- Oct 15, 2013
- 3
- 0
- 10,510
First of all, I used to do a lot of overclocking and system building, tweaking etc. (My first overclock was a Celeron 300a!) These days, however, I haven't had so much time for that stuff, so may last system I just ordered up from a local shop. That was around 4 years ago. My current configuration is a Core2Duo cpu. MSI 7519 mobo and 8 gigs of DDR2. I did splurge a bit on the graphics card, so I am running a Sapphire 5850. This setup has served me well with my casual gaming, (mainly BF3 and other shooters) but I think the cpu has been holding me back, particularly on large BF3 servers. I simply cannot play on 64 player servers if the action gets heavy.
Now I am at the point where my system is starting to act up, and I am suspecting hardware rather than software issues. Regardless, my wife is convinced that we need to upgrade, so who am I to argue!
I am trying to get myself up to speed with the latest hardware, with the hope of building a system that will do the job for me for at least another 4 years, perhaps with a couple of future upgrades. I am reaching out to this community to get some guidance.
Here is what I am thinking so far:
CPU and Mobo: I think I have settled on a Haswell i5 chip, mainly because being the newest platform, the chances of being able to upgrade to a much faster cpu on the same board a couple of years from now are better. Ivy Bridge is at the end of it's life. The question is, which chip? I understand that some chips, such as R and K variants do NOT support all of the new instructions such as TSX, which may not matter right now, but could make a significant difference down the road once software developers start to utilize the new instructions. For that reason I think I will forgo the unlocked K chip. The same goes for sub 45xx chips which also do not fully support the new instructions.
I haven't chosen a motherboard at all, but I am assuming an z87 based board is my best bet. I want to have the option to run a crossfire setup, and onboard wifi would be nice. Under $200 would also be nice!
Graphics: At this point in time I am thinking of hanging on to my 5850 for a while, because even though it is a few generations old, it is still a pretty powerful card. I may also pick up a second one to run crossfire as that would be a whole lot cheaper than picking up a current generation card. I am hoping to wait another generation or two.
I will use my existing box, which is a Cooler Master, but I am not sure if the 480w psu will be able to handle the crossfire configuration.
Of course DDR3 1600 ram and an SSD will also be in the build.
Comments?
Now I am at the point where my system is starting to act up, and I am suspecting hardware rather than software issues. Regardless, my wife is convinced that we need to upgrade, so who am I to argue!
I am trying to get myself up to speed with the latest hardware, with the hope of building a system that will do the job for me for at least another 4 years, perhaps with a couple of future upgrades. I am reaching out to this community to get some guidance.
Here is what I am thinking so far:
CPU and Mobo: I think I have settled on a Haswell i5 chip, mainly because being the newest platform, the chances of being able to upgrade to a much faster cpu on the same board a couple of years from now are better. Ivy Bridge is at the end of it's life. The question is, which chip? I understand that some chips, such as R and K variants do NOT support all of the new instructions such as TSX, which may not matter right now, but could make a significant difference down the road once software developers start to utilize the new instructions. For that reason I think I will forgo the unlocked K chip. The same goes for sub 45xx chips which also do not fully support the new instructions.
I haven't chosen a motherboard at all, but I am assuming an z87 based board is my best bet. I want to have the option to run a crossfire setup, and onboard wifi would be nice. Under $200 would also be nice!
Graphics: At this point in time I am thinking of hanging on to my 5850 for a while, because even though it is a few generations old, it is still a pretty powerful card. I may also pick up a second one to run crossfire as that would be a whole lot cheaper than picking up a current generation card. I am hoping to wait another generation or two.
I will use my existing box, which is a Cooler Master, but I am not sure if the 480w psu will be able to handle the crossfire configuration.
Of course DDR3 1600 ram and an SSD will also be in the build.
Comments?
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