First Time Builder Advice Needed Please

shadowhawk

shadowhawk

shadowhawk

Associate
Joined
12 Mar 2013
Posts
15
My current pc is just over 2 years old and for most of the things I use it for, it performs reasonably ok. I am not into the graphically intensive FPS type of games like Battlefield 3 etc. or flight sims. I do use it for race sims (some of the older titles like rFactor and Race 07) but mostly for Everquest. I run 3 EQ accounts at once and do get a massive drop in my fps from 60 to 9 sometimes. I have upgraded my pc as best I could do try and combat this but it still persists. I assume I might be getting a bottleneck somewhere.

CPU = AMD II x4 640 3.0 ghz (stock)
Motherboard = ASRock N68-S USS
Ram = 2x4 GB Crucial
GPU = HD 7750 2GB
PSU = Corsair GS600W (1 week old)
The PSU runs very hot as my machine doesn’t get enough load to turn the PSU fan on.
To try and keep things cooler, and hopefully last a bit longer until I have the cash for a new pc, I have ordered a new heatsink - Xigmatek Loki SD963 CPU Cooler and the Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller.

I have never attempted to build a pc before but over the 15+ years of owning pc's, have changed most of the components except for cpu's and motherboards. Nothing has ever popped and blown up in my face. Surely building a computer is not going to be rocket science.

At the moment I don't have the money do this. I am saving vast amounts of money since I stopped smoking a month ago and moved onto electronic cigarettes. Over £800 literally goes up in smoke!

I will be mostly gaming but occasionally I record in game stuff with fraps and edit with either TrakAxPC or Windows Movie Maker.

I want something that won't give me the same drop in my gaming quality as my current machine and that will also be able to handle some of the recent or soon to be released sim racing titles like Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2.

I am leaning towards an Intel chip but do I go for an I5 or I7? How easy/safe would it be to overclock? I have never o/c'ed before and wouldn't attempt to until I have some knowledge.
4, 8 or 16 GB of gaming type RAM?
2GB GPU costing around £160 and add an identical 2nd card when I Can afford it?
Or a 3GB GPU costing around £330 and add a 2nd even later?
I'd like to hook up to 3 monitors eventually.
128 GB SSD + 500 GB HHD for extra storage
Maybe even a sound card.

I would like to re-use my Zalman Z9 case for this and also the PSU until if/when I add a 2nd GPU.

Would something like that be easy for a first time builder to put together?

My ideas and needs might change between now and the time I can actually afford it but before I embark on anything that is a major expensive, I like to get as much information and thoughts as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long winded post.
 
I have currently upgrade a similar computer to this spec, but also have another with an amd a8 cpu. My advice is to stick with AMD personally, as to get around the same system performance from Intel would cost nearly double.

With ram 8gb is sufficient for gaming as many games don't yet utilise all this, but get a 2x4gb kit so as you have 2 extra bays on the board to upgrade later.

If you are going for a GPU I would stay away from the GDDR3 versions as they are aging now, a 1GB GDDR5 gpu will outperform a 2gb GDDR3 in most situations.

Also with 3 monitors on the go, from personal experience the Ati cards seem to handle this better with eyefinity, and backtracking to the GPU, if you get an A series CPU from AMD with built in graphics and a nice Ati GPU you can utilise crossfire hybrid to enhance performance.

Also, adding a separate sound card can help alleviate certain issues in games as many boards utilise Realtek onboard sound, and this is known to cause instability in certain games, like BF3 for instance.

If your after any more info, or you would like me to spec you a system, just give me a shout buddy...

EDIT: I almost forgot, your current system could be utilised by way of upgrading your CPU as that is probably bottlenecking, you current GPU is fine for those race sims (upgrade would increase the eye candy a bit), but as rFactor is mainly CPU intensive the 640 is aging a bit for it, and is under immense pressure to keep up with your 7750.
 
Last edited:
Reading over your post, it would seem that something like this would be a good start. I've based this on your £800 figure.

This is my take:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £249.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI316G186C0K) £89.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) HDD £49.99
Total : £674.86 (includes shipping : £10.00).



CPU - The CPU has hyperthreading and although no games currently use this, there is scope for future games. It would also help with your recording & encoding.

Motherboard - Gigabyte is a great manufacturer's of board. You get UK RMA & this is one of the best if you are thinking about SLI later on in the future.

SSD - Intel's OEM drive, you can get 550 mb/s+ if you do a firmware update, more for the OS over games, but if you have room then hey, chuck 'em

RAM - 1866 would be of great help to your encoding & gaming, you could upgrade to THIS if you have the extra cash and are willing to spend it. 8gb is the spot for gaming, but the extra would help with your additional activities.

Cooler - This is one of the top 3 coolers you can get. Your looking at really low temps if you are planning to overclock, you seriously cannot go wrong with this. Will need to check the height of the cooler, not sure it'll fit in your case.

HDD - 500gb HDD for space as you suggested.

The above is based on your OP, you can use your Case & PSU, but if you are planning SLI, dont go below a 750w. I have not included a graphics card as the 7750 is not bad, but if you find it struggling, you can sell it and go for a ATI 7950/7970 or an nVidia 670/680.

A single card will allow up to 3 monitors, so you should be ok.

How does this seem?
 
I went for the HD 7950 to replace the HD 7750 as it's better and when overclocked, it's similar to the GTX 670 so will handle whatever you throw at it, went for the Z77 D3H motherboard as the HD 7950 will do and no need to crossfire, changed the RAM to Samsung Green as it can be easily overclocked to 2133MHz in BIOS, 10 pounds more for a 1TB HDD and also changed the cooler to the Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure as the Alpenföhn K2 will not fit in the Zalman Z9,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £245.99
1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £59.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £820.88 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
 
Wow thanks guys. I was mulling over motherboards and trying to see what ones had PCI-Express 3.0 slots so I can use the new GPU’s. I know the 3.0 are backwards compatible with 2.0 but don’t you need the 3.0 slot to take full advantage of the card? Oops, I did see the above m/b is PCI-E 3.0

I would get a new GPU as I made the mistake of buying a GDDR3 version as I thought the size of the card made the difference rather than the type of memory. The card is less than 3 months old too.

You know, I did look at some of the coolers but never realized they were THAT big. But if I need a larger case then that isn’t a problem. I can keep my current pc in the Z9 case.

If I add a case, GPU and PSU it would come to almost £1,000 but it’s cash I won’t be setting fire to :)

You have given me a few things to think about while I save up the cash so a big thanks for that.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom