Thinking About a New Build - Feedback?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I've been mulling over the idea the last few months of whether I really need a new PC or not. I've had tremendous value for money out of my existing machine and it still plays the majority of games extremely well but it's getting on and apart from anything else it'd be handy to have a second machine in the house for trouble shooting etc.

Current machine is:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
Asus P5E Deluxe
4 GB of Corsair XMS DDR-II (4 x 1GB Sticks)
Sapphire Radeon R9 270x
Various Sata HDD
EVGA 750W PSU
Antec 900 Case
Samsung T200 Monitor (1680 x 1050) display
Logitech G15 (Mk II)
Logitech mouse

I'd guess that machine is about 9 to 10 years old at this point and aside from the GPU and PSU nothing else was upgraded. It really has returned astonishing value for money.
I have found though certain games have really made it struggle- Farcry 4 most recently..... even though 3 was absolutely fine.

I used to work in retail years ago and kept up with the latest hardware trends but since that's no longer my role my knowledge has fallen to the wayside so need some advice/help from you. The machine sits in a spare bedroom and is primarily used by myself to play games/listen to music and by the missus to browse the web.

I don't know what budget to assign yet but I know I'll want:

A new CPU
New GPU
New PSU
New mobo which must have optical or coaxial output
Case doesn't have to be anything fancy, in fact was thinking a M-ATX case like the Thermaltake Core V21..... though it's not a necessity.
I'd like an SSD to assign only to Windows
A secondary HDD for games
No idea what memory to get so I'm open to suggestions

I'll use the existing KB, mouse and I have a secondary full HD BenQ display which I can use as the main monitor.

I'd appreciate some feedback, suggestions to help me see where I need to be budget wise.

TerrorFirmer

Not sure what your budget is but for the moment you'd get away with just a CPU, board and RAM. If you want similar longevity to the Q9300, an i7-6700 is a good choice, but an i5-6500 is also perfectly fine and will last at least 5 years if not more at the top of the latest releases. Assuming you're not into overclocking or extra features and a bare functional motherboard will suit your needs, a H110M (DDR4 model), i7-6700 or i5-6500 budget depending, and 8GB DDR4 2133mhz will be ideal.

If budget's really tight, an i3-6100 is a lot cheaper and is still an absolutely massive upgrade on the Q9300 and can be replaced in a few years when it's falling below your expectations.

Don't know what card you have exactly but even if it was, say, an R9 270X, it's being bottlenecked hard by the Q9300 and would actually still be pretty OK for the latest games with a new core system - and it can be upgraded down the line when required handily enough.

A 240GB SSD is a good choice for your OS and a few select games/programes, though again if budgets tight, a 120GB will suffice, you can continue to load games from the hard drives.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks TerrorFirmer- there's lots of good info there for me to set a benchmark. I recalled that I kept the box from the card, had a look and it's a 270x.

I absolutely wouldn't be into overclocking... I just don't have the skills or the time to devote to acquiring those talents so like to keep things stock. I've been very impressed by the solid nature of the P5E so would be wary of boards from the likes of ASRock etc. Maybe that's a prejudice not deserved these days?

Ideally I'd end up bringing this existing PC downstairs so I could use it at night when herself is gone to bed. Currently the drone of the PC affects her sleep as the bedroom is next door so it gets knocked off when she heads to bed. Boo.

Digital Solitude

Overclocking is easy but can be time consuming if you want to eek max performance.

I'd say about 800 should be fine for you budget wise, will post a parts list tonight if no one does first

Venom

OP the big question is what's your budget like?

As for the upgrade route, only the CPU, Mobo, Ram and GPU need to be replaced tho I would strongly suggest adding an 240GB SSD to your system due to how massive an upgrade it is right out of the box so to speak.

If budget if tight I'd pick up a new GPU next seeing as how 90% of games benefit from a faster GPU instead of CPU.

The CPU,mobo and ram will be the big hit on any budget,as you need all 3 at the same time but I would also suggest a new CPU cooler be it air or an AIO.

For gaming, an I5 is perfectly fine with only a few fps in the difference under an I7 but at this stage waiting to see how AMD's new Ryzen chip is priced is the best move.

Kintarō Hattori

That's the thing Venom, I really don't know the budget. I'd rather not constrain myself by setting a budget but of course I'd rather not spend a fortune and get the best bang for buck.
As my current machine is so old I really think upgrading it is not the way to go, CPUs have moved on so much as has memory and really I'm more in favour of building a new machine and keeping the current one for use downstairs.

Venom

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

That's the thing Venom, I really don't know the budget. I'd rather not constrain myself by setting a budget but of course I'd rather not spend a fortune and get the best bang for buck.
As my current machine is so old I really think upgrading it is not the way to go, CPUs have moved on so much as has memory and really I'm more in favour of building a new machine and keeping the current one for use downstairs.

Well you can keep everything from your old system except the cpu,mobo, cooler and ram which when added to your existing parts will be a huge upgrade. Sticking a 480,1060 or 1070 along with a SSD will be another huge upgrade step.

Try not to get into the "must replace everything" mindframe. I am in a kinda similar boat to yourself with my current i7 920 system but I added a 1070 and a SSD for the OS last year so its still kicking ass in the latest games. Once I see what Ryzen offers or lacks, I reckon €500-600 will get me a good CPU, a good mid range mobo and new ram and I'll be set for another couple of years