareversand.de/1600+Low+Voltage/74314/8GB+G.Skill+PC3-12800U+CL11-11-11-28.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/1600+Low+Voltage/72602/8GB+Kingston+HyperX+blu.+PC3-12800U+CL10.article

Thanks.

Wossack

both good brands afaik - whats really causing the difference in price (afaik), is the kingston has a lower CAS Latency (CL) methinks..!

Don Tomasino

Ok guys, so here's a potential rig I put together. What do you think? Keep in mind I'm sort of guessing here, but I tried to make sure all parts were compatible at least. I'll be taking the GTX260 over from my old machine.

Anything stick out as wrong? Anything incompatible? Any components seem overkill compared to the rest?


Item|Price
Sharkoon REX3 Value Edition black (Window-Kit), ohne Netzteil|€42.82
Intel Core i3-4130 Box, LGA1150|€102.35
ASRock H81M-GL, Sockel 1150, mATX|€41.78
XFX PRO450W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€45.99
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.27
Cooler Master Hyper 103|€20.38
8GB Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-12800U CL10|€68.13
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€384.71

TerrorFirmer

Seems OK to me! Could take out the CPU cooler, the stock one is fine really, i3 is not a hot running chip, would be fine. Even if you took out the CPU cooler and dropped to 4GB ram, then added an SSD - 4GB of ram is OK for now and can be improved later, like the video card, but an SSD will make a massive difference in desktop use.

GTX260 is still OK though, miles ahead of i3's video. I still have one as a backup, Battlefield 4 64-man servers at 2560x1080 low settings works perfect, not bad for a five year old card.

Don Tomasino

Thanks! I did some research on SSD drives, but I'm still wondering, what EXACTLY does it make faster? Will it help with photo/video editing? Or would I be better off with the extra ram?

And could anyone recommend a good ssd?

Luck100

Don Tomasino wrote: »

Thanks! I did some research on SSD drives, but I'm still wondering, what EXACTLY does it make faster? Will it help with photo/video editing? Or would I be better off with the extra ram?

And could anyone recommend a good ssd?

Usually you make the SSD your system drive, so your boot time and OS response will be very snappy compared to mechanical disks. If you get a 256GB drive you can probably install most of your applications as well, which will make them faster to launch and sometimes during operation as well. When I open chrome, it loads up all my old 10-20 pages in tabs within a second or so, just blistering fast compared to before. I don't do much photo or video editing, so I can't comment on those specifically. Having the SSD is good but it won't substitute for sufficient ram if your photo/video apps are memory intensive.

Go with samsung evo (not pro) or crucial m500, those are the best now. You can shave off a few bucks with Sandisk or Kingston, I think they're ok but not too familiar with their latest stuff.

Luck100

I forgot to add, with SSD game launch/save and level loads will be faster but it won't improve FPS during normal play.

Don Tomasino

Thanks a million for the info pal. I think for my needs/budget I'm going to skip the SSD and get the best CPU and ram I can afford.

Don Tomasino

Gentlemen, which sounds better:

8gb DDR3 1600mhz & i3 4130

or

4gb DDR3 1600mhz & i5 4440

(or is there a cheaper/better AMD solution?)

Main use will be video editing (a lot of rendering and converting)

Slksht

More RAM for editing I believe

TerrorFirmer

AMD are good for editing. Fx-8320 is close enough in price to the i3 and though its weaker single threaded performance, overall its much faster in editing, in the i5 leagues.

Don Tomasino

Thanks for the tip! Here's my latest stab at it, any suggestions?

Item|Price
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.08
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€131.01
MSI 760GMA-P34 (FX), Sockel AM3+, mATX|€45.70
XFX PRO450W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€45.99
WD Blue 1TB 6Gb's|€51.31
8GB Kingston HyperX blu. PC3-12800U CL10|€72.44
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€389.52

Slksht

Looks nice man! Should go well with what you already have. Maybe up the psu a small bit? 450 might be a small bit on the low side?http://www.hardwareversand.de/400+-+500+Watts/74426/Corsair+CX+Series+Modular+CX500M%2C+500W.article

Don Tomasino

Well guys I went ahead with the order and just built the pc today. Everything seems fine so far but the fan on the bitfenix merc beta seems really loud. Anything I can do?

Don Tomasino

Whoops, it's not the case that's loud, it's the cooler for the AMD fx8320.

yawhat!

Yea can be updated at a later date so your not too bad. Have a very good setup for the price.

Don Tomasino

Something must be wrong, it sounds like a small hoover.

yawhat!

Don Tomasino wrote: »

Something must be wrong, it sounds like a small hoover.

Download core temp and let us know your temps. http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

Don Tomasino

Just checking emails with nothing in the background it says my min temp is 12C and max is 31C. It's quieter than it was earlier but still way too loud. A while ago I was fransferring some files from a hard drive and that was enough to make it go really loud. If I try to play a game I think I'll go deaf.

Mr McBoatface

There should be an option for fan control in the bios under the "HW Monitor" section, at the moments it is most likely at "Full ON" or set to Temperature control at LEVEL 9. Try setting it to a temp level you are happy with and at a fan speed level like number 4.

Don Tomasino

I researched and it seems the AMD stock coolers are just damn loud. I'm going to buy a better cooler straight away.

Any recommendations? Quieter the better!

Don Tomasino

Whoa, nope, it was just a setting in the BIOS as mentioned, thanks!

I have another problem though. The PC takes about 3 or 4 minutes to boot to windows. It's as if it's having a lot of trouble getting through the bios. I unplugged all peripherals and tried restarting but it's still slow. Anyone have any idea what that could be?

Wossack

check if theres a boot order set - you can remove everything except the primary hard disk (just remember to put ones back if you need to boot from cd etc in future!)