Hi all,
I performed my first ever custom build about a year and three-quarters ago, and as you can imagine there were a few teething problems and other such issues that may or may not be the cause of problems I still have today, but after much grumbling and thinking "7 years isn't THAT old for an HDD..." and "I'm sure this ancient case and its single fan will hold everything for a while yet..." in order to delay yet more expenditure, I've decided to go through with upgrading the stuff I didn't before.
During the build, I upgraded to a 650W PSU (can't remember the model, but I made sure not to skimp on it), an NVIDIA GTX 560 (as is typical for me, the 660 subsequently dropped a lot in price the week after my purchase ¬.¬), 2x4GB G-Skill Ripjaws RAM (http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-8GBXL-Main-Memory-PC1600/dp/B004I763AW), an Intel i5 3470, and a cramped, crappy mobo I can only remember being Asus.
The things left over were a 500GB HDD that's 1/3 as old as I am, an old Cooler Master Elite mid tower that is also 1/3 as old as I, and an equally ancient DVD RW drive that I really don't see the need to replace seeing as how most of my games are downloaded on Steam and most of my movies are streamed on Netflix.
My main issues currently are that the motherboard is, for lack of a better word, crap. Combined with the case, it has only two slots for RAM, and only one slot where the GPU can actually fit, which is too close to the RAM slots and means that my 560 is so close to, and hangs over the RAM in such a way that seating or unseating them requires me first to remove the GPU; the RAM clips on one side are inaccessible otherwise.
I'm going to try and condense this down to the template given in one of the stickies:
Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP
Budget Range: Maximum £400 after shipping.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mid-range gaming, including MMOs such as WoW as well as the latest RPGs et al. I'm not interested in running something Crysis-esque on SuperDuperUltra Settings.
Are you buying a monitor: No, unless it's an absolute necessity due to compatibility issues otherwise etc.
Parts to Upgrade: Mobo, RAM, HDD, Case
Parts to Add: SSD
Do you need to buy OS: Don't think I need to/hope I don't need to
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.co.uk ? Anything in the UK.
Location: Stockport, Manchester, UK
Parts Preferences: Gigabyte Mobo, Corsair Vengeance RAM, Western Digital HDD, no idea for cases, Samsung SSD
Overclocking: Doubt it
SLI or Crossfire: Not in the foreseeable future
Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024
Additional Comments: I don't have a clue what I'm doing compatibility-wise.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Lack of internal space and cooling; hardware age; potential RAM faults - ran the memory diagnostic last night and it picked up errors, but it blue-screened again before it could show them on restart and it hasn't saved them anywhere, not even in event viewer - combined with the wish to just have a clean start in some areas.
Potential candidates for parts:
Western Digital Black 1TB HDD: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-411-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279
Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-Z11-Plus-Installation-Anti-Vibration/dp/product-description/B007C008L2/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=340831031&s=computers
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Mobo: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007KZQFEI#productDetails
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance RAM: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B004CRSM4I/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_2_2
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E391KA8/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers#productDetails - I could probably do without this, so it's only a potential optional addition to speed up the system. I'm not someone for whom the PC must be booted up, logged on, and ready to use in a matter of seconds or else the whole day is ruined, so it doesn't matter if I get it or not.
I really don't have much else I can think to say except thanks in advance. =)
I performed my first ever custom build about a year and three-quarters ago, and as you can imagine there were a few teething problems and other such issues that may or may not be the cause of problems I still have today, but after much grumbling and thinking "7 years isn't THAT old for an HDD..." and "I'm sure this ancient case and its single fan will hold everything for a while yet..." in order to delay yet more expenditure, I've decided to go through with upgrading the stuff I didn't before.
During the build, I upgraded to a 650W PSU (can't remember the model, but I made sure not to skimp on it), an NVIDIA GTX 560 (as is typical for me, the 660 subsequently dropped a lot in price the week after my purchase ¬.¬), 2x4GB G-Skill Ripjaws RAM (http://www.amazon.co.uk/G-Skill-8GBXL-Main-Memory-PC1600/dp/B004I763AW), an Intel i5 3470, and a cramped, crappy mobo I can only remember being Asus.
The things left over were a 500GB HDD that's 1/3 as old as I am, an old Cooler Master Elite mid tower that is also 1/3 as old as I, and an equally ancient DVD RW drive that I really don't see the need to replace seeing as how most of my games are downloaded on Steam and most of my movies are streamed on Netflix.
My main issues currently are that the motherboard is, for lack of a better word, crap. Combined with the case, it has only two slots for RAM, and only one slot where the GPU can actually fit, which is too close to the RAM slots and means that my 560 is so close to, and hangs over the RAM in such a way that seating or unseating them requires me first to remove the GPU; the RAM clips on one side are inaccessible otherwise.
I'm going to try and condense this down to the template given in one of the stickies:
Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP
Budget Range: Maximum £400 after shipping.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mid-range gaming, including MMOs such as WoW as well as the latest RPGs et al. I'm not interested in running something Crysis-esque on SuperDuperUltra Settings.
Are you buying a monitor: No, unless it's an absolute necessity due to compatibility issues otherwise etc.
Parts to Upgrade: Mobo, RAM, HDD, Case
Parts to Add: SSD
Do you need to buy OS: Don't think I need to/hope I don't need to
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.co.uk ? Anything in the UK.
Location: Stockport, Manchester, UK
Parts Preferences: Gigabyte Mobo, Corsair Vengeance RAM, Western Digital HDD, no idea for cases, Samsung SSD
Overclocking: Doubt it
SLI or Crossfire: Not in the foreseeable future
Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x1024
Additional Comments: I don't have a clue what I'm doing compatibility-wise.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Lack of internal space and cooling; hardware age; potential RAM faults - ran the memory diagnostic last night and it picked up errors, but it blue-screened again before it could show them on restart and it hasn't saved them anywhere, not even in event viewer - combined with the wish to just have a clean start in some areas.
Potential candidates for parts:
Western Digital Black 1TB HDD: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-411-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279
Zalman Z11 Plus Mid Tower: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zalman-Z11-Plus-Installation-Anti-Vibration/dp/product-description/B007C008L2/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=340831031&s=computers
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Mobo: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007KZQFEI#productDetails
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance RAM: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B004CRSM4I/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_2_2
120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E391KA8/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers#productDetails - I could probably do without this, so it's only a potential optional addition to speed up the system. I'm not someone for whom the PC must be booted up, logged on, and ready to use in a matter of seconds or else the whole day is ruined, so it doesn't matter if I get it or not.
I really don't have much else I can think to say except thanks in advance. =)
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