Advice and Recommendations Please

Sellsy39

Sellsy39

Sellsy39

Associate
Joined
7 Jun 2016
Posts
4
Hello everyone, i am new to the Overclockers UK Forum.

I am an Old Computer addict from the Commodore and Speccy days.

I think my first computer was Steam Powered or maybe it was coal : )

Can i give you the Spec of my current machine, is it worth upgrading components or is the Mobo too old ? I want to play FO4 with everything set on MAX.

Original machine bought was
Mesh Extreme QX G80
Spec now is...
Cooler Master Aluminium ATX Midi Tower
Asus P5 N32- E Sli 680i Mobo
Intel Core Duo Extreme QX6700 Quad Core 2.66, 8mb, 1066 Processor
OCZ 1000 PXS power supply
Vapour X HD 6770 GDDR5 1mb GPU
Asus Xonar DS Sound card
2048mb DDR2 900mhz memory (Kingston) x 4 8mb total
Kingston SV300S37a12 SSD
WD 3 TB Green H/D
Broadcom 802.11g card
Windows 10
HP 2310 Wide LCD Monitor.

I would like to run FO4 at max settings, so update some components or replace Mobo, processor,memory and GPU ?

Have a budget of about £750

Thanks
 
Hello and welcome to the forum.

Could keep:

Case (knowing exact model would be good unless you don't mind measuring dimensions from CPU socket to side-panel and GPU clearance).
Sound card
SSD (unless you'd like a new and larger 250GB drive, think yours is 120GB?)
HDD
Wireless card
Windows 10
Screen (for now, plenty still playing at 1920x1080)

PSU I would replace for a new build.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £446.01
(includes shipping: £11.10)
​


​

That leaves around £300 for a nice GPU. AMD will have a good option in the form of the RX 480 in some weeks. And the GTX 1070 is due 10th June but custom models will follow along later. Latter will probably be over £300 though. In any case, when these two cards hit the market, prices of older cards should come down so you should have plenty of options.

You'd have to check your case for CPU cooler and GPU compatibility.

I think the Matterhorn cooler will be fine with that tall RAM but can't be 100% sure. The RAM heatspreaders can be removed, or buy a more expensive kit with lower heatspreaders. Fallout 4 is one of the few games which does benefit from fast RAM so stick to at least 3000Mhz if possible.
 
If you want to stick with Asus, I'd suggest the following build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £407.42
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​

This leaves you about £350 for the GPU, AMD RX 480 (approx £200) or Nvidia 1070 (likely to be approx £350) are upcoming cards.

The Asus Z170-K only supports Crossfire. if you think you might want to do SLI at some point in the future, then the Asus Z170 Pro Gaming would be a good choice.

It's also worth looking at what bundles or weekly deals are available with other Z170 boards.

It might be wise to replace the PSU if you've had the existing machine for a long time. Something in the region of 550W would be about right.
 
Cern said:
If you want to stick with Asus, I'd suggest the following build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £407.42
(includes shipping: £10.50)
​

This leaves you about £350 for the GPU, AMD RX 480 (approx £200) or Nvidia 1070 (likely to be approx £350) are upcoming cards.

The Asus Z170-K only supports Crossfire. if you think you might want to do SLI at some point in the future, then the Asus Z170 Pro Gaming would be a good choice.

It's also worth looking at what bundles or weekly deals are available with other Z170 boards.

It might be wise to replace the PSU if you've had the existing machine for a long time. Something in the region of 550W would be about right.
Click to expand...


The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo or Alpenfohn Matterhorn cooler performs better for less money.
 
lee32uk said:
The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo or Alpenfohn Matterhorn cooler performs better for less money.
Click to expand...

Yeah good point, certainly at that price point.

I like the Noctua coolers for their quiet operation, ease of installation and good compatibility with motherboards and ram. But the lower end of their range doesn't perform as efficiently as their mid and high end coolers.

The Noctua NH-U12S and NH-U14s would be good mid range choices but are in the £50 ballpark.
 
Thank you for the comments, and advice
I will wait until the new AMD RX480 comes out and see what happens to the prices for the older GPU cards.
I notice that no-one has mentioned AMD CPU in your comments? I presume they are not as good/reliable as Intel, reason i ask is for the same amount of money for an i5 Intel i could have an 8 core AMD FX8370.
Or is it because the Mobo for AMD CPU cannot run high enough Ram speed, eg 3000mhz.
Sorry for all the Questions, but although i am addicted to my computers, my knowledge is not that good.
Before i joined Overclockers Forum i was looking at this as an option?
Asus 970 Pro Gaming Aura Motherboard
AMD FX 8370 + Wraith Cooler
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16Gb 2400 mhz 2 x 8 Memory
Kingston Hyper X 240Gb Predator SSd M.2
TP Link TL-WN 881ND Wireless adaptor
Asus Radeon R9 380X Strix

Approx £550

From what i understand Intel product use lower power consumption with the CPU
also run a lot cooler, is that right?
Are they also easier to overclock and more stable

Thanks again
 
Intel single core speed trounces AMD FX, and when all 8 cores are used (how often is that?) there's not much difference between modern Intel quad-core and old AMD eight-core.

Newer processors have newer instructions too.

And then as far as upgrades go, AMD have nothing to compete with Intel i7.

That may or may not change with Zen but I'll believe it when I see it, it's been a long time since AMD have bothered with CPU (not APU).
 
Thanks Danny75

I will go with Intel then.
have to say i like the red/black colour theme on the MoBo you recommended, think i will make it the theme for my rebuild
 
Sellsy39 said:
Thanks Danny75

I will go with Intel then.
Click to expand...

No worries. Actually looked up benchmarks for Fallout 4 and an FX 9590 is only on a par with an i3-4360 in this case - http://www.techspot.com/review/1089-fallout-4-benchmarks/page5.html

Why fast memory - http://www.techspot.com/review/1089-fallout-4-benchmarks/page6.html


Sellsy39 said:
have to say i like the red/black colour theme on the MoBo you recommended, think i will make it the theme for my rebuild
Click to expand...

It's a nice one and the one I messed with clocked very well. Even though that's nearly all-dependent on the CPU silicon lottery these days, nice to know it won't hold it back.
 
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