Got Enough Money To Upgrade Motherboard, CPU & RAM!

[brandonwh64]

But it's not our money - it is his.
We can't play with other people's money and offer them overkill parts, just because we like hardware and would have picked them in his place.
Mathematically, x60 is the wiser choice, unless you need more. At 1600x900 resolution - you don't.

It sure is his money so let him decide instead of making him use older hardware

 

[Dent1]

And also, when I get enough money for my GPU. Should I upgrade it from my 5870 to something like the GTX 770 SC? I'm gaming on a 1600x900 resolution. And how much of an improvement will I see from my current rig to this new haswel build? Specs on my profile! Thanks!

I would just get what you listed in the OP cause later on you can always get a better monitor easier. The 660 will be obsolete quickly, I just came from 6950 unlocked Xfire and the higher end 7970 was a great choice for a single card solution and lower wattage usage.

I think the 770 would be a perfect card for that setup

Come on guys lets stick to the budget.

A GTX 770 is priced between £315-350. That is 2/3 of the OPs budget on GPU that he doesn't even need right away - Leaves no money for motherboard and CPU.

The 5870 has a lot of life left in it at your resolution, by the time you upgrade the GPU there will be better cards for cheaper than the GTX 770. I'd worry about the next card when the time comes.

 

[springs113]

If I am the op...I would go with the 4770, maybe the msi gd45/65 mobo...and maybe cheaper ram but his ram selection is fine too. Keep your 5870 for the monitor you have now it will handle it...Later on down the road update your gpu and monitor. I would definitely not buy a gpu now especially with the rumors circulating that the next amd series of gpu is around the corner.

 

[EthanDW]

Come on guys lets stick to the budget.

A GTX 770 is priced between £315-350. That is 2/3 of the OPs budget on GPU that he doesn't even need right away - Leaves no money for motherboard and CPU.

The 5870 has a lot of life left in it at your resolution, by the time you upgrade the GPU there will be better cards for cheaper than the GTX 770. I'd worry about the next card when the time comes.

Couldn't agree more.
This is precisely the message I was trying to convey.
I think he should upgrade his platform(cpu+mobo+ram) and wait with the gpu upgrade for the time when he actually needs some more graphics power.

If I am the op...I would go with the 4770, maybe the msi gd45/65 mobo...and maybe cheaper ram but his ram selection is fine too. Keep your 5870 for the monitor you have now it will handle it...Later on down the road update your gpu and monitor. I would definitely not buy a gpu now especially with the rumors circulating that the next amd series of gpu is around the corner.

May I ask why you recommend the i7 over the i5 when it is known that the rig is mainly for gaming and the OP is on a budget?
Aside from one anomally in a BF3 test, in a recent i5 vs i7 TPU review, where the i7 was 20% faster (which is strange, because it is contradicted by an Ocaholic review), most reviews suggest that currently games are bottlenecked by the gpus, so they barely (if at all) benefit from the additional logical cores (except in very small resolutions, where the extra frames are not really needed).

I think the i7 is a great cpu, but if there is a 100$ difference between it and the i5, the money is better spent elsewhere.

 

[brandonwh64]

Come on guys lets stick to the budget.

A GTX 770 is priced between £315-350. That is 2/3 of the OPs budget on GPU that he doesn't even need right away - Leaves no money for motherboard and CPU.

The 5870 has a lot of life left in it at your resolution, by the time you upgrade the GPU there will be better cards for cheaper than the GTX 770. I'd worry about the next card when the time comes.

I was just mentioning if he had the budget for it not to go over budget. A budget is a budget so yea whatever is left after the CPU/Mobo/Ram

 

[springs113]

Couldn't agree more.
This is precisely the message I was trying to convey.
I think he should upgrade his platform(cpu+mobo+ram) and wait with the gpu upgrade for the time when he actually needs some more graphics power.



May I ask why you recommend the i7 over the i5 when it is known that the rig is mainly for gaming and the OP is on a budget?
Aside from one anomally in a BF3 test, in a recent i5 vs i7 TPU review, where the i7 was 20% faster (which is strange, because it is contradicted by an Ocaholic review), most reviews suggest that currently games are bottlenecked by the gpus, so they barely (if at all) benefit from the additional logical cores (except in very small resolutions, where the extra frames are not really needed).

I think the i7 is a great cpu, but if there is a 100$ difference between it and the i5, the money is better spent elsewhere.

Because second guessing after you purchase sucks...also usage tends to change once you realize the power you have. Having the extra kick is great. Who runs their psu at max all the time, enen if he games more than he video converts, realizing the benefits of the i7 over the i5 may actually cause him to convert more.

Like Erocker told me...buy the best you can afford to buy, I'm glad I listened as I now have one killer system. No regrets, coulda, woulda, shouldas. For the first time in my years of pc building I have a top notch computer. I use my pc just as much as my ps3 now.

 

[EthanDW]

realizing the benefits of the i7 over the i5 may actually cause him to convert more.

I don't believe this effect of enthusiasm and realization of his hardware's abilities would last long..
Anyway, if video editing is not his job and the main source of his livelihood, there is a limit as to what extent the editing part will grow.
This is the reason why I don't think i7 is worth it for him.
It's not like the i5 is a slow processor.. It can definitely handle occasional video editing..

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I said I'm keeping my 5870 as my resolution is good, I just want to upgrade the rest as you can see how dated my system is >.< DDR2 and a phenom 2 is quite old brah

Yeah I tend to stop taking interest when I read things that don't make sense to me, so I didn't read that far. It was never in question that the CPU is outdated, but now you're putting ALL the expense in the CPU vs the way it is now. There's a lack of balance in both configs. The GPU does the lion's share of the work in any gaming rig, then the CPU, then the RAM.

In other words, were you to go the route I suggested, you'd have a good start on upgrading the GPU as well. I also don't think you get how easy it is to OC a CPU like the 3570k. All you'd be doing is upping the multiplier in the BIOS. A child could do it. Applying TIM to an affordable OC adequate CPU cooler (like a Hyper 212) is actually more work, but that's pretty simple too.

 

[TricksterMatt]

Right so I've made my mind up, I'll be going for what I suggested in my OP and not upgrading GPU until I see a reason too (upgrading monitor in future). I will be overclocking now as people say its as simple as upping multiplier with the intel CPUs. Thank you for your help people. I will let you know how my system is and post some old and new benchmarks from my old rig and new rig

 

[vega22]

ocing on hw is a case of dropping the uncore and upping the multi and vcore as needed dude, very easy

 

[Hood]

Haswell 4670 and Z87 motherboard (with whatever features/ports you need) - don't cheap out too much on the motherboard, a decent mobo is a pleasure to use, a cheap one can be a nightmare.

 

[TricksterMatt]

Is the Asus Z87-K a cheap motherboard would you say? I hope it's not a nightmare. And one more thing, I'm missing a few screws for my motherboard on my case and atm my current mobo is missing like a few screws so its not fully secured onto the case. What screws do I buy? Is it just the standard motherboard stand offs and thats it? and every case uses the same one right?

 

[EthanDW]

At this price point, I would personally pick the Gigabyte ga-z87-d3hp.
Gigabyte are known to offer more bang for the buck over Asus for their entry/mid range boards.
Just look at the back of the board and see how much Gigabyte indulges you in comparison to Asus:
Gigabyte: 6 usb 3.0,2 usb 2.0, 2 usb 3.0 internal headers, one optical audio.
Asus: 2 usb 3.0, 4 usb 2.0, 1 usb 3.0 internal header, no optical.

 

[Vario]

Is the Asus Z87-K a cheap motherboard would you say? I hope it's not a nightmare. And one more thing, I'm missing a few screws for my motherboard on my case and atm my current mobo is missing like a few screws so its not fully secured onto the case. What screws do I buy? Is it just the standard motherboard stand offs and thats it? and every case uses the same one right?

Screws: StarTech SCREWM3 Accessories - Newegg.com
Standoffs: APEVIA CS-03 Motherboard Standoffs – 40 pcs ...

 

[Dent1]

^ He is in the UK

Startech 50x Pack Jackscrew Standoffs 6-32 To M3 |...
StarTech 50 Pack Plastic Snap-In Motherboard Stand...

 

[TricksterMatt]

Sweet man, so I don't need washers to install the motherboard and just the two items you linked me?

 

[WhoDecidedThat]

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...on=shoppingBasketAdd&productId=56168&context=

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...on=shoppingBasketAdd&productId=55561&context=

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...0C8+1600MHz+Dual+Channel+Kit+?productId=55442

thats how i would say you would be best doing it if you dont want to oc.

yes i know its an ocing mobo but its more for its other features.

8 threads, 16gb of ram and still £50 left to put towards your gpu kitty

The Xeon E3-1230 V3 doesn't have a QPI link. So shouldn't he go for a Core i7 4770?

 

[Vario]

The Xeon E3-1230 V3 doesn't have a QPI link. So shouldn't he go for a Core i7 4770?

My 1230v2 works perfectly, i think its the same situation.

 

[Dent1]

Sweet man, so I don't need washers to install the motherboard and just the two items you linked me?

No you don't need washers. I personally never used washers, just stand offs.

 

[Hood]

Is the Asus Z87-K a cheap motherboard would you say? I hope it's not a nightmare.

No, Asus boards are usually good even at that price point ($130) - it may lack a few features and extra ports, but the VRM is solid and the UEFI BIOS is excellent (on all their channel Z87 boards). I have a P8Z77-V that works great, it ran my 3570K @4900, and runs 4500 24/7 cool and stable. Also OC'ed a 2500K on their P8Z68-V LX board with no problems. With Haswell it depends on getting a decent chip, as any vcore increase will raise temps very quickly.

 

[EthanDW]

Since the Haswell silicon itself is the main bottlenecking factor, why not go for a more featured board, from another brand, at a similar price?
A board doesn't have to be Asus in order to work properly.

 

[springs113]

Since the Haswell silicon itself is the main bottlenecking factor, why not go for a more featured board, from another brand, at a similar price?
A board doesn't have to be Asus in order to work properly.

I couldn't agree more... Go for that msi gd45 or gd60