Upgrading one and building another PC - Help

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c123l123

Commendable
Feb 15, 2016
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First of all: Hello there, I'm totally new here :)

Now to my topic: I'm about to build one pc for me, and upgrade my old one for my future wife.
My current PC:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition, 3x 2.80GHz, boxed
Motherboard: ASRock M3A780GXH/128M
Memory: 2x1024 Kingston ValueRAM 1066 CL7 (upgraded to 2x4GB at some point)
Storage: Samsung SSD 830 256GB Basic (and an additional 320 GB WD Caviar)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 900M Dual Fan, 1GB GDDR5
Case: Sharkoon Rebel9 Economy black
Power Supply: Arctic Fusion 550R 550W ATX 2.2

She would get this one, but I would like to upgrade it a bit, if possible: She plays Guild Wars2 and it's only getting about 20 fps at times. And it's not the quietest pc at all, though only cold air blows out of the case.
I really wondered what the bottleneck here is, since I already looked up a lot, my guess is the CPU, because the video card is not that bad matched IMHO.

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With the new build I was aiming for an Intel CPU, because it should be way faster and cooler than my phenom2x3. I'd like to play new games (like The Division) at least in full HD at a good framerate, like >50fps.
Another priority is the noise, it should be rather silent. Also I'm not really the OC type.
My first ideas:
CPU: Thinking about i7-6700(K) or i5-4690K (if I'm on the cheaper side of things)
Motherboard: no idea yet
Memory: something between 8 and 16 GB
Storage: SSD with about 256GB again
Video Card: no idea :(
Case: probably going for Fractal Design Define R5 Black or Cooltek W2 Silver
Power Supply: no idea

The whole thing shouldn't cost more than 1000€, at least that's what I'm aiming for.
If you know a good monitor for full hd, that isn't too expensive, I'm all ears! :D

Thanks so much!
 
Solution
JohnBonhamsGhost
went from 212 Evo to 240mm AIO liquid cooler and the sound change was dramatic, much lower fan noise. just installed a 280mm Corsair H115i and the previous 240mm Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme was a better cooler. smaller, easier to install, very slightly cooler temps(28-56°C/idle-stressed with Thermaltake, 33-58°C with Corsair).

RAM i would also suggest going for ~2400 but with the lowest timings you an find.

2 displays i was just looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VRCLHYS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1TW1AGLZQYS3&coliid=I1RHOO0557Q5W7&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TUK9D9K/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1TW1AGLZQYS3&coliid=I2V2KPOX6D2BLU&psc=1
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riccardi50

riccardi50

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Nov 27, 2010
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Your video card on your girls computer is rather old...like 7 years old. I would upgrade that for sure. But her CPU is also very very old. Games typically use the video card mostly, but to load the realm and such the CPU is taxed, and that cpu is slow with 3 cores and 2.8 ghz. I'd upgrade the video card first, nothing crazy, just a nice 2-3 year old card. If that didn't do it, then the cpu.

For your build, go with Skylake (i7-6700) if you can afford it. For a video card, get a least a GTX 970 or higher or an AMD Radeon R9 300 series or higher. Motherboard is up to you really, how many bells and whistles you want. RAM, stick with 16 gigs. A 500 watt power supply should be plenty for this build and you can find them all over Newegg.com for around 20-40 dollars US. Just get a bronze rated power supply or better. Any less just gets into "super cheap and will die on you" territory.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost

JohnBonhamsGhost

Champion
Jan 14, 2016
7,970
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I would never recommend going for a budget priced power supply, nor would many others. there's no guarantee the garbage PSUs(tier 3 & down) will fail and cause further problems, but they often do. and any hardware they take with them when they go will not be covered in their warranty.

you should stick to Tom's Guide if you're unsure yourself of their build quality.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
 
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riccardi50

riccardi50

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Just to be clear, I am not recommending a budget power supply. But rather and bronze rated supply from a reputable company.
 
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c123l123

Commendable
Feb 15, 2016
4
0
1,510
Actually the only CPU still available from stores here is a AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition, 2x 3.30GHz, tray.
I actually don't know, which video card that would be riccardi50, do you have concrete suggestions?

For my build, I thought about one of those:
  • Sapphire Radeon R9 380 Nitro OC, 4GB GDDR5
    Sapphire Radeon R9 380X Nitro, 4GB GDDR5
    Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB GDDR5
    Asus Geforce GTX 970 Strix DC2OC 4GD5
Should I rather choose nvidia or amd?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Jun 5, 2013
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You have an X3 720, which will bottleneck any of the GPUs you listed, you might end up with the CPU running 100% while the Gpu is loafing along at say 40%, which is fine if you plan the GPU for a future build, but don't expect a 970/3xx to run at the full potential you see in reviews and BMs
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost

JohnBonhamsGhost

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Jan 14, 2016
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maybe you should look into selling what you can out of the original build and putting that towards a few nicer components for her. using that CPU is definitely going to hold back any gaming with newer titles.

for yourself, i would go for the Z170 platform. with a GTX 970 or R9 390/390X. personally, i would go for the 390X. which motherboard usually depends on what all you'll be connecting. i got stuck with too few SATA ports a few times, too few 4pin fan slots, etc.

power supply: something from tier 1 or 2 that fits your power needs. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

storage: you definitely want the SSD for Windows but i have also started using a separate one for my more demanding games. it increases startup and ingame load times dramatically.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost

JohnBonhamsGhost

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Jan 14, 2016
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i'm sure it wasn't intended to come out that way but there are many crap 500w bronze rated PSUs on Newegg for $40-50 that are distributed by reputable companies but using cheaper OEM builds that are tier 3 and below. i actually saw 2 that were worth buying using that search criteria.
the purpose of my statement was to make sure the OP didn't just set those search filters you suggested thinking any that fit that criteria would be worth it.
 
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c123l123

Commendable
Feb 15, 2016
4
0
1,510
Ok, so far in, I decided on (tending to the bold items)

  • CPU: either i7-6700K (~350€)
    or i5-6600K (~250€)
    MoBo: either MSI Z170A Gaming M3 (~136€)
    or Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H (~112€)
    RAM: some 16 (2x8GB) DDR4 (> 3k MHz I guess?!, are the timings important?)
    is this Kingston ValueRAM DIMM Kit 16GB, DDR4-2133, CL15-15-15 (~63€) good enough?
    Video: either Asus Geforce GTX 970 Strix DC2OC 4GD5 (~350€)
    or Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro + Backplate, 8GB GDDR5 (~334€)
    PSU: XFX XTR Series 650W ATX 2.31 (~102€)
    Case: Fractal Define R5 (~101€)
    or Cooltek W2 (~118€)

Do you guys think all that in the W2 would be silent enough to have it near the Monitor?
Or would I need watercooling for that? (In general, should I invest in watercooling? never did that before) Else I'd take the Define R5.

Please give me advice on which to choose with all the components.
(The PC for the fiancé will be a new one, for about 400€ or smth I think.)
 
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riccardi50

riccardi50

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Nov 27, 2010
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Never used that case so I couldn't tell you. As for cooling, I'd get yourself an all-in-one water cooler. Like the Corsair H100i GTX Extreme. Also, save yourself some money and get RAM that is slower MHz but have good timings. In today's world, RAM just isn't he bottleneck in systems. You can find plenty of youtube videos showing that it isn't worth it to buy 3200 MHz over 2400 MHz. Just get good timings. For the video card, you're fine either way you go. I prefer an AMD card at that price point because I just like to have more RAM on my GPU and most of the AMD cards have more RAM at that price point.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost

JohnBonhamsGhost

Champion
Jan 14, 2016
7,970
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went from 212 Evo to 240mm AIO liquid cooler and the sound change was dramatic, much lower fan noise. just installed a 280mm Corsair H115i and the previous 240mm Thermaltake Water 3.0 Extreme was a better cooler. smaller, easier to install, very slightly cooler temps(28-56°C/idle-stressed with Thermaltake, 33-58°C with Corsair).

RAM i would also suggest going for ~2400 but with the lowest timings you an find.

2 displays i was just looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VRCLHYS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1TW1AGLZQYS3&coliid=I1RHOO0557Q5W7&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TUK9D9K/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1TW1AGLZQYS3&coliid=I2V2KPOX6D2BLU&psc=1
 
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