Rigs - best path

Jae-So

Jae-So

Jae-So

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2010
Posts
3,815
Location
UK
Hi dudes, sorry for the longish post...

So I'm not doing a full upgrade any time soon, but I am interested in your thoughts on the path to take with my rigs. Just helps me see how other people would approach this.

So I currently run the following:

i7-750 with Corsair H50/ Gigabyte P55-UD4/ 8GB ram
Windforce GTX 670 SLI
Antec 1200 with Corsair HX850
120GB SSD (OS), 320GB HDD (apps), 2TB HDD (media), 500GB HDD (games)

So originally I decided I wanted to massively downsize the PC and use the old (full ATX) rig as a media server and downstairs gaming rig. So I bought an Maximus VI ITX mobo, Betfenix Prodigy case and Corsair H100 in preparation, but life and it's associated costs put the upgrade on hold.

More recently I decided the above didn't make sense, particularly as I might want to use watercooling in the gaming rig one day. So instead I am thinking about using the PC as it is for a while longer while building a decent but lower power gaming rig for downstairs, using the ITX board (board is overkill but worth using). Here is how the PCs will end up after both have been sorted (2nd PC built before upgrading 2nd rig):

PC 1 - Gaming and productivity PC
i7-4770K with H100/ Good ATX board/ 16GB ram
Windforce GTX 670 SLI --> upgrade later
CM690 III with Corsair HX850
120GB SSD (OS), 320GB HDD (apps), 2TB HDD (local media/storage), 500GB HDD (games)

PC 2 - Secondary gaming PC + Plex/media server
i5-4670K with H60i/ Asus Maximus VI impact/ 8GB ram
GTX 460 (have one spare) --> Windforce GTX670 when i upgrade the other rig.
Betfenix Prodigy with Corsair HX650
120GB SSD (OS), 4TB HDD (games and media)

So yeh what have I not considered and what are your thoughts guys?
 
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What SSD do you have? some dont like Z87+97 chipsets.

OcUK sell the CM690III with a coolermaster 120mm AIO which could go into the Prodigy.

Im guess you will use your existing RAM in that smaller setup?

Do you have the HX650 already?
 
stulid said:
What SSD do you have? some dont like Z87+97 chipsets.

OcUK sell the CM690III with a coolermaster 120mm AIO which could go into the Prodigy.

Im guess you will use your existing RAM in that smaller setup?

Do you have the HX650 already?
Click to expand...

Hi Stulid,

SSD is the 120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD

Sweet will look into that bundle when ready to start on PC 2 in a few months, will have to see how the cooler performs against the H60i.

I wanted to use the existing RAM but I am currently using 4x2GB (won't fit in the ITX board), so will likely stay in PC 1 after the upgrade until I am ready to buy 4x4GB.

No don't have the HX650 yet
 
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No-one else have any general thoughts on the direction of the rig?

Stulid you are persuasive. Couldn't pass up the bundled Seidon so bought the CM690 III as I really wanted it anyway :D
 
On the topic of storage, I'd go with a 250GB main SSD and go for a single 2TB mechanical hard drive. You can partition the drives (google it if you don't know) to have them appear as separate drives on the OS. SSD would hold the OS, which takes up barely any space and frequently used programs/frequently accessed files. The 2TB HDD can be partitioned for the other stuff and if you run out of space... that's what upgrades are for :)

As for the CPU, I'd recommend a 4790K (maybe that was meant in the first place?) with a decent motherboard. For example the motherboard bundles like...
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £385.98
Total : £395.58 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).


This one comes with a free upgrade and is good value for money. For separate boards, I'd suggest a Gigabyte Z97X-SLI at the minimum.
 
Cheers for the input, I'm a big Gigabyte fan actually. These a better choice than the Asius RoG range?

Thing is I already have all the hard drives in rig 1 so figured I would keep them. I am definitely partitioning the larg hard drive on the 2nd rig though. Maybe what I will do is get a 250GB SSD for rig 1 and the 120GB one gets put in rig 2
 
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mahius said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK - Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£15 Saving + Gigabyte Free Upgrade ** £385.98
Total : £395.58 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).


This one comes with a free upgrade and is good value for money. For separate boards, I'd suggest a Gigabyte Z97X-SLI at the minimum.
Click to expand...

This MB is EOL, I know it shows as in stock but I have had an order sat for over a week and when challenged was explained that there is an error on the website and the board is out of life
 
Some really solid suggestions guys thanks. I'll have to look at the bundles soon. I've got a wedding to fund in the next couple of months so will see afterwards :)
 
Thread revival.

So I've scrapped the idea of running two gaming PCs and will sell on the spare stuff I had. 1 main PC + gaming laptop seems a better idea.

I was thinking a gaming laptop would work well and I could "dock" it for gaming downstairs.

Anyone here bought one of the B grade laptops, look like great deals but the warranty situation worries me.

Also what's a decent gaming spec. Thinking i7 4700 series/ SSD/ GTX970m
 
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