Been a long time... what could I get?

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Hey all, been a LONG time since I was last around or really "up to date" with anything current, So am after some advice on upgrade / new build possibilities...

My current rig is an aging E6300@ 3.2ghz (ever since the day it was bought, when they first came out) and is in desperate need of some loving lol..


A friend of mine came across a pre-built rig @ about £500 which comprised of :
Intel Core i5-4460 3.2ghz Haswell,
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz RAM,
2GB AMD R7-260X graphics card
2TB WD Green HDD.

Obviously as it was a pre-built it had case, PSU and other bits not entirely needed on my current rig, so I am wondering... was he ripped, was it a good deal? Could I build something similar / better for same kinda money? (around £500)

As is apparent from my existing rig.. I do love a good bit of overclocking for extra performance without extra cost... so I'm not put-off by any overclocking (In fact, I would prefer to get something that would overclock well, in the same way as my old E6300)

So ideally I'm looking at a new Mobo, CPU & Cooler, Ram, GPU. I think I would probably need a new PSU as my old Enermax 480w is really getting worn out and I'm not sure it would be up to the task of running a new(er) rig?

So any recommendations you guys / gals can give me for a nice overclockable setup that has plenty of "future life" in it etc.. would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks in advance
 
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Hi,

What case do you have? (does it support ATX boards and how much room for gfx cards is there).

Are all your drives SATA?

What sort of budget do you have?
 
Hi,

What case do you have? (does it support ATX boards and how much room for gfx cards is there).

Are all your drives SATA?

What sort of budget do you have?

My current case is an old Coolermaster CM201. supports ATX etc.. no problem but its not exactly the biggest of cases... my current gfx card is only 2-3 inches from the HDD racks, lengthwise ofc. (my current rig uses a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 board with 4850 GFX Card)

Budget is somewhat flexible but ballpark £450-£500ish... (unless something was a significant upgrade and worth the extra few quid).

Most of my drives are SATA, but the older IDE drives I only had kicking around for crappy storage etc.. so not too worried about any IDE support.

I guess what I'm kinda looking for is the modern equivalent of the rig I have now.. (E6300 clocked at 3.2) Something that overclocks really well to give great performance without horrific prices, coupled with a GPU to match (I don't get into GPU overclocking much so I don't know if any significant deals can be gained there).

Cheers :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Reference 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £43.99
1 x SuperFlower FX 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £42.95
Total : £524.51 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).




That will drag you into more modern times.

You could keep your PSU and 260X and buy an SSD then update the other two parts later on.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £277.98
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 Reference 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £149.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £43.99
1 x SuperFlower FX 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £42.95
Total : £524.51 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).




That will drag you into more modern times.

You could keep your PSU and 260X and buy an SSD then update the other two parts later on.


Note: the 260x relates to the "prebuilt system" a mate of mine bought recently and was there mainly for comparison purposes in terms of "can this be beaten for the same kind of money?"

My personal rig I am looking to replace is an E6300 @ 3.2Ghz, 6GB DDR2, 512Mb Ati HD4850.

Hence at minimum I'm gonna be needing CPU, Mobo, Ram and GFX card (and I'm guessing a decent cooler for clocking the CPU). I'm not too fussed about SSD right now so that is something whih can wait for now :)

Is the GTX 960 better than current ATI offerings? I only ask cus sod's law said every Nvidia card I have owned (granted only a few) all died on me, so kinda feels like getting jinxed lol..

Also as far as the SLI goes on the mainboard.. not sure its needed? I doubt I will ever really put a 2nd card in for SLI before the point at which a larger upgrade (perhaps to newer system and DDR4 or even 5 if out by then).

Just looking for ways to maximise performance for minimal costs, hence looking at overclocking options and so forth :)


Thanks again for the shopping list :)

If ya have any tips of revisions based upon above info, would be greatly received :)
 
SLi on the board as its just there and part of the deal.

The GTX960 is a good card and matches AMD equivalent.
 
SLi on the board as its just there and part of the deal.

The GTX960 is a good card and matches AMD equivalent.

Aaah ok thats cool, just wondering if it was preference or performance that dictated the GTX over an ATI (or now AMD I guess) alternative :)


Forgive the slightly dumb questions.. but whats the average / likely OC on a 4690? I asume it's still attained the usual way, raising FSB (I note you specc'ed 2400Mhz ram, I guess this is also to handle the OC?)

Been a long time since I had to look at new parts etc.. so a bit lost in the woods when it comes to the "great overclocking" hardware now days or whats likely / needed to achieve it :)

*edit* Another silly question.. whats the difference between a 4690 and 4690K? they seem to have same clockspeed?
 
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Spend £15-20 on a Rajintek cooler or similar (whatever fits in the case) and it should do 4-4.5Ghz.
 
Thats cool, sounds a lot like my old E6300 where a cheap (but decent) CPU cooler (Artic Freezer 7 Pro) and you get great overclocks...

With regard to the GTX 960.. been looking at comparable ATI equivalent which seems to be around R9 380 and whle the GTX has a lot lower TDP, the R9 380 does seem to have greater real-world performance. Not sure however if this holds true when it comes to overclocking the cards.

Anyone with real-world info / comparisons of the GTX 960 vs an R9 380? I looked at GPU Boss and it seems to suggest the R9 380 is a better performer?

cheers all :)
 
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