Finally placed my order to finish my upgrade

Egon

Egon

Egon

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2003
Posts
6,801
Location
Darlington
So with Witcher 3 just around the corner I thought an upgrade was in order. My PC is starting to feel its age a bit and I haven't updated the core for quite some time (7 years I think :eek: ) I also wanted to take full advantage of the SSDs I have been using.

So this is what I'm upgrading from:

  • Gigabyte 965P-DS3P
  • Q6600 (which itself was a small upgrade from an E4300 C2D)
  • Vertex 2 128GB
  • XFX HD5770
  • 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2

Upgrading too:

  • Gigabyte Z97X-SLI & i5-4690K (£279 bundle)
  • TG Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz (£49.99 typical it went on offer today and I placed the order last night :rolleyes: )
  • Vertex 4 256GB (pulled from an old macbook I upgraded last year but don't use)
  • GB HD7950 Windforce 3GB OC (£80 from the MM)

Can't wait to unpack and build! I've been wanting to upgrade for ages. I've had to do it on a tight budget, but I'm hoping to see a noticeable difference having gone so long since my last upgrade. What do you think... am I going to be impressed?
 
Very nice! I did a similar jump to that, Q6600 with 8600GT (albeit slower than yours) to a 4670k with 670. Twas nice to be able to play games at all, let alone on mid-high! :D What PSU will you be running?
 
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stulid said:
Looks like a nice boost.

GFX card alone is a huge jump up - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/538?vs=645

P.S the card does fit your case and PSU?

About the RAM price, post/ask customer services.
Click to expand...

Yes the card fits my case, I hard to shuffle hard drives around but it fit comfortably in the end. :)

Will contact customer service about the RAM, what's the best method?

Shivy011 said:
Very nice! I did a similar jump to that, Q6600 with 8600GT (albeit slower than yours) to a 4670k with 670. Twas nice to be able to play games at all, let alone on mid-high! :D What PSU will you be running?
Click to expand...

I also purchased an EVGA Gold 750w G2 a few weeks ago, been wanting to switch to modular for a while :)
 
Egon said:
Yes the card fits my case, I hard to shuffle hard drives around but it fit comfortably in the end.

Will contact customer service about the RAM, what's the best method?



I also purchased an EVGA Gold 750w G2 a few weeks ago, been wanting to switch to modular for a while :)
Click to expand...

Post in the CS section send a webnote/phone. either will be answered.

That PSU is fine.
 
Egon said:
Yes the card fits my case, I hard to shuffle hard drives around but it fit comfortably in the end.

Will contact customer service about the RAM, what's the best method?



I also purchased an EVGA Gold 750w G2 a few weeks ago, been wanting to switch to modular for a while :)
Click to expand...

Very nice PSU, good choice :)
 
Shivy011 said:
Very nice PSU, good choice :)
Click to expand...

All choices made with advice from the good folk at OcUK forums :)

stulid said:
Do you have a heatsink?
Click to expand...

Yes, at first I didn't think my current HS would fit. I've got a Noctua NH-U12F which is also about 7 years old (purchased alongside the old E4300). But after a browse on the Noctua website they actually offer a free kit for 1150 boards as long as I have proof of purchase of both the HS and the board... which I do thanks to OCUK order history :)
 
Egon said:
Yes, at first I didn't think my current HS would fit. I've got a Noctua NH-U12F which is also about 7 years old (purchased alongside the old E4300). But after a browse on the Noctua website they actually offer a free kit for 1150 boards as long as I have proof of purchase of both the HS and the board... which I do thanks to OCUK order history :)
Click to expand...

Correct.

They do nice things like that.
 
I assume that CPU will come with a stock cooler yes? Will need to use that for a week or so while I wait for the Noctua kit to arrive.
 
CS contacted through the forums, first time I've used them I think.

Also noticed the 16GB is on offer too, £10 cheaper. So tempting, but I think 16GB is overkill for my needs tbh.

stulid said:
Yes it comes with a stock item with paste already applied..
Click to expand...

Excellent. I thought so, but it's been a while. :p
 
Built this last night... initial observations:

The MB is smaller, a fair bit narrower than the board I took out so that helped to make a little bit of space inside the case. I really like the red/black colour scheme the board has, this matched the RAM I purchased and by chance all of the cabling I already had. Also the SATA ports being mounted on the opposite edge of the board to the I/O backplate was nice too, made cable management easier.

The stock cooler on the i5 feels flimsy, especially when connecting and turning those "screws". The only good thing is it's nice and small in comparison to the beast I will be replacing it with when I receive the adapter kit from Noctua.

I need to replace the two fans at the front of the case (which was on my shopping list anyway as they are noisy). They connect using a 4 pin molex which would mean another massive cable connected to the PSU (no thanks), want something that uses the smaller 3 pin headers. Not sure what the best solution here is as there are two fans at the front. Can two be joined together somehow on the same header?

Worked perfect on first boot, which is always a relief! Win8 installed, and boot up time is down from 20s to under 10, I am really, really please with that! The move to a vertex 4 (from vertex 2) and 6gb (from 3gb) sata probably helped there :)

No games tested yet, that's a job for the weekend, I've left it to install 8.1 while I'm at work :)

tldr; Very pleased with the build!

Oh and added bonus, OcUK CS gave me a credit for the priced difference on the RAM :)
 
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If you buy a 4pin or ideally 3pin fan splitter, one header to two ports, this should be fine as headers generally give enough power for 3/4 pin fans
 
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