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vicsrealms

Limp Gawd
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Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
259
Answering these questions first and then I will tell you what I have:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Primarily this is a gaming machine.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Budget is pretty open, I would like to limit both my gaming machine upgrade, and my HTPC to $2500 total. Right now plan #1 and plant #2 on the HTPC are pretty firm right now.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Denton, Texas

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

I'll explain all this at the bottom when I show you the two possible plans I have in mind and the questions that are up in the air for me.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Ditto, down below.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Depends on the system, and once i have finished researching. The H100 system seems to go well with the Fractal Design Arc Midi, so that cooling system is pretty firm right now.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

1920x1080, a Samsung Syncmaster P2770 27"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Trying to firm this up before Black Friday, but you know the old saying about mice and men.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

Depends on the system, I have a good motherboard if I continue with plan #1, if not I will need a LGA 1155 board....maybe.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yep, got a good deal on a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate retail version a while back and have been using it on my gaming system.


Alright, here are the plans, I have put a (Own) next to each to identify which components I own. Obviously, the currents system is the one I am trying to upgrade.


Current System:
Case: CM Stacker 832
PSU: Corsair AX850 850W Modular PSU
Motherboard: ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 ATX Motherboard
CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720BE 2.8Ghz Triple-Core
Heatsink: Zalman CNPS9500 NT
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1066
Video Card: EVGA GTX 470 1.5GB
Primary Drive: WD Caviar Black 500GB 7200RPM (5 years old and starting to make noises I'd rather not hear from a hard drive)


Plan #1 $1,262.89

Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Black Mid Tower ATX Case
PSU: Corsair AX850 850W Modular PSU (Own)
Motherboard: ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3 ATX Motherboard (Own)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2Ghz Socket AM3 125W (Own)
Heatsink: Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1066 (Own)
Video Card: MSI N580GTX Lighting Xtreme GeForce GTX 580 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0
Primary Drive: Samsung 830 MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5” 128MB SATAIII SSD


Plan #2 $1669.66
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi Black Mid Tower ATX Case
PSU: Corsair AX850 850W Modular PSU (Own)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3 LGA 1155 ATX Intel Motherboard w/UEFI BIOS
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3Ghz LGA1155 95W Quad-Core
Heatsink: Corsair Hydro Series H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1066 (Own)
Video Card: MSI N580GTX Lighting Xtreme GeForce GTX 580 3GB DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0
Primary Drive: Samsung 830 MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5” 128MB SATAIII SSD

Obviously, since I own the 1090T that move would be fairly easy to make and far less expensive. Still, after a lot of research the upgrade to the 2500k from my 720BE would be a heck of a jump (even from a 1090T it seems if the benchmarks are correct).

My other question, do you think it would be better to wait to upgrade my video card (GTX 470) to the GTX 580 3GB? or wait till the 600 series comes out? My current system is already having problems playing mid to high settings on Metro 2033. My system got a pretty good fragging on BF3 Saturday when I first tried it out, which meant so did I. ~grin~ I prefer single video cards over SLI, as most of the games I do play won't use it (Empire Total War, Europa Universalis, WoW, probably SW: ToR). Still, I also play games like BF3, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Crysis, GTA4, etc., which could probably use the boost.

If you have any other recommendations, feel free. Most of this stuff is up in the air until I choose to actually order the components.
 
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Wait I'm completely confused now: Are you planning building both plans? Or are both plans specifically your plans for your gaming machine upgrade?

If the hard drive is still under warranty, take advantage of that right now. Hard drive prices have gone all the hell up due to the floods in Thailand. As such, right now would be the worst time to have to buy a new hard drive. So take advantage of the warranty, if available, while you still can. Last I checked, the Black drives came with a 5 year warranty.

While yes the Core i5 2500K would outperform the 1090T in gaming, the higher performance does not justify the extra $406 for it.

GPU wise, if you were buying now, I'd recommend the HD 6950 2GB or HD 6970 2GB due to their significantly better price to performance ratio. However if you want the fastest performance possible at whatever the cost, the GTX 580 3GB is your best bet. Now whether or not to wait is largely dependent on your level of tolerance of your current video card's performance. Basically, wait until you can no longer wait, then upgrade the GPU.
 
Danny Bui said:
Wait I'm completely confused now: Are you planning building both plans? Or are both plans specifically your plans for your gaming machine upgrade?
Click to expand...

No, I am just planning on building one.

Danny Bui said:
If the hard drive is still under warranty, take advantage of that right now. Hard drive prices have gone all the hell up due to the floods in Thailand. As such, right now would be the worst time to have to buy a new hard drive. So take advantage of the warranty, if available, while you still can. Last I checked, the Black drives came with a 5 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the 5 year warranty according to my information was up about a month ago. That is why I was looking at the SSD, figuring if I'm forced to spend $200+ dollars on an HD then I might as well go for the SSD. Although, I was unsure if the price and performance were worth the upgrade. I could probably use one of the two Caviar Black 1TB drivers that are still in my system for the primary, as one is a 18 months old and the other is pushing three years and neither are showing errors.
 
vicsrealms said:
Unfortunately, the 5 year warranty according to my information was up about a month ago. That is why I was looking at the SSD, figuring if I'm forced to spend $200+ dollars on an HD then I might as well go for the SSD. Although, I was unsure if the price and performance were worth the upgrade. I could probably use one of the two Caviar Black 1TB drivers that are still in my system for the primary, as one is a 18 months old and the other is pushing three years and neither are showing errors.
Click to expand...

IMO, the price to performance ratio for current SSDs is pretty good now, especially in light of the hard drive price increases. If you need to save money, go ahead and reuse one your Caviar Black 1TB drives. If you're willing to spend money, I recommend this SSD:
$202 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
 
I was planning on going through stages for the build. If I decide to go with the 1090T system, then I will move that in to the new case and plug in the GTX 470. If I like the performance change, as it may just be the 720BE that is limiting my gaming experience, then I will hold off on the graphics card. If upgrade the 720BE to the 1090T speeds up my system, but the graphics still seems to be lacking in games (BF3, Metro 2033, etc.), then I upgrade the video card as well.

The GTX 580 seemed to be the next step as the GTX 570 was considered more of a side upgrade to some. Although, if some of the information I have read states that the 600 series should be out mid to late 2012. I waited this long for Bulldozer to disappoint me, I can wait a little longer on the video card if the CPU upgrade increases my performance enough to make the games more enjoyable.

I have been saving since I purchased the 720BE so, I have put a pretty good chunk of change away in the last three years. Money isn't really going to be a problem. As I said, $1800 dollars left after I take out the $700 for the HTPC I'm building.
 
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