Urgent System Components Spec

GodMac

GodMac

GodMac

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My sons PC broke in the week and he needs it for school work and video editing (Photoshop CS6, Cinema 4D etc.) plus he plays some games such as COD MW3, SkyRim and will want to play COD Ghost. The current spec is:

ASUS P5Q Mobo
Q6600 Quad CPU
8800GTX OC NVidia GFX Card
8GB OCZ Reaper DDR2
Corsair 650W PSU
128Gb SSD System Drive
Dual 1Tb SATA Drives for data and backup

I've put the 8800 Gfx card in my system and it doesn't work, so I know the gfx card is faulty. I've baked it twice which has helped it last an extra 1.5 years. I've put the known working gfx card from my system into his and it does not work (280 GTX) which I know is compatible and uses the same driver set. So the only thing I can think is that the CPU, Mobo and Gfx card have gone. So rather than replacing them, I'll just buy him new.

So what I really need is a new mobo, CPU + Fan, RAM and GFX card. I'm not looking to spend more than £400 and plan on keeping the same gaming 900 case, PSU and other HDD/SSD and peripherals. I'm interested in what I can get in Intel/Nvidia or AMD/ATI spec. I know the AMD CPU 8 core's are very good and more cost effective that Intel, but I bough to your experience....thank you in advance.

One other thing is I want to go to OC today to buy it so I can build it today/tomorrow.

Thanks.
 
Will you overclock this at all?

Any preference with regards to AMD/Nvidia graphics?

Will the graphics card choice affect your sons school work? Not sure but I thought Photoshop is optimized for Nvidia more?

Does he render C4D work on the CPU or on the GPU?
 
Intel:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4570 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £149.99
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x MSI H87M-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £76.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £436.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



AMD:
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £436.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



On this kind of budget, I think the AMD may well be the better option.

Food for thought, FX6300 and a better g/card:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) **FREE SHIPPING** £185.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £82.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £409.96 (includes shipping : FREE).



or an nVidia solution:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 670 OC Twin Frozr Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £82.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £435.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Last edited:
Oceaness: Yes he does rendering. If I could afford the Intel I would but AMD provide a lot for the value. Not heard PS is tailored for Nvidia??? School work is just MS Office Suite.

SnipsX86:

Not sure on the TeamGroup RAM, I prefer well known brands. What about the below:

Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel

I like the look of the ASRock and prefer the Piledriver 8-Core on offer for £139.00 as it comes with a heatsink and fan.

If I go with the 7870 Ice-Q with the above processor and RAM will the Gfx card cope with throughput i.e. no bottlenecking with the card?
 
I think on the budget you have given, the choice of components is limited. The 8350 is a good budget chip and the 7870 will be fine.

The 6300 comes with a HS&F too. As for the teamgroup, they do produce some good RAM and Overclockers will handle any warranty issues with all products, should an issue occur.
 
I think Snips' second rig with the 8 core would be the best. I think the increased rendering times would make the 6 core frustrating. I don't know what he renders but large renders can take hours or even days and the PC is largely unusable until it's finished usually.

The Teamgroup memory should be fine, it's pretty popular around here and still has a lifetime warranty with OcUK. So no sending it abroad for RMA, you get OcUK's level of customer service and you benefit from being close enough to take it back to the shop by the sounds of it.

snips86x said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £53.99
Total : £436.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

If you still dont want the Teamgroup then consider the following they're only £2 more but have tighter timings so will be slightly faster:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £55.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIG) - Green Light £55.99
1 x Avexir MPower Yellow Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £55.99
1 x Avexir MPower Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CRR) £55.99




Slight edit to Snips' first Intel build. Board is £10 more than the one he spec'd but comes with a free CPU cooler. Plus a little bit of themeing with the blue memory, blue board accents and blue on the graphics card (purely coincidental).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4570 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £149.99
1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £55.99
Total : £436.96 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Last edited:
So I think I have my spec thank you guys:

1 x HIS HD 7870 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H787QN2G2M) £143.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £55.99

Just one final question. I've always gone for ASUS mobo's (AMD & Intel chipset) so know the tuning features, but never experienced ASRock, I know the name but are they a reliable and resilient?

Thanks
 
Not sure about that. If I had another £30-£50 to play with on the mobo what would you recommend?
 
Well pointed out there T345 but with the offer I get a 5% performance increase for £20. Small price for a 5% increase and it will make a difference on rendering and frame rate. But thank you all the same.
 
The 8350 at its current price isn't bad at all. The 8320 was going for £125 not long ago.

But avoid the ASrock completely. It's no good for 8 core Piledriver CPUs, it'll throttle at small overclocks. Any Asus from the 970 EVO R2.0 plus is a good bet.
 
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