Upgrade from a old machine, budget ~£600

uZi

uZi

uZi

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Joined
1 Aug 2003
Posts
314
Hi, my current spec is:

CPU: Intel Q6600
Mobo: Asus Maximus Formula
RAM: 4Gb DDR2
GPU: 7870 XT
HDD: 256GB crucial M500 + some other old SATA drives
Sound: X-Fi Fatality
PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
Case: Lian Li PC70 (circa 2001 which I've cut holes in the side/top and added 120mm fans)
Monitor: Dell U2412M

I've also got an old Noctua heatsink which I think I can get a socket 1150 bracket for.

Clearly I'm ready for an upgrade, my thought is to keep the GPU/SSD and may as well keep the X-Fi as it'll probs still be better than on-board sound. Aside from that I think everything else needs updating - even my beloved Lian Li case which is just ridiculously large. I think the monitor is ok for now, but I'll probably be in the market for 120+Hz screen to go alongside my IPS in the future.

In terms of use, I mainly play games like BF4, CS:GO and ARMA3. I also work in 3D computational modelling, so I may want to run code on the machine occasionally (can use lots of memory - we've just ordered a workstation with 128GB) as well as visualise some large datasets, so 16GB of RAM is probably worth having.

My first spec attempt is the following, but feel free to suggest things completely differently!

So my thoughts are:
Asus Maximus VII Ranger - Devils Canyon Core i7 4790K CPU & Motherboard Bundle **£34 Saving** £365.94
Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K4/16X) Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX16C9T3K4/16X) £129.95
Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Windowed Midi Tower Case - Black (CC650DW) Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Windowed Midi Tower Case - Black (CC650DW) £99.95
Corsair CS650M 650W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020077-UK) Corsair CS650M 650W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020077-UK) £67.99
Total : £663.83

Thanks in advance!
 
Thanks for the info about gigabyte black editions - didn't know!

Is the faster memory a better choice over the tighter timings and quad channel?

What sort of overclock should I be expecting on air? - I was thinking I'd leave it at stock to begin with which is why I'd gone for 1600Mhz memory.

@Rhyswh: Already get free delivery, so doesn't matter!
 
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The CPU is dual channel only, so the four sticks will be just two per channel. No different than one per channel.

Faster = better = more bandwidth.
 
One other question about the PSU:

Who are SuperFlower? - last time I bought one of these random brands it was a Hiper Type R 580W and it failed on me (ok they did RMA it and it didn't take anything with it.. but still). I've been out of the loop for a while and I've never heard of them.

I went with a Corsair cos I've used them in the last 3 builds for friends/family over the last few years and they've all remained solid.
 
Superflower have been around for a long time.

They are new to the UK and OcUK.

They make PSUs for many other manufacturers such as NZXT and EVGA (Corsair for example do not make their own PSUs they get seasonic, CWT or whomever to make them and put a corsair logo on).


But that also varies between models.

example,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair AX760i Digital ATX '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020036-UK) £139.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX 760W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020045-UK) £129.95
Total : £279.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Look very similar apart from the "i"?

The non i is made by Seasonic, the i is made by Flextronics.

The Seasonic one I would regard as the higher quality unit.
 
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