Think its time to upgrade the E8400 system - advice

[kellian]

Been a while since I've built a new machine and I think its about time. The E8400 I have is starting to show it's age with some of the newer games. Need some advice on a new build as I haven't really been in the building game for a few years.

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

Going to be mainly gaming (not FPS gaming, mainly RPG/online stuff think Witcher 3, Sword Coast Legends, etc.)

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

Hoping to keep it in the $1000 range if possible

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

USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

Well in the US most likely newegg

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.

Not a fanboy but have had good luck with Nvidia and Intel

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

Just my keyboard (love the merc stealth) otherwise I'm running an old E8400 wolfdale motherboard and a GTX 460 graphic card so they have to go.

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

Don't really care, probably stock settings

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

1920x1080 most likely

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.

Going to be buying in a few weeks (middle of July most likely), hope to hit some of the July sales!

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

Probably going to buy windows but that's about it



That about sums it up, may try and buy my wife the same setup as she needs an upgrade as well. Looking for something that can last for a bit and last as long as my last build did. Thanks in advance!!

 

[Ken g6]

Can you wait a couple of months? Intel's next processor architecture, Skylake, is supposed to come out sometime in August.

Regardless, AMD's next video card lineup is supposed to come out next week, so it's hard to give good advice over a month ahead of time.

 

[kellian]

Can you wait a couple of months? Intel's next processor architecture, Skylake, is supposed to come out sometime in August.

Regardless, AMD's next video card lineup is supposed to come out next week, so it's hard to give good advice over a month ahead of time.

Wasn't aware, yeah I could wait till August, no biggie. Didn't realize there were all sorts of things coming out in the next few weeks/month or so. Only concern would be pricing on such a new processor. Can't imagine its going to be in line with what is out there now (thought with nothing out as far as pricing now, who knows)

 

[riversend]

I agree with Ken g6 - can't hurt then to wait until August. If nothing else it is likely to drive down current Intel CPU and mobo prices. The Broadwell/Haswell parts aren't going to dry up immediately - you will have some time to pick them up. Just know roughly what you want so you can pop back in here and get a build spec'd out quickly. Watch mfenn's midrange guide - it will keep you in pretty good shape about the kind of price range you are living in.

Since you hold onto parts for so long, if you bought any of the higher end i5 parts, or even i7, you will be set for some time to come. Your timing for a GPU is pretty good as well with AMD about to drop some new parts into the market. I usually hold onto my CPU for 5-6 years, and swap out GPUs every 2-2.5 years (due for one soon). That seems to work well for gaming, and I don't require top of the line performance on everything.

Do you have a Microcenter near your residence?

 

[kellian]

I agree with Ken g6 - can't hurt then to wait until August. If nothing else it is likely to drive down current Intel CPU and mobo prices. The Broadwell/Haswell parts aren't going to dry up immediately - you will have some time to pick them up. Just know roughly what you want so you can pop back in here and get a build spec'd out quickly. Watch mfenn's midrange guide - it will keep you in pretty good shape about the kind of price range you are living in.

Since you hold onto parts for so long, if you bought any of the higher end i5 parts, or even i7, you will be set for some time to come. Your timing for a GPU is pretty good as well with AMD about to drop some new parts into the market. I usually hold onto my CPU for 5-6 years, and swap out GPUs every 2-2.5 years (due for one soon). That seems to work well for gaming, and I don't require top of the line performance on everything.

Do you have a Microcenter near your residence?

I have Microcenter in my area till about mid July (I''ll be moving) then there isn't one all that close to my new location. Usually get all my PC gear online between Amazon and Newegg (just to show you how old this PC is I have now, some of the parts were ordered from zipzoomfly!!)

 

[mfenn]

Only concern would be pricing on such a new processor. Can't imagine its going to be in line with what is out there now (thought with nothing out as far as pricing now, who knows)

Skylake will slot into the existing consumer pricing structure as per normal with Intel CPU releases. Expect analogues of all the current parts at similar prices.

I agree with Ken g6 - can't hurt then to wait until August. If nothing else it is likely to drive down current Intel CPU and mobo prices.

That doesn't happen with Intel CPUs. They don't fire sale them to clear inventory, they just stop production so that they sit at their current price (or actually go up) until they're all out of stock.

Watch mfenn's midrange guide - it will keep you in pretty good shape about the kind of price range you are living in.

:thumbsup: This is right in the middle of the $1000 pricerange.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I have Microcenter in my area till about mid July (I''ll be moving) then there isn't one all that close to my new location. Usually get all my PC gear online between Amazon and Newegg (just to show you how old this PC is I have now, some of the parts were ordered from zipzoomfly!!)

In that case, I think I would pick up the cpu/mb combo before moving. MicroCenter has killer deals on cpus and cpu/mb combos. You could go with a 4790k or a 5820k hex core and overclock it. Otherwise, I would suggest waiting for skylake as well, but the gain over haswell will probably be in the range of 5 to 15 percent. Not worth passing up the microcenter deals for, IMO.

 

[cubby1223]

If you were fine with an E8400 up until now, you'll be more than fine with even a Sandy Bridge core i5, heck even an i3.

Just search around ebay a bit. You can usually find a gen-1 i5 full system for around $150, gen-2 i5 (Sandy Bridge) for $200, then just add a video card, and maybe a better power supply depending on what video card you want. Building a fully custom system these days from new parts is an unconscionable waste of money.

Phone & tablet gaming has already taken over, I don't expect pc gaming system requirements to grow much at all over the next 5 years.

$200 for a Sandy Bridge i5 system, $250 for a geforce 960 & 400w psu, that's $450 total, less than half your initial budget.

 

[mfenn]

Phone & tablet gaming has already taken over, I don't expect pc gaming system requirements to grow much at all over the next 5 years.

The Witcher 3 begs to differ. The demise of PC gaming has been predicted every 4-5 years for the past 25 years or so, and games have kept being developed and kept getting more resource intensive.

 

[cbn]

Wasn't aware, yeah I could wait till August, no biggie. Didn't realize there were all sorts of things coming out in the next few weeks/month or so. Only concern would be pricing on such a new processor. Can't imagine its going to be in line with what is out there now (thought with nothing out as far as pricing now, who knows)

If you plan on waiting for Skylake, I would recommend giving the LGA 771 to LGA 775 mod a try in the meantime.

Xeon E5440 (80 watt equivalent to Q9550) starts at $15 shipped on ebay "But it now" listings. It can be overclocked as well. You will need a $2 to $3 adapter sticker and a minor modification to the LGA 775 socket.

Here is my experience with LGA 771 to LGA 775 mod:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36890787&postcount=39

For more info check out these links:

http://www.delidded.com/
http://www.overclock.net/t/1431723/mod-lga775-support-for-lga771-xeon-cpus

P.S. Another option is the E5450, which is starting at ~$ 23 shipped in the ebay "buy it now" listings.

 

[cubby1223]

The Witcher 3 begs to differ. The demise of PC gaming has been predicted every 4-5 years for the past 25 years or so, and games have kept being developed and kept getting more resource intensive.

Yea, in this instance I forgot that ever-increasing resource requirements is a side-effect of the demise of pc gaming. Developers don't have the budgets to optimize their software for speed on lesser-systems. Get it to work on the top hardware, and get it pushed it out. Insane system requirements are about the only way developers can afford to create games.

 

[kellian]

The E8400 did last me a long time. I'm the type that just likes a steady frame rate for games if I can get "ultra" settings it's a bonus, "High" settings on most games are good enough for me.

Going to see where the deals are at in July, My wife also needs a new PC, so will probably be buying two. Her's may be the test dummy for the "older" i5/i7 processors and see what it looks like once I throw in a new graphic card (might not skimp on that and may get her the GTX 970 (more for brand loyalty and good luck with Nvidia cards than anything else). Maybe the 980's will come down in price or I can get a good deal on those around then as well.

Thanks for the input all!