Need help finding a budget motherboard, case and PSU.

VatchCronock

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About 3 years ago I was dumb and bought an Alienware x51 R2. It was advertised as an entry level upgrade-able PC but man is that far from the truth. I went to upgrade from the sorry excuse of a GPU that came with the system so I put a GTX 970 in it. That was the second idiotic mistake as the x51 doesnt even have a PSU despite being a desktop, it has a 330 watt POWER BRICK! Now I have to throttle the GPU with MSI Afterburner and because afterburner only updates that signal every 10th of a second sometimes my PC just power trips which I'm guessing is pretty bad for it.

So, what I'm going to do is ditch the Alienware case and motherboard all together and move the parts into a new suitable home.

The parts I have in the Alienware x51 R2 right now:

GPU: GTX 970, 4GB of GDDR5 RAM and its the "Acitve cooling extreme 2.0" edition (meaning it has 2 big fans on it)

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 CPU @ 3.40 GHz (I would like to be able to upgrade this to an i5 later)

RAM: 2, 8GB DDR3 sticks

Storage: a single 1TB HDD (I would like to be able to add a second HDD or SSD with the new motherboard)

So I'm looking for a case, motherboard, and PSU that can support my current components but will allow me to upgrade them at a later date. I would like the motherboard to support SLI of 2 GPUs because I'm not going to have more than 2 anyways. Also 4 RAM slots would be a plus as I know most have 4 anyway but its not that big of a deal because 16gigs of RAM seems to more than enough for any game so long as I'm not running a server.

What wattage of PSU do you recommend anyway, because I don't really know what Ill need but I really don't want to have less than Ill need.

I don't know a lot about case fans I just know that I don't want any overheating and I don't really care about noise. All I care about is cooling an price.

When the case is involved I don't care about looks or size I just want good cooling and plenty of room for components and fans.

When its all put together will I be able to just put my current hard drive in the machine, boot it up and have all my files and my operating system the same exact way I left it or will it be more more complicated than that?

I'm looking into this motherboard and i have no idea about what PSU and case I need,

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GA-Z97X-SLI-2-Way-DualBIOS-Motherboard/dp/B00K2RQAQY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1469646660&sr=1-1&keywords=z97x-sli

Any help is greatly appreciated and I don't know a whole lot when it comes to building a gaming PC from the ground up but everyone keeps saying its not as hard as it seems.
 
Solution
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($110.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $246.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-27 15:36 EDT-0400

MoBo is just fine

750 watts will handle two 970s ... shop this.... price bounces from $48 - $75
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=393

Case is superb ... for the price...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($110.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $246.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-27 15:36 EDT-0400

MoBo is just fine

750 watts will handle two 970s ... shop this.... price bounces from $48 - $75
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=393

Case is superb ... for the price
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zheXtXgpCUg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS8qUvhetV4
 
Solution

VatchCronock

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Does the heat sink and fan for the CPU come with the motherboard or does it usually come with the CPU? Also would I be able to take the heat sink and fan from the Alienware motherboard and put it on the Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI motherboard?

Are the mountings for the heat sink and fan that are located on the motherboard standardized?
 

SliceT

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Don't think such expensive board in 1150Socket, this one is good enough and cheaper.
With the money left get a SSD for your software and OS.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tDn8M8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tDn8M8/by_merchant/

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 PRO3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $271.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-27 16:34 EDT-0400
 


If you get an included cooler, it will come with the CPU ... and yes, mounting holes are standard

 


1. The proposed MoBo does not meet the OPs desired criteria:

MoBos in this price range don't do SLI.. OP wrote:

So I'm looking for a case, motherboard, and PSU that can support my current components but will allow me to upgrade them at a later date. I would like the motherboard to support SLI of 2 GPU

2. At this price range, you are also saddled with a substandard audio solution (Realtek ALC892), the Giga has ALC1150
 

VatchCronock

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I think that would go with the MoBo(this means motherboard right?) that "JackNaylorPE" recommended as it is only around 30$ more expensive and I would really like SLI support so that later down the road when I have more money I can run some nice VR and 4K quality games.
 

VatchCronock

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So if I do move all the parts onto a new motherboard in a new case with a new PSU, would I be able to just plug in my current hard drive, boot it up and have all of my files and my OS just the way it was before the upgrade? Or would it be complicated than that?
 
Assuming you buy the SSD:

1. Back up the HD (just in case).

2. Build the new box, connect SSD data cable to lowest numbered SATA port .... but don't connect:
-Ethernet cable
-SATA Data Cable for HD

3. Install Windows to SSD

4. Turn off Windows ability to install Hardware drivers
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/82137-drivers-turn-off-automatic-driver-installation.html
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8013-windows-update-automatic-updates-enable-disable-windows-10-a.html

5. Install all hardware drivers from mobo CD

6. Connect ethernet cable and run Windows Update till it stops doing anything

7. Install latest drivers for ALL hardware from manufacturers web sites. The reason we didn't do this in step 5 is 3 fold:
-Sometimes MoBo CD comes with licensed utilities with product key embedded and these are not on web site versions
-Its advisable to establish a working out of box conditions
-Sometimes newer drivers require latest Windows Updates

8. Turn off and connect HD data cable to 2nd lowest numbered SATA port.

9. Boot to BIOS and make sure that SSD is the 1st boot device, if not fix it

10. Boot to Windows on SSD. ... save ya stuff

Option 1 ... . ... save ya stuff. I typically use this when user uses no MS defaults for storage and doesn't let anything go in to ProgramsFiles directories.,,, most often this means all was on a different drive

11. Install all your programs and games to the EXACT locations on the HD that they currently exist ... you will have to select custom installation as you can't fit all this stuff on the SSD

12. Delete:

-all files in root directory on Hard Drive (Now D:\ I presume)
-Windows directory
-Program Data Directory
-Users Directory
-Config.msi directory

-If you don't use "My Documents / Pictures, etc it's safe to delete Documents and Settings Directory. If you do, move them to a more appropriate file structure or to same folders on C:\

Option 2 ... If yoiu have just 1 HD and 1 partition and let Windows decide where files get stored and programs get installed, I'd recommend this

11. Make sure you saved backup drive ...

12. Install everything fresh

13. Copy need files, saved games etc from backup


 

VatchCronock

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I was planing on just putting my current 1TB hard drive in the new motherboard then maybe adding an SSD later. If I did this would I need to go through anything to have my files and OS on the "new" PC
 
Yes... I gave you all the steps you must go thru in above post

If you do what you propose, this is what happens...

1. You press the power button, system posts and then it tries to load the drivers it find on the HD.

2. It then says "What the fudge, I'm trying to load all these drivers but I can't find any of the hardware that the HD says is here"

3. It then says "What the fudge, I see all this hardware and i can't find any of the drivers"

You could try an uninstall them but Windows, thinking it knows better than you hides copies of every driver ever installed all over the place ... so you never get it all out. It's a process often tried but in the end peeps get tired of all the conflicts and problems and do a fresh install.

BTW, before you start anything..best d/l and install Belarc Advisor and print out / save a cpy of the system report ... this will contain product keys for all your software and OS.

Also be aware, depending on your OS, OEM or retail and where you got it, Windows may not activate....if you have Win 7 OEM for example, and your old MoBo was also a Gigabyte, then you should be OK ... if not reusing the OS Product Key is going to be very iffy.
 

VatchCronock

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Ok thank you for the info. I didn't even know about Belarc Advisor and a while ago I helped my friend get Win7 64bit on his pc after his tech guy wiped his hard drive and gave him the 32bit version. It was very annoying to get a product key from dell.
 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum


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I thought, being so high on checking NewEgg reviews as you are, that you wouldn't recommend a mobo with basically the same 1 EGG ratings as 5, aren't you always saying that NewEgg ratings are the best way to judge a product - or one of the best? Just wondering, since you argue with so many about how great NewEgg reviews are to you