Upgrading the PC core

[hitman]

Ok thanks guys for quick replies. I'll think about it for a little while. I wouldn't really even consider the Asus without the SSD bundle. It does come to real use because I'm left with 30GB of SSD space currently. Less connectivity for more price and some funny and useless features driving the price up. However a review from today gives it an excellent rating in overclocking. I hope they didn't skimp on the VRM quality too much to bring the price down.

MSI and Gigabyte are both known to do the exact same thing. Honestly, you get what you pay for in motherboards.

[PureEvil]

had asus motherboards (intel and amd) on my pc systems for about 14 years now i think, always been quality products. usually they have quite wide range selection to choose from. pro version gave more internal sata connectors. gamer versions have some wifi and/or separate sound card. some versions didn't had sli/xfire fully supported. need to think and decide what you need and choose according to that. may save some money if picked correctly )))

[lunaticfringe]

The Asus is 20€ more expensive but there is a nice looking bundle that would offer me a Kingston 120GB SSD with it! Sounds like a great deal but it has only 6 USB ports in the back and no SATA Express connector. Would I even need the SATAe?

It does seem to have the best software.

 

The Asus has better connectivity, and here's why:

 

None of the other boards has functional SATA Express with the M.2 slot occupied; look at the fine print. That's the point. You only get one, meaning that you *lose* connectivity with the Gigabyte (because they only give you four SATA ports that remain functional with SATA-E or M.2, giving you a maximum of five logical drives when using the standard). Asus gives you *seven*, if you're using the M.2 slot; none of the six SATA 6GB slots are lost.

 

Whereas MSI and Gigabyte solve the shared PCI bandwidth issue using SATA ports, Asus does it with the PCI3_4 slot, disabling it with the M.2 populated. Instead of storage connectivity, you lose out on 3x Crossfire (3-way SLI isn't supported on any of these boards), so that's the ultimate difference.

 

Which, that then is up to you. You couldn't pay me to run an AMD processor let alone a GPU, so I'll leave that alone.

[Griffin]

Ok thanks guys, I went with the Asus Maximus VII Ranger since they really are giving me an 80€ SSD for free! Wonder why they want to get rid of them so quickly. Also your unanimous recommendations and reviews I've read confirm that it's a good choice.

 

The Asus has better connectivity, and here's why:

I remember reading that but it didn't really dawn on me what that really means. Now that you put it that way, I need at least 5 SATA ports with the new SSD, so you're spot on with the better connectivity. From what I've read, the SATA Express won't be coming a standard very quickly.

And I don't really understand what's the point with those new M.2 SSD's in a desktop PC. They do seem nice for laptops.

 

Though I could not find a manual in english, that ASUS board has lots of both USB3 and 2 expansion on the motherboard.

I also tried to find it and it's really odd that there's no English manual online. :huh: Would have been nice to get familiar with it before the MoBo arrives.

Thanks for the info wherever you managed to find it.

 

 

 

So now every part is purchased and on the way. The parts are:

 

Intel i5-4670K for 203€

 

Asus Maximus VII Ranger (+ Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB SSD) for 169€ <---GREAT DEAL FOR FINNS

 

Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 16GB for 68€ - Thanks hitman for a great deal!

 

Tomorrow I will list the whole hardware in my PC into this post in case someone is interested. And yes, I'm running an AMD card lunaticfringe! ;)

Hoping to get back on the virtual skies soon for first time in months.

[lunaticfringe]

And I don't really understand what's the point with those new M.2 SSD's in a desktop PC. They do seem nice for laptops.

 

Cooling efficiency. Less cabling and power connections being routed around the case for a drive that can be more effectively installed in a card slot.

 

I'm left wonder how well that thing will fit under a lot of the big name air coolers, though. I *think* it would clear a Prolimatech or a Noctuna, but it might be close depending on the fans used.

 

And yes, I'm running an AMD card lunaticfringe!

 

My condolences. :D

 

Looking through the comparison between the Maximus VII Hero and the Ranger, I'm actually surprised they added OC Profile to the former, although that was the big missing toy from the VI Hero. The ability to throw profiles up on the web, and get them back from the same with tweaks from professionals where it comes to the tuning side is worth the $20-30 price difference for some.

[docfu]

Just my 2 cents: I have an intel i5 2500k with 16gb DDR3 1600mhz that *isn't* overclocked.

 

Running DCS I was surprised to see that even though my video card is maxed out (which needs upgrading, a GTX 550 ti) the CPU was humming along with 1 core at 30% and 3 cores at idle...

 

So the main process uses about 2gb of ram, and the system uses maybe 4 total leaving 12 completely untouched...

 

So, I'm gonna say something probably unbelievable, but unless you are also planning on doing video editing/movie converting/rendering, any CPU you choose today, as long as it's half decent, will probably last you 3-5 years.

 

The most important thing is to make sure your base system is stable and well cooled, and then get a reasonably decent video card, but plan on upgrading it once or twice over the life of the system.

 

640k is plenty of memory.

[Rangi]

 

640k is plenty of memory.

 

It sure is....if you took a time machine back to the late 80's

[Griffin]

This will be my PC as a whole and the list is mostly just for my own reference:

 

CPU- Intel i5-4670K

 

CPU Cooling - Antec Kuhler H2O 620 with a Scythe Gentle Typhoon and stock fan in push-pull

 

GFX - Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB OC Windforce

 

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 16GB

 

MoBo - Asus Maximus VII Ranger

 

PSU - Super Flower Golden Green Modular 800W

 

Case - Fractal Design Core 3000

 

Mass Storage:

- 240GB Sandisk Extreme SSD (OS, programs, games)

- 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD

- 500GB Western Digital HDD (For personal stuff)

- 160GB Seagate HDD (For backup)

 

Some generic DVD drive

 

AOC Q2963Pm 29" 21:9 2560x1080

 

Steelseries Siberia V2 headset

 

Logitech X-230 speakers & subwoofer

 

Logitech MX518 mouse

 

Ancient Fujitsu Siemens keyboard

 

Flight sim gear:

- CH Fighterstick & Pro Throttle

- Komodo Simulations ProAT Pedals

- TrackIR 4

Edited May 31, 2014 by Griffin

[Sorin]

Mobo and RAM are overkill IMHO... I would go for 8G RAM and some more reasonable priced Asus mobo.

With the money saved I would upgrade the monitor or get a 2nd one at least 1920x1080.

[Griffin]

I would agree but in my case it depended completely on the deals I got.

I bought 16GB of high quality used RAM for less money than inferior quality 8GB would have cost me as new (saved about 10€).

I wouldn't have even considered the MoBo without a bundle deal with a 120GB SSD for free! The SSD costs 80€ as new so you could either consider that I got the great MoBo for 90€ (170-80) or the SSD for free. Or anything in between for that matter. And like I said previously, I'm running out of existing SSD space so it does come for good use.

Looking at the big picture, I got more high quality stuff for less money. :)

[Fabri91]

Isn't the PSU completely overkill for a single GPU system? For a single-GPU system a 550-600W PSU should be plenty.

[Griffin]

You too are right but I bought it with power reserve in mind for future. Who knows what EDGE, 4K and Oculus Rift will require. Although I wasn't planning to get a second graphics card in near future, I wanted to be able to get one hassle free if needed. It will be cheaper to just buy another one and plug it in than to upgrade the PSU at the same time.

I thought that buying a high quality modular PSU would serve me for at least a decade and could cope with whatever I throw at it.

 

About the MoBo + SSD deal, I calculated the "real €/GB value" of the SSD based on the cheapest €/GB I could find available to me. The value is 64€. If I subtract the SSD "real value" from the MoBo price, the price of the MoBo would be 105€. Damn good deal I would say.

 

I appreciate your valid points guys and I think I was able to give a reasonable answer to why I bought what I bought. If something doesn't feel right, it's great that you give me a signal for a reality check.

 

Is anything else overkill? :D

[Maximus_Lazarus]

There is no such thing as "overkill" when it comes to PC parts :D

 

That PSU isn't even that crazy, you don't want your PSU to be running @ max capacity all the time so 800 watts, yeah it's plenty for that system but i wouldn't call it "overkill" .

 

Never heard of the brand though, but after some googling it appears to be a quality brand .

 

Woud you have chosen a 600 watt PSU, what would be the difference in price ? I'm sure it would be very little, so it would not be wise to cheap out on the PSU .

 

As for memory, memory is DIRT CHEAP at the moment, so as long as your motherboard can handle it, why not go for 16 gigs.

I personally use 8 GB, but again, you don't have to skimp out on memory for the price so why not 16 GB

 

The drives though, do you really need that much storage ? :D (never mind, i see that the 120 GB SSD came with the mobo, right on! )

 

One thing though, that monitor .... 20" and 1680x1050 ?

 

meh i would seriously consider making that your first upcoming upgrade.

 

Oh and why not go nvidia ? I recently found out that you can NOT use crossfire with DCS , SLI on the other hand works fantastic.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Maximus_Lazarus

[Rangi]

That fractal design case is way overkill, you could have just put it in a cardboard box. Seriously though I am very jealous, I will be upgrading to a very similar system, once you tell me how it runs EDGE.....

[_Dredd]

High watt PSU never hurts. You can always buy a power outlet watt meter from your electronics store to measure what your system is doing at idle and load. I recently borrowed a friends and mine measured 880 watts at full load.

Edited May 17, 2014 by _Dredd

[Rangi]

High watt PSU never hurts. You can always buy a power outlet watt meter from your electronics store to measure what your system is doing at idle and load. I evenly borrowed a friends and mine measured 880 watts at full load.

 

 

wow you must need an industrial air-con to keep the room cool, what are your system specs, I thought I was warming the planet using 280W.

[_Dredd]

wow you must need an industrial air-con to keep the room cool, what are your system specs, I thought I was warming the planet using 280W.

 

In my sig.

I have corsair 800D case which works well, custom watercooling.

[Griffin]

One thing though, that monitor .... 20" and 1680x1050 ?

 

meh i would seriously consider making that your first upcoming upgrade.

True that man. I've been drooling at THIS ONE for a couple of days now. A stop gap solution before Oculus Rift next year? Would you think the new PC would run DCS okay on that resolution?

I've been working for three weeks without weekends now and might need to do a fourth one. Maybe I should treat myself with the upcoming paycheck? Hmm... ;)

Edited May 17, 2014 by Griffin

[PureEvil]

why not this 1 then: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/U2868PQU

only 100€ more expensive.

[Sorin]

why not this 1 then: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/U2868PQU

only 100€ more expensive.

 

Oh yes! 4K with 60Hz on DisplayPort! Gets my vote.

[cichlidfan]

why not this 1 then: http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/U2868PQU

only 100€ more expensive.

 

An Ultrawide, maybe, but a 2GB video card is not going to run a 4K screen with useful results.

[Griffin]

I don't think my PC is ready for 4K yet. That monitor has about triple the amount of pixels compared to the one I linked.

From the little I've read, you need dual GPU to run games on max.

[Sorin]

I don't think my PC is ready for 4K yet. That monitor has about triple the amount of pixels compared to the one I linked.

From the little I've read, you need dual GPU to run games on max.

 

Your 7970 can drive that monitor properly, it has DisplayPort 1.2 spec.

 

Very hard to tell what kind of FPS you could get, but worth the gamble IMHO.

 

I run more pixels than 4K with one card (680 with only 2G RAM) while the minimum FPS is 30 for my purposes.

There is no need to "run games on max" but that is a personal preference.

[Griffin]

Did some research and I'm quite sure the 21:9 ratio is not so smart choice even though I found a nearly similar screen for just 300€.

 

Sticking to the 16:9 would give me the options of either waiting for the 4K prices to come down (not really interested in paying 500€ right now for just surfing), or get a 2560x1440 screen.

The benefit of sticking to 16:9 screens is that I can still play with them on the 1080p resolution just fine because they scale in proportion and my PC will be able to handle that.

In theory it should be easy to just run games in 1080p and use the 4K/1440p when doing anything else on the PC but I've found some serious debates on internet regarding that.

 

What do you think guys, will 1080p gaming look just as good on a 4K/1440p screen as on a same size 1080p screen?

Is anyone here using a high resolution screen for gaming on 1080p?

 

This is already off topic but there's no sense in making a new thread for the same dude's computer even if the title isn't valid anymore.

[Maximus_Lazarus]

will 1080p gaming look just as good on a 4K/1440p screen as on a same size 1080p screen?

 

I don't quite onderstand the question.

 

But if you buy a 4k/1440p screen, you don't want to game on it @ 1080P, because it will look like dogsh^t.

 

(in other words, don't use anything besides the native resolution of the monitor, but this is common knowledge)

 

As for 1080P on a 27 inch screen, i HEAR it's not bad, sure your pixels are bigger but from what i hear it looks ok. Never seen it myself though.

 

Other than that, i have no experience with higher resolution monitors , seems like awesome sauce, but only if you have the graphic power to keep it all fluent.

Watching a slideshow isn't fun, even when it's @ high res :d

 

Also 60 hz instead of 120 hz could be considered a sacrifice.

 

WHY CAN"T WE HAVE IT ALLLLLL >_<

Edited May 18, 2014 by Maximus_Lazarus