New build to replace 5year old pc

[Dominus]

Hi All,

Looking to finally bite the bullet and upgrade 5 year old pc's for both my brother and I.

I usually buy 2 of everything, so we both have matching pc's pretty much. Below is the current spec:

CPU: Core2Duo E8500 @ stock
Mobo: Asus P5Q-Deluxe
Ram: 4Gb Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066Mhz
GPU: HIS 4870 1Gb
HDDs: 1xSandisk 120Gb SSD,
1x1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1,
2xSamsung SpinPoint F1 in RAID 1
Case: Antec 300
PSU: Corsair 620W Modular
Monitor: Dell 24" 2407, Dell 24" 2408 (bro's)
Mouse: Razor DeathAdder
Keybd: mine is PS2, so prob needs replacing, possibly interested in a not too expensive mechanical perhaps.

So yeah, its very old, and I'm surprised I've managed to eek it out this long.

My brother and I are both gamers (him so more than me), but would like to build a system that will last a long time again if possible.
I prob wont be overclocking, but want to have the option available should I wish to do so. If I do it will only be a mild overclock, say to 4ghz 24/7.

Here's my current basket:
1x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
1x Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
1x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21330904G-2CIG) - Green Light
1x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included
1x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW)
1x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX) HDD
1x BeQuiet Dark Rock 2 CPU Cooler
1x Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply
1x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
1x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Windowed Midi Tower Case - Black (CC650DW)

Other things I would need would be some case cooling fans (if the corsair above doesn't come with any), and possible a mechanical keyboard.

I'd like to keep the budget £1200 max (but I'm all for saving monies )

Thanks in advance.

 

[Idleman]

How old are your Sandisk, hdds and Psu?
The Sniper has PS2 port, so you could still use your keyboard.

 

[Dominus]

They are Sandisk 120gb Extreme SSD's bought May last year.
The Samsung Spinpoint F1's are 3 years old (blimey!), and only SATA 2.

PSU's are 5yrs (brothers), and mine prob 4.5years (as mine blew and was RMA'd).

 

[Idleman]

They are Sandisk 120gb Extreme SSD's bought May last year.
The Samsung Spinpoint F1's are 3 years old (blimey!), and only SATA 2.

PSU's are 5yrs (brothers), and mine prob 4.5years (as mine blew and was RMA'd).

You can re-use the ssd and hdds, assuming they are all in good health.

 

[EdgeDs]

Looks a fairly solid build but a 4 thread cpu may have a fairly limited future as computers seem to be moving towards using more and more cores.

 

[Akagi]

I'd honestly just replace the core system, GPU and case.

Nothing wrong with your drives, nor your 4.5yr old HX620 modular. (if you overclock the CPU and run stress tests on the CPU and GPU at the same time you would still only be at about 550W)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £263.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £247.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
Total : £749.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Motherboard comes with a free Prolimatech Panther:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler £32.99

 

[Dominus]

I prob will reuse the sandisks anyway, but was thinking of having:

1x SSD for OS (sandisk)
1x SSD for certain Apps/Games (new one)
1x HDD for Other Apps/Games
2x HDD in RAID 1 for Data

In my current pc I've got it set up like that (minus the 2nd ssd ofc).
My brothers is different, he doesn't have SSD (it's still boxed - I'm lazy lol), and doesn't have any RAID1 set up.

So I was also thinking of kinda starting fresh from scratch, ending up with 2 whole new pc's, reusing the SSD's, and possibly some of the HDDs.

Then whats left of the 2 current pc's, one can be set up as a home server of some kind, and the other one will probably go to another family member.

Also I should note that I will probably reuse my Retail Win7 Pro OS (of which I have a spare copy that can be used for the family member refurb).

Are SATA 3 HDDs noticeably quicker than SATA 2 HDDs?

 

[Akagi]

As I said in my previous post, you could get away with spending far less if you re-use some of the old parts, and then you could buy a couple of used storage drives and PSU's to keep the two old systems chugging along. (£60 total perhaps?)

And you will notice no difference between SATA 2 & 3 with mechanical HDD's.

Otherwise, to complete my previous spec (inc PSU and second SSD):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £263.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £247.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
Total : £909.49 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Dominus]

Looks a fairly solid build but a 4 thread cpu may have a fairly limited future as computers seem to be moving towards using more and more cores.

Heh I'm very tempted to get a 4770k, it would future proof more I suppose.

I'd honestly just replace the core system, GPU and case.

Nothing wrong with your drives, nor your 4.5yr old HX620 modular. (if you overclock the CPU and run stress tests on the CPU and GPU at the same time you would still only be at about 550W)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included £263.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £247.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
Total : £749.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Motherboard comes with a free Prolimatech Panther:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler £32.99

The free cooler is tempting with that motherboard.
As for the case I've always wanted to get a nice case. But yeh, perhaps the £140 650D is a bit excessive hehe.

Also, I've so far out of the loop with overclocking these days. Is 1600Mhz ram perfectly fine for a 4Ghz OC should I clock the cpu?

Cheers all, helpful tips so far.

 

[Dominus]

As I said in my previous post, you could get away with spending far less if you re-use some of the old parts, and then you could buy a couple of used storage drives and PSU's to keep the two old systems chugging along. (£60 total perhaps?)

And you will notice no difference between SATA 2 & 3 with mechanical HDD's.

True, I've got an even older pc (single core Athlon64 3000 or something, 1gb ddr1 ram), sitting here idle that I could butcher the pcie gpu from, and possibly even the hdd's (has 2x250gb samsungs that are healthy afaik), and maybe the psu (its 350w iirc).

That could potentially be the other family member pc, should he want it. But I think he's more inclined to a laptop these days, but he wouldn't say no to a free pc thats (if only slightly) better than the last one he had off me. hah

 

[Akagi]

The free cooler is tempting with that motherboard.
As for the case I've always wanted to get a nice case. But yeh, perhaps the £140 650D is a bit excessive hehe.

Also, I've so far out of the loop with overclocking these days. Is 1600Mhz ram perfectly fine for a 4Ghz OC should I clock the cpu?

Cheers all, helpful tips so far.

1600MHz RAM will be fine for well beyond 4GHz. I'm using 1600MHz RAM myself, my i5 (2500K) is currently at 4.6GHz, and has been north of 5GHz before.
Overclocking works differently now, you can ignore anything to do with the RAM in most cases. Not like on socket 775 and AM2 where messing with the CPU clock ruined the RAM speed.

If you want a nice case, you go for it! But the 650D has been superceeded by this now:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £131.99



I did also go back and edit my previous post (#8) to have a complete spec which includes the PSU and second SSD if you wanted to leave the old systems as they are

 

[Dominus]

Hows this look:

Your basket

CPU/Ram/Mobo:
1x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
1x Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
1x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIG) - Green Light

CPU Cooling:
1x Prolimatech Black Megahalems CPU Cooler
1x BitFenix Spectre PRO 120mm Fan Green LED - Black

GPU:
1x Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with BattleField 4 PC Game Included

SSD/HDD:
1x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW)
1x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD


Case/Psu/DVD Drive:
1x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
1x Be Quiet Power Zone 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply
1x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW)

Total : £1,190.80