Finishing touch on my first gaming build, would it be better to get another graphics card or PSU?

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JRMoore

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Jul 20, 2013
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Hello, I'm James and this is my first post, I'll try to be concise.

I'm building a gaming desktop for which I already have a screen, keyboard and mouse I'll be using from my previous one (which is a quite old P4).

Sticking with Intel I selected the following components:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4Ghz
CPU cooling: Scythe Ninja 3 Rev.B
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 CL9 2x8GB
PSU: AeroCool Templarius Imperator 550W 80+ Bronze
Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 OC 2GB GDDR5
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 128GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB

Right now all of that together sums up 995€, with a case and DVD-RW unit.

I can stretch it a bit and I guess that PSU won't be enough if I add another graphics card in the future, changing it to a 650W would be 20€ more. Also changing the 660 for a Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 Ghz Edition OC 2GB GDDR5 is another 20€.

I can choose one of those upgrades, what would you recommend? If you see some other component change that I could take into consideration please do tell.

Thank you anyway for your time.
 
Solution
andrewcarr
I'm wondering why it's an Aerocool brand PSU, I've never heard of that. First and foremost you want a good name brand PSU, if you get a name brand such as corsair (even a 500W would work for either of the cards you've mentioned a 750W if you ever want to run SLI/CF). I'd personally just get the 7870 and call it a day, they're still overclocking beasts. Don't worry about not getting the best that's out as mentioned above the cards you've listed will do just fine.
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Bohmeila

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May 14, 2013
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I would save on RAM get 8GB its totally enough, and like you said add the 20€ for the 650W PSU. Then i would get 7870XT Sapphire is a pretty good brand to get from. Or save on SSD and HDD too and get a 7950 its a HUGE dfference. Tell me the website where you buy from and you extreme budget and i could help you with the build.
 
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Bohmeila

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May 14, 2013
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Personally James, i would also save on Hasewell and get Ivy Bridge CPU and Mobo, as theres no big difference between both. Then i would get a strong highend GPU as GPU is what matters most. 7970 from AMD or 680 from Nvidia would be excellent.
 
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andrewcarr

andrewcarr

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I'm wondering why it's an Aerocool brand PSU, I've never heard of that. First and foremost you want a good name brand PSU, if you get a name brand such as corsair (even a 500W would work for either of the cards you've mentioned a 750W if you ever want to run SLI/CF). I'd personally just get the 7870 and call it a day, they're still overclocking beasts. Don't worry about not getting the best that's out as mentioned above the cards you've listed will do just fine.
 
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J

JRMoore

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Jul 20, 2013
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Thank you for the answer. For the PSU I looked at the ones available in the website mentioned below and those were cheaper compared to other brands, still 80+ Bronze; but I wasn't aware of known brands for them. Now looking at the Corsairs I see prices are on par so I'll pick one of those.

Reducing the RAM to 8GB I can get better PSU and graphics card at around the same prices, and going from Haswell to Ivy Bridge I get even more room for improvement. Initially I picked Haswell because of the socket change mainly, since I guess upgrading later on would be easier than staying in the 1155 socket; but I'm not too sure if I'd ever upgrade my CPU so sticking to Ivy Bridge and using better components overall would be better.


Thanks for your answers as well, the webpage I'm looking to buy the components is PCComponentes, since selecting to get everything mounted and tested (last option in the things to choose) gets me free postage. Thanks for the offer to help with the configuration, but that website is in Spanish it may be difficult to understand.

Based on the recommendations I've got these two:

CPU & Motherboard: Haswell as above.
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 CL7 2x4GB
PSU: Corsair GS700 V2 700W
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 Ghz Edition OC 2GB GDDR5

That gets the build to 1000.80€ (+ case), the other one based on Ivy Bridge:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4Ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
Graphics: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC Rev2.0 2GB GDDR5
PSU & RAM: Same as above, the Corsair one and 2x4GB.

That is 1030.80€ (+ case). Getting any higher than that 760 would be more than my top max (around 1030€ without the case), but I think that one is more or less on par with the Radeon HD 7950.

Personally I'm inclined towards the last build, even though it's Ivy Bridge the performance should be similar and there's a better graphics card although a future CPU upgrade is probably out of the question.
 
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Bohmeila

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May 14, 2013
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Just to let you know the difference between 760 and 7870 is about 10fps so its up to you of you NEED these 10fps or not. Both builds are awesome, dont forget with every new generation of CPUs Intel changes the socket :) Note that Corsair Vengeance RAM is better than Gskill although Gskill is excellent too, i have it in my own build :)

https://www.google.com/search?q=760+review+benchmarks&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

These benchmarks for Crysis 3 and Bf3 show the difference between many Cards in your range :) Hope i helped you and hope i get best answer ;)
 
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