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Computer Upgrade

9

9mak9

Senior member
Hello.

I'm looking to upgrade my current rig which I built about 7 years with the help of this delightful forum 🙂

Pretty much using it for gaming, minor video editing and standard stuff, don't need anything too hard core. The real reason I want to upgrade is I think my hard drive is going, so I plan to rebuild and basically start over...and Witcher 3 is out which would destroy my current computer

These are the core features of the rig now (PSU is still going strong).
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield Quad-Core 2.4GHz LGA 775
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HD : Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
SAPPHIRE 100352-2L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16

I plan to upgrade everything except of the GPU which is about 2 years old (vs. the 7 years of the entire rig).

MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128716) $124
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117372) $240
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568) $115
HD : Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036Q7MV0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3KWVAZ0KU6SRA) $104
Fan: DEEPCOOL GAMMAXX 300 CPU Cooler 3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835856006) $30

That gets me to $613 which is pretty much my max (wanted to be around $500 but I would prefer to upgrade to 16GB vs 8GB RAM and get the heatsink/fan).

I don't plan to overclock and don't really need an SSD. My main question (if this combo looks good) would be if I need to upgrade my GPU for Witcher 3 per se? The GPU is just better than the minimum reco'd Radeon HD 7870 which could cause a problem.

Let me know your thoughts. I appreciate it again! Thanks!
 
9mak9 said:
I don't plan to overclock
Click to expand...
Then you can cut back quite a bit.
9mak9 said:
and don't really need an SSD.
Click to expand...
Yes, you do.
30846.gif
😛

Seriously, it's a huge performance improvement for all that "standard stuff", plus game loading.

9mak9 said:
HD : Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A3KWVAZ0KU6SRA) $104
Click to expand...
>$100 for a 1TB HDD?! 😵 You can definitely cut that back.

If you have an existing CPU cooler you can probably reuse it. No time to do a full build right now though.
 
Everything looks good for the upgrade. However i wouldn't pay $104 for that 1TB black edition drive when you can get the same (newer model) drive for only $74.99 from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=western_digital_black-_-22-236-625-_-Product

Also, like Ken said, if i were in your shoes, i'd go with a 250GB SSD drive for about $89.00 instead of the 1TB drive and make your older 500GB 7200RPM drive the secondary like i do in my system.

Believe us, the speed difference overall on the system is worth it!

And yes, Witcher 3 will run fine on that system. Maybe on Medium to High settings and not Ultra, but still more than playable.
 
Ok, you guys might have convinced for the SSD drive. I can probably reuse the the 500 GB, plus I have a 2 TB external drive...I guess I'm greedy, I like my TB 😀
 
OK, time for a fuller build. 🙂

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($241.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: *ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: *PNY XLR8 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($96.82 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $501.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-28 22:18 EDT-0400

The H97 board won't let you overclock, but you said you didn't want to. The Xeon also won't overclock, and it's slightly slower-clocked than the i5, but it has hyper-threading which is useful in video work and may also help some current and future games. It comes with a stock fan which should work fine.
 
I'd be surprised if you couldn't find a 240 to 256 GB SSD from Samsung, Crucial, or Intel for under $100 at some point in the next 2 or 3 weeks if you sign up for the email special offerings from Newegg and Tiger Direct and if you regularly look at Amazon.

I couldn't find one right now (checking PC Partpicker), but those things are constantly on sale and are under severe price competition.

I did find several under 100 from other brands such as Mushkin that many people have good luck with. I personally try to stick with the 3 brands I mentioned, but you can have a bad experience with any of them. I wouldn't get wound up in benchmark differences and would instead emphasize price, vendor support, manufacturer support, ease of RMA, etc.
 
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