Dead computer circa 2008, need advice using same case and power supply

[keird]

I'm on a $700-800 budget. My last rig was named the Inferno Bitchslap. Now I'm married and this one will be dubbed Milquetoast.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Arma 2 and Arma 3. Single player games, photo editing, family movies, etc.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$800

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

US

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

Intel, ASUS, nVidia.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

An old 700W power supply, Gigabyte video card, various hard disc drives and a full tower case.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Not now, but I'll probably clock it later.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

1900 x whatever

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

Within 2 weeks or so.

I'm looking at the following components:
ASUS Z97-A LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $105.24

Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell Quad-Core 3.0GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor $189.99

Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory $137.99

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 3-Bit MLC NAND Flash Memory (400Mbps) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $144.99

Total $578.21 The remaining funds could make a little Micro ITX build for the kitchen. But any thoughts on this Haswell build are appreciated.

 

[ElFenix]

seems a bit much for a ~250 GB SSD. you're not going to see any difference outside of benchmarks so you could save some bucks going with a different drive.

 

[Ken g6]

We can do better than that. I'm going to assume 16GB RAM is for photo editing? Then let's start with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: *ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team Dark Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($132.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $514.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 18:19 EDT-0400

I wouldn't recommend using an old, not-so-great PSU - though I could understand using it briefly while waiting for the Corsair Builder 430W to drop back to $20-25AR. You certainly don't need 700W with your current video card, or any moderately-priced video card you're likely to find. And I would suggest upgrading your video card at some point:

Your current video card is worse than any of these. I would suggest upgrading to an R7 265 or 750ti when they're in the $100-120 range.

 

[Burpo]

You don't need 16Gb of ram.. I'd spend the extra $64 and get a Xeon.. That'll do anything you want & last you awhile..
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?...st4aApXB8P8HAQ

 

[Cerb]

I'm on a $700-800 budget. My last rig was named the Inferno Bitchslap. Now I'm married and this one will be dubbed Milquetoast.

Glad I didn't read this at work. I LOLed.

Not now, but I'll probably [over]clock it later.

Much has changed since 2008. Among them are that you need to decide if you are going to OC up front, as it necessitates getting more expensive parts. AMD and Intel both have locked multiplier CPUs, for the most part, and sell "K"-suffix CPUs that are unlocked. With Intel mainstream sockets, you generally can't increase clocks to OC, anymore, and have to use the mutliplier.

 

[mfenn]

We can do better than that. I'm going to assume 16GB RAM is for photo editing? Then let's start with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: *ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team Dark Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($132.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $514.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-24 18:19 EDT-0400

I wouldn't recommend using an old, not-so-great PSU - though I could understand using it briefly while waiting for the Corsair Builder 430W to drop back to $20-25AR. You certainly don't need 700W with your current video card, or any moderately-priced video card you're likely to find. And I would suggest upgrading your video card at some point:

Your current video card is worse than any of these. I would suggest upgrading to an R7 265 or 750ti when they're in the $100-120 range.

Agree. The GT440 wasn't exactly fast when it was new, and that was quite a while ago. It's still faster than the IGP, but not by that much, and certainly not up to the caliber needed to run a modern shooter/sim like Arma 3.

You've got enough room left in the budget to get a pretty good card and appropriate PSU:

MSI R9 270X $150 AR
Antec Neo ECO 620C $35 AR

 

[keird]

Thank you, all, for your input. I've been following this thread on my Blueray player but commenting was too cumbersome until I got to a keyboard. I haven't built since 2008 and my remaining components are just awful. After limited research I've decided against the Xeon because it's more expensive and I'm not certain if I have any programs that would neccesitate the use of Hyperthreading, yet. I know Arma 3 doesn't use it. That said, I'll go with an H97 board and an i5 CPU. That decision is only based on a potential CPU upgrade in a couple of years. I'll pull the trigger in 4 days. Are their any glaring issues with the following build? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CcQm7P

Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor $194.98
Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $92.75
Team Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $137.99
Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $109.97
MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card $164.99
Antec Neo Eco 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply $59.99
Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer $94.98

Estimated Wattage: 357W

 

[riversend]

Your last computer lasted six years, how many upgrades did you do to that one? I would guess, given that you keep systems for a while, your i5-4590 will last at least another four, by which time you will need to upgrade the MB/CPU and maybe RAM to take advantage of new parts. As you probably know, your GPU will be a better candidate for repeated upgrades. I think that was smart going with the 4590. IMO, squeeze out what you can for the CPU now.

 

[mfenn]

Your list looks good to me except the blu-ray drive is really expensive. This LG drive is $60 (no rebate to worry about).

 

[vailr]

A new case would provide a front USB 3.0 port; this ATX Mid-Tower case is on sale for $10 after rebate:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&EdpNo=7539585
Note: also free ShopRunner shipping.
It's not going to be top quality, but should be at least "adequate".

 

[sm625]

You dont need 16GB of RAM. Sheesh. If you need to do some hardcore editing then your browser and some other apps might get swapped out. But that's why you have the SSD. Take that money and put it towards a faster i5.

 

[mfenn]

You dont need 16GB of RAM. Sheesh. If you need to do some hardcore editing then your browser and some other apps might get swapped out. But that's why you have the SSD. Take that money and put it towards a faster i5.

Avoiding swapping will increase average computing speed much more than another 200 MHz base clock. The SSD is fast compared to an HDD, but it is still slow compared to main memory.

 

[keird]

Thanks for the responses and input from all, particularly Ken. I'm really happy with the build and I keep getting all these Gift cards in the mail. Thanks again.