New build help please

Richard tea

Hello all,

1. What is your budget? Around €800

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming, small bit of video editing from an action camera

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Possibly, I have a new psu http://www.gembird.com/item.aspx?id=8133

I have 3 of these http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f3-12800cl9d-8gbsr

I have a crucial M500 2.5-inch ssd

I have a case that fits this motherboard GA-X58A-UD3R

I also have a i7 950

5. Do you need a monitor? no but my current one has no HDMI input

5a. If yes, what size do you need

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? no

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? yes

8. How can you pay? Credit card/bank transfer/paypal

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? No help needed

Long story short is a power outage last week screwed up my pc. I have tried most guides but no success. The monitor cannot detect the pc. I was looking to upgrade the pc soon anyway but I might aswell do it now.

Im putting the fault down to the motherboard but im aware the intel chip could also be screwed. But for now ill just assume the motherboard is the main fault.

I would like something that will not need upgrading for at least 2 years.

OR.... am i better off just going for a brand new build with my €800 budget???

Just to add the ssd was not connected at the time of the power cut so that should be ok. I do have two 1TB hdd that I can also use if need be

MarkAnthony

Motherboard and CPU are pretty much one thing these days. Intel make great CPUs but the constantly changing sockets and chipsets are annoying.

I'd just pop together a new system tbh. €800 will get you a very nice system and if you're willing to go second hand for the GPU you should get something like a 970 for max €250. If you can wait (you can use the integrated GPU on the processor) there should be some nice AMD cards on the way that would fit nicely into the budget too.

Richard tea

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Motherboard and CPU are pretty much one thing these days. Intel make great CPUs but the constantly changing sockets and chipsets are annoying.

I'd just pop together a new system tbh. €800 will get you a very nice system and if you're willing to go second hand for the GPU you should get something like a 970 for max €250. If you can wait (you can use the integrated GPU on the processor) there should be some nice AMD cards on the way that would fit nicely into the budget too.

What do you mean by using the gpu on the processor? And when are the new amd cards expected?

MarkAnthony

Richard tea wrote: »

What do you mean by using the gpu on the processor? And when are the new amd cards expected?

AMD cards will launch the end of this month. Rumour is it won't be the paper launch like nVidia and you'll actually be able to buy one!

I can't recall if the i7 950 had one but pretty much all new consumer CPUs have a GPU built into them these days.

I know nothing about that PSU but personally I'd dump it and get a new one if you've had any sort of surge.

You case, SSD, HDDs etc should be grand to be reused.

TerrorFirmer

Your CPU is actually still pretty competent generally speaking so if you're on a tight budget, but second hand boards of that type are very rare so it's best to start fresh as mentioned above. The CPU should get you €50 or so on adverts.

The PSU is really on the ultra low end side of things, it's technically a '500w' unit but I would not trust it safely to output more than about 250-300w, so it's best being put aside or sold for €20 on adverts also.

See as you already have the SSD, your budget should get you a decent system based around an i5-6400, H110 or H170 chipset, 8GB ddr4, nice case, decent PSU, and a GTX970 - all of which would run all the latest games at 1080p ultra.

You can wait for the newer AMD cards but they aren't out yet and at the moment, it is looking like the AMD 480 won't offer a huge amount more than the GTX970 at a similar price point - especially now that some retailers have dropped the GTX970 to €270 new. But nothing can be taken for granted around now, it's all very much up in the air.

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (€336.02 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€30.79 @ Aquatuning)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€126.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (Purchased For €0.00)
Storage: Crucial M500 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For €0.00)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€91.44 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €585.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-12 04:37 CEST+0200
+ AMD RX480 ~€220-280

IMHO since you already have good DDR3 RAM, no point shelling out extra for Skylake when it doesn't really outperform Haswell.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Haswell-vs-Skylake-S-i7-4790K-vs-i7-6700K-641/

Have you tried putting in a cheap (€20) used GPU and seeing if that lets you see a picture?

Richard tea

@ k.o.kiki if by gpu you are referring to the graphics card well it's fine as it was tested in another pc. But if your referring to the cpu well I have no way of testing that.

Also is that spec pc future profed for the next 2 years at least.

TerrorFirmer

Sorry K.O I would have to completely disagree, choosing Haswell over Skylake at the same price point is ludicrous.

Tests show that Skylake is faster, both in minimum frames, average frames and also DDR4 ram is faster in some titles.

It'd be one thing if it was an upgrade to which I would be more likely to agree but to advise someone on a fresh build to go Haswell i7 is madness for the sake of saving €30 on ram.

Richard tea

Thanks for the info lads. I'm siding with terrors suggestion. For the sake of a few quid extra I would go with the ddr4. I already have a cpu cooler thingy so that will save a few shillings. Looks like I'll wait for the release of the amd 480.

Would it be a problem to order parts now and just order the amd 480 when it's released? Or just hold off and order all parts together?

Digital Solitude

Wouldn't be an issue no, If you needed a pc soon that's what I'd do

Richard tea

Ok I'll do a little list later to see if I'm on the right path. I'm I right in saying the H170 has a few extra options over the H110? Also it can't be over clocked? And just to confirm the amd 480 will fit the H170?

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Ok I'll do a little list later to see if I'm on the right path. I'm I right in saying the H170 has a few extra options over the H110? Also it can't be over clocked? And just to confirm the amd 480 will fit the H170?

Only Z chip motherboards can be overclocked.
Also yes, AMD RX480 is a bog standards PCI-E graphics card.

It's your money but there's really not much of an upgrade from 4790k to 6700k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOh19-No2Nw

http://techreport.com/review/28751/intel-core-i7-6700k-skylake-processor-reviewed/14

http://eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-intel-skylake-core-i5-6600k-review

MarkAnthony

Fair play K.O.Kiki for doing the work and popping up a build, however I've recently been completely converted to business motherboards and non overclockable CPUs. The costs involved just aren't worth it anymore IMHO.

So i7 4790 (non K) €288.85
Use your existing RAM
H97 Mainboard €63.85
I'd personally go mATX so you can get a smaller case but the full ATX is the same price.

That gives you over €100 to put somewhere else into the system and it going to make almost no difference to performance in games. Yes some CPU bound games may see a framerate drop due to the cores not being over clocked but those games tend not to be so frame rate sensitive anyway (strategy games). If you overclock the CPU you also need to start looking at spending money on coolers.

Richard tea

Ok I had a read of some reviews and had a look at the suggested parts. Just to reiterate, I would ideally not have to upgrade this for 2 - 3 years. I imagine at that stage VR technology will require more up to date technology. My gaming days are sort of behind me so the latest game I have is GTA IV. But I would like to future proof it for game releases in 2017.

Here is what im thinking Roughly about €540 http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/JYD7Ps

Im going to use my existing Case, CPU cooler, DDR3 ram, SSD & HDD.

Bluetooth & wireless cards would be useful. Has the motherboard these built in or would I need to order it separate?

Im undecided about the GTX970 or the AMD 480 for now.

@ K.O.kiki, ''AMD RX480 is a bog standards PCI-E graphics card'' are you saying the amd is nothing to write home about?

MarkAnthony

I'd certainly wait on the Rx480 being released at least. There's nothing to stop you getting up and running with everything else in the meantime. Even if the Rx480 turns out to 'only' offer 970 performance (I think it'll be closer to 980) you should be able to pick up a 970 for 60-75% of the new Rx480 price point.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the '1060' could be a rebranded 970/980 but who knows.

Richard tea wrote: »

@ K.O.kiki, ''AMD RX480 is a bog standards PCI-E graphics card'' are you saying the amd is nothing to write home about?

AMD have decided to squarely target the mainstream and value segments this time around (for now) which is squarely what you're buying.

Digital Solitude

Richard tea wrote: »

@ K.O.kiki, ''AMD RX480 is a bog standards PCI-E graphics card'' are you saying the amd is nothing to write home about?

He means it's compatible with all new motherboards, the 480 is rumored to be very strong

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Ok I had a read of some reviews and had a look at the suggested parts. Just to reiterate, I would ideally not have to upgrade this for 2 - 3 years. I imagine at that stage VR technology will require more up to date technology. My gaming days are sort of behind me so the latest game I have is GTA IV. But I would like to future proof it for game releases in 2017.

Here is what im thinking Roughly about €540 http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/JYD7Ps

Im going to use my existing Case, CPU cooler, DDR3 ram, SSD & HDD.

Bluetooth & wireless cards would be useful. Has the motherboard these built in or would I need to order it separate?

Im undecided about the GTX970 or the AMD 480 for now.

@ K.O.kiki, ''AMD RX480 is a bog standards PCI-E graphics card'' are you saying the amd is nothing to write home about?

750W PSU is complete overkill if you're not overclocking and thinking of GTX970/AMD RX480, you should be more than fine with 550/600W.

And my comment was simply about the RX480 being a bog-standard PCI-e card is that it will fit in any case/motherboard.

Motherboards with BT & wi-fi built-in.

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

750W PSU is complete overkill if you're not overclocking and thinking of GTX970/AMD RX480, you should be more than fine with 550/600W.

And my comment was simply about the RX480 being a bog-standard PCI-e card is that it will fit in any case/motherboard.

Motherboards with BT & wi-fi built-in.

Ah I get ya. Psu is overkill but I was more thinking when I want to upgrade in the future this 750w will hopefully cover things.

MarkAnthony

I got a 1000w PSU to future proof myself about 5 years ago. Sold it there recently. Power requirements go down with each chip revision due to well... physics.

I will be running a 1080 (probably) overclock to buggery, a 4790K overclocked - cos I already have one - wouldn't again probably. I could still add another 1080 and come nowhere near using the 600W that my tiny form factor SFX PSU will give me.

The only reason you even go with a 500W is they tend to be most efficient at 50-70% load. If you do, do some mad upgrade the PSU will just cost you a little more (€2 a year) than a 750W would have done. Conversely the reverse is true if you don't load the PSU enough.

Richard tea

Ok mark I get you. The one Kiki recommended should be fine then? The 550w

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Ok mark I get you. The one Kiki recommended should be fine then? The 550w

I found it recommended here:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Richard tea

Would you recommend ordering from pcpartpicker or ordering direct from the the suppliers? Never used these before.

Here is my order http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/brT73C ill order tonight unless anyone has a last minute recommendation?

I plan on getting the amd rx480 or the gtx970 at a later date.

P.s, The PSU is definitely able for these parts and the graphics card?

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Would you recommend ordering from pcpartpicker or ordering direct from the the suppliers? Never used these before.

Here is my order http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/brT73C ill order tonight unless anyone has a last minute recommendation?

I plan on getting the amd rx480 or the gtx970 at a later date.

P.s, The PSU is definitely able for these parts and the graphics card?

A system with overclocked GTX 970 will draw ~265-300W peak, and I expect the RX 480 to be around the same.

Reading around, I'd recommend the H97 MSI Gaming-3 for you, as it supports your RAM's XMP speeds (i.e. higher than 1600Mhz)

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/CfY23F

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

A system with overclocked GTX 970 will draw ~265-300W peak, and I expect the RX 480 to be around the same.

Reading around, I'd recommend the H97 MSI Gaming-3 for you, as it supports your RAM's XMP speeds (i.e. higher than 1600Mhz)

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/CfY23F

Excellent. And order from pcpartpicker?

Eoinmc97

Try not as PCPartPicker assumes you live in Germany. It then miscalculates things like shipping etc.
My advice: Get the innards from Mindfactory.de
Get the case from Amazon and anything that works out cheaper, get it there. Use Parcel Motel if you want or just order if you don't mind the shipping cost.

Richard tea

Eoinmc97 wrote: »

Try not as PCPartPicker assumes you live in Germany. It then miscalculates things like shipping etc.
My advice: Get the innards from Mindfactory.de
Get the case from Amazon and anything that works out cheaper, get it there. Use Parcel Motel if you want or just order if you don't mind the shipping cost.

OK grand job. Thanks all

Richard tea

Im having a nightmare with mindfactory. How or can I convert it to English? crome wont download on my laptop for now.

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Im having a nightmare with mindfactory. How or can I convert it to English? crome wont download on my laptop for now.

Doesn't look like they have an English site option.

Ironically, you should be able to pick the parts suggested by using the PCparts links.

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Doesn't look like they have an English site option.

Ironically, you should be able to pick the parts suggested by using the PCparts links.

I ended up ordering the cpu and motherboard from amazon.de and the psu from amazon.Co.uk

MarkAnthony

Unless they're ridiculously expensive (See 1080s) I always order from Amazon. The service is brilliant.

Richard tea

Just waiting on the cpu to arrive. It's due tomorrow. What are the odds on it coming with thermal paste already applied?

I would hate to have all the parts ready to go minus the thermal paste.

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Just waiting on the cpu to arrive. It's due tomorrow. What are the odds on it coming with thermal paste already applied?

I would hate to have all the parts ready to go minus the thermal paste.

AFAIK, Intel only pre-apply TIM on their coolers

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

AFAIK, Intel only pre-apply TIM on their coolers

OK. What brand do you recommend and where can I buy it ?

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

OK. What brand do you recommend and where can I buy it ?

Literally any TIM works, difference between cheap and expensive brands is <2C

Digital Solitude

It's applied on the cooler, if you have a third party cooler there should have been paste with it.

Richard tea

I'm reusing an old cooler.

MarkAnthony

Richard tea wrote: »

I'm reusing an old cooler.

Does it fit?

Richard tea

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Does it fit?

It's not something I checked but at the mo I don't see why it wouldn't. I'm transferring the new motherboard into the old case. Thought the cpu would have arrivied today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Digital Solitude

Old chipset coolers mightn't be compatible with new boards

1st Gen i7 should be fine though.

You will need new paste though

Richard tea

Ok. It turns out the bracket holder part of the coolermaster does not fit. Its out by a few mm. How do I go about buying one to fit my new board? msi h97 gaming 3

K.O.Kiki

Richard tea wrote: »

Ok. It turns out the bracket holder part of the coolermaster does not fit. Its out by a few mm. How do I go about buying one to fit my new board? msi h97 gaming 3

What's the cooler model name/number?

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

What's the cooler model name/number?

I'll find out asap and get back to you. All I know for now is that it's a cooler Master.

Richard tea

This any use

http://

K.O.Kiki

^ that's only the fan, doesn't help us find the model of the cooling tower

Richard tea

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

^ that's only the fan, doesn't help us find the model of the cooling tower

Ah christ. I won't be able to check till later. As far as I can remember the aluminum part hadue no model number stamped onto it.

Am I right in saying I need to find a cooler based on a lga1150 motherboard

Digital Solitude

LGA1150 yep

Richard tea

Ok panic over. It turns out the bracket for the cooler was adjustable. The new cpu came with a heatsink and fan anyway. Nearly finish installing Windows etc. Now to wait for these new amd gfx cards to be released

Richard tea

I had my new parts fitted and all was well until my hanns-g monitor packed in. It was 9 years old in fairness. I have ordered a benq RL2255HM 24" 60hz.

Now I just need a new graphics card to complete my build. Considering I'm coming from radeon hd6870 I'm sure the rx480 will be a big jump. I have been reading reviews and I think the rx480 will suit my needs just fine. With technology advancing so fast there will always be the better card just around the corner.

So before I hit the buy button will someone confirm the rx480 is compatible with my new system.

Digital Solitude

All GPUs are compatible, you just need to worry about the power supply but realistally you'll never need more than 500w for a single card now, unless its something ridiculous.

So yeah a 480 is sound

K.O.Kiki

Digital Solitude wrote: »

All GPUs are compatible, you just need to worry about the power supply but realistally you'll never need more than 500w for a single card now, unless its something ridiculous.

So yeah a 480 is sound

Unless you run R9 390/390x

Digital Solitude

Both will run fine on a 500w PSU?