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Final thoughts about the build

N

N_L

n00b
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
38
Ok so I'm ordering components for my PC today and just having some last minute thoughts or well doubts about it.

Here's what I'm getting, not gonna list specific brands:
i5 3570k - thought about 3770k but everyone told me no need, save money and if I need to upgrade do haswell later on
amd 7970 - 7950 was planned but I think this one will last me longer, possibly add another later when they fix crossfire
z77 motherboard
8 gb ddr3 - majority recommended 8 gb @1600mhz, few said 16 gb but I really see no need? Do I need it? Most demanding thing I do is gaming, no video editing etc.
120gb ssd
heatsink and 120mm cooler

I have the rest, case, wifi card, sound card, psu, 2x600gb hdds for storage which I'm gonna format.

So here's what worries me. I've been looking at getting new 120hz monitor to go with my new pc and I've looked at some benchmarks and newest games are pushing even best graphic cards and PCs hard, which got me worried because BF4 is gonna be soon and god knows how that will run, then when new consoles hit and games keep improving I fear I'll need to update again next year. ( I might be wrong about this but I've read about 120 fps and 120hz monitor and based on benchmarks I won't be getting near that even in 1080p?) From what I know there's a while until next graphics cards, or DDR4 which is what would require me to update to new mobo and pretty much whole PC again so I don't know.
I want to upgrade but at same time I don't want to have to upgrade again next year because unlike many people here I live in poor country and can only upgrade every 3-4 years or more, need it to last as long as possible.
I know haswell is around the corner but that won't be that big a of jump, worthy of all the extra cost and time.

What do you guys think? Really want to be sure about this before I order and buy a ticket to go buy it abroad(yey extra cost)
 
Having had an SSD for several years now any size you get will be awesome, but in today's market you may want to shoot for the 240Gb range. These tend to be faster as they generally have more channels being used and lately seem to be a good sweet spot for price/size ratio. As for how much ram to get 8Gb is sufficient.

As for the decision to upgrade now vs waiting, what is driving you to upgrade today or could you wait say 6-8 months to upgrade when either better video cards might be out or prices may drop.
 
I want to upgrade now because lately I feel my graphics card have been dying, fan started making noises, getting artifacts in games and causing PC to freeze so there's that.

Also thought about getting 240gb but it's a bit over my budget, I'll think about it if I can get it in somehow.
 
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What PSU will you be using?
What case do you have?
Will you be overclocking?
Which HSF will you be getting?
Which SSD will you be getting?


RAM wise, you'll be fine with 8GB of DDR3 1333 RAM or DDR3 1600 RAM. Just make sure taht the RAM is rated at 1.5V. Speaking of which, which RAM did you choose?

In regards to Haswell, we don't know for sure what much faster Haswell will be compared to the IB CPUs. As for DDR4, it's gonna be another year or two before that's even required.

As for your upgrade worries, unfortunately, nothing you can do about that. That's the nature of the PC hardware and PC gaming world: There's always gonna be a game that's gonna push the edge of performance which means that you may have to upgrade again if you want near max graphics. However, if you set your standards to medium to high settings, you'll find that you'll be a lot happier in the long run in regards to upgrades.
 
^ unfortunatelly I'm "go max or go home" kind of guy. Well I'm satisfied with "very high" instead of ultra but not much below that. One good thing is I'm playing games less and less so maybe eventually I won't even need to upgrade haha

Ok here's what I'm getting and here's what I have with some comments:
CPU LGA1155 Intel® Core™ i5-3570K, 3.40GHz BOX 22nm
MB LGA1155 Z77 ASRock Z77 EXTREME4,2xPCIe/DDR3/SATA3/GLAN/USB3.0/VGA/DVI/7.1
SSD SATA3 180GB Intel® 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A3K5, 550/520MB/s - wanted 120 gb but sold out -_-, 5 years warranty and bit more space is fine I guess.
DIMM DDR3 8GB 1866MHz Patriot Venom Red CL10, P38G180UR - it was a good deal, looked at ram a long time and slower one wasn't much or cheaper at all and found good reviews on this one.
Arctic Silver Céramique 2 Warmeleitpaste, 2.7g,
LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3 Xigmatek Gaia SD1283, 120mm/PWM - wanted coolermaster hyper evo 212 but it's sold out, this one seems adequate.

As for the graphics card I'm looking for it at other shops, it's mostly ASUS, MSI, Sapphire, Gigabyte, I'll have to call tomorrow and check what they have and then I'll post. Here's what I'm keeping from current PC:
BenQ G2400WD Black 24" 5ms, 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro1000 RS-A00-EMBA 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - I know its overkill but it came with the case and it worked well so far, when I put another card it will do well I guess. Would be hard selling it now..
ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T LightScribe Support
SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM floppy LOL but I figured I might need it some day, should probably disconnect it or something and keep it in a box :D
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive x2 for storage
LevelOne WNC-0500 32bit PCI MIMO Wireless Card
Asus XONAR DG soundcard

aaaand that's about it.
 
You didn't answer this question:
Will you be overclocking?

Also, you won't need that AS Ceramique as the Xigmatek comes with a pretty decent thermal paste.
 
Sorry missed that, I won't be overclocking right away but down the road when I need more performance for games I will. This PC is OCed from 2.6 to 3.2, had it on 3.6 for a while but it was heating up more then I was comfortable with and not getting much performance boost at that time. Gonna try to sell all I have now to make up some money, hopefully one guy I know takes it all.
Should I remove thermal paste from order or is it useful to have around in case I mess up with what I get, or when I need to change/clean it after x years or something, does it have expiry date?
 
It would be useful to have thermal paste if you are indeed going to be uninstalling and reinstalling the thermal paste. Otherwise, don't spend the money.

Though if you are, I'd go Arctic Cooling MX4 instead.
 
I did it twice on this PC so few euros won't hurt. I actually asked for that one but they were out -____-.
As I'm not getting this in my own country, where you can't find !@#$ I'm trying to keep it all at 1 place so I, or some friend that is there, can easily pick it up for me...

Edit: Changing mobo to gigabyte ud3g and ssd to samsung 840 pro, also gonna get new psu.
 
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