Upgradable new system

WolfieNotts

WolfieNotts

WolfieNotts

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Joined
1 Jul 2015
Posts
4
Morning chaps,

Hopefully someone can give me a little advice.

I am looking to build a new system, that I can easily upgrade later when ca$h is a little more plentiful.

I want a gaming machine, but only have around £500 to spend right now. I'd like a rig that I can upgrade the GFx card later. For the short term the new system will only be required for work tasks (some development, general web browsing etc) and some minor gaming but in the long run I want to be able to upgrade the gfx card and turn it into a decent gaming PC.

I have a 4k monitor already, so don't need a screen but would like to use the full 4k capability later. I'd prefer 16gb RAM but could accept 8GB in the short term, I don't need a SSD as I have one in a dead laptop that I will swap over later, but will need some sort of HDD in the machine from day one.

Upgrade ability is the key point here,so if I go for lower ram I would like to be able to simply slot in another ram stick later instead of having to replace the whole lot. Also for the gfx card I'd either want a cheap one to start with or buy a semi decent one now and have the ability of linking the cards later via sli etc.

I have considered buying a cpu/mb combination that will give me some gfx onboard, but unsure if this would give me any basic gaming from day one.
I'm not that bothered about sound card upgrades, so onboard will probably be ok. I will need a decent wifi card from day one as I won't have access to a lan port in the short term, I will also require an external dvd drive. I have no strong opinion about AMD vs Intel so it's pretty much down to cost vs speed vs the ability to upgrade without replacing everything.

So anyone have any advice/links or could suggest a build for me?

Thanks in advance
 
This would be a good starting point:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £89.99
1 x XFX XTR 750W '80 Plus Gold' Fully Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A2400C11R) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
Total : £529.96 (includes shipping : £11.75 Ex.VAT).



Its very upgradable, Overclocking possible (you'd just need to buy a cooler), Xfire/SLI possible (as you're running 4K this may come in handy), and enough space to upgrade RAM.

There should be no need to replace any of these parts you buy in the next few years so saving more money there..

Any questions?
 
Hi and welcome to the forums :)

So you have a 4k monitor and SSD and a budget of around £500 for a good upgradeable base.

I think you have to be realistic and accept that either you'll have to run on integrated graphics as even a budget GPU costs around £100, or up your budget a bit. Plus I don't know whether you want to game at 4k as some 4k monitors really aren't up to it and to be honest, considering the GPU requirements you may be better off buying a decent 1440p monitor which you can drive from one good GPU (980ti is king of the bang/buck at the moment)

This will serve as a good base - the motherboard will take 2 GPUs, the PSU is on offer and is made by Superflower. Motherboard has 4 RAM slots and is made by Gigabyte with UK RMA. The GPU will suffice for mild gaming now and you won't lose a bundle when you replace later. The case is a subjective choice but has the room for everything. If you want windowed or colour themed then this can be changed.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£12 Saving** £263.98
1 x MSI Radeon R7 360 Gaming 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £89.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova B2 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Hybrid Modular Power Supply (110-B2-0850-V3) £75.95
1 x Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition Mid-Tower PC Case - Black £50.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £46.99
Total : £587.48 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
Thanks for the ideas guys, the two builds look similar and could possibly look to make some minor changes to eak the price down a couple of quid. I could accept onboard gfx for the short term, as I'd be adding decent cards later. 4k gaming isn't a priority now. I'll investigate cooling options when I am looking at cards.

Any reason you didn't go the AMD route? Is it just personal preference or are there performance differences/pitfalls? AMD appears to be a bit cheaper.
 
Because AMD CPUs cannot compete with Intel right now, especially at the higher end. They get much less done per clock cycle than equivalent AMD parts. The AM3+ socket is end of life meaning future upgrades will be non-existent. AMD are only to be considered if you have a limited budget.
 
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