Updating Existing rig (Mobo went bad) looking for compatibility issues

hydrophilic · Mar 21, 2013

Hey guys,

I wanted to shoot off a quick post to get some assistance before I made the purchase for new parts.

The story:

A few years ago, I updated all my components and as an avid pc gamer, you know how giddy we get doing so. Well, that was in 2010, and now the mobo has died out on me. So, what I've got in the unit right now are these parts:

Power Supply:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

Wi-Fi Card (PCI):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315041

RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

HD:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Old Vid Card (I figure I'll use this for the 2nd monitor for netflix while gaming, etc):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339

Two more HDs are old 64 gig raptors I have always used instead of getting a SSD, which I won't bother to post here, and I have a raid 0 config on an external HD setup for more storage. And there are 2 old dvd burners as well, not worth mentioning.

Here are the parts I'm looking at getting now:

New Mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

New CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502

New Vid Card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130812

So, having said all that...does anyone see any compatability issues in this rig?

I know it's not the cutting edge all around, but I figured that I'd be ok to keep the RAM, and update it later if needed. It's currently 4 sticks, so it's maxed unless I drop the money to update it too. But I thought since it's 1600, it should still be ok for now.

What do you guys think? Any issues you see? Any suggestions?

Thanks so much for the second look! Last time I updated my rig, I ended up having to do two shippments bc i thought I could keep some parts that turned out I couldn't. Don't want to make the mistake again, esp since I'm overseas and won't be home but for a week to pick up the parts.

DarkSable · Mar 21, 2013

Wow, uhm...

Why in the WORLD are you buying an i7 and only a 660?

The i7 is NO better than an i5-3570k for gaming, and a 660 is a low-mid range card. Go with an i5 and a 670. Or better yet, an i5, 7870XT, and another 4GB of that ram.

hydrophilic · Mar 21, 2013

DarkSable :

Actually,

I thought about that, but the truth is, that i'm not really building the rig for gaming only. I am looking for a bit more cpu power because of the multitasking desires, and the price difference seemed small enough to make the jump based on the benchmarks. And for just an extra $50, the extra ~2500 benchmark points might be worth it. All the other parts remain the same in the build.

But, I gotta say, I think I've been buying nvidia for so long, that I completely missed the 7870. It's cheaper by about $70, and the only thing that looks lower than the previously identified card is the effective memory clock. Which, I think might be misleading.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

The 7870 is lower than the 660 ti, by about 500 pts on the benchmark, but maybe the $70 isn't worth it?

As for the ram, I have 4 sticks of it now. So if I were to go get another 4 gigs, i'd have to upgrade the set, since there are only 4 slots.

I added an SSD into the list, since that might crush the previous boot times. But, still...the i7 on the list (sitting at #33) isn't the highest out, and the 660 ti is #7 on it's benchmark group. Both of which are the high end lists.

But don't think i was looking at a 660, it's a 660 ti. I figured the extra gig of DDR5 would possibly be a waste, but for an extra $10, I didn't think it was too frivolous.

What do you think?

hydrophilic · Mar 21, 2013

Now that you mentioned it, and looking further into the groups...what do you think of this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127722

It's $100 cheaper than the original selection, and it honestly looks like it might be better, if you only go by the spec data.

And besides, it comes with some free games, for now, which God knows I need more time wasters.

Thanks again!

DarkSable · Mar 22, 2013

Don't even go with the 7870. Get the 7870 XT, which is a disabled 7950. It performs BETTER than the $300 660ti in most benchmarks, but is $100 less (and costs basically the same as a normal 7870.)

That being said, what sort of multitasking are you thinking of doing? An i5 will handle pretty much ANYTHING you throw at it, including handling three different Photoshop projects on three monitors.

As for the ram, you have 4 2GB sticks? If you've got 8GB of DDR3, then you're perfect and don't need to upgrade anything.

As for the card you were looking at, you linked to a 660... sorry, I just double checked that; the TI was on the next line down, and it didn't have the silver shroud that EVGA puts on its higher end cards, so I figured it was a 660. (But the 7870XT is still by far the better option.)

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Updating Existing rig (Mobo went bad) looking for compatibility issues

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