Retiring my Q6600 to build an up-to-date gaming PC

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sm21071982

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Oct 20, 2013
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Hi guys

With this board's advice I recently bought a GTX 660 & SSD to try to breath some life in to my old Q6600 system.

As I'm sure is not uncommon, I've now got the bug and am looking to bring the rest of my system up to date, namely CPU, mobo, RAM & Case. I'll be gaming mostly with light use of photoshop & illustrator. I'm hoping to put together a rig that will see me through 'the next gen' and handle all of the PS4/Xbox One ports

Here's what I have at the moment:

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black / silver midi tower case micro ATX NO PSU (CASCOORC330)
Asus motherboard P5N-D nForce 750i SLI LGA775 2 x PCIe x16 DDR2 ATX (MOTASUP5ND)
MSI GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr III/OC NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB Basic SSD
1TB Hard Drive (don't have the exact model to hand)
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2048) Vista Performance Gold DDR2 PC2-6400 Dual Channel Memory
OCZ 700GXS Sli -UK nVidia Sli Ready 700W Power Whisper Technology Active PFC
Intel CPU Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 95W Energy Efficient 2.4GHz SLACR G0 Stepping (OC'd to 3Ghz)

From reviews I can see that the GTX 660 scales well with SLI so am looking for a motherboard with this feature.

I've had a look on Scan and they offer OC'd bundles so was wondering if it was worthwhile going this route? They seem to offer the OC for an additional £30 over the cost of the individual parts. You can see the page here

It includes:
Asus Z87-A
i5-4670K (OC'd to 4.2Ghz)
be quiet! Dark Rock ADVANCED C1 CPU Cooler
16GB Corsair Memory Vengeance LP DDR3 1600 MHz

1st off, would you recommend these parts? (there are other options in the configurations)

2nd, should I buy them individually and do the OC myself if desired (I'm a bit of a beginner but managed to OC my Q6600)

3rd, I'd like to re-use my PSU, will it be compatible & powerful enough to handle everything + possibly a 2nd GTX 660 in the future?

4th (& finally) I'm looking for a nice spacious case that looks quite discrete and sleek (not after neon lights, fins and bling). The quieter the better, without breaking the bank.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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lp231

lp231

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Mar 24, 2006
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Everything looks good. For motherboard, I would go with the Asus Z87 Pro. The psu should be able to handle sli.
for case there are lots of them checkout fractral design, nzxt, coolermaster, corsair, etc. looks at those that support eatx as they will provide plenty of room to work with.
i have the cooler master cosmos, its huge and have lots of room. the new one is cosmos 2, a smaller version cosmos se
 
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sm21071982

Honorable
Oct 20, 2013
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10,510
Thanks Ip231

The Asus Z87-Pro is about £45 more than the Z87-A, what can the former do that the latter can't? Is it just more robust design/will last longer?

Also had a look at those cases and they're a little on the pricey side for me, looking to try and stay around £100 if it's not going to compromise the system too much (sorry, should have said this in original post).

These ones caught my eye:
NZXT Phantom 530 Full Tower Case Black Edition
Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Pearl XL-ATX Large Tower Case with USB 3.0 No PSU
Any idea if these will do the job?

Also, any opinion regarding pre-OC'd system form Scan vs buying components separately?

Thanks
 
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lp231

lp231

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Mar 24, 2006
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The Pro has more vrm which is better for overclocking. Besides that it also has build in wifi N and Bluetooth.
Out of the 2 cases selected, I'll go witht he Fractal Design, because they support XL-ATX boards. Standard ATX case has 7 slots
XL-ATX cases have 8-9 slots.
I personally don't like cases with doors, as they restrict you on where you have to place the case.
 
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sm21071982

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Oct 20, 2013
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Thanks again Ip231.

My issue with spending an extra £45 on the mobo is that for the same money I could upgrade to i7 4770 which would surely have more benefit?

I recently bought this so don't need the wifi. Also if I do overclock it'll be moderately, not looking to break any records :)

If you still think the pro is worth the extra money for my particular circumstances, I'm open to convincing!

Also, I'm leaning towards just getting the components separately rather than paying £30 to scan for the overclock.
 
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sm21071982

Honorable
Oct 20, 2013
16
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10,510
Ip231, how about the Z87-Plus, its seems to be pretty much the same as the Pro but without the Wifi & Bluetooth, which I don't need...

Also, for RAM, my real headache is what speed to go for - 1600, 1800, 1866 etc.

For anything above 1600 do I have to OC? Sorry if I'm coming across as dense but so many things to consider!
 
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lp231

lp231

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Mar 24, 2006
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Pro is still better than the Plus in terms of VRM. Pro has 12, Plus has 8. But if your not going to OC to the extreme, then a 8 phase should be able to handle it. Between the Z87-A and Z87 Plus, Plus uses better lan (Intel), and Realtek on the Z87-A
 
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sm21071982

Honorable
Oct 20, 2013
16
0
10,510
Cool, have just added Z87 Plus to my basket on Amazon - only £116, so only slightly more than Z87-A. I've also added the 4670K, so now it's just down to RAM. Should I just save some money and grab 8gb of 1600 or should I be aiming for 1866+?
 
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