New PC

Cat_J · 8 Apr 2015 at 18:38

Hi all,

Just thought I'd put this up for your opinions. I have already ordered as there were 2 items on a this week only deal last night which I would have otherwise missed and blown the budget. Its just a PC for the missus to watch TV on mainly, but also occasionally play the sims etc.

For now I'm going to chuck an old 8800 GT in there as a stop gap until she can afford a decent GFX card (she has plenty of money for it but likes to spread it out :rolleyes:

). I wanted to go for something that can be easily upgraded and plan to overclock the buggery out of the Pentium, hence the board choice. The case choice was hers :cool:

Anything you would have done different? Will add a HDD at a later date too, all media is on my server anyway.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £62.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £59.99
1 x Plextor M6S 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (PX-128M6S) £57.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G1600HC9DC01) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower White/Purple Window £33.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £374.88 (includes shipping : ).

stulid · 8 Apr 2015 at 18:44

Doubt I would have had purple on my case.

And a cheaper Z97 board, one that doesnt do SLI etc.

Cat_J · 8 Apr 2015 at 18:48

Ha its her case. I did think the same but have a 2600K myself so thought when it came to upgrade time then cheap 1155 i7 on ebay and swap the boards over.

She'll never know

Cat_J · 11 Apr 2015 at 12:59

Thanks for the quick service as usual OcUK, ordered 11pm or so on Wednesday, arrived Friday. Besides the colour scheme not exactly being to my taste its a very nice case for the money.

Also the cooler provides excellent performance, I thought it might be a tight fit but didn't realise how close it cut it! Maybe 2-3mm clearence.

Phone photos..

Next month will add a graphics card. What do you guys think would be best value for money, I guess the most demanding thing she'll play is the Sims 4 but on high settings @ 1080p.

stulid · 11 Apr 2015 at 13:00

Resize those to 1280x wide dude.

Cat_J · 11 Apr 2015 at 13:00

stulid said:
Resize those to 1280x wide dude.

Will do

stulid · 11 Apr 2015 at 14:11

Looks tidy

Cat_J · 11 Apr 2015 at 14:20

Thanks

I routed the cables round the back as best I could, only downside to any of the parts was the CPU power lead could have been a bit longer. On a clean install with just anti virus and a few bits it actually boots into windows faster than my 2600k.

What would you recommend as a good video card for the Sims 4 at 1080p. I was thinking a 270X would probably hold up for a while.

stulid · 11 Apr 2015 at 14:25

750ti? some dont even need a power cable.

7870 (same as a 270X) - https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-345-MS

Andreas.96 · 11 Apr 2015 at 14:29

That'd be great, second hand would get you a great deal. If you fancy it?

nashathedog · 11 Apr 2015 at 14:57

I wouldn't be buying a dual core cpu if it's for gaming, There are games it won't run and more are bound to follow, A quad core is a must nowadays. Of course if it's only going to run a few games this is less of an issue but I'd go quad core to ensure future game compatibility. How long is it expected to last for?

Cat_J · 11 Apr 2015 at 15:05

Yeah I don't have any problem going second hand for the video card.

750ti would be nice, but i think she wants to keep it up to £100, i'll have a look about but if i'm buying new i'd like to get it from OcUK. I like the idea of a 7870, but I'm not sure I would trust that MSI card, I read they have some heat issues leading to RMAs.

Cat_J · 11 Apr 2015 at 15:09

nashathedog said:
I wouldn't be buying a dual core cpu if it's for gaming, There are games it won't run and more are bound to follow, A quad core is a must nowadays. Of course if it's only going to run a few games this is less of an issue but I'd go quad core to ensure future game compatibility. How long is it expected to last for?

The processor overclocks well, currently its producing over 1/3 the GFlops of my i7 at stock on the Intel burn in test. Haven't bothered with any benchmarks, and probably wont until video card is in.

The processor i'll keep until the i5s are cheaper 2nd hand then stick one in. Its probably very rarely going to be used for games and then only the Sims most likely.

Tbh with a decent video card I doubt its going to struggle too hard with anything out now at 1080p.

stulid · 11 Apr 2015 at 15:20

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-381-MS

A 270X but to be honest I have seen better deals on the MM such as a 7970 (280X) for like £90.