€600 Gaming PC upgrade

MayoForSam

I want to upgrade my current PC to something more substantial that will give me better performance and offer a good degree of future-proofing (possibly with Occulus Rift in mind sometime in 2015). It will mainly be used for gaming, also some (but not a lot of) video-editing.

1. What is your budget? €600-650

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming (Elite Dangerous, Shadow of Mordor, BF4)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes - this is my current setup:

- Phenom II X4 965 BE
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
- MSI 770-C45
- 8GB Corsair Twin3X4096-1333C9A DDR3 (4 x 2GB)
- Crucial 256GB M4 SSD
- Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
- 1TB M2 Portable USB 2.0 Piano Black
- XFX Core Edition PR550W PSU
- EVGA GTX 650 Ti Boost SC 1GB GDDR5
- DVD-RW
- Cooler Master Elite RC-332 (front audio ports are worn)
- Logitech G400 Optical Gaming Mouse
- Microsoft Sidewinder X4 Keyboard

5. Do you need a monitor? No - my current Benq 21" 1080p is fine for now, but I will probably look to get a 24" 1080p in the next 2 months.

5a. If yes, what size do you need: n/a

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes, if it gives me a nit more oomph.

8. How can you pay? Bank transfer, CC, whatever.

9. When are you purchasing? Next 2 weeks.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Not required.


So I figure I should get a new CPU, GPU, MB and case (I have everything else).

This is what I came up with on Hardwareversand:

- ASUS H81M-PLUS, Sockel 1150, mATX 47,74 €

- Intel Core i5-4590, 4x 3.30GHz, boxed 179,00 €

- Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 WindForce 3X, 4GB GDDR5, 344,90 €

- BitFenix Neos Midi-Tower - schwarz/rot, ohne Netzteil 36,76 €

(Total €608.40)

Any opinions, recommendations? The ASRock B85M Pro4 board I was going to select is out of stock, how does the Asus H81M compare? I presume my 8GB of RAM is OK to re-use and my PSU is sufficient for the GTX 970?

Also, if I sell my old MB, CPU and GPU, I might have enough for a decent 24" monitor. Any recommendations, should I get an IPS one?

BloodBath

Looks good, I'd even go for the cheaper i5 4460 and put the extra money into a better case.

The cpu speed difference is minimal and will have no effect on the majority of games.

I'd probably make sure the board has pcie 3.0 support since the 970 packs quite a bit of power and may be slightly limited by Pcie 2.0.

.G.

He mentioned overclocking, can you overclock the 4460 and on a H81 board? I have a 4440 and I can do nothing of note with it on my H97 board.

BloodBath

You can't overclock the 4590 either. You would need the 4670k which is out of budget.

He's doing the right thing by getting a cheaper cpu and board and focussing on the gpu.

MayoForSam

BloodBath wrote: »

Looks good, I'd even go for the cheaper i5 4460 and put the extra money into a better case.

The cpu speed difference is minimal and will have no effect on the majority of games.

I'd probably make sure the board has pcie 3.0 support since the 970 packs quite a bit of power and may be slightly limited by Pcie 2.0.

Thanks for the feedback.

The reason I picked the 4590 is because the 4460 is out of stock.

I'm definitely going for a GTX 970 - but Hardwareversand seem to be out of stock for most versions. Would I be as well to wait a bit or else go somehere else? This one is in-stock and a bit cheaper: http://www.ebuyer.com/663452-zotac-gtx-970-4gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-zt-90101-10p.

Regarding a case, what would you recommend for around €50?

I might go for an Asrock B85N Pro 4 MB which definitely has PCI 3.0.