PC upgrade

[Thor_23]

Hi Guys,

So its that time again where I need a Beeg upgrade.
And I wanted your opinions as I am not that up to date with the latest hardware etc...

1. The CPU

initially I thought I would go with the i7 4790K. However, I have gone through toms hardware and apparently there is no reason to go that far as the i5 4690K is more than strong enough. And I should rather spend the money on a Graphics card.

2. Motherboard

Initially I wanted to go for the ROG Z97 Maximus Ranger. However I see there is a couple of other boards that looks to be good value for money. like the Asus Z97 sabertooth mark 2 or the gigabyte Z97X gaming 5.
So I think I will most propably be going for the ROG board? But like I mentioned these other boards seems to be also very good alternatives.

3. RAM

This is a pretty simple one.Going to get a 2x4gig set of XMS3 DDR3-1600

4. Graphics

Here its between the following 2 options:
1. the ATI R9 290 which has recently gone down a lot in price and I can get almost a grand cheaper thaan the other option
2. Nvidia GTX970 which is more expensive and seems to be slightly better on toms hardware
5. Screen

I want to purchase an aditional screen as I will be keping the old build I have as I second PC at home. Now I have looked at monitors recently and I see that there is a lot less of the 2ms variants available anymore.
Is this something that is dying out? I currently have a 2ms LED screen. And it seems to be hard on my eyes when I play extended hours. Maybe I should move back to a 5ms one? the one I have at work is a normal 5ms one and doesnt seems to be as hard on my eyes. Would I even see a difference from my current monitor in response time?

6. HD's

I will be keeping with my current SSD as my main system drive. might purchase a couple of 1tb drives for storage and putting them in raid for redundancy and better performance.

7.Optical

Is ther any use in getting something like this anymore. cant even remember when last I used my dvd writer. If I do get someting here is would be a Blu-ray writer. Might end up being a total waste of money?

8. PSU

the best value for money modular unit I can see is the GM series coolermaster 650w PSU. Should be more than enough juice. Currently I have a 550w gigabyte PSU.

9. Case

I am also looking for a smaller case. I currently have a HAF and its huge.

I had a look at the Coolermaster storm series - Enforcer. Not too expensive. has some cable management available and enough space on the inside.

10. CPU Cooler

So I dont believe in having a stock CPU cooler, but also dont have budget left for a nice cooler. So I looked at the Coolermaster Hyper D92 as a mid range offering and the reiews seems decent.
Also, its very similar in design to the curret air cooler I have installed. Which is also a coolermaster....



Any thought on the above would be great. Suffice to say, I will be spending a lot of money and would prefer not to waste money on things that would be a waste....

[SlipperyDuck]

Absolutely stick with the GTX970 - seriously good card and well worth that bit more than the AMD card "equivelent(no real equiv TBH)"

I would recommend ( i only see these at wootware at the moment ) Super Flower power supply - cheaper and better quality
- The reason for this, Most power supplier manufacturers are Tier 2 or Tier 3, they use Tier 1 suppliers to build their power supplies
- Super Flower is a Tier 1 and you get super high quality power supplies (with more features) for less that the big name brands
- http://www.wootware.co.za/super-flower-sf-600p14xe-hx-golden-green-hx-600w-80-plus-gold-certified-desktop-power-supply.html

Optical drive - pointless waste of money - everything can be done using USB - unless you write DVDs etc. there really is no need for an optical drive anymore

everything else will do you well, very well in-fact for quite a while.

[Morphza]

2x4gig set of XMS3 DDR3-1600

Why would you settle for only 8GB?? 16GB should be your starting point these days... and maybe spend a little extra and 2000Mhz+ ?


CPU cooler
- I decided to get water cooling (closed system) on my last build, and will never go back to Air Cooling.
Take a look at the Corsair series... H60, H70, H100, etc

[Thor_23]

Thanks Lee will have a look at the PSU's.... See they only have a 600. Was hoping to get a 650 as I want that extra buffer.

@ Morph only reason I was looking to get the 8 instead of 16 and the air cooler instead is purely budget related. Can move a bit for funds arround however. SO maybe I will ditch the optical drive and either change the cooler or get more ram.... Will have to look at the options.

[J_Th4ng]

Definitely get the lower CPU, going for an i7 is a waste of money for gaming.

I'm a firm believer in good quality motherboards, and particularly ASUS boards. Having a I'd that, you don't need to stretch as far as a ROG board, they are a ultra premium. The sabertooth boards are also excellent, I had one previously. You might be able to save a little cash there.


GPU - I favour the nVidia card personally, but there is a great deal of personal preference in the AMD/nVidia decision. Consider Freesync which has just coming out now for AMD, which will give a much cheaper adaptive sync option than gsync.


RAM - stretch for 16GB if you can. Speed is relatively unimportant here, so 1600 ram is fine.


Optical drive - no need for one of these, they are dirt cheap though, so won't save you much cash.

[Paul]

If you want a smaller case make sure the GPU will fit. Some of these GPU's are very long

[Thor_23]

If you want a smaller case make sure the GPU will fit. Some of these GPU's are very long

Thanks Paul.

Checked and the case I am getting has remmovable extra HDD bays. Can remove them and then the GPU will fit

http://gaming.coolermaster.com/en/products/cases/enforcer/

[Reaper]

Also, one thing i have learnt the hard way, dont buy the GPU new. You can pick up some really good deals on Carbonite.

[Morphza]

Also, one thing i have learnt the hard way, dont buy the GPU new. You can pick up some really good deals on Carbonite.

That is if you can handle the trust of second hand... it would kill me.

[KakHard]

2nd hand wiff warranty boet.

[Voetsek-Mikey]

I got my R9 280X from someone second hand.

Saved loads and the card is still under warranty. :D

[Morphza]

I have a murphy's law that plagues me... things work 100% until day after warranty! :(

[Thor_23]

I have a murphy's law that plagues me... things work 100% until day after warranty! :(
haha

same here, I will stay away from second hand parts