Gamer built, will it work?

[hectorite]

Hello everyone

Im looking at an outstanding offer (money-wise) for a Gamer-PC, which is partly upgradable. Though i am doubting the RAM this
PC holds... I am going to play BF3, hopefully with ULTRA settings

Specs:

Intel i5 2500k Quad Core, 3.3Ghz, 6MB,
8GB DDR3 1333MHZ, KINGSTON <<------ Will 1333 Mhz work ?? because this is the only part of the PC i can't upgrade
GTX570 1280 DDR5
Motherboard ASUS P8H67-M Evo
750Watt

Thanks for helping!

Regards Mark

 

[Raiddinn]

What is the PSU maker and model?

Also, provide a link to the RAM you want or give me an exact part number. Not all 8GB DDR3 1333MHZ ram is equal.

Kingston is an OK brand RAM wise. I only trust my RAM needs to Crucial at this point, but other brands are decent as well.

 

[Fuddy12345]

Please provide more detailed specifications to help us provide good answers. How much does this PC cost anyways?

 

[Cripple13]

if it's decent ram there won't be a noticable difference in upgrading it to the standard 1600. I haven't looked at the mobo, but if it can handle 1866 and higher you would notice a difference then.

If you have some spare cash after purchasing this, look into an SSD as a boot/game drive. It will speed things up tremendously

 

[phyco126]

I don't understand how the RAM can't be upgraded, or do you mean upgraded through the seller?

 

[Fuddy12345]

if it's decent ram there won't be a noticable difference in upgrading it to the standard 1600. I haven't looked at the mobo, but if it can handle 1866 and higher you would notice a difference then.

If you have some spare cash after purchasing this, look into an SSD as a boot/game drive. It will speed things up tremendously

I don't understand how the RAM can't be upgraded, or do you mean upgraded through the seller?

1333MHz is the maximum the motherboard can support. I think he means he cannot upgrade the RAM to a higher clock speed.

 

[phyco126]

Ah, okay then. Carry on.

 

[hectorite]

Thanks for the quick response guys
the seller havent given such detailed information of the specifications which you require.. which i also find very odd.

Though my real concern is, if the 1333MHZ DDR3 ram, is decreasing my chances of getting a smooth FPS in bf3 ultra settings...

Is it necessary to upgrade the motherboard in order to upgrade the ram?

 

[hectorite]

Actually for 60 $ extra i can buy another PC which contains :

Intel Core i5 2500k
GIGABYTE Z68AP ( which supports any DDR3 ram out there )
8GB DDR3 1600MHZ HYPER-X RAM, KINGSTON
GTX 570
Surround card

 

[Andre2807]

Mmm... Where are you from? If I were you, and from the US, I'd buy from Newegg, Amazon or Tiger Direct. Always make sure of dodgy online pc shops that give little info on their products. Especially power supplies. The whole rig could be great, but you receive a crappy PSU and it breaks within a months use.

 

[hectorite]

Im from Denmark i have 2 years warranty on the PC, and they deliver an excellent service..
http://topdata.dk/product.asp?product=8069
Thats the link to the PC, though its on danish, but the specs should be to understand
The graphiccard is upgraded to the gtx 570
That should run BF3 on ultra with smooth FPS in my opionon..

 

[Raiddinn]

Pay the $60 more.

The Z68 board is newer and the RAM is some small amount better, but at least you know it is RAM from a company with pretty low failure rates instead of RAM from who knows where.

I would be worried about the PSU, though, terrible PSUs pay you back with terrible lifetimes and by potentially blowing up your motherboards and video cards too.

 

[hectorite]

Thanks for the reply!

I am rather new in the computer-universe, so im not quite sure of what PSU is..
It sounds rather dangerous if it can end up blowing the motherboard and video cards.. i would not want that to happen ^^

 

[Raiddinn]

PSU is the Power Supply.

It is rather dangerous, potentially.

People come in here on a daily basis after a BANG asking for us to assist them in figuring out what happened and how to pick up the pieces of their PC and get it going again as cheaply as possible.

The most cheap thing to do is just to buy a better PSU right at the start.

It looks to me like in the link you posted the PSU is a Corsair CX600 which is a pretty good brand generally.

If that is the PSU that comes with the one you are going to get, you shouldn't have to worry too much.

If you intend to get some other PC with a different PSU or if I read the Danish wrong and thats not the PSU that comes with the one you want then post the different one so we can comment on its quality level and likelihood of catastrophic failure.

 

[hectorite]

Thank you for youre fast and helpfull reply veteran, you are much help for me !

The one that comes with the PC is :
750W Gaming ATX powersupply super silent 17dB High-END

The Corsair CX600 is an available upgrade which costs 110$..

 

[Raiddinn]

$110 more than the 750w Gaming ATX thing, or just $110 in general?

I can't find much of anything about that 750w PSU, so the quality is probably suspect.

 

[hectorite]

The upgrade from the 750w to the Corsair C600 costs 110 $..
I might want to call the seller to get more information of the PSU before i order it

 

[Raiddinn]

The Corsair cx600 barely costs half of that in America. That is pretty sad that you have to pay an additional $110 for it.

Maybe you should just take delivery of the computer and buy a good PSU separately if it turns out the PSU is pretty poor as I suspect.

 

[hectorite]

I live in Denmark, and everything here is at least 50-70 % more expensive due to our insanly high taxes

But yeah, i am going to order the PC today.. without the Corsair..
How will i know how to tell if it is a poor PSU? ( So i can replace it before anything happens )

Cheers!

 

[Raiddinn]

That is just it, you really can't know.

Any PSU, even the best ones, can go BANG and there goes the PSU and there is a decent chance that it takes down something it is connected to as well.

You never know when/if this is going to happen.

Sometimes they go peacefully, they just go to sleep and never wake up again. If this happens parts are not usually damaged by it.

The better ones are just more likely not to have this happen and they are much more likely to last longer in general.

Say you only need like 300w for the system and you get the generic 750w. It may only really put out 350 - 400w and maybe only for a year or two before it kicks the bucket.

The Corsair CX 600w might put out a max of 700w and might last for 5 years.

You are really just playing the percentages here. Do you maximally manage the risk by buying a more expensive brand name PSU or do you accept the risk and hope you don't pay for it later?

It is up to each individual's tolerance level.

That being said, I can't in good conscience recommend to anyone that they choose a generic brand PSU.

That being said, a glaring warning sign that the PSU is on the way down is a computer not being able to wake up from in sleep mode. Waking up from sleep mode means drawing an increased amount of power from the line listed +5vsb. This line keeps a tiny bit of power going when the computer is sleeping so that it can remember the previous state.

Waking up requires increasing the amount of power above that minimal level.

Often times the +5vsb line is the first thing to go on a PSU, so if you can't wake up from sleep mode that usually means you should replace the PSU right away, especially if it has been working for more than a year without problems and this just starts suddenly.

Really, power problems can manifest in many different hard to diagnose ways and they can very easily look like problems with any other part. That is partly why I always suggest people get PSUs I can trust, because if they get a problem later its really hard to rule out that it is a power problem.

Anyway, you might just want to plan on replacing it in a year or two and start looking for good deals on PSUs around the 1 year mark. If you want to move forward with the generic 750w, that is definitely something I would advise.

You never know if you will have any warning signs, it could just up and die out of nowhere. It happens more than you might think.

Anyway, GL on the computer. I hope it works out well.

 

[hectorite]

Thank you Raiddinn , i am absolutly going to follow your advice on replacing the PSU
( if not before, just to be sure ) .

I have one final concern of this PSU advicing of yours,
If the PSU crashes/burns down, does it affect other parts in the PC or is it just the PSU it takes out?

cheers !

 

[Raiddinn]

PSUs can and do damage anything they are connected to.

It doesn't even have to go out in a blaze of glory for this to happen either. However, if it does go out with a bang then your odds of having another component broken are quite high.

Maybe not 50%, but still considerable.

Personally, I think the risk is too high.

That being said, once upon a time when I didn't know any better I had a generic PSU that went out gracefully (never turned back on one day) and it didn't take anything down with it.

I am very thankful for that, and thankful that I learned better since then.

 

[Raiddinn]

If you would like to be 90% of the way to where I am at on this stuff, you can read these two articles

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Why-99-Percent-of-Power-Supply-Reviews-Are-Wrong/410/1

and this

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/327

There is a lot of good information in those articles and they are pretty quick reads.

If you do read them and thoroughly digest what they are saying, you can research any PSU model with google and within a few minutes tell which ones are good and which ones are better as paperweights.

The only rule of thumb those articles don't really say but that they imply is that if a PSU isn't reviewed by a good reviewer, its probably a paperweight.

 

[hectorite]

thanks raiddinn, that was very usefull for me in the future Probably gonna look for a new PSU soon hehe