Gaming machine - upgrade or new build?

[NirvBringer]

I have an old machine which can't even run DayZ at min specs. I'm looking to start playing the top end games at decent resolutions on my large flatscreen tv.

Here is my current setup:
Gigabyte GA-K8VT800
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz
Radeon X1800
3GB RAM
Win 7 32-Bit
1TB Samsung HDD

I'm looking for a pure gaming machine with no frills - I have all the peripherals. From my research SLI/crossfire looks interesting. I will definitely need an SSD drive. I should change my OS to 64-Bit. I'm willing to try watercooling if I can be convinced its worth the money vs. performance increase. Any suggestions?

 

[Fire_fly]

Hi and welcome.

Your looking at a complete new build i'm afraid. You may be able to salvage a few parts though, What case and PSU do you have? Also do you have a 64bit copy of windows 7, ie a disk? More importantly what is your budget?

 

[NirvBringer]

Hi, thanks for the welcome. If it's a new build I'm thinking I may as well go for something that will last at least 5 years - so upgradability is key. Anything up to £1500 hopefully means that extra components will not be relevant with current games technology.

What is the maximum useful (for pure gaming) graphics memory size? 2GB, 4GB, 6GB? If I do link more than one card together I have read that the i7-3930K (as opposed to the i5 which everyone recomends) can help with performance, is this true? Also, as I understand it, no game will ever require more than 8GB RAM.

I think the only thing I will want to reuse is the HDD, but definitely not for the OS. I can supply my own monitor, keyboard, mouse, Win 7 64b. I don't need an expensive case and I only need a DVD drive to install Win 7, after that I will probably never use it again.

 

[Fire_fly]

As stands for 1080p gaming 2Gb of graphics card memory is enough unless you want to go for multi-monitor system across 3 or more screens. The only thing the i7 brings over the i5 is hyper-threading few games currently make use of it, and I don' think it effects SLI or X-fire performance. 8GB of RAM is more than enough for gaming at the moment but like all of this guessing what you will need in five years time is difficult, most people tend to upgrade their stuff about every 4 or so years.

 

[NirvBringer]

I wont be playing on more than one monitor, but I would like to know what Far Cry 2 looks like at top resolution! When I say it will last 5 years, I mean it will take useful upgrades like more GPU/CPU when required - unlike my current setup which cannot.

Tom's Hardware seemed to suggest the i7 would be relevant at extreme GPU memory sizes. But I guess this is probably more extreme than I need.

Where do you stand on watercooling? Is it worth the cost for the OC ability (ignoring looks etc).

 

[Fire_fly]

If you are just gaming on a single screen then stick to an i5 and 2GB of graphics memory.

Water cooling is a nice extra but personally I don't think it is worth the extra cost unless you are going for an extreme overclock, although I'm sure you will find someone with more experience of them than me who is willing to disagree. A £30 air cooler should give you a fairly respectable 4.2 to 4.4GHz overclock on the i5, while a good water loop will take you to nearer 5Ghz. I'm not sure how good a custom loop costs so I can't really help you there.

 

[tamzzy]

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £80.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 3000 Midi Tower Case - Black £54.98
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 500GB SATA 6GB/s 16MB Cache - OEM (0F13178) £49.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
Total : £958.88 (includes shipping : £12.50).



i5 is fine for gaming
reuse your win7 if you can. the keys are interchangable with 32/64 bit, you can download the 64bit images from the net. a quick google will show you where.
non-sli spec, mobo and psu specced as such

 

[Fire_fly]

I have gone for the same approach as Tamzzy, but with slightly better components. if you want an upgrade in the future then the motherboard will allow you to put and other 670 in when that one starts to struggle. I have also included a large 256GB SSD for all your OS and quite a few games.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) £155.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series HX+ 750W '80+ Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020031-UK) £119.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £59.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £1,187.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 

[NirvBringer]

Thank you. That's cleared away a lot of confusion. I think the ability to add another card is important so I will likely go for that solution.