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Looking to continue upgrading my PC, would like some advice.

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  • Mesh
  • CPUs
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February 3, 2014 8:39:13 PM

So about 5 years ago I bought a PC from MESH Computers, bought for around £900, pretty decent bit of kit, but that was 5 years ago. (What surprised me most was that a nobrand PSU survived 5 years in a dusty room with power cuts being a monthly occurrence) In the past few months I've been adding and upgrading the PC, and I'm looking to entirely replace it, bit by bit. Current system specs are as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A77TD PRO
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 2GB OC
RAM: 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24) (no brand)
PSU: Corsair CX600M
Case: Zalman Z11
Chassis Cooling: 4x 140mm 1x 120mm 2x80mm
CPU Cooling: OCz Vendetta
HDD: 2x Samsung 1TB
Monitor: Standard 1080p Monitor

So far, the Case, Graphics card and PSU are all pretty much brand new. I'm looking to get a new CPU, Motherboard and possibly new ram, as it let me down on a benchmark test.

I've been looking into the AMD 8 core CPU's and they've taken my fancy since release, however if someone can recommend any other CPU be it AMD or intel for about £200 max ($350) then I'll be more than happy to take a look at it.

As with a motherboard, it needs to have support for SLI as I do plan to plug in another 760 sometime in the next year when I can pick one up cheap (not sure if they all have SLI support). Of course it needs to match the CPU. Prefer multiple chassis fan ports if possible and I'd also prefer it to have a 20pin USB 3.0 connector as my new case comes with two ports.

Ram, Would like 16gb (1333) as I often run CAD programs while gaming, and priority on value for money on this one!

So yeah, that's pretty much it, Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thanks in advance if you take even more time to reply!

More about : continue upgrading advice

a b à CPUs
February 3, 2014 9:16:33 PM

Take a look at this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£136.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£126.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£122.59 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £386.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-04 05:13 GMT+0000)

As I don't know your total budget, I made it in my own way. I've gone for an AMD system but you can also choose intel.

8350 is a 8 core CPU which is very useful in handling multiple threaded application and modern games. Old game titles however favour Intel CPU. With that budget of yours you can get a better CPU but its really not required for gaming. FX 8350 is more than enough.

The motherboard I mentioned has all the features you want like multiple fan control, USB 3 and SLI support.
You can check out the details here:
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_990FX_R20/
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a c 179 à CPUs
February 3, 2014 9:26:45 PM

Best bet for AMD side would be a fx 8320 if u can get one on sale, i got mine for $130 but thats US pricing, and motherboard ull need to go for 990fx for sli support i think as 970 is only crossfire. I would say see if u can get a gigabte 990fx ud3 or asus m5a99fx on sale or a msi 990fx-gd65, I have the am3 890fx-gd65 which is the same board other than the chipset and heatsink layout and its a great board.

Your RAM is probably from a good manufacturer, there just isnt a normal name brand slapped on it, its probably an OEM like hynix or samsung or something like that. Your power supply is a corsair but the actual manufacturer is CWT, some name brands make their own psus like Seasonic who actually makes some corsair psus like the HX series i think. The ram is just like that too. There just is not heatsinks on your ram and has a name brand to it.

If u feel the need u can go to 16gb but i would go 1600 as its a good medium for gaming and faster if u can get it for CAD, like today i found 2133 and 2400mhz ram on sale for pricing of 1600.

I would change the cpu cooler even though the vendetta will probably be sufficient, its just older and has a weird orientation for amd cpus, its better to have the fan blow towards the rear exhaust, cheap side go CM hyper 212 evo, and if u can foot a little more the xigmatek dark knight II, zalman cnps 9900 max, phanteks tc12dx, again not sure on ur pricing.

Your cpu can hold u over with an overclock so first id do the motherboard to overclock and then cpu cooler on how well the vendetta handles the x4s OC. Also id do RAM last as it seems as u have 8gb already that it can last for a little bit longer.

You may want to go get a ssd as it may not seem like a lot of performance but once u use one u hate going back to booting and running off a hdd. Even if its refurbished one it would be fine. Again this is in the US but amazon has a kingston hyper x 3k 120gb for $75
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a b à CPUs
February 3, 2014 9:33:33 PM

if you're going for pure gaming only, day to day browsing and stuff doesnt plan to render or edit or anything else. go with the 4670k or 3570k. if you're going to use also photoshop or etc go with the 8350. intel has more power core per core. so in gaming which will use for about maybe 4 cores or 6 intel is going to be better. specially on day to day stuff like browsing, microsoft office etc. but when you render or photoshop or adobe, amd's extra core will help because those softwares specially 3d rendering would make use of all the 8 cores.
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a c 179 à CPUs
February 3, 2014 9:42:50 PM

For upgrades overtime i think staying amd is better as his x4 will fit in a am3+ board. The FX line of cpus work more than enough for everyday tasks lol. The Intel is better usually for gaming but the 6300 and 8320/8350 work great especially when paired with a 760, i see no performance hit with my 8320 @ 4ghz basically the 8350 lol for regular everyday stuff and gaming with my 7970. So for the fact of upgrading over time sticking AMD is probably best
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February 3, 2014 10:40:47 PM

Depending on what you plan to do, maybe adding an ssd would be beneficial.
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February 4, 2014 8:01:24 AM

Thanks all for your answers, but I've decided to up my budget for CPU to £250, which brings the 3770k or the 4770k to mind. For the amount of cad work I do, the AMD would be nice but gaming is what 80% of the CPU Is used for (sorry, should have said that before).

So what really are the differences between the 3770k and the 4770k? Also can someone recommend a motherboard that meets previous requirements and is pretty easy to overclock on? Thanks
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a b à CPUs
February 4, 2014 10:02:17 AM

G1McKenzie said:
Thanks all for your answers, but I've decided to up my budget for CPU to £250, which brings the 3770k or the 4770k to mind. For the amount of cad work I do, the AMD would be nice but gaming is what 80% of the CPU Is used for (sorry, should have said that before).

So what really are the differences between the 3770k and the 4770k? Also can someone recommend a motherboard that meets previous requirements and is pretty easy to overclock on? Thanks

the
The difference between 3770k and 4770k is a mere 10%. But as the 3770k is more overclockable, the actual difference after overclocking is between 5-10%.
So, if you find a good deal with a 3770k, its worth going for. But at present the prices of them are pretty close so better to get the 4770k.

Check this build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£239.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Hero ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£147.69 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£125.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £513.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-04 17:57 GMT+0000)

The motherboard is from the ROG series of boards from ASUS which are known to be very overclock friendly and has all the features you want.
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February 4, 2014 12:06:46 PM

Quick question, what's the difference between 4x4GB or 2x8GB ram sticks? Can the Vengeance ram fit 4 in slots with those seemingly massive heatsinks?
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a b à CPUs
February 4, 2014 12:16:45 PM

G1McKenzie said:
Quick question, what's the difference between 4x4GB or 2x8GB ram sticks? Can the Vengeance ram fit 4 in slots with those seemingly massive heatsinks?


A 2x8 GB gives you opportunity to add another set in case you need 32 gigs of ram in the future. Nothing else.
Though they have massive heatsink, they fit just fine, however if you are overclocking the Rams then you must have good airflow over them to keep them cool as they are very closely placed.

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February 4, 2014 4:19:01 PM

I'm going to go for an i7 4770k with the Gigabyte G1.Sniper5 Z87 Motherboard, It fits my budget quite nicely and seems to have everything I need on it. Ram seems so expensive compared to the last time I thought about upgrading it, so I'll leave that until my next months pay I think.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, although my decision reflected almost none of your suggestions they were very helpful.

EDIT: Won't let me view the page to accept a post as the solution, will try again later.
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