High spec build

John_Mc

Hi,

I bought a custom made high spec machine 3-4 years ago from some German website that I saw mentioned on here quite a lot, the name escapes me now though.

Good machine, nice case and it was put together nice and tidy.

I'm looking to upgrade the core components now and ideally I will keep the SSD, standard HD, power supply, case etc.

Can anyone here recommend a top of the line combination of CPU (I think it's the Intel 7700k @ 4.2GHZ), and a good cooler, motherboard and RAM to go with it?

I'll look into a graphics card myself.

Thanks in advance

Digital Solitude

What have you got atm? It's likely you just need a GPU refresh.

Run Speccy on it and report back with the full spec.

John_Mc

Thanks for the prompt reply and yes you're correct, I'm just trying to bring it up to modern day performance with GPU and CPU. Probably need to do the motherboard as well if I upgrade both of them.

My PC is boxed up for a move to another house on Saturday so I can't run it until then. If I can get the name of the german vendor then I can get the spec from the receipt but I can't remember the name.

Can you think of a German online shop doing parts and custom builds? It was in practically every part suggestion on here a couple of years ago

Lu Tze

John_Mc wrote: »

Thanks for the prompt reply and yes you're correct, I'm just trying to bring it up to modern day performance with GPU and CPU. Probably need to do the motherboard as well if I upgrade both of them.

My PC is boxed up for a move to another house on Saturday so I can't run it until then. If I can get the name of the german vendor then I can get the spec from the receipt but I can't remember the name.

Can you think of a German online shop doing parts and custom builds? It was in practically every part suggestion on here a couple of years ago

Hardwareversand? Ankermann?

Digital Solitude

Hardwareversand, I believe they're trading under a new name now but I don't know it.

You probably don't have to upgrade the CPU tbh, there's very little difference between 3rd or 4th gen CPUs and the newest 7th Gen ones

John_Mc

Hardwareversand is it - thanks! Can't login to the new company but I found the email and model number and a quick google gave me this:

No.: HVSE05HXDE
€ 1,578.00
including VAT and excl. shipping costs

- General characteristics

accessories: Manual, Driver (CD)
Special features_Z2: DirectX 11 capable graphics performance extremely fast latest Intel technology, PU, very fast HDD performance
PCI Express x16 slot: 2
S / PDIF: yes
max. Number of S-ATA devices
4 SATA300 eSATA + 4 SATA600 +1

processor: Intel ® Core i7-3770K

Sound on Board: 7.1 - channel Realtek ALC 898
DVD burner: DVD-Burner S-ATA
Jumperless: yes
system Monitoring: yes
CrossFire-compatible: no
Hotline: 01805-711117
graphic: NVIDIA GeForce GTX680 2048MB DDR5 HDCP
Max memory: 32GB
PCI Express x1 slot: 2
Chipset: Intel Extreme Z77
Power Management: yes
PS / 2: Keyboard
TV-out: no
fan: Scythe Katana 3Video-in: no
SLI ready: yes
Raid: 0,1,5,10
memory clock: 1600 MHz DDR3 CL9
Main memory (Dual Channel): 16GB Corsair Vengeance (4x4)DVI: 2x + 1x mini-HDMI
USB ports: 10 x 6 x USB + USB3
SSD: Samsung 128GB SSD 830
mainboard: ASUS Z77 Extreme4
Software_Z2: Drivers, utilities, Ahead Nero Essentials OEM System Software Utilities
Housing: Cooler Master 690 II Advanced
hard Drive: 2TB Serial ATA 600
On-board network: LAN 10/100/1000 MBit
Firewire yes
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Audio Interface
Line in / out, Mic-in, front out
power Supply: be quiet! Straight Power 700W
PCI slot: 2


I've since upgraded the SSD so that it's 500GB

Digital Solitude

Yeah the 3770k should be keeping speed okay, if not just overclock it.

I'd upgrade the 680 to a 8gb 480 at about €275 and call it a day, that should give you 4-5 more solid years at 1080p

Samuel T. Cogley

Grab yourself a GTX1080 for now and upgrade the rest once the new CPUs come out.

Digital Solitude

What res and refresh rate are you at actually OP?

John_Mc

Thanks for the suggestions. 1920 x 1280 resolution I think, 2 monitors though.

Mainly using the computer for Flight Sim which is very CPU intensive. Also use it for software development which requires ram.

It's not actually giving me performance problems. Just wondering what if anything is worthwhile doing to get more out of it.

Digital Solitude

Ah probably not then so, overclocking the CPU will pull the most performance from most flight Sims but obviously if you're at 60fps there's no point. Can't imagine the 680 is holding you back.

I wouldn't upgrade at all in this instance, I don't think it would be worth your money for another few years

John_Mc

I've never overclocked it actually - what software would you recommend to do that?

Xenoronin

Just a GPU bump needed. The 3770K will play nicely with a GTX 1070 or even a 1080 if you are so inclined. No real benefit from going to the 7700K. Money better put towards a nicer monitor

Edit: I was super slow at posting, just a monitor upgrade needed from reading above. Overclocking isn't even worth it yet tbh.

Digital Solitude

Says you've a 2gb GTX680 in the above post.

It's done through the BIOS for the CPU, some board manufacturers have One-Click Tools for overclocking but I'm not familiar with them, it's been 5 years or so since I've overclocked anything

John_Mc

Thanks for the info.

A new monitor is on the cards too. Would like 24 inch as it fits on my desk with the other monitor too. Any recommendations?

Samuel T. Cogley

John_Mc wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

A new monitor is on the cards too. Would like 24 inch as it fits on my desk with the other monitor too. Any recommendations?

Oh yes! And money much better spent than a CPU upgrade (at this point).

Either a Rift or a 34" UW. I was into my sims bigtime and both are game changers!

I almost kept my Rift for DCS alone, but you might want to just hold off on that at the moment.

Once Ryzen hits look at a 8 core / 16 thread upgrade, that might be worthwhile.

John_Mc

Is there any value to going with a curved 34" screen over a flat?

Samuel T. Cogley

John_Mc wrote: »

Is there any value to going with a curved 34" screen over a flat?

The flat ones IMHO don't give you the same immersion as you're at the limits of your peripheral vision. The flat ones don't have the same issues with backlight bleed though - not that BLB ever bothered me. BLB can be an issue then you're using 16:9 content on something like Nexflix as the screen in 21:9 and you get black bars down the sides.

John_Mc

Yeah was thinking the curve would add to immersion which is what I'm looking for. Thanks very much for your help!

Samuel T. Cogley

John_Mc wrote: »

Yeah was thinking the curve would add to immersion which is what I'm looking for. Thanks very much for your help!

Try and grab a secondhand rift if you've money to spend. They sell on pretty nicely and you may or may not fall in love.

John_Mc

Libertarian Kant wrote: »

Try and grab a secondhand rift if you've money to spend. They sell on pretty nicely and you may or may not fall in love.

Can you get adequate enough performance from Prepar3d these days that makes using a Rift possible though?

You're doing well getting 30fps with Flight sim/Prepar3d

Samuel T. Cogley

I'm afraid I was using DCS which has build in support. I was using the paid for app - can't recall the name - for other games. On a GTX1080 it was possible to balance FPS and image quality. YMMV and I sold mine on to wait for the second gen so that should speak volumes.

John_Mc

I'm going to get a GTX 1070 graphics card and overclock the CPU. I've read that I should be able to go from 3.5 to 4.5 GHZ without much difficulty.

Would the existing power supply of 700w be enough or would I need to upgrade it?

Xenoronin

700W is plenty. The GTX 1070 and even the 1080 only require a 500W PSU.

TerrorFirmer

Will it make that much of a difference? A GTX1070 is a €450-500 card but FSX is massively CPU bound and not very taxing on the GPU. I mean I'd be all for an upgrade to a GTX1050Ti @ €160 but a GTX1070 seems very extreme for FSX, though I believe P3D offloads more onto the GPU, but the CPU is still the real issue.

I would do a bit of research first on flight sim forums maybe because it's a lot of money to drop on a title that historically has always hammered the CPU and you'll quite likely end up in situation where the card is sitting with a high level of idleness due to CPU ceiling (essentially giving you €150 performance on a €450+ card).

Your first port of call should definitely be overclocking that 3770K as fast as you can.

John_Mc

Thanks for your input which makes a lot of sense. I'm using Prepar3d 3.4 so there's a bit more being delegated to the GPU than there would be with FSX but you're correct, the CPU is what gives you frames. I'm going to clock the CPU when I get home this evening.

I'm going to get a 34" curved monitor which will be running at a higher resolution so I'm thinking the GPU will help with this. I'd also like more memory capacity so there's no waiting for texture loading etc.

I should point out that there aren't any performance issues with my current setup, I'd just like to improve it if possible

TerrorFirmer

As someone who used a curved monitor (and also has a curved TV), I didn't particularly love it nor find it added anything with regards immersion, so I'd recommend that you focus more on screen quality and performance than the curved aspect of it. I'm not a monitor guru but 1K is an enormous sum!

Again FSX is outside my expertise but I would really check out some forums to see what the best value combination is to ensure good return per euro - keeping in mind that something like a GTX1060 6GB at almost half the cost of a GTX1070 is still a titanic upgrade on a GTX680, which you currently have, and is likely a better value option given the skewed CPU/GPU requirements of FSX.

At a basic level, when you're talking about spending 1.5K on just a monitor and GPU for FSX, this is the point I would re-evaluate my spending and think about selling the old PC as it is and building a new platform built on the i7-7700K, 16GB DDR4, etc which will immediately show very strong gains in FPS.

John_Mc

Thanks very much for the advice. Interesting about the curve not adding anything. I read some reviews and they did say it added some immersion when gaming. Do you have any recommendations for a screen?

I'm looking at the 1070 because you might as well get one of the best available at the time if you're going to have it for a few more years.

I should also say that I'm self-employed and need the machine for my job so VAT is refundable and the cost is borne by my company and not me personally.

Samuel T. Cogley

John_Mc wrote: »

Thanks very much for the advice. Interesting about the curve not adding anything. I read some reviews and they did say it added some immersion when gaming. Do you have any recommendations for a screen?

I'm looking at the 1070 because you might as well get one of the best available at the time if you're going to have it for a few more years.

I should also say that I'm self-employed and need the machine for my job so VAT is refundable and the cost is borne by my company and not me personally.

As with (almost) everything visual, it's entirely subjective.

John_Mc

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

As with (almost) everything visual, it's entirely subjective.

No, I don't agree at all. The quality of a monitor can be measured bu accuracy of colours, response times, contrast ratios etc. It's not subjective at all

Samuel T. Cogley

John_Mc wrote: »

No, I don't agree at all. The quality of a monitor can be measured bu accuracy of colours, response times, contrast ratios etc. It's not subjective at all

Curved v curved, whether you can see/are sensitive to more the X FPS, and even colour reproduction for some, myself included, is entirely subjective.

Given that you can't get a perfect monitor at any price at the moment, there are generally trade offs, only makes something like monitor selection even more subjective.