Need some suggestions/tips

burstfyre20 · Jul 16, 2014

I'm planning on overhauling my main pc sometime between December and March and I've already got some parts in mind that I'd like to get but I'm sure that between now and then, newer and better stuff will come out but that doesn't really change the overall result that I want. The obvious high priority parts are the power supply, motherboard and graphics card. Please don't suggest going with a intel board and processor because those are just too expensive for me. I don't know how big of a budget I'll have but I want parts that'll give me a good boost in performance for a good value.

Current Build-
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Rev 1.0/1.1
AMD FX-6100 @4GHz
8GB [4x2GB] Corsair Vengence 1600MHz
MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB [The version that can't be crossfired even though AMD says it can be]
1TB WDC Black [Planning to use as a backup or putting into a external enclosure]
640GB WDC Blue [Salvaged from a older computer; 5+years old]
5x Cooler Master 120MM Blue LED Fans
Corsair H55 Heatsink
LG 24x DVD Drive w/Lightscribe [Salvaged from a older computer; 5+years old]
600w Thermaltake TR2 v2.3 SLI-ready
Case: Enermax Coenus [Just a enormous case for $60, only if it were black.]
Monitor: 24" Asus VK248H-CSM
Keyboard & Mouse: CM Storm Devastator [Best $30 Keyboard combo in my opinion]
Speakers: Creative Labs A550 5.1 Surround sound [I love these speakers <3 Best $50 I ever spent]

Things I'm considering on getting-
Motherboard with AMD 990FX chipset and at least two PCI-e x16 slots
4x 250GB Hard Drives for raid 0
1x 120/128GB SSD for OS and non-game applications
1x DVD drive [I don't have a need for Blue ray so I don't want one.]
16GB or 32GB AMD Radeon Enthusiast/Performance ram [4x8GB]
1x AMD FX-8350 [Because the new FX-9000 series has a very high TDP]
1x Liquid cooling system [Currently have Corsair H55, which seems pretty efficient at the moment even with my FX-6100 OC'd to 4GHz]
1x Sound blaster or Xonic card [Dunno if it'll make a significant difference over the onboard 7.1 Channel audio]
1x AMD Card [Not a top end card but better than the MSI Radeon HD 7770 I have right now as is able to be crossfired]
1x Nvidia Geforce GTX 500 series card [To be used as a dedicated physx card]
1x appropriately sized PSU to compensate for added parts and future additions

bliq · Jul 16, 2014

the one glaring thing I see is the drive subsystem. I'd personally do a single 1TB drive and use the savings to go to a 256GB SSD. The thing you'd want to put on a RAID 0 array is the OS and game executables, but an SSD will smoke that array right off the bat. Just install OS and games to the SSD. leave 1TB for media storage.

Not sure I'd spring for a discrete sound card, but that's up to you and how much you care about audio.

I'm also not sure I'd invest in a dedicated physx card anymore either. that's alot of money to pay for something so esoteric.

I'd funnel all those savings into the best single video card I could afford.

by going with a single video card, you might be able to reuse your old motherboard, thereby freeing up more money for a better video card. Also a single video card means you won't need more than a good 550-600W power supply. buy a good one, 80 Plus Gold or something like that. I bought a 550W gold for something like $60.

In fact, looking at your old computer, I can see if you want to upgrade the CPU and GPU but the rest of it looks pretty usable. If you funneled your budget into doing a z97/i5-4590K, a 256B SSD, and a R9 270, is that doable? because that would probably game better than a completely new build. You already have enough power, enough RAM, etc for what you want to do, of course, imho.

tiny voices · Jul 16, 2014

For the PSU, don't worry too much about 80+ gold/silver/whatever ratings as they do not really have anything to do with quality. Just stick with these quality brands: Antec, XFX, Seasonic.

bliq · Jul 16, 2014

tiny voices :

not directly quality but rather efficiency. but to get higher efficiency, it generally requires the PSU's to have certain features that we want anyways, and it usually requires higher quality parts. That's not to say there aren't crappy 80 Plus rated PSUs out there, but they're much more rare compared to crappy non 80 Plus rated PSU's.

And the added benefit of using less power and saving a small amount on electricity bills.

burstfyre20 · Jul 17, 2014

I have close to 800GB worth of games split between steam, origin and games installed via disk. I'd rather stay with a 120GB for OS and system apps and have the raid array for my games. The 1TB hard drive will be for all my other files like music, movies/shows, game captures, virtual box and backups. You might be right about the single graphics card but my board is pretty close to four years old now and my ceiling for OC'ing is 4GHz and it isn't compatible with the FX-9000 and likely will not be compatible with future AM3+ Processors. Not to mention that the version of that gigabyte board I have doesn't have a heatsink over the mosfit and I would also like to use the two USB 3.0 on the top of my case . I'd still wouldn't like to spend more that $200, $250 tops, on a graphics card alone and I should replace that dvd drive since it makes some odd noises from time to time. I'll wait on suggestions for the graphics card since by Christmas or spring break, its likely that newer cards will be released and existing cards will drop in price.

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Need some suggestions/tips

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