Suggestions on upgrading PC to gaming rig

timking

timking

timking

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20 Jan 2008
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Right, just seen it's 2008 since I built my machine and it's time to upgrade! Got my Oculus DK2 turning up in a couple of weeks and will be wanting to run the latest round of games on my machine. I'm after mobo/ram/proc/graphics options as my knowledge is a few years out of date.

The kit that will sit around it (unless there's a reason to change) is:

Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK)

The existing RAM is DDR2 so will go out the door with my existing Abit IP35 Pro mobo, and the graphics card is a BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) so presuming it's best to replace this at the same time or keep it for the second card?

So far from browsing I was thinking of:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-007-OG&groupid=2833&catid=2512

No idea on graphics cards though.

Any help/ideas appreciated!
 
Antec P182 :) My first pc was built in one of those. I was pretty sad to see it go when I upgraded my pc.

That bundle is perfectly fine. The SOC board is geared more towards overclocking, so if you just want a 'gaming' board then the parts below would be fine as well.

You could just stick an overclock on yourself.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £351.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/8-OC) £67.99
Total : £504.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
lee32uk said:
Antec P182 :) My first pc was built in one of those. I was pretty sad to see it go when I upgraded my pc.

That bundle is perfectly fine. The SOC board is geared more towards overclocking, so if you just want a 'gaming' board then the parts below would be fine as well.

You could just stick an overclock on yourself.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£43 Saving** £351.98
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX21C11BRK2/8-OC) £67.99
Total : £504.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Ah cool cheers. So I could overclock it myself if I needed/wanted without much issue I presume?

Graphics wise, what kind of price would I be looking at to run 3D stuff in 1080 at 70fps without issue?

Seen this, but presume it might be overkill!
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-209-MS
 
timking said:
Ah cool cheers. So I could overclock it myself if I needed/wanted without much issue I presume?

Graphics wise, what kind of price would I be looking at to run 3D stuff in 1080 at 70fps without issue?

Seen this, but presume it might be overkill!
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-209-MS
Click to expand...

Yes you can overclock the cpu yourself and save a bit of money. There is a dedicated section on the board for overclocking, or you can even ask OCUK's overclocking Guru 8Pack.

A GTX 780 or a R9 290 will do very well at 1080P. You won't get 70FPS on every game, as some are more demanding than others. The link below has some benchmarks for a R9 290 v GTX 780 for various games.


http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1036
 
lee32uk said:
Yes you can overclock the cpu yourself and save a bit of money. There is a dedicated section on the board for overclocking, or you can even ask OCUK's overclocking Guru 8Pack.

A GTX 780 or a R9 290 will do very well at 1080P. You won't get 70FPS on every game, as some are more demanding than others. The link below has some benchmarks for a R9 290 v GTX 780 for various games.


http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1036
Click to expand...

May as well do that then, spent plenty of time tinkering with my current PC to OC it when I first bought it so the chance to tinker again is good!
 
Will all the below work together fine? The RAM is free with the GPU, only issue is that the GPU says 750w pus, I've currently got a Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK). Is it a hard and fast 750w minimum?

Powercolor Radeon R9 290X PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE AMD 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit

Intel i7 4790K - 4.8GHz Binned

ReVenge Gigabyte Z97 - Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 4.6GHz Configurable Enthusiast Gaming Bundle

Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW)

TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01)

AMD Gamer 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (R938G2401U1K) @ £89.99 inc VAT
 
timking said:
Will all the below work together fine? The RAM is free with the GPU, only issue is that the GPU says 750w pus, I've currently got a Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK). Is it a hard and fast 750w minimum?

Powercolor Radeon R9 290X PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE AMD 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit

Intel i7 4790K - 4.8GHz Binned

ReVenge Gigabyte Z97 - Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 4.6GHz Configurable Enthusiast Gaming Bundle

Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW)

TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01)

AMD Gamer 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (R938G2401U1K) @ £89.99 inc VAT
Click to expand...

A 290X isn't usually worth it over a 290 BUT in this case you get the free ram, so it evens it out a bit more. A 290 + 8GB Ram is probably going to cost about the same anyway.

You might be able to get ocuk to knock the price of the free amd ram off the total price. It is worth £89.99 on it's own. Failing that then just sell it on.

Does the P182 have 2 x 120mm fan mounts in the roof (I can't remember from memory) as you would need that to be able to mount the H100i. You might be better sticking with the H80i if not as you have a 120mm fan mount at the rear.

Also if you get your post count up to 100, you will qualify for free shipping (As long as you are mainland UK)
 
So you would end up with something like this ?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290X PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE AMD 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit £389.99
1 x ReVenge Gigabyte Z97 - Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 4.6GHz Configurable Enthusiast Gaming Bundle £182
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Intel i7 4790K - 4.8GHz Binned £299.99
1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0
Total : £1,022.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).




It might be worth checking out the length of the powercolor 290X gpu before hand just to make sure it will fit in the antec case, as gpu's are a bit longer these days.

EDIT** The 290X is 266.65mm long according to powercolor **

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=522#Specification
 
Last edited:
lee32uk said:
A 290X isn't usually worth it over a 290 BUT in this case you get the free ram, so it evens it out a bit more. A 290 + 8GB Ram is probably going to cost about the same anyway.

You might be able to get ocuk to knock the price of the free amd ram off the total price. It is worth £89.99 on it's own. Failing that then just sell it on.

Does the P182 have 2 x 120mm fan mounts in the roof (I can't remember from memory) as you would need that to be able to mount the H100i. You might be better sticking with the H80i if not as you have a 120mm fan mount at the rear.

Also if you get your post count up to 100, you will qualify for free shipping (As long as you are mainland UK)
Click to expand...

Nah just the one at the top, so good point, will go with the H80i.


lee32uk said:
So you would end up with something like this ?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290X PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE AMD 8GB 2400MHz Memory Kit £389.99
1 x ReVenge Gigabyte Z97 - Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 4.6GHz Configurable Enthusiast Gaming Bundle £182
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Intel i7 4790K - 4.8GHz Binned £299.99
1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0
Total : £1,022.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).




It might be worth checking out the length of the powercolor 290X gpu before hand just to make sure it will fit in the antec case, as gpu's are a bit longer these days.

EDIT** The 290X is 266.65mm long according to powercolor **

http://www.powercolor.com/Global/products_features.asp?id=522#Specification
Click to expand...

Spot on. I'll double check tonight that it fits, but from a quick google a fair few people have it running in that case.

Only remaining question is around the PSU and if it's a must to have 750w for this card?
 
timking said:
Nah just the one at the top, so good point, will go with the H80i.




Spot on. I'll double check tonight that it fits, but from a quick google a fair few people have it running in that case.

Only remaining question is around the PSU and if it's a must to have 750w for this card?
Click to expand...

Your Corsair TX650 will run a single R9 290 just fine :)
 
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