Upgrade thoughts

[didgemaster]

Hi all

I think its time to make some changes to the IT setup in my house. I currently have an old toshiba laptop that isn't much good for anything anymore (only used for playing films on my TV). I also have 2 PCs

The first PC:

Case: HAF32
CPU: i7 920 (skt 1366)
Cooler: Corsair H50
Mobo: GA-EX58-UD5
Ram: Patriot Viper 6GB DDR3-1600
HDD: 3 X Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB
DVDR: Sony AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW
GFX: 2 X Nvdia GTX260
PSU Corsair 850HX (CMPSU-850HXUK)

I have had a lot of issues with this PC. I have flashed the BIOS to f12 but looses this and returns to f7 as a rusult it looses my overclock settings. I gave up trying to use the f12 BIOS for the overclock and stuck with the f7 BIOS. I also have had issues with th RAID-5 setup in that it kept marking one disk as faulty and so I have bought new disks on 2 seperate occations to rebuild the array - after the second time I tested the "faulty" disk to find that it was OK

second PC:

Case: Coolermaster N300
CPU: AMD PHENOM II X4 Quad Core 955
Cooler: Sunbeam 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer
Mobo: K9A2 Platinum
Ram: 4GB Kingston HyperX
HDD: 2 X 250GB
DVDR: Sony AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW
GFX: 2 X MSI GTX460
PSU Be Quiet 900W

I also have a Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B cooler

My thoughts are to bin the laptop, get a NAS, use the raspberry pi as a media streaming device to the TV and build a new PC.

If I was going to build a haswell based PC then what would you guys recommend and is there anything worth keeping from the two builds above.

As an intial build how about:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £275.99
1 x MSI HD 7970 GHz Twin FrozR OC BE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE GAMES £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £59.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Coollaboratory Liquid Pro Liquid Metal Thermal Paste £8.99
Total : £867.92 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This is a bit more than I wanted to spend idealy no more than £800

It will be used for some gaming, occasional virtual machine testing and I am a member of the folding team - see sig

Any advice gratefully received

 

[Webster]

change i7 to i5 and watercooler to an aircooler? Takes you below your £800 mark.

 

[didgemaster]

Sorry not to be clear I'm not so worried about pricing, I'd like to know if there is anything worth reusing

 

[Idleman]

If you reuse the Megahalem, that and free shipping brings you down to £800.

Also this memory.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual CHannel Kit (PV38G213C1K) £65.99
Total : £74.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

 

[Idleman]

Hdds, either optical drive, either of the Psus, Haf 932 can be reused.
Then sell off the rest.

 

[didgemaster]

I keep reading that PSUs have to be Haswell ready. Sorry to be lazy but what additional features do Haswell ready PSUs have?

 

[Idleman]

I keep reading that PSUs have to be Haswell ready. Sorry to be lazy but what additional features do Haswell ready PSUs have?

Something to do with the low voltages required for sleep state, the HX850 is fine. The Bequiet I don`t think is, is it the Dark Pro?

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page1354.htm

 

[didgemaster]

The HX850 I have is not the one that is currently stocked by OCUK

 

[Idleman]

The HX850 I have is not the one that is currently stocked by OCUK

Check the link.

The 850HX 80 Plus Gold is compatible.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm

 

[didgemaster]

Corsair 850HX (CMPSU-850HXUK) is a different power supply. This only won a silver award and is not Haswell ready