My First Custom Build/Upgrade time

bigfeetz

bigfeetz

bigfeetz

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Joined
8 Sep 2013
Posts
45
So earlier this year I built my first pc from scratch and I've been extremely happy with it. Here are the original build specs.

AMD FX-6300 Vishera (original cooling that came with it, yeah I know it sucks!)
Nvidia GTX 660 msi oc twinfrozr III
8gb of 1600MHz Ram
******** Black Edition 750w PSU (modular)
Asus M5A96 LE R2.0 Motherboard
Seagate 500gb 7200rpm HDD
NZXT Phantom enthusiant case in black (love this case).
Put a fan in every possible slot

Upgraded a few bits.

Got an r9 280x
Got a 128gb SSD
Got another 4gb of dual channel ram taking me to 12gb of 1600mhz ram

So I want to upgrade this thing some more, at the moment its looking like my CPU is bottlenecking. I was playing a game last night maxed out and my graphics card was at 30% whereas my cpu was maxing on 4 cores. Benchmarking also shows my GPU scoring much higher than my CPU (but I guess thats obvious to a lot of you =P).

No intel cpus, I cannot afford to upgrade the mobo at this time and the cpu with it. I have taken a look at the FX-9590 and that seems to be the top dog when it comes to AMD processors even though it would take a serious cooler and I dont know if my PSU would be able to handle it. Suggestions? I want to make the best upgrade I can for this system, any help is appreciated =)
 
PSU is a N o v a t e c h 750w black edition, Seems it starred that out. Why would I need an upgraded Mobo I know mine isnt the best but does it matter all that much, im not gonna be running 2 graphic cards or tedious amounts of stuff of it. Yet haha. My budget at the highest lvl would be £250 at the very most.
 
Haha, and understandable with the competitor brand thing but tough luck i needed to say what it was =P Definately Xfire in the future. And bi overclocker? I like overclocking if thats what you mean, havnt touched my cpu yet but have messed about with my graphics card.
 
Ok i got one final question, may aswell not shut intel out of the runnings. For £250 a mobo that supports amd Xfire and an intel cpu. GO! (doing my own research in the mean time but u guys have already trumped me on the amd stuff haha)
 
im gonna raise my budget to be honest. Im selling my old card for £50 and getting potentially £200 in cash from parents not to mention relatives. I reackon i can stretch £300+
 
My computer has been throwing out a plethora of errors these past few weeks, 1 requiring a reinstall of windows, the other causing me to want to smash it with a hammer and the latest (fixed) where it stopped recognizing usb storage devices.... Soon as I get my new hardware its getting a full re-install with all my hard drives etc fully checked so i know they are working properly...

/rant
 
Ive made a decision and changed my mind. 8350/8320 it is. I do some video editing aswell as gaming so it wins out for the video editing ofc. The 8320 is just an underclocked 8350 right? meaning the 8320 can reach the same overclocking results as an 8350 (chips differ i know!!!).
 
Arghh i still cant make up my mind, im guaranteed the processor and enough money to buy a motherboard shortly after christmas. Please someone just slap me and say "Buy this you prat".
 
Well i've got £100 in my bank account so i can order the mobo early and pick it up with the chip on saturday so if anyone has any other suggestions than the mobo last posted that'll be the one =)

Edit: I just worked something out that worked out quite insane if ive calculator it right. im going to have approx £385 to spend on the cpu and mobo alone. The cooler ill have money for shortly after xmas. I could theoritically buy an i7 =D my god my budget keeps getting higher and higher. Definately sod amd now.

Edit2: Ok so £385 cpu and mobo definate upgrade (cpu cooler after xmas not from this budget) what would you buy to go with my system.

Edit3: Sorry 5am super exited after ive just found out my budget has skyrocketed. Call it £400 include a cpu cooler go!

Edit4: I promise to stop editing but. £400 any upgrade, doing my own research ofcourse but im like a child in a candy shop hyped up on far too much caffeine =D
 
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So that gigabyte mobo was out of stock so I went with the Asus GRYPHON z87. Was slightly more expensive but from reviews it seems to be a good board. Picking it up tomorrow but im not allowed it till christmas! Although they may find me in the living room at 5am putting it in haha
 
Ok picking up the mobo + cpu tomorrow but I cant have them till Christmas =P I have a question regarding case chassis fans.

here is my case http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-023-NX

I have installed
120mm fan at the front taking air in
2x120mm fans at the bottom right on the side panel taking air in
200mm fan at the top left of the side panel (blows onto the gpu + cpu)
2x200mm fans at the top of the case to take hot air out
120mm fan at the back of the case also taking air out

All the fan slots are filled although there's still room to put some in unconventional places. Any suggestions with moving these fans around or do you think these are placed correctly. Found an issue also with the case's fan controller. If you have both the 120mm side fans connected to the fan controller it will shut those fans off if you put it over 25% power. Fixed that by connecting one of those fans to the psu as I run my fans at 100% anyway (meh who cares about sound when you have awesome headphones ^^).
 
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What would you suggest doing with said 200mm fan? well tbh thats irrelevent as soon there will be a radiator in its place as i plan to have watercooling for my cpu
 
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