The PC Build Thread

[Sinbad]

Anyone got any thoughts on the MSI H97 Gaming 3 motherboard?

My current setup is getting very long in the tooth, it has a 2009-vintage Gigabyte P55-based motherboard with one of the first core i5s that came out.
Got an R9 280X and 16GB of DDR-1600 in there, crucial SSD plus a couple of HDDs in RAID1, which will be transplanted to the new setup. Hoping to snag one of the 5th gen i7s off Carbonite...

 

[Sinbad]

Upon further research I've decided to go with an Asus H97 pro gamer board. Couple hundred bucks more, but Asus > MSI.

Gonna buy a second hand 5th gen i5 to go on it as well.

 

[MrR]

Hope I'm not going to break any rules with post, so disclaimer: this is not a classified in any shape or form.

Would it be worth investing in a 2nd hand system with the following specs:

120GB SSD
1TB internal
I5-3570K
8GB DDR3 (1883)
Gtx 680
Z77 MOBO
Gamer case with all fans, psu and optical media.

All items are from quality brands (corsair, Asus etc) and out of warranty (except lifetime on RAM)

Purpose is to use it between multimedia system and casual gaming for the SO for next 3 years or so.

Would it be worth dropping R6/7k on the rig?

I know in terms of upgrade path that the options are completely limited. New gpu would give it some life (with cpu bottlenecking future upgrades), and there's not much upgrade path in terms of lga1055.

 

[ponder]

Would it be worth dropping R6/7k on the rig?

No.

 

[MrR]

No.

Any particular reason why?

 

[Soul Assassin]

Any particular reason why?

Too expensive for the stuff you listed.

 

[Neoprod]

Any particular reason why?

For casual gaming and multimedia, you could build a G3258-based box that would come out cheaper and you would have new stuff with warranty.

 

[ponder]

Any particular reason why?

The price is too high for such old gear without warranty.

For about 8k you can build a new i5 rig (minus ssd).

 

[Dragonz@]

Hey guys,

So this is my first post here. My pc got struck by lightning and I am getting a pay-out from the insurance. I have to buy a new PC for PLAYING GAMES, photo editing and then normal emails, word, excel etc.

What would you suggest between these components:

Rig 1.
mobo : MSI X99A Godlike
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore
Cooler Master Nepton 240M
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14
MSI GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Armor
G750M Cooler Master PSU
Cooler MasterCosmos SE
LG DVD Writer
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD

Rig 2.
mobo : Asus X99 Deluxe
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore
Cooler Master Nepton 240M
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14
Asus GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Strix
G750M Cooler Master PSU
Cooler MasterCosmos SE
LG DVD Writer
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD
*With the lower cost of Asus Mobo I might be able to add a 256SSD on rig 2


So the big difference being the GPU and MOBO on the 2 rigs.


(P.S Hope this is in the correct thread)

 

[ponder]

Could you add prices to those items please.
Are you going to overclock the cpu?

 

[Dragonz@]

Could you add prices to those items please.
Are you going to overclock the cpu?

Rig 1.
mobo : MSI X99A Godlike R 8 664.00
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore +/- R 6 000.00
Cooler Master Nepton 240M R 1 365.00
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14 R 2 260.00
MSI GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Armor R 5 660.00
G750M Cooler Master PSU Owned
Cooler MasterCosmos SE Owned
LG DVD Writer Owned
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned

Rig 2.
mobo : Asus X99 Deluxe R 6 383
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore +/- R 6 000.00
Cooler Master Nepton 240M R 1 365.00
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14 R 2 260.00
Asus GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Strix R 6365.00
G750M Cooler Master PSU Owned
Cooler MasterCosmos SE Owned
LG DVD Writer Owned
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
*With the lower cost of Asus Mobo I might be able to add a 256SSD on rig 2 @ R 1 594

Oh sorry almost forgot. No I am not going to Overclock

 

[furpile]

Oh sorry almost forgot. No I am not going to Overclock

Then you don't need a K series CPU (for everclocking) and almost definitely a cheaper MOBO. Then you can rather get an SSD.

Is that a spare PSU you already have? Not what was in the lightning struck box?

 

[Nirv]

Rig 1.
mobo : MSI X99A Godlike R 8 664.00
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore +/- R 6 000.00
Cooler Master Nepton 240M R 1 365.00
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14 R 2 260.00
MSI GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Armor R 5 660.00
G750M Cooler Master PSU Owned
Cooler MasterCosmos SE Owned
LG DVD Writer Owned
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned

Rig 2.
mobo : Asus X99 Deluxe R 6 383
CPU : Intel 5820K 3.3 hexacore +/- R 6 000.00
Cooler Master Nepton 240M R 1 365.00
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 CL14 R 2 260.00
Asus GTX 970 256Bit 4GB Strix R 6365.00
G750M Cooler Master PSU Owned
Cooler MasterCosmos SE Owned
LG DVD Writer Owned
1TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDD Owned
*With the lower cost of Asus Mobo I might be able to add a 256SSD on rig 2 @ R 1 594

Oh sorry almost forgot. No I am not going to Overclock

Way overkill for gaming, photo editing and general use. Get an H97 board and an i7-4770 if you absolutely must have more than 4 threads and are not overclocking.

 

[Dragonz@]

The old one

Way overkill for gaming, photo editing and general use. Get an H97 board and an i7-4770 if you absolutely must have more than 4 threads and are not overclocking.

The big thing is my previous pc (R.I.P) had the following:

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 mobo (socket 1366)
i7 920 2.66Ghz
12GB Kingston Value Ram
MSI GTX 260 OC 2GB GDDR4 2GB
650W Cooler Master PSU (Not sure on the model but 650W yes)
500GB HDD
2 x 1 TB HDD
Oh and a Handle Case

This I bought 7 years back (Except the GTX 260) and up to date had no issues or speed problems. Ran the holy water out of most other computer of people I know.

Seeing that it died last week my big aim to buy a pc that will at least have me running for 7 years again (changing maybe the graphics card)

furpile: Take A Lot had a special about 3 months back when I bought the PSU so it is a extra one lying around yes, as with the Cooler Master Cosmos... Was also on special when I bought it.

 

[Nirv]

The big thing is my previous pc (R.I.P) had the following:

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 mobo (socket 1366)
i7 920 2.66Ghz
12GB Kingston Value Ram
MSI GTX 260 OC 2GB GDDR4 2GB
650W Cooler Master PSU (Not sure on the model but 650W yes)
500GB HDD
2 x 1 TB HDD
Oh and a Handle Case

This I bought 7 years back (Except the GTX 260) and up to date had no issues or speed problems. Ran the holy water out of most other computer of people I know.

Seeing that it died last week my big aim to buy a pc that will at least have me running for 7 years again (changing maybe the graphics card)

furpile: Take A Lot had a special about 3 months back when I bought the PSU so it is a extra one lying around yes, as with the Cooler Master Cosmos... Was also on special when I bought it.

Point taken, but I think the 4770 should fit that bill nicely (unless of course your needs change). But if it's in budget and you want it, then by all means go for it

 

[furpile]

If you are not going to overclock I don't see the point of an R6000 mobo. You can definitely get away with a cheaper one without sacrificing any performance for your needs. Rather use that money to buy an SSD, that will have a much bigger impact on your system. I just got my 250GB on the takealot special from last week and it rocks. And its big enough to have a few of your current games on there as well.

I am not a hardware expert, but this is similar to advice that has been offered to many other people here. I'm sure you will get some more feedback, and many will tell you to definitely get the SSD, even if you have to downscale something else.

 

[ponder]

Oh sorry almost forgot. No I am not going to Overclock

Then you are wasting a lot of money which could be better spent on a GPU if it's primarily a gaming rig.

R2750 - Intel Core i7-4790
R404 - Zalman CNPS10X CPU cooler
R2058 - Asus H97-PRO Gamer There are cheaper H97 options available.
R1469 - G.Skill F3-1866C9D-16GSR Sniper 16GB (2x8GB) 1866MHz DDR3
R11200 - Galax GeForce GTX 980 Ti HOF 6GB
R17880 TOTAL

Thats over R4k cheaper than any of your above builds and you will get much higher fps in games. The savings you can spend on a SSD or two (check carbonite for great deals) and rest can be beer money for a few months.

PS I'll PM you my address and you can arrange for a case of windoek lagers to be delivered

 

[Neoprod]

^^ solid advice as usual, Ponder.

OP: one thing I didn't see mentioned is the resolution you game at. Consider that when deciding what you're going to spend on a graphics card...at 1920*1080, everything from a GTX 780 upward will put out more FPS than your monitor can display at ultra quality (admittedly, that's with today's games). So spending 11k is not the best use of budget (insurance money you could probably make a case for hell yeah, go for it but it would still bother me, personally).

If you multi-monitor or have a 4K screen (or are one of the rare people actually bothering with 3D) then the GTX 980 Ti is the way to go.

 

[ponder]

^^ solid advice as usual, Ponder.

OP: one thing I didn't see mentioned is the resolution you game at. Consider that when deciding what you're going to spend on a graphics card...at 1920*1080, everything from a GTX 780 upward will put out more FPS than your monitor can display at ultra quality (admittedly, that's with today's games). So spending 11k is not the best use of budget (insurance money you could probably make a case for hell yeah, go for it but it would still bother me, personally).

If you multi-monitor or have a 4K screen (or are one of the rare people actually bothering with 3D) then the GTX 980 Ti is the way to go.

Agreed. That 980ti would however futureproof him for many years where he could max out any game.

Thing is there is no single gpu on the market that could do 4k on it's own. I specced the MB as it alows for SLI should he ever wish to get a second gpu. Then again I'm not a big fan of sli, amd's x-fire scales much better.

BUT if it was me I would not be looking at 4k but ultrawide aspect ratio (2560x1080 or 3440x1440) screens, they just look so great. If I had to move from that expensive X99 system I would be pissed spending all that money.

The outlay on the cpu/mb/ram is not nearly as bad as his original builds so if in 4-5 years time it won't hurt that much to abandon it & move over to a pukka skylake or whatever is next system.

I would love to own that combo I specced above, who does not want a 980ti...

 

[cerebus]

Agreed. That 980ti would however futureproof him for many years where he could max out any game.

Thing is there is no single gpu on the market that could do 4k on it's own. I specced the MB as it alows for SLI should he ever wish to get a second gpu. Then again I'm not a big fan of sli, amd's x-fire scales much better.

BUT if it was me I would not be looking at 4k but ultrawide aspect ratio (2560x1080 or 3440x1440) screens, they just look so great. If I had to move from that expensive X99 system I would be pissed spending all that money.

The outlay on the cpu/mb/ram is not nearly as bad as his original builds so if in 4-5 years time it won't hurt that much to abandon it & move over to a pukka skylake or whatever is next system.

I would love to own that combo I specced above, who does not want a 980ti...

I would also be looking at high hz screens rather than higher resolution, like the VG248QE.