Desktop Computers

Aaron

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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So this is my system:

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4-B3
CPU: Intel i5-2500 @ 3.3 GHz
Memory: 8 GB DDR3 665MHz
Graphics: 2GB Nvidia GTX660 (by Gigabyte)
500mb SSD Hard Drive
2x 1TB regular HDD

To be perfectly honest, this runs all the games I play pretty well still. But then I don't play a lot of new games. Mostly WoW and EU4, and some Grim Dawn and Diablo 3 thrown in. Probably the most taxing is modded Skyrim.

I've been thinking of upgrading the CPU, but shops don't sell these old chips any more and I have little or no knowledge of how reliable it is to buy used CPUs.

As for the Graphics card, wouldn't an 1070 be a bit overkill for the rest of the machine? 1060 and 1050s are far cheaper where I am.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
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Skyrim would definitely benefit from a GPU upgrade compared to your current GPU.
 
wilkxus

wilkxus

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Aaron said:
To be perfectly honest, this runs all the games I play pretty well still. But then I don't play a lot of new games. Mostly WoW and EU4, and some Grim Dawn and Diablo 3 thrown in. Probably the most taxing is modded Skyrim.

I've been thinking of upgrading the CPU, but shops don't sell these old chips any more and I have little or no knowledge of how reliable it is to buy used CPUs.

As for the Graphics card, wouldn't an 1070 be a bit overkill for the rest of the machine? 1060 and 1050s are far cheaper where I am.
Click to expand...
If you are happy with the system stick with it.
1070s and 1080s sound like overkill for you unless you upgrade to a bigger monitor. High end cards are still way overpriced because of lack of AMD competition and crypto mining (bad investment atm).

Save your money for an affordable Gfx card upgrade that is well suited to your set of games. If you find the CPU sqeuaking a lil down the road the system upgrade will be even more worth it, and cheaper. Platform choices on both sides are getting better and cheaper as AM4 platform matures to compete better.

I'm kind of sitting in the same boat as you, but looking around to potentially upgrade five old (~ 4-5 years) systems. One workstation and three gaming. They be getting long in the tooth but still alive and kicking well enough for our familys games @ 1080p. I wouldnt mind gaming some at 4k but GPUs really are too horribly overpriced to warrant that upgrade today. One system had stability issues recently that required some downclocking closer to original spec to fix but its hangin on for now.

Waiting for prices to drop a lil, or my silcon to die some more before pulling the trigger. If it aint broke dont fix it hehe
 
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Aaron

Aaron

Goonsquad Officer
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Thanks! I think I'll buy a cheaper new card and have done with it. I just get an ichy finger sometimes since I well remember the days when a 2 year old system left you dead in the water lol
 
escrima

escrima

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Finished my build:
IMG_20180405_220907.jpg

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($346.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H115i PRO 55.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($139.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($209.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($205.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Intel - 760p Series 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel - 760p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($198.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GAMING X 8G Video Card ($684.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Define R6 Gunmetal TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($145.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2147.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-11 01:44 EDT-0400
 
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slippery

slippery

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LEDS BURN IT WITH FIRE

I can't comprehend not using a black box for your computer case (I think I have the r2? with no window). I mean it looks great, but so much LED light just always there

Is the radiator mounted to the front of the case? It's hard to tell from that picture. I'm guessing yes since 115
 
Ronaan

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
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Yeah it's really clean and stuff but I just don't get the lights thing. But then my case is under my desk with the left side towards drawers so... nothing to see.

I like how tidy it looks inside though, I have cables all over the fucking place.
 
escrima

escrima

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I didn't look for parts with LEDs, everything pretty much comes with them. Just took the pic with the lights on, not sure if I will keep them on. Power supply was given to me by a friend. Radiator is front mounted, pulling air in.
This case is awesome for cable management, this is really the first time one of my builds didn't look like a nest inside.

This thing clocked up to 5ghz without breaking a sweat.
 
loudgas

loudgas

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I picked up a Corsair H55 self contained watercooler. This will be my first attempt at using one of these, any noticeable improvements on push/pull or placement in the case?
Stock cooler.JPG


Currently using the stock cooler, the highest temps are with about 15min worth of gaming. The stock cooler sounds like its having a seizure, I'm not planning on over clocking, just want a quiet PC.
 
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mkopec

mkopec

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loudgas said:
I picked up a Corsair H55 self contained watercooler. This will be my first attempt at using one of these, any noticeable improvements on push/pull or placement in the case?
View attachment 164623

Currently using the stock cooler, the highest temps are with about 15min worth of gaming. The stock cooler sounds like its having a seizure, I'm not planning on over clocking, just want a quiet PC.
Click to expand...

I put one of those corsair closed loop systems in my little bros computer and his ran about 3-5C cooler than my standard CM 212 idle and about 10C cooler under load. Difference? sure, but did not warrant the cost difference IMO. This was BTW on both systems having i5 2500K OCed to 4.6ghz If I remember right.

All of my systems I have built since all have the CM212, and never had a problem in any with heat or noise to this day, including both my sons sporting the latest (within a year) i5. Quite honestly I have not run into a game yet that really taxxed my processors that much to even warrant the 212 to go full blast yet. Most of my noise in any system has ever been the video card fans under gaming load.

In fact I dont even bother to download those temp apps anymore because quite frankly in all my years of building PCs, since the P4 days, I have never had issues with heat, even with moderate OC.
 
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loudgas

loudgas

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I also have the CM212 on one of my AMD systems, they are good and quiet. I opted for the Corsair route in part because its going in a windowed case.

I'm not overly concerned with the heat as I've read the i7-7700's are known to run hot but wanted to keep things at or better than stock while being quieter. I was more curious about placement or push/pull of the fan, will any orientation yield noticeable reductions in noise or cooling?
 
A

a_skeleton_00

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Perfect exactly what I was looking for!

Thank you dude!

In terms of price hunting, is there an upcoming time where price would drop or nah?
 
Lanx

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
68,480
158,642
a_skeleton_00 said:
Perfect exactly what I was looking for!

Thank you dude!

In terms of price hunting, is there an upcoming time where price would drop or nah?
Click to expand...
most of the deals you'll see would be for the 250gb size, it'll be rare to see 1tb, and if you do it'll be the older 850 or mx300 (to get rid of stock) (the mx500 and 860s are too new to score deals on).

you can try creating deal alerts at slick deals here
Deal Alerts: Instant Notification of Huge Sales and Discounts on Top Brands & Products

stick to basic keywords like
"crucial mx500 1tb"
"samsung 860 1tb"
 
Jysin

Jysin

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Weren't the last Samsung drives the 960 Evo / Pro series? Why are they going 850 > 960 > 860?

960 series, does look to be NVMe M.2 only, which is the only drive I would ever consider these days anyway. Those are literally more than 6x as fast in sequential read vs a maxed out SATA III port. All of those SATA drive options are limited by that ancient SATA III interface on your motherboard.
 
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Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

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Not all M.2 drives are faster than SATA. Many M.2 drives are simply SATA drives in the M.2 form factor.
 
Jysin

Jysin

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Big Phoenix said:
Not all M.2 drives are faster than SATA. Many M.2 drives are simply SATA drives in the M.2 form factor.
Click to expand...

Which is why I said NVMe, which is on the PCIe bus. M.2 is simply the form factor.

Using the SATA ports on those drives is an absolute waste of potential. ~7x slower to be exact.
 
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