Upgrading in a few days, Thoughts?!

Syribo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
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So my birthday is in two days, which means I am finally going to allow myself to spend the money to upgrade after all these years. I'm planning to buy the parts on Monday.

I need to spend the least amount of money possible, I didn't want to spend over $400.. but right now I'm at $454 including tax, and I can't go any higher than that.

For now, I really just want to replace my aging Q6600, DDR2 RAM, and of course the motherboard. So this is what I was planning to go with (Picking up from my local MicroCenter here in NY):

http://www.microcenter.com/product/434177/Core_i5-4690K_35GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor
I wanted the 4670K but they seem to be out of stock at every single MicroCenter in the country right now... so... if it's worth it, I was planning on spending the extra $20 to get the 4690K instead.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/433128/Z97-G55-SLI_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard
MSI Z97-G55-SLI LGA 1150 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.microcenter.com/product/...el_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules)

http://www.microcenter.com/product/426683/Seidon_120V_Liquid_CPU_Water_Cooling_System
Cooler Master Seidon 120V Liquid CPU Water Cooling System


I'll be re-using all the other parts for now. I have an EVGA 650 Ti Boost, I was planning on getting a second for SLI in the future when I can afford it.. but this card is enough for now for the games I play. I also would love to get an SSD in the future, but I just can't afford that in the budget at the moment.

My Corsair 750TX PSU should still definitely be sufficient, I would think.

I guess the other issue I have is... I am still using Vista. I know I need to upgrade but ugh... the money :'(

I just need some kind of an upgrade ASAP because I am incredibly tired of trying to play WildStar and getting 5FPS, and awful performance in every other game I play.

So any thoughts or advice?
 
If you want to keep everything under $400, simply drop the CPU cooler. The stock CPU cooler is fine for right now.

If you want to save even more money:

- But the single 8GB stick instead of the dual-channel kit, and have Micro Center price-match it to Amazon. [Saves $4, but frees up an additional RAM slot]

- Get a cheaper Z97 motherboard like the Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 or the MSI Z97 PC Mate. Don't forget that you receive an instant $40 discount when you purchase any motherboard alongside the i5-4690K. [Saves at least $20 depending on what board you choose]

As for your future upgrades:

- Forget about a second GTX 650. Try to find a used GTX 760 or GTX 770 and replace your current card with that.

- There are rumors that Windows 9 will arrive some time near the end of this year. Can you hold out with Vista for a while longer?
 
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Your planned setup looks pretty good.

However, don't bother with GTX 650 TI Boost SLI:
1) Already hard to find brand new right now
2) More than likely there will be a faster single GPU for around the same price.
 
If I plan to overclock with the 4690K, the stock cooler will still be suffice? I'm not sure if I will definitely OC or not, I did with my Q6600 (I have the ZeroTherm Nirvana on it).

Hmm... if I save that money, though... maybe I will be able to be able to get an SSD after all. Do you think the improvement with an SSD is worth it for what I use my PC for? Gaming, and graphic design mostly. I still have my Seagate 7200.11 Barracuda's (Three 500GB drives). Maybe I should get a small SSD for OS and games?

I actually don't mind Vista. People think I'm nuts, but.. I never minded Vista! But I hear a lot that it's causing my PC to perform even worse, and constantly am pressured to upgrade. And I really don't want to spend $100 just on an OS alone haha. I could get a small SSD for that!

I will definitely take the advice on the GPU then :) Honestly, I wouldn't have been getting the second 650 for a few months, so by then, I should be able to afford a single better GPU. I just hope that the 2GB 650 ti Boost I have will not hold me back THAT much with performance. I think that when I go down to 5-10FPS in games, it's the CPU, and not my GPU.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything I need, and that everything will be okay in my case. This is only my second time building myself.. My original current PC that you guys helped me with back in 2008 was my first build ever. I mean, I've replaced HDD's, installed new fans, re-seated the HSF, put in a new GPU over the years. But I've never even had to remove my motherboard. And I hated that one part of building.. the mounting of the motherboard lol.

I also hope 8GB of DDR3 RAM will be suffice too.
 
If you want to overclock, then you should stick with your original motherboard choice. I made my recommendations to help reduce your overall costs.

Regardless of your motherboard choice, I still believe that you should hold off on overclocking for now. We normally recommend something like the Corsair H80i (with a larger radiator and two fans) over the Cooler Master Seidon 120V. Keep in mind that your new processor, even at stock speeds, will be much faster than what you're using.

You'll be fine with 8GB of RAM for gaming. What are you using for graphic design?

I forgot to ask earlier: Are you gaming at a 1920x1080 resolution?

It's best to pair the SSD purchase alongside the new operating system. Windows 7 and Windows 8 have drivers that improve SSD performance (and enable better garbage collecting), but Vista doesn't. Over the long term, however, I recommend an SSD of at least 240GB and a new 2TB or 3TB hard drive to replace your current ones. (You can get a 2TB HDD for under $100 these days.)
 
If you want to overclock, then you should stick with your original motherboard choice. I made my recommendations to help reduce your overall costs.

Regardless of your motherboard choice, I still believe that you should hold off on overclocking for now. We normally recommend something like the Corsair H80i (with a larger radiator and two fans) over the Cooler Master Seidon 120V. Keep in mind that your new processor, even at stock speeds, will be much faster than what you're using.

You'll be fine with 8GB of RAM for gaming. What are you using for graphic design?

I forgot to ask earlier: Are you gaming at a 1920x1080 resolution?

It's best to pair the SSD purchase alongside the new operating system. Windows 7 and Windows 8 have drivers that improve SSD performance (and enable better garbage collecting), but Vista doesn't. Over the long term, however, I recommend an SSD of at least 240GB and a new 2TB or 3TB hard drive to replace your current ones. (You can get a 2TB HDD for under $100 these days.)
Yeah you know what, I will be fine without OCing it :) It's not really a big deal. I did it with this one because it was so easy to get it from the stock 2.4 to at least 3.2.

I really just use Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator for graphic design. Nothing crazy.

And yes, I run 1920x1080 resolution when I play games... well.. I TRY to. My trusty Samsung 245T monitor I bought back for this build just died recently, was really sad about that... I spent like $900 on that thing, and it was gorgeous. So now I don't run at 1920x1200 anymore, which was really difficult to run on this PC anyway.

I really feel like my PC runs worse than it should. I know it's old, but geez. It's laughable at how awful it runs. Even with a clean install, runs absolutely atrocious. I can barely watch streams. I can't watch a YouTube video or stream while I have a game open. It's sad.

So I will wait then on the SSD until I upgrade the OS :) I'm glad the price is way less now! That's great! But now here's my question, I want to spend the least amount possible, but also don't mind if it does go as much as my original parts were ($450 with taxes). Would it be worth it to get a 16GB kit of RAM? Or any other part I could upgrade or replace now that would be a good bang for my buck? It looks like with the CPU, motherboard and RAM, it will come out to about ~$350, so I have a bit of wiggle room if it will truly be worth it.

I forgot to mention, I don't know if it matters, but I use multiple monitors. My main monitor is my 27" at 1920x1080, and then I use a little old ~20" monitor to keep up other things on. All I want is to be able to do my usual multitasking without lagging or having things freeze up. I generally have a lot of things open at once, Just want to be able to game while having Chrome open, Mumble/TeamSpeak, Grooveshark, PhotoShop, Skype, etc. And maybe one day I can actually stream my own games. I tried it once on this one, got 1FPS haha ;)
 
Something tells me that you probably need to upgrade your video card as well....

Stick with the i5-4690K/MSI Z97-G55-SLI combination for now. Get the 8GB stick of Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM and price-match it to Amazon. You'll need to save your money to make the following upgrades, in order:

1) Video card. You need something on par with the GTX 760 or the R9 280 at a bare minimum. I recommend going used here; you should be able to find better deals on video cards. (FYI, the HD 7970 is similar performance-wise to the newer R9 280X. And AMD cards have finally regained their price-competitive "advantage" over Nvidia cards.)

2) SSD and OS together. You can find an OEM copy of Windows 8.1 on sale (randomly) for as low as $85. As for the SSD, you can grab a good 120GB model for under $80 or a 240GB (or larger) model for under $150. I recommend at least 240GB to ensure that you have room for all of your key programs.

3) HDD. One 2TB or 3TB drive can replace your old HDDs in both capacity and performance.

4) CPU cooler... but only if you really want to overclock.
 
Something tells me that you probably need to upgrade your video card as well....

Stick with the i5-4690K/MSI Z97-G55-SLI combination for now. Get the 8GB stick of Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM and price-match it to Amazon. You'll need to save your money to make the following upgrades, in order:

1) Video card. You need something on par with the GTX 760 or the R9 280 at a bare minimum. I recommend going used here; you should be able to find better deals on video cards. (FYI, the HD 7970 is similar performance-wise to the newer R9 280X. And AMD cards have finally regained their price-competitive "advantage" over Nvidia cards.)

2) SSD and OS together. You can find an OEM copy of Windows 8.1 on sale (randomly) for as low as $85. As for the SSD, you can grab a good 120GB model for under $80 or a 240GB (or larger) model for under $150. I recommend at least 240GB to ensure that you have room for all of your key programs.

3) HDD. One 2TB or 3TB drive can replace your old HDDs in both capacity and performance.

4) CPU cooler... but only if you really want to overclock.

Gah now I wish I didn't buy the 650 in September. One of my 512MB 8800GTS's had died, and so I needed something cheap ASAP to replace my 8800GTS's SLI. I figured this would be good enough for playing Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, which is the main game I play. I don't need to max out the graphics or anything, just be able to play above 30FPS would be nice. And then WildStar came out... and totally wrecks my PC. It plays worse than any game I've ever played before. I can play BF4 okay, strangely enough, TitanFall ran fine when I played it. But WildStar? Awful. I've gone down to 1FPS in the populated cities.

FFXIV runs okay aside from certain cases. One of the bosses in the game, one of the effects completely makes my game stutter and stop, resulting in my death generally. It's very frustrating.

Spending just $370 on the CPU, mobo and RAM... with that ~$100 I am saving from my original parts, maybe I can try to swing getting a 770 or something. I'll keep an eye out on the forum for one hopefully.

And again, my PSU should be sufficient, right? Also, you said to stick with the 4690K/MSI Z97-G55-SLI combination for now. Should I stick with that original board I was going to get, instead of grabbing the cheaper one?

BTW I have to say it's really depressing trying to come up with such a budget build this time around, when I wasted about $2500 on my original build haha. Going from higher end stuff to struggling to afford mid-range is kinda making me sad ;)
 
Answer these questions: Do I really need to overclock? Am I seriously going to use SLI (or CrossFire)?

If the answer to both questions is no, then you should grab the cheaper motherboard.

As for your PSU, it should be fine. If anything, today's parts use comparatively less energy than previous generations.

Here's an example of what you could find in the FS/FT area:

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC
I believe it is the 7970 pcb one (8+6 pin power). Vid card + 2 x mini-DP to DP adapters & 2 x DP to DVI adapters (so you get choice of running eithe DP or DVI connections).
I bought the adapters separately. Drove my 3 monitors via DVI connections just fine.
Never OC'd or used in mining.
Retail box with above-mentioned adapters, CFX bridge & 4-pin molex to 6-pin pcie power cable.
$165 shipped.
 
So would a 2GB 770 GTX be a good choice for me, you think? Or should I try to find/buy a 4GB model? Geez I just looked, the 4GB one is ridiculously expensive lol
 
Yes. You could also grab a 2GB GTX 680 -- they both use the same GPU -- though I've seen better used prices on the GTX 770.

But any of the following cards (in no particular order) would be an improvement over what you currently have: HD 7950, HD 7970, GTX 760, GTX 770, GTX 680, R9 280X. If you can afford to, try to grab a 3GB or 4GB card (for future games) -- but don't break your bank for one.
 
Yes. You could also grab a 2GB GTX 680 -- they both use the same GPU -- though I've seen better used prices on the GTX 770.

But any of the following cards (in no particular order) would be an improvement over what you currently have: HD 7950, HD 7970, GTX 760, GTX 770, GTX 680, R9 280X. If you can afford to, try to grab a 3GB or 4GB card (for future games) -- but don't break your bank for one.

Man, am I sad I spent $175 on the 650 ti boost 10 months ago haha. I thought it would be enough for what I play. I really just play MMO's and indie games (Which generally are so not graphic intensive!). Wow was I wrong. I almost feel like my 8800GTS SLI performed better. Also, this card SUCKS for overclocking. I can barely get it stable on even a tiny OC. My 8800GTS's used to OC amazingly. Makes me sad.

I see a used 2GB 770 for $250... God, I really want to grab it... Ahh too bad money doesn't grow on trees ;)
 
I just need some kind of an upgrade ASAP because I am incredibly tired of trying to play WildStar and getting 5FPS, and awful performance in every other game I play.

Consider not upgrading the CPU but getting a vastly better GPU instead. You might also consider overclocking your Q6600; you'll need a decent CPU cooler, of course.
 
Consider not upgrading the CPU but getting a vastly better GPU instead. You might also consider overclocking your Q6600; you'll need a decent CPU cooler, of course.

Hmm, really? Usually it feels like it's my CPU that's the issue when I play these games. I watch it shoot up to 100% the times where I notice the game start to drop down to about 5FPS or even less.

My Q6600 has always been overclocked since I built it :) I have a ZeroTherm Nirvana and have it raised from 2.4GHz stock speed to 3.2GHz, could never get stable at 3.4GHz but 3.2GHz is great.

The problems also get worse when I have programs open. For instance, if I run WildStar and close Chrome, Skype, literally EVERYTHING else, I get twice the FPS (Of course, that's only maybe 10FPS total). With the normal everyday programs open, things run absolutely awful.

Usually I'm told the issue is most likely my CPU, possibly the RAM. I think I was even told an i3 would perform better than my Q6600!
 
Hmm, really? Usually it feels like it's my CPU that's the issue when I play these games. I watch it shoot up to 100% the times where I notice the game start to drop down to about 5FPS or even less.
Yeaah, no, I wouldn't recommend that route. It's time for a new platform. That Q6600, even OC'd, would still limit the performance of many GPUs out there. In addition, this is a good time as any to upgrade considering that DDR3 RAM pricing is pretty much only going to go higher from here as manufacturers start switching over to DDR4 RAM production as well as the fact that small DDR3 RAM are seeing higher demand due to all the small items coming out. So might as well upgrade now before we see 8GB of RAM back in the $90+ price range again.

Yes a Core i3 would outperform the Q6600 by a large margin.
 
Hmm, really? Usually it feels like it's my CPU that's the issue when I play these games. I watch it shoot up to 100% the times where I notice the game start to drop down to about 5FPS or even less.

Right, then you are indeed CPU-limited and will benefit from a CPU upgrade.

The problems also get worse when I have programs open. For instance, if I run WildStar and close Chrome, Skype, literally EVERYTHING else, I get twice the FPS (Of course, that's only maybe 10FPS total). With the normal everyday programs open, things run absolutely awful.

This usually indicates you need more RAM, but I see you have 8 GB. I note that Wildstar has a significant memory leak problem, so there's that to consider.

The thing is, though, that you are on a budget and need to purchase accordingly. And performance in games is usually limited by the GPU. Here's the CPU mark page for socket 775 and here's the list of CPUs your motherboard supports. You might like to try to find a cheap Core 2 Extreme - I see QX9650s on UK eBay for ~£100, which will give you a >40% boost.

(Edit: I see they're going for crazy prices on ebay.com)

On balance, I'd go for the platform upgrade first with the aim of saving your pennies to upgrade the GPU later. (Prices will come down when the next round of GPUs are released.) That way you can upgrade the GPU sooner if necessary.
 
Right, then you are indeed CPU-limited and will benefit from a CPU upgrade.



This usually indicates you need more RAM, but I see you have 8 GB. I note that Wildstar has a significant memory leak problem, so there's that to consider.

The thing is, though, that you are on a budget and need to purchase accordingly. And performance in games is usually limited by the GPU. Here's the CPU mark page for socket 775 and here's the list of CPUs your motherboard supports. You might like to try to find a cheap Core 2 Extreme - I see QX9650s on UK eBay for ~£100, which will give you a >40% boost.

(Edit: I see they're going for crazy prices on ebay.com)
Even without the crazy pricing, it still wouldn't be a good idea considering that Syribo already has her Q6600 OC'd to 3.2Ghz:
My Q6600 has always been overclocked since I built it :) I have a ZeroTherm Nirvana and have it raised from 2.4GHz stock speed to 3.2GHz, could never get stable at 3.4GHz but 3.2GHz is great.
So no way is she going to see a 40% boost. There's not going to be that noticeable of a performance difference to justify any sort of purchase for a dead platform on account of that overclock.
 
Yeah so I think I'm going to stick with grabbing the i5, mobo and RAM tomorrow. Then I'll start trying to save up to get a new GPU. But I'm really wondering if I should just grab 16GB of RAM? I could afford to get 16GB's I think, because the cost of the new GPU will take me a few weeks to try and get regardless of if I spend the extra money on more RAM or not tomorrow. If having 16GB over 8GB will benefit me enough, I will totally do it. I usually find that I'm using 6-7.5GB at a time. When it gets close to 7, I start closing programs and stuff since it really starts to slow down my PC.

And yeah, I know people with crazy machines who really don't get great performance in WS :( I wish they would fix that sometime, hopefully they will. FFXIV doesn't run bad. I mean, I play on the lowest settings possible, but the game runs a hundred times better then WS does.
 
Yeah so I think I'm going to stick with grabbing the i5, mobo and RAM tomorrow. Then I'll start trying to save up to get a new GPU. But I'm really wondering if I should just grab 16GB of RAM? I could afford to get 16GB's I think, because the cost of the new GPU will take me a few weeks to try and get regardless of if I spend the extra money on more RAM or not tomorrow. If having 16GB over 8GB will benefit me enough, I will totally do it. I usually find that I'm using 6-7.5GB at a time. When it gets close to 7, I start closing programs and stuff since it really starts to slow down my PC.

Grab this RAM (at Micro Center) instead:

$140 - Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP 2x8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

The above RAM has a lower profile, a lower voltage level, and a lower price than most of the popular name-brand RAM (including the "normal" Ballistix Sport RAM).
 
Absolutely get more RAM if you can afford it. I have 32 GB and Task Manager is telling me that I have 10.2 GB in use and 17.9 GB of cached data.
 
Okay, definitely going with the 16GB's of RAM then! Oh I'm so excited :D Still nervous about putting all this in there.. I have really never had to unmount my motherboard since I put it in there 6 years ago. And I remember that even though it was fun, it was also so frustrating to get everything working (But I remember I had a set of DOA RAM and a DOA GPU).

I guess another question is that back when I built this, I bought thermal paste for it instead of using what came with it. Should I do that again? Or is the stuff it comes with fine now?
 
Okay, definitely going with the 16GB's of RAM then! Oh I'm so excited :D Still nervous about putting all this in there.. I have really never had to unmount my motherboard since I put it in there 6 years ago. And I remember that even though it was fun, it was also so frustrating to get everything working (But I remember I had a set of DOA RAM and a DOA GPU).

Just test your RAM with Prime95. Memtest did not pick up my faulty RAM.
 
Ohh I see someone selling a Gigabyte Windforce R9 280X 3GB for $200... I kinda want it.. I have always had Nvidia cards, I really don't even know much about the AMD ones. Is it a good card? Worth it? So I'm a little confused about how the RMA process works with a used card. When one of my 8800GTS's died, I was easily able to RMA it and get a replacement. But with a used card... I'm not sure exactly how that goes. I've never bought a piece of used hardware before, actually.
 
I guess another question is that back when I built this, I bought thermal paste for it instead of using what came with it. Should I do that again? Or is the stuff it comes with fine now?
The stock stuff is fine.
 
Okay so now that everything is settled and I'm ready to get my parts.. I most likely am going to have to re-format and re-install Windows, I assume? So I'm backing up stuff I still need, and I just realized something..

The Vista installation disc I have, it isn't one of the newer SP's. So every time I have to reinstall Vista, I have to take out all but 2GB of RAM because it does that thing where it BSOD's until I install one of the Windows Updates first, does anyone remember that issue? When I built this, that was a problem I ran into and couldn't figure out why I was getting BSOD's after I installed Vista initially. So every time I reformat, I take out 3 sticks of my RAM and leave 2GB in.

Well if I have to do that with these new parts when re-installing.. I can't. The RAM is in sticks of 8GB. I'm not sure the way around this with being able to use my copy of Vista I have?
 
I remember that issue. Just try installing anyway and see what happens with just a single stick.
 
Okay so now that everything is settled and I'm ready to get my parts.. I most likely am going to have to re-format and re-install Windows, I assume? So I'm backing up stuff I still need, and I just realized something..

There's a direct upgrade path from Vista x64 to Window 7 x64.
 
There's a direct upgrade path from Vista x64 to Window 7 x64.

Well, the thing is.. I'm not upgrading my OS still, yet. So I only have my Vista x64 installation I've had for years.

I'm kinda scared now, because I remember it would BSOD almost right away. There's not enough time to actually go in and start installing the updates and service packs :( I would just upgrade to something else now, but.. I want to spend the money I have on hardware for now, not software haha.
 
Actually, you know what... I might be able to go all out and get the SSD right now, and if that's the case, I would rather finally upgrade. But I'm not even sure which to get? Win 7 or 8? I assume 8 now. I think I might just do it... I kinda want to grab an SSD for this build. I think you guys said to try to go for a 250GB one, and not just go for a 128GB one? Is there a brand I should avoid? I'll probably pick it up from MicroCenter as well. So any recommendations would be great :)

Tomorrow is when I'm planning to go get the parts. Wanted to wait until I don't have a raid in FFXIV for a few days, so I didn't screw over my raid group in case something goes wrong with the build ;)
 
Actually, you know what... I might be able to go all out and get the SSD right now, and if that's the case, I would rather finally upgrade. But I'm not even sure which to get? Win 7 or 8? I assume 8 now. I think I might just do it... I kinda want to grab an SSD for this build. I think you guys said to try to go for a 250GB one, and not just go for a 128GB one? Is there a brand I should avoid? I'll probably pick it up from MicroCenter as well. So any recommendations would be great :)

Tomorrow is when I'm planning to go get the parts. Wanted to wait until I don't have a raid in FFXIV for a few days, so I didn't screw over my raid group in case something goes wrong with the build ;)

Go for Windows 8.1 as Windows 7 support is due to end next year. So might as well start on Windows 8.1 now.

SSD wise, stick with the Crucial MX100 256GB or the Samsung 250GB SSD as those are the two top bang for the buck SSDs right now in their size range. Try to avoid the 120/128GB versions of those above SSDs for two reasons:
1) IN terms of bang for the buck performance, the 128/120GB versions are worse by comparison
2) They're actually slower than their larger brothers. When it comes to SSDs, generally the larger in size you go, the more performance you get.
 
Sweet, so right now I have in my cart the 4690K, the MSI Z97-G55-SLI, the 16GB of Crucial RAM, the Crucial MX100 256GB SSD, Windows 8.1.

God, now I'm up to $703 after tax... I'm now two times my original budget lol. But.. I mean.. I might as well. It's been over 6 years since I built this thing, at this point, this is like a brand new build with me just re-using my case, psu, video card and sound card.

So my very last decision is if I definitely want to try to OC or not.. I don't mind OCing, it scares me a tiny drop, but I just take it slow and read up other peoples OC's to get ideas on voltages. But geez, that Corsair Hydro Series H80i is expensive! The one I was thinking of getting originally was $49, I think. Man... I can't decide. I can always get another cooler eventually, but it would kinda be stupid to put it all together, then unmount and re-do it all in the future with another cooler lol.

So my last question (I promise!) is this... How good is that processor at OCing? I know it was worth it with my Q6600 as I was able to get that thing up to 3.2GHz, even 3.4GHz but that was pushing it. If I was able to OC the 4690K to like.. 4.0GHz, that sounds pretty worth it to me?
 
If you overclcok, get the Seidon 120V like you originally chose. It performs pretty damn well compared to the H80i:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2744&page=5

You should be able to hit 4Ghz easily with the 4690K considering that some people are hitting 4.5Ghz to 4.7Ghz with the 4690K.

Whoa, people get it that high? Crazy. As long as I can find some voltages other people have used successfully and can work with that. That's how I managed to OC my Q6600 after never OCing before that.

Will this be like with my first build where I need to set the RAM voltages and such? I know I had to do that, instead of using the ones it had for them already. And so even if I overclock, the thermal paste that comes with the CPU should be good enough? No need to pick up a tube of off-market paste?
 
Whoa, people get it that high? Crazy. As long as I can find some voltages other people have used successfully and can work with that. That's how I managed to OC my Q6600 after never OCing before that.

Will this be like with my first build where I need to set the RAM voltages and such? I know I had to do that, instead of using the ones it had for them already. And so even if I overclock, the thermal paste that comes with the CPU should be good enough? No need to pick up a tube of off-market paste?

Not really. Unlike the C2D days, with current Intel CPUs, you can leave the RAM alone when overclocking. The thermal paste that comes with the Seidon 120V is good enough. However if you're prone to constantly removing and re-installing the Seidon, then 3rd party thermal paste would be a good idea. I generally recommend Arctic MX-4 these days. It doesn't have the curing time of AS5.
 
Not really. Unlike the C2D days, with current Intel CPUs, you can leave the RAM alone when overclocking. The thermal paste that comes with the Seidon 120V is good enough. However if you're prone to constantly removing and re-installing the Seidon, then 3rd party thermal paste would be a good idea. I generally recommend Arctic MX-4 these days. It doesn't have the curing time of AS5.

This will definitely be my first time with any kind of water cooler. I actually don't remember if I've removed or re-seated my ZeroTherm Nirvana ever!

I really need to checkout with these parts and pick them up. I keep trying to justify spending more money I don't have haha. Like, the 4770K is just begging for me to spend the $50 extra on it, even though I can't ;) God, I want an i7 though...
 
This will definitely be my first time with any kind of water cooler. I actually don't remember if I've removed or re-seated my ZeroTherm Nirvana ever!

I really need to checkout with these parts and pick them up. I keep trying to justify spending more money I don't have haha. Like, the 4770K is just begging for me to spend the $50 extra on it, even though I can't ;) God, I want an i7 though...

An i7 is pretty awesome if you can use it to close to its fully extent. Even for PC hardware enthusiasts, an i7 is still pretty much overkill.

Although see sig :D
 
An i7 is pretty awesome if you can use it to close to its fully extent. Even for PC hardware enthusiasts, an i7 is still pretty much overkill.

Although see sig :D

Hahaha, the wanting for it is so high... but... I will be good, I will be happy and stick with the 4 690K ;) What was originally going to be a really cheap low-end budget build.. has now turned into, I guess, a medium-end build haha.

But now for the fun part of trying to put it all together and hoping it all works.. and hoping I don't screw up something. I'm nervous, being that this will really only be my second build ever. And then trying to make that jump from using Vista to 8.1.. that will be really interesting haha. I hope that my program files I backed up will be okay, though, when switching to 8. I really only backed up some games, mainly, as I don't want to sit through days of downloading and patching ALL of that again. Hopefully it all works okay?
 
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