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Advice for creating a gaming PC out of existing hardware

Tags:
  • Gaming
  • Desktops
  • Processors
  • Hardware
  • Systems
  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Systems
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June 30, 2014 8:39:45 AM

I have two different desktops, and I'm trying to decide which one to use for my primary gaming PC.

The first is an older machine, and has a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) processor. It has 3 PCI slots available for a graphics card.

The second is newer, and has an i7-3770 quad-core (3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache) processor in it. However, this PC's motherboard only has a single PCI slot for a graphics card.

I need some advice - would it be better (in terms of gaming performance) to get a multislot card for the machine with the older processor, or a single slot card for the machine with the newer processor?

More about : advice creating gaming existing hardware

a b U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 8:46:20 AM

The newer one of course.
Although the older PC will enable you to use SLI/Crossfire, the processor will bottleneck those card.
A single GPU is good enough for gaming. If you want dual graphics, get a dual core card like Hd6990 or HD7990 etc
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June 30, 2014 8:50:52 AM

So perhaps this is a newb question (and I am a newb to pc upgrading/building), but does a dual-width card like a GTX 760 or 770 actually need 2 PCI Express slots, or does it still just use one slot, but have the width of two cards?
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 83 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 8:51:17 AM

whats your budget?

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June 30, 2014 8:53:25 AM

$300 - 500, although I would prefer to stay on the $300 end. I also will likely need to upgrade the PSU as my current one is 460W
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a b U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 8:54:11 AM

cdavies said:
So perhaps this is a newb question (and I am a newb to pc upgrading/building), but does a dual-width card like a GTX 760 or 770 actually need 2 PCI Express slots, or does it still just use one slot, but have the width of two cards?


Dual slot card only uses one Pci slot on the motherboard but it uses 2 slots on your case ( the one behind your case under the motherboard I/O shield)
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 294 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 8:56:05 AM

The i7-3770 is a vastly superior base.

PCI graphics cards are old gen, expensive, and do not come in good strength.
You need to be looking at pcie graphics cards.
A single pcie x16 slot can hold the strongest of graphics cards to good effect.

Every modern motherboard will have at least one X16 graphics slot.
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June 30, 2014 8:57:51 AM

Sorry, newb mistake - both machines have PCI Express x16 slots - the newer one is 3.0 and the older one is 1.0
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 83 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 8:58:41 AM

whats the full specs of the 3770 machine

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a b 4 Gaming
a c 294 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:02:50 AM

No question, the 3770 machine is the better base.
Your psu, if it is of good quality can run a card as good as a GTX660ti or a similarly performing R9-270.
Here is a sizing chart:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

With your budget, you are looking for a GTX770 $300 class card, and a 600w psu.
Look for only a quality psu like Seasonic or xfx.
That combo should be in the $400 range.
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June 30, 2014 9:03:18 AM

Full specs for the i7-3770 machine:

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 quad-core processor [3.4GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
• 10GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
• Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 120GB SSD primary hard drive
• 1TB 7200 rpm SATA secondary hard drive
• 2GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
• 460W Power supply

I'm not exactly sure what the motherboard is; I bought this machine as a preconfigured HP Pavilion Elite h8xt and can't seem to find what motherboard is in it; I added the SSD and the GeForce GT 640
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 294 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:05:01 AM

Run cpu-Z.
The motherboard will be identified.
But.. it really does not matter.
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June 30, 2014 9:06:53 AM

Great, I was already looking at a GTX 760 or 770 - I've noticed that the 770 seems to run about $50 to $100 more than the 760, is the performance increase worth the extra cost?
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a b 4 Gaming
a c 83 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:07:25 AM

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RRwdD3) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RRwdD3/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363...) | $249.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb...) | $59.99 @ Newegg
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $309.98

would do the trick

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a b 4 Gaming
a c 294 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:21:47 AM

cdavies said:
Great, I was already looking at a GTX 760 or 770 - I've noticed that the 770 seems to run about $50 to $100 more than the 760, is the performance increase worth the extra cost?

Worth is something only YOU can determine.
If you have the budget, I recommend buying the GTX770. If you don't, you will always wonder if you should have.
I would recommend this EVGA GTX770 superclock
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Yes, it is more expensive than the R9-280X mentioned above.
But, R9 cards run hotter and noisier. I think they have more than their fair share of problems.
The newegg review shows about 20% negative experience from verified buyers.
By contrast, the evga card is at 7%
You might look in detail at what the problems are since they may not all be valid or applicable to you.

On the power supply, here is a Seasonic 620w unit @$65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

For reference, here is a list of psu quality:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware...


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June 30, 2014 9:22:14 AM

Once again, newb question, but what are the differences between an AMD card and an NVIDIA one?
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Best solution

a b 4 Gaming
a c 83 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:26:42 AM

the 280x is somethimes as fast as the 770 but he rights the 770s do heat less.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RRwdD3) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RRwdD3/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**Video Card** | [Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363...) | $249.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb...) | $59.99 @ Newegg
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $309.98

would do the trick

if you want amd with a bit more heat or this with nvidia upgrade.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2rc9t6) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2rc9t6/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**Video Card** | [EVGA GeForce GTX 770 4GB Dual FTW ACX Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp43776k...) | $379.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1550sxxb...) | $59.99 @ Newegg
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $439.98

got the 4 gig version as games already utilize 2gbs of videomemory and your gonna want more for future games :) 

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a b 4 Gaming
a c 83 U Graphics card
June 30, 2014 9:31:33 AM

if you require more help let me know

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!