Teenagers PC - Help With Spec

thepominlaw

thepominlaw

thepominlaw

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Joined
8 Aug 2005
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It's my sons birthday in a few weeks and he complains his PC is slow and outdated (it is it's my old E6750 C2D).

Not sure if I should spend money on it really or start again with a new PC.

Current spec

E6750 @ 3.2ghz
4gb Ram
Abit IP35 Pro
550ti Gpu
1tb HDD
500 Gb HDD
SB Extreme Gamer
24" LG TFT
OCZ 650w psu

So out of the PC scene I haven't got a clue what to get him was thinking I5 and Z97 motherboard but not sure. Can anyone help?

Should I start again or upgrade his system SSD and 8gb ram. If I start again just after PC as his monitor is fine budget £500-£750

Cheers guys
 
 
 
How old is the OCZ PSU as you could reuse this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX Radeon R9 290 DD Black Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-290A-EDBD) with FREE Kingston 60GB SSD £289.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £678.49 (includes shipping : ).



or with a new PSU:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x XFX Radeon R9 280X DD Black Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (R9-280X-TDBD) with FREE Kingston 60GB SSD £221.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £660.48 (includes shipping : ).

 
How about a mATX, although the case isn't due until the 30/9, not sure if that will be to late for his Birthday.
As already mentioned, reuse OS, hdd and Psu.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £229.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow PC Case - Black (CC-9011070-WW) £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £702.89 (includes shipping : ).

 
 
Thanks for the suggestions all; from your comments it looks like I would be better off not upgrading his current computer which tbh is what I was thinking too. I noticed no one has recommended Nvidia why is this? Personally I have only ever used Nvidia so I am not sure how it will compare to the existing 550Ti I would imagine considerably faster…..

Is Intel the way to go or AMD, as I noticed I can get a 6 core processor for less surely this would be better than 4?

Anyway I have had a go at specifying a PC myself, it seems Z97 seems to be the chipset of choice so what do you think?

Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 case
Intel i5 4690K Haswell Processor
Corsair Hydro H55
Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 3 motherboard
8gb Corsair PC3-12800
Asus GTX 760 DirectCU II
120Gb Samsung EVO
2Tb WD SATA HDD
24x SATA DVDRW
Corsair 600W PSU
 
AMD just offers better price for better performance, for example the 280 is cheaper then the 760 and faster. Its really a no brainer. The 280x is faster then then the 770 for the most part, and same with the 290 > 780.

However get whatever you feel comfy with since your building it and if your willing to pay a premium for NV then thats up too you.
 
Umm, 290 faster over 780?
I don't want to start the discussion about green vs red or anything.
But look at benches and find me a 290 faster than my 780.
And no, I am not using any premium cards like Lightning or Classy.

Lets say that up to 280X I would agree AMD is a better choice.
Anything above and the difference gets smaller.
 
AMD do well at the low and mid range end and the prices reflect this. Throw in a few offers and they are a good option and at the end of the day, your budget will dictate what you have.
It also depends on what you are looking for in a GPU.

The guys on here will spec you a great system for your needs though.
 
Bart_Hunt said:
Umm, 290 faster over 780?
I don't want to start the discussion about green vs red or anything.
But look at benches and find me a 290 faster than my 780.
And no, I am not using any premium cards like Lightning or Classy.

Lets say that up to 280X I would agree AMD is a better choice.
Anything above and the difference gets smaller.
Click to expand...

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1036

I really have no bone in this fight, but most benchmarks I've seen put the 290 slightly ahead, off course there are games that favour each platform but thats just what I've seen. They are pretty close and the 290 is also £50 cheaper. With green you get better drivers as a whole and support and its worth that premium I feel but on performance I feel AMD is winning currently.

These benchmarks are also with reference 290 so a 290 with a custom cooler could do better.

Your 780 might be different, and thats fine, I'm just going off anandtech and guru3d which I normally check, difference aren't huge in either case and you get a decent saving with the 290.
 
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I know.
When ESO was going live a couple of my friends came to me asking what would be a perfect card to run the game without spending to much money. They all had fx 6350s and i5 2500k's so I told them to get r9 270x toxic
They were very happy about the performance afterwards.

I am running everything at ultra with 780sli but I only have a single 1080 screen.
 
thepominlaw said:
It's my sons birthday in a few weeks and he complains his PC is slow and outdated (it is it's my old E6750 C2D).
Click to expand...

What is he doing with the PC? In what areas is it slow? I'm guessing but if the problem is games, you might like to do a two-stage upgrade, with the SSD and GPU now, and the CPU / RAM / Motherboard / case upgrade at Christmas. Do check that the PSU can cope with the GPU.
 
Ok so massive change in direction, been given an amd fx6300 and some ram from a friend that's upgraded, the PC upgrade will for now only consist of motherboard, SSD, CPU cooler and new optical as old one broke.

Going to keep psu (only a few months old anyway). GTX550ti, hard drives but will probably change no brand case.

Looking to get

Asus M5A97 Evo
Samsung 120gb SSD
Arctic cooling freezer pro rev 2
Corsair spec

Total about £150

Anyone recommend any alternatives keeping price similar? Will he notice much difference with fx6300, SSD and 8gb?
 
There's no need to spend 500 quids :) My 15yo son asked me for monitor change (19" 1440x900) and I gave him my FullHD monitor for a while to quick check up how his games would go in FullHD. I presumed it would be slower. And you know what ? He said there was no difference :) No difference = means all runs completely fine (DIRT3 @ Ultra constant 60FPS for 99% time). His other parts are: Phenom II 955, Radeon HD7850, SSD & HDD.

You can upgrade your C2D to Q9550 CPU (used, Ebay for example) and o-c it a bit (ABIT, yeah) to 3.4-3.6 GHz, with AC Freezer Pro it will be easy.
I'd strongly suggest you to get rid of one of hard drives (slower one) and leave just one. Add some SSD like 120GB Samsung EVO instead.
Get rid of 550Ti and buy GTX 760 for example, or Radeon R9 280 whichever you prefer. I prefer nVidias due to drivers, but everything depends on personal taste :)

Your FX-6300 and 550Ti will be STILL slower in gaming (AvgFPS will go up little, and minFPS will go up significantly though, comparing to current PC) than quad core CPU (even s775) + GTX 760. And - what can be crucial - with new FX & mobo you have to reinstall both: Windows and rest of software, which might be few-days-pain.
 
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