(New here) PC Build Assistance

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Okay so my old system looks like this,
ASUS M2R32-MVP 580X CrossFire Socket AM2 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.2 GHz) Socket AM2 L2 2MB (2x1MB)
500GB 7200rpm S-ATA2 Hard Drive
4GB DDRII 667Mhz RAM
HD 3850 1GB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
(Added) Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card
(Replaced PSU)
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And I'm wondering is there any point me upgrading the parts that are in that I haven't tweaked with computers in a long time nearly since I built that PC 5 years ago got that in April 2008, so just wondering what kind of parts you would upgrade if it was your computer and if its too old now then maybe what system you would recommend I was pricing something up I liked on here and was just going to order like a £2,500 system on finance but thinking maybe I could just upgrade my current machine a little? only thing to note is I do like to play games I don't do any video rendering I just play games use it for general use, play music, watch films, but like to have an overpowered system at times which mine was pretty sick back oh and I hate the maintenance of watercooling so would prefer a safety overclocked air cooling build I was looking at if making a new system the HAF X case and this overclocked bundle
then the graphics card I looked at was the gtx 680 4gb as I heard it was better than the 690 but yeah basically guys just help me out any and all advice toward either my old system or maybe considering a new system is welcome and appreciated! thanks. :D
 
You could clock the hell out the CPU and get a new GPU?

Otherwise, what would you budget be for a new build no on Finance?
 
Erm depends really what kind of things would you recommend I use to adore the hell out of AMD as it was better a long time ago but think intel have tipped the scale now? only thing is with my cpu what would it even clock too stable with aircooling?
 
Erm depends really what kind of things would you recommend I use to adore the hell out of AMD as it was better a long time ago but think intel have tipped the scale now? only thing is with my cpu what would it even clock too stable with aircooling?

Depending on the cooler, you may get high 3ghz, 4 if the board will take it.
 
you got any contact address to can pm me over so I can discuss a build with you properly? be perfect if you did want to get something planned out as i need a new comp urgently this just runs too slow now lols :/
 
A new system would definitely be the way forward without doubt. You could hang onto your 500gb HDD though :)

If you only intend to play games an i5 3570k setup will be good with a Z77 motherboard
 
was thinking of still using my old pc as a secondary setup though for when my mates are round as it can still handle some of the minor games we play like Lineage 2 and counter strike ha, could possible max out the ram for the board 8gb at 800mhz maybe buy a copy of the same graph card in it and crossfire them to make it atleast be able to handle stuff with a little more stability, and those kind of upgrades would only set me back like maybe £100-£150? but then im definitely thinking a big overhaul of trying to make a futureproof computer for a while with that overclocked bundle i mentioned at the start and a sick graphics card, an SSD with a HD for my storage stuff such as movies etc, would this be a good way to go? and would adding them upgrades to my old computer be noticeable at all in ways of its performance being a little better?
 
depends if it was a new build maybe around the £2,500 marker since i was picking that kind of OC bundle, with the asus rampage IV extreme because that motherboard seems pretty sick and open to expansion when it is necessary to me, this would ofc be a finance bought pc if i get around that budget though but either way this doesn't bother me too much your thoughts of a system recommendation?
 
and as much as I trust my self around my computer and other peoples computers I think ide purposefully leave it £75 under budget just to get overclockers to construct the pc for me and ide pick it up from the store as if i was paying that much for parts I wouldn't want to make a nooby mistake as I haven't constructed a pc since I built my own that long ago :')
 
Don't think you need to spend anywhere near the £2.5k to get a 'sick' gaming system. If you do want more grunt get another 7950 for xfire.

What resolution monitor are you using?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX850M High Performance 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020041-UK) £114.98
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £104.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £20.99
Total : £976.39 (includes shipping : £13.75).




And a more beefed up version:


YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99 (£459.98)
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £167.99
1 x Seasonic X-Series 850w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x BitFenix Shinobi XL Full Tower Gaming Case - Black £114.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £73.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £20.99
Total : £1,429.57 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 
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GZA they both look pretty sick to be fair, to be honest as I said i aint been around computer builds for around near on 5 year now so starting to wrap my head back round it all I wouldn't have the first clue when it comes to overclocking so a preoverclocked bundle may be better for me? and I think overclocking the graphics would get the best out of the season although their overpriced do nvidia cards not perform better than the ati's? just wondering what the actual specification difference is between the two and as for your question about monitors I was looking to be buying a new one of those too if i was going to upgrade system as I may aswell get a monitor that will atleast show it off a little, but when i play movies through my tv tv's 42" HD 1080p so thinking it would make the picture quality on their a whole let better connecting it to my pc via a hdmi cable but yeah as i say these days I literally am back to basics a noob :')
 
and to be fair anything under or way under budget is welcome'd just means I may not have to pay finance and could just pay it straight up cash lol
 
oh and one more quick question if i was going to order the HAF X gaming case when i was thinking of the build myself I was gonna buy the precut HAF X dust filters do these actually keep a lot of dust out rather than the old type of system as cleaning can be a b**ch at times but i guess it has to be done but surely with demicflex dust filters it should be less hassle and wouldn't have to be cleaned as regularly, the only reason I prefer to avoid watercooling is the simple fact if it leaks ide cry lmao :)
 
As it stands at the moment the AMD 7950 and Nvidia 670 are much better than the 7970 and 680 respectively.

The AMD cards have had a hell of a boost in performance recently with recent drivers. There the 7950 is literally bang on (in some cases ahead of) par with the 670 yet costs significantly less. If someone is completley neutral between the two and does not need physx or cuda - most ppl would get the 7950.

Overclocking is a lot easier these days and there are plenty of guides on here, youtube et cetera - it's literally just changing a few things on the BIOS. Even more so overclocking GFX cards is extremely easy - literally just moving a slider to the right. This is also where the 7950 comes into its own and starts to perform extremely well.


Monitors:

Depends what you want: size, smoothness (120Hz), resolution, price

Here are a selection of those options that I would consider buying:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" Super-Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £479.99
1 x DGM IPS-2701WPH 27" LED Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £359.99
1 x Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - Black/Red £319.99
1 x Samsung S24B300HL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £129.95
Total : £1,322.98 (includes shipping : £27.55).

 
gza which of those would you recommend most for best fps during games and then which for best visuals watching movies and stuff i mean ide mainly be using my tv for the movies but may occassionally watch on the monitor, not fussed for a massive size really aslong as the display is perfect 1080p or higher, which im sure those graphics cards can handle and so what those graphcis are better than the 670 what about the 680 690 i wouldn't mind those graphic cards im neutral to both ide just crossfire 2 of them if anything to give best possible performance, oh so with simple advice it would be easy to overclock? oh and when would you 'need' (physx or cuda) what they used for particularly?
 
gza which of those would you recommend most for best fps during games and then which for best visuals watching movies and stuff i mean ide mainly be using my tv for the movies but may occassionally watch on the monitor, not fussed for a massive size really aslong as the display is perfect 1080p or higher, which im sure those graphics cards can handle and so what those graphcis are better than the 670 what about the 680 690 i wouldn't mind those graphic cards im neutral to both ide just crossfire 2 of them if anything to give best possible performance, oh so with simple advice it would be easy to overclock? oh and when would you 'need' (physx or cuda) what they used for particularly?

Well for fast-paced FPS games like QuakeLive etc where smoothness is a realy benefit then I would go for a 120Hz monitor. I use one and for me the difference is night & day between my 120Hz and 60Hz monitor. But if you don't really play an awful or at a high level and are more of a casual gamer then I'd probably choose resolution over the 120Hz and therefore I'd prolly choose the DGM due to its price point. DELL have made these high res monitors for a long time and are considered a very reliable choice but I believe the DGM is very good, especially for the price.

For watching films, the highest resolution films you will get atm is still 1080p so you're probably best getting (or continuing to use your) 40" TV or whatever and connect is via HDMI to the computer. I could be wrong but I doubt a blu-ray film looks better on a 1440p monitor than a 1080p monitor.

So decide what you want out of the PC monitor and choose accordingly and just connect to your TV (or buy a new one so cheap these days) via HDMI from the PC.


PhysX examples:




CUDA is a benefit for video encoding etc as it enables the power of the GPU to be used to boost computing performance for tasks such as video encoding etc.... (roughly other can expand if I'm wrong) - doesn't sound like you need it. PhysX is up to you.
 
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