Building new gaming rig - But I'm not an overclocker!

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busterbunny

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Jun 2, 2009
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Hi!

My current gaming rig dates 4 years now. I've had lots of fun with it, but I feel it's time to chose.

I've reviews ALOT of people's build around here, and I seem to be an odd duck, as I don't see myself overclocking anything. I don't have much patience to tweek stuff in general. Many MB are rated very high because of nice OC features. But I don't care about these.

My current gaming rig is this:
Motherboard - Asus P6X58D-E
Processor - I7 950 @ 3.07 GHz
Ram - 6 GB
GeForce GTX 570
And, don't ask me why, I added a SoundBlaster X-FI.
Altec Lanboy yellow (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lanboy-air-fans-case-design,11393.html#lanboy-air-fans-case-design%2C11393.html?&_suid=1425312288291011421390556345134)

My logic is that I'd like to upgrade as few components as possibe. Minimally, CPU, MB, GPU. RAM, I'd have to look up what they are. No need to SSD or HDD, I have more than enough lying around.

Because of a wife that hates wires, I'm bound to a wireless network card.

So, here's a few questions:

a) Knowing the old motherboard, is the old RAM compatible with a new Z97 MB? Is it creating any sort of bottleneck?

b) I'm reviewing MB, and I was thinking that I could save up space with an integrated WiFi card on the MB. Something like the AsRock Z97 Extreme6 ac. I'm looking for, tops, 200$ US for a MB (I live in Canada, so unde 250$ CAD for reference). Is there something else I should consider?

c) CPU, I have no clue. I've been checking this site, and I don't see much value in going over an i5-4460. Why would I want to go into the i7 serie? Even for games, the charts don't seem to show much of a difference.

d) GPU - I've never thought of going SLI before, but I was considering doing so this time around, with a 2XGTX 970. Is it overkill? Same logic as with the processor, am I paying much more for marginal differnce there? Should I focus on just one GTX 980 instead?

e) Cooling! Now, here's the thing. The Altec Lanboy is made for air cooling. Is there a specific version of the GTX 970 I should have knowing that, generally speaking, the airflow of my case is more than adequate? Should I change the casing? I kind of like it.

f) Liquid cooling ~ Required? Again, marginally better or quite a good difference?

===

Thanks in advance for your answers!



 
Solution
Karadjgne
In general games only use 2-4Gb, added to what Windows is using you are only looking at 4-6Gb for a majority of games. Intel i5 cpus use native 1333 or 1600MHz, so this works best. If you have 1066 you may want to upgrade to 8Gb 1600 in 2x4Gb CL9 sticks for best stock performance at a good price.

Intel stock cooler will work just fine, its what it's designed for, however, heavy workloads come at a price, the damned thing is noisy. For $35USD, you could get a Cryorig H7, which fits more cases than the hyper212, and you'll never max out its cooling potential, so you'll never hear the fan running 100%.

For normal 1080p, you'll only need 1 gtx970, so a decent H97 board is fine. For psu 520w-550w is plenty since OC is off the table...
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DasHotShot

DasHotShot

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Decent rig for back in the day. Could still find some use I am sure.

Here are some answers:

a - For ideal dual channel RAM performance you want eqaual pairs, as each stick will run at half the advertised speed to give you the total (1600mhz will run at 799.99 each to give just under 1600). I recommend getting new sticks as the old ones might have low speeds (1333mhz ?) 2x4Gb of decent Ram by corsair or Gskill wont cost the world and is worth it. 1866 or 2100 are totally fine.

b - You CAN get the integrated wifi...it won't take much space though if not and could provide better solutions. Look at H97 boards as you won't be overclocking. They cost less and are solid. Big saving, as good ones are sub $100 or there abouts.

c - You are spot on. The top end should be an i5 4690...so it is your pick. However what you said is right for gaming only. If you video render/edit you should think about i7 and 16GB ram. Also, an i7 would be best for SLI...

d - What is your monitor res? 1080p? One 970 is the top end of that resolution already. If you run several monitors or a higher resolution etc then go for that power setup, it is better value than a 980 for sure.

e - Stick to what you like good sir! it is YOUR build! Asus make good coolers for their cards and so does MSI. It sounds like it will live well in your case.

f - You don't want to overclock, absolutely no liquid cooling required. Heck you can even run intel's very fair stock cooler on the cpu with no problems at all!

Hope this helps

EDIT: On the PSU go for a Seasonic, corsair or EVGA. You can even go Antec Edge series to save money and still get a seasonic product. Something around 550watts for a single card or 700-750 for SLI/future upgrading possibility.
 
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DasHotShot

DasHotShot

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Yep...the Z97 is aimed at overclockers and comes with support. The H97 does not, so is cheaper but by no means worse.

Should be your pick.
 
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busterbunny

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Thank you both. I see H97 also limits video cards to just one. I might go that way, as SLI is not that much of a rquirement. Thank you both for your answers. I... just don't know who to give the "Pick as a solution" award to.
 
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DasHotShot

DasHotShot

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No Problem, here to help.

Feel free to award the solution to whoever you feel helped you most. No hard feelings on my part if it wasn't my post.
 
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busterbunny

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I've been reading a little bit. What if I simply slapped a GTX 970 over the P6X58D-E? PCI-E 3 is backward comatible, I've heard.

CPU might be a slight bottleneck, but that much? The RAM?

And what kind of RAM should I be looking at, should I want to upgrade that to 8Gb or 16?<

Could I even go with SLI to get two screens?
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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In general games only use 2-4Gb, added to what Windows is using you are only looking at 4-6Gb for a majority of games. Intel i5 cpus use native 1333 or 1600MHz, so this works best. If you have 1066 you may want to upgrade to 8Gb 1600 in 2x4Gb CL9 sticks for best stock performance at a good price.

Intel stock cooler will work just fine, its what it's designed for, however, heavy workloads come at a price, the damned thing is noisy. For $35USD, you could get a Cryorig H7, which fits more cases than the hyper212, and you'll never max out its cooling potential, so you'll never hear the fan running 100%.

For normal 1080p, you'll only need 1 gtx970, so a decent H97 board is fine. For psu 520w-550w is plenty since OC is off the table. Seasonic s/mII, Antec hcg, Rosewill Capstone, XFX are good.

For cpu, that's your choice, personally I'd keep speeds over 3.2GHz in mind, you could even do a Xeon 1230v3, which will help in some games like BF4 multi-player and don't run the cost of an i7.
 
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