New build/spec check

Sagotua · 28 May 2014 at 18:18

Hello and first of all I would like to say that this is my first post on this forum so hello to everyone,

Now to business, soon I am planning on building a new PC, mainly for gaming (not too high-end) mostly just mid range, and I would like your opinion on possible bottlenecks and so on, so the specs are:

Corsair Obsidian 350d
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard
8GB of Corsair Dominator platinum RAM 1600mhz
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti in SLI mode
Intel i3 4340 (3.6ghz)
Corsair TX750W power supply

My only concern is the SLI. I already have one 560Ti which is more than enough however my friend is selling his one quite cheap and his is exactly the same as in the same cooler etc. Or should I just upgrade to a more high end card?. And the CPU, is it worth upgrading to i5 instead of i3.

Thank you all

Danny75 · 28 May 2014 at 18:37

Sagotua said:
Hello and first of all I would like to say that this is my first post on this forum so hello to everyone,

Now to business, soon I am planning on building a new PC, mainly for gaming (not too high-end) mostly just mid range, and I would like your opinion on possible bottlenecks and so on, so the specs are:

Corsair Obsidian 350d
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard
8GB of Corsair Dominator platinum RAM 1600mhz
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti in SLI mode
Intel i3 4340 (3.6ghz)
Corsair TX750W power supply

My only concern is the SLI. I already have one 560Ti which is more than enough however my friend is selling his one quite cheap and his is exactly the same as in the same cooler etc. Or should I just upgrade to a more high end card?. And the CPU, is it worth upgrading to i5 instead of i3.

Thank you all

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The motherboard you want is too big for the 350D case. You'll need to decide if you'd like a Micro-ATX motherboard to fit the case, or if you want a different case, in order to keep that motherboard.

The Z97 motherboards are overclocking motherboards and the i3 CPU is not overclockable, so unless you really need some of the other features on a Z97 mobo, you could go for a H97 (for instance). If you are thinking of upgrading to an overclockable CPU in future, then by all means go for a Z97.

As for the GPU, the 560Ti is getting on a bit. SLI could be a temporary solution if you don't want to spend too much. How much money are you willing to spend on a new rig, in total? There are cheaper cases than the 350D which would allow you to squeeze in an i5 perhaps.

Doomedspeed · 28 May 2014 at 18:52

Welcome,

As has been pointed out, theres a few issues.

What is the rig for?

How much are you looking to spend?

What rig are you currently using?

Sagotua · 28 May 2014 at 20:32

Well to be honest my budget is pretty unlimited but its a secondary built for my little brother.

I could just go for the 450d to fit the motherboard. And are you suggesting I should get an i5, I have no intention of overclocking it as I never seemed it worthwhile with cooling and so on and I'd prefer a stable PC.

And in case of the graphics card I was looking at the 660 or the 670 which could possibly be replaced instead of the SLI 560.

And I suppose the rig is for gaming but not too overpowered. 60FPS on games like Watch Dogs and Max Payne will do

Sagotua · 28 May 2014 at 20:33

Doomedspeed said:
Welcome,

What rig are you currently using?

Im currently using a mini pc fitted nicely into a CM 130 Elite. I only use it for Uni work aka office and occasional Starcraft gaming

Danny75 · 28 May 2014 at 23:01

Sagotua said:
I could just go for the 450d to fit the motherboard. And are you suggesting I should get an i5, I have no intention of overclocking it as I never seemed it worthwhile with cooling and so on and I'd prefer a stable PC.

There are locked i5's too. And an i5 will be beneficial for games like Watch Dogs.

Intel and, to a lesser extent, AMD will like this: even pushing the Ultra detail preset, Watch Dogs is a CPU-bound game. Ubisoft Montreal developed the PC version in concert with its console efforts, and optimizations for those platforms seems apparent. Programming for the PlayStation's and Xbox's host processors involves getting the most out of fairly lightweight platforms. Naturally, then, well-threaded desktop CPUs benefit strongly.

When it comes to gaming, we rarely see the FX-8350 outperform a Core i3. But AMD's flagship walks away with a clear win in that match-up. Based on what we're seeing, serious fans of the game will want an FX-6000-series chip at least, but an FX-8000 or Core i5 should be much better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-pc-performance,3833-8.html

So if you were thinking Intel i3, an AMD build would be better, unless you went for an Intel i5 instead.

Sagotua said:
And in case of the graphics card I was looking at the 660 or the 670 which could possibly be replaced instead of the SLI 560.

Why not a newer GTX 7XX series, or an R9 270X/280?

Sagotua said:
And I suppose the rig is for gaming but not too overpowered. 60FPS on games like Watch Dogs and Max Payne will do

Okay, well you may have to lower some settings in some games (plenty of people buy GTX 770's/R9 280X's to ensure 60 FPS @ 1080P resolution in all or just about all games). But that's slightly above mid-range, a little too overpowered from the sounds of it.

Here's an example of a CrossFire ready mid-range system with the latest components, in a 350D, with black/orange theme:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Toxic OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte H97M-D3H Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
Total : £611.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Guessing you have drives already as you didn't spec any, and OS?

Optional bling:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Aerocool Air Force LED Fan - Orange - 140mm £12.95
1 x NZXT CB-LED10-WT 12x White LED Sleeve - 1m £9.98
1 x Aerocool Air Force LED Fan - Orange - 120mm £9.95
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Orange £8.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy 6pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.49 (£12.98)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Orange £5.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Internal Audio Extension Adaptor 30cm - Orange £4.49
4 x BitFenix Alchemy 2pin I/O extension 30cm - Orange £3.95 (£15.80)

If you prefer Nvidia, you could swap the card for a GTX 760, but for Nvidia SLI you'd need a different (SLI-capable) motherboard too.

Sagotua · 1 Jun 2014 at 02:18

Danny75 said:
There are locked i5's too. And an i5 will be beneficial for games like Watch Dogs.

So if you were thinking Intel i3, an AMD build would be better, unless you went for an Intel i5 instead.

Why not a newer GTX 7XX series, or an R9 270X/280?

Okay, well you may have to lower some settings in some games (plenty of people buy GTX 770's/R9 280X's to ensure 60 FPS @ 1080P resolution in all or just about all games). But that's slightly above mid-range, a little too overpowered from the sounds of it.

Here's an example of a CrossFire ready mid-range system with the latest components, in a 350D, with black/orange theme:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Toxic OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £169.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Windowed Micro ATX Case - Black (CC-9011029-WW) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte H97M-D3H Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G1600HC9DC01) £55.99
Total : £611.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Guessing you have drives already as you didn't spec any, and OS?

Optional bling:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Aerocool Air Force LED Fan - Orange - 140mm £12.95
1 x NZXT CB-LED10-WT 12x White LED Sleeve - 1m £9.98
1 x Aerocool Air Force LED Fan - Orange - 120mm £9.95
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Orange £8.99
2 x BitFenix Alchemy 6pin PCI-E extension 45cm - Orange £6.49 (£12.98)
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Orange £5.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy Internal Audio Extension Adaptor 30cm - Orange £4.49
4 x BitFenix Alchemy 2pin I/O extension 30cm - Orange £3.95 (£15.80)

If you prefer Nvidia, you could swap the card for a GTX 760, but for Nvidia SLI you'd need a different (SLI-capable) motherboard too.

Thanks for your time and the input. The R9 gpu's seem amazing and I love the black and orange theme. I'll get this tax rebated from my company so it will be much cheaper and I will see how it all goes and I'll post back.

Thanks again