# First Build.



## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Currently working on my first pc for gaming, hoping to play the likes of witcher 3 and inquisition.

The current PC im using is a hand-me-down and to my knowledge not brilliant built





the OS is 32bit.

I currently have a gtx 980 and a corsair 500r case sitting in my room
I had planned on also getting the below parts-

*Asus Z97-PRO Motherboard Intel ATX Intel Socket 1150*

*Intel Core i5 i5-4690K CPU (Quad Core 3.5GHz Processor, 6MB Cache, Intel HD 4600 Graphics, Socket H3 LGA-1150)*

Probably also going to need an OS on top
Most likely windows 7
i'd like help to refine my further choices to better suit my gaming needs, to help keep the price down and to see if i'm able to re-use any parts from my current pc

Any information you may need to help me i'm sure i can find and provide


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## Jetster (Jun 7, 2015)

Don't use a wish list just list the parts you intend to get. And a budget

Plus anything else you need like a OS,  monitor, so on

As you change your build edit the first post to reflect where you are


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Don't use a wish list just list the parts you intend to get. And a budget
> 
> Plus anything else you need like a OS,  monitor, so on
> 
> As you change your build edit the first post to reflect where you are



My mistake, i've edited it


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## Jetster (Jun 7, 2015)

Where you live and what Motherboard do you have now?

If you really tight on a budget you can hold off on the SSD, and you don't need 850w, 1600 on the memory is fine or do you already own the memory


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Where you live and what Motherboard do you have now?
> 
> If you really tight on a budget you can hold off on the SSD, and you don't need 850w, 1600 on the memory is fine or do you already own the memory


 United kingdom and im unable to find out for some reason, i looked up how to check


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## Jetster (Jun 7, 2015)

Is it a OEM Brand PC or look at the board. Not a big deal


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Is it a OEM Brand PC or look at the board. Not a big deal


as far as i can tell it's a kind of asus mobo but i don't have the tools to get in and have a better look


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## Jetster (Jun 7, 2015)

Well if your going to build it yourself. You might want to take you current PC apart and put it back together just to practice. I would hate to have to bend the pins on a brand new board.


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## Iceni (Jun 7, 2015)

You already have an 1155 motherboard. I doubt it's a P67 or Z68 chipset. It'll be one of the non overclockable chipsets.

You could just drop an 1155 i5/i7/xeon into it.

The i7 3770K, i7 2600K, i72700K, i5 2500K, i5 2550K, i5 3570K. would all work on your current motherboard with just a bios update. Socket 1155 is perfectly capable and a lot of users are still on it because the 1150 chips don't offer a great deal more.

With that chip you could stagger your build.

New CPU now, New 1155 z68 motherboard in 6 months.

Then you just put your current PC, and drop in the PSU and GTX980.

old Case, old motherboard, New PSU, New CPU, New GPU, Old ram, New SSD, New 1tb spinner.



http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/651wto850w/110-b2-0750-vr.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...dsolidstate/240gbto400gb/sdssda-240g-g25.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata1tbto1.5tb/st1000dm003.html

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-COR...798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ee2698526

Would make your build £280 ish and decent enough. then the addition of a Z68 motherboard and a CPU cooler when your ready will be cheap as well.

You should also be able to format your current hard drive to use as a storage drive. Saving the £40 for the 1tb spinner if you want. Your optical drive should also migrate in the same way.

just noticed you have a corsair 500r so your case is fine.


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Iceni said:


> You already have an 1155 motherboard. I doubt it's a P67 or Z68 chipset. It'll be one of the non overclockable chipsets.
> 
> You could just drop an 1155 i5/i7/xeon into it.
> 
> ...



Thank you for the advice, i'll try to get some inside photos of my pc in a short while to try and clear some stuff up, i already have a new case ready at the side but that all certainly is quite the price cut


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## Iceni (Jun 7, 2015)

I've just amended it.

£280 ish, You don't need a new case if you have the 500r.

So SSD, CPU, PSU. As current upgrades

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...dsolidstate/240gbto400gb/sdssda-240g-g25.html
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/110-b2-0750-vr.html
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-COR...798?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ee2698526

Then a new motherboard in 6 months time. Sorry for the confusion 

This is how the i7 2700K and i5 4690K match up.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-2700K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690K

As you can see there isn't a lot in it.


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Iceni said:


> I've just amended it.
> 
> £280 ish, You don't need a new case if you have the 500r.
> 
> ...



I'm taking a look around the inside of my current Pc now  it has a seagate barracuda 500gb, a corsair cx 430 power supply, 2x 4gb ram. still unable to tell what motherboard it has.

edit: took the panels off and found it to be a "foxconn 115xdbp 22L6"


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## Iceni (Jun 7, 2015)

I'm not sure what motherboard that is have a look and see if has any of these numbers on it.

H61, H67, Z75, Z77, Q77, B75, P67, Q67, Z68, H77.

Those are all the 1155 chipsets and normal motherboard numbering put those at the start of the motherboard name. For Example H61MD-V. It'll just give us an idea of what chipset you have and if indeed you even need a better motherboard in the future. 

P67, Z68, Z75, Z77 are the chipsets that allow full overclocking with a K series CPU. So it you have one of those you're golden. If it's any of the others then it'll be a motherboard upgrade in the future if you feel you need the extra. In all fairness a stock 2700K (on any chipset) with a GTX980 and an SSD will fly and trounce any current game at 1080p.

The 500GB drive can be used as a storage drive. You can still add a 1TB drive if you want but it's not essential.
The PSU is a little weak for the GTX980. It's a decent make but 430W isn't going to be enough for a stable system. Especially if your planning on overclocking.
2x 4gb of ram will be fine. 

You might also consider a better heatsink to the one you already have if it's stock. There is a good selection of tower coolers for under £20 from most of the online computer stores. 

For your windows it might be worth waiting and putting your Win7 32 back on. Windows 10 is very close to release now.


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## Richarz (Jun 7, 2015)

Iceni said:


> I'm not sure what motherboard that is have a look and see if has any of these numbers on it.
> 
> H61, H67, Z75, Z77, Q77, B75, P67, Q67, Z68, H77.
> 
> ...



the only numbers i could see were X16, not sure if that's any relevance though.
I'm glad to hear i won't need to buy new storage or ram unless i feel it necessary however and yes, it's pretty lucky that a heatsink is one of the cheaper things to replace.
this seems really good.


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> the only numbers i could see were X16, not sure if that's any relevance though.
> I'm glad to hear i won't need to buy new storage or ram unless i feel it necessary however and yes, it's pretty lucky that a heatsink is one of the cheaper things to replace.
> this seems really good.



Download AIDA64 from here and it will show you the components you have including motherboard. Do you plan or know how to overclock? 

Actually with a i5, 2 sticks of ram, SSD, HDD, DVD, few fans and a GTX 980 even a 430W will be fine if you don't overclock. So in theory you only need a new CPU and SSD since you can re-use everything else. Do you plan on a new screen or you will game at 900p?


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

well that made things stupidly easy. |:




i don't plan to overclock either, should be good enough for me without that.
for now i'll probably keep my current screen. 1440 x 900 resolution, 

any information i should pull up to further help?
i've read elsewhere that a 430w psu may cause my pc to randomly shut off if the gtx 980 is to demanding, i think in any case i should upgrade to at least 600w?


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## Iceni (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> 430W will be fine if you don't overclock.



If Krusha03 thinks it'll be fine then it will be. He's normally spot on with builds 

and it makes it even cheaper.

So you've gone from £600+ to £210 ish lol! 

If you do need a bigger PSU then it's not a problem to go out and pick one up.


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## CounterZeus (Jun 8, 2015)

I see that nobody has mentioned it, but be sure to use a 64-bit OS. As you can see in your own screenshot of the first post, about half of your current RAM is not available. 32-bit keys should be interchangeable with 64-bit ones (please someone correct me if I'm wrong).


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## Iceni (Jun 8, 2015)

CounterZeus said:


> 32-bit keys should be interchangeable with 64-bit ones



That is true if you have a retail version. So if it's a boxed product with key.

If it's an OEM install then they key is only for the version that was shipped.


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## RCoon (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> i think in any case i should upgrade to at least 600w?



Get yourself a shiny 80PLUS Gold 550W. That'll do the trick very nicely. As you're UK based, I can highly recommend SuperFlower's Golden Green range. Either that or a Sea Sonic, XFX or Corsair RM unit. EVGA G2's are also top notch in quality.

As for motherboard, I'd roll with the Asus Z97-A, it has every feature you could possibly desire from Z97, and comes at a highly reasonable cost.

*Note: H61 does not have native SATA III 6Gbps ports. As such, your SSD will be crippled and halve the performance. There's no point in buying an SSD if you're stuck on SATA II.*

Just be sure to install 64bit OS as suggested above. Your current rig is only using 4GB of the 8GB you've got installed because of the 32bit limits.


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

since you thought you where spending more why not give some thought into a nice monitor.. have you seen some of the new wide 1440p monitors and the gsync/freesync line-up? exciting to me. 

what i would do is get a nice gpu and the psu along with the monitor then hold out for a nice 9 series board and cpu and if it was fine fine with the cpu i had at the moment intel has a whole new platform coming out next year.


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Get yourself a shiny 80PLUS Gold 550W. That'll do the trick very nicely. As you're UK based, I can highly recommend SuperFlower's Golden Green range. Either that or a Sea Sonic, XFX or Corsair RM unit. EVGA G2's are also top notch in quality.
> 
> As for motherboard, I'd roll with the Asus Z97-A, it has every feature you could possibly desire from Z97, and comes at a highly reasonable cost.
> 
> ...



that could certainly become a problem being stuck on slow old sata being the reason they have developed all the new storage tech and refined ssd pretty good at this point in time.. even my wd blacks feel slow compared to this cheep 500gb ssd no name i picked up.


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## ne6togadno (Jun 8, 2015)

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pDdsrH
use ram and 500gb hdd from current rig. windows is optional (if you have oem win key that cant be used for 64bit version)


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

ne6togadno said:


> http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pDdsrH
> use ram and 500gb hdd from current rig. windows is optional (if you have oem win key that cant be used for 64bit version)



looks pretty good but what the op should take note of is the h97 motherboard only supporting one gpu.. not really a problem for most people but the monitor is 1080p. the class of the gtx 970 r9 290(x) are regarded as excellent options for single gpu users that want great 1440p gaming.   

less important but also a factor is the h97 only supporting up to 1600mhz ram..  a z97 is going to enable you to slot in a i7 or xeon and be up to snuff with new tech with hyperthreading and higher bandwidth ram so if you find yourself becoming something of a heavy multitasker and running a few gpu's and monitors your system will be right there with you not missing a beat.


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## Jetster (Jun 8, 2015)

His current Windows copy is 32 bit


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

CounterZeus said:


> I see that nobody has mentioned it, but be sure to use a 64-bit OS. As you can see in your own screenshot of the first post, about half of your current RAM is not available. 32-bit keys should be interchangeable with 64-bit ones (please someone correct me if I'm wrong).


Yeah apparently the guy who made this PC didn't do any of his own research although i'm grateful to some extend because it means i don't have to buy more ram.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

ne6togadno said:


> http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pDdsrH
> use ram and 500gb hdd from current rig. windows is optional (if you have oem win key that cant be used for 64bit version)



This is a nice little list, thanks. unfortunately the 32bit windows that i'm currently using doesn't appear to be a legit version. Corners were cut by the maker of my rig it appears


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

this is really coming along guys, thanks a lot owo


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

In our household we have a windows 7 64b disk, is it possible to just buy a key and use the disk i've got?


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> In our household we have a windows 7 64b disk, is it possible to just buy a key and use the disk i've got?



you should be fine with it if you have the key code to activate it..  going by what i have seen people say microsoft support is pretty nice about helping people out with it if needed.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

xfia said:


> you should be fine with it if you have the key code to activate it..  going by what i have seen people say microsoft support is pretty nice about helping people out with it if needed.



My room mate has already used the key provided, i was wondering if you can just buy a key separate instead of ordering a new disk and such


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

yeah you can.. i think your technically suppose to buy another but it should work with the same one.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

xfia said:


> yeah you can.. i think your technically suppose to buy another but it should work with the same one.


I do suppose i'll find out when it comes down to it


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> well that made things stupidly easy. |:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



This is actually excellent news. This board supports Xeon e3-1230 or Xeon e3-1230 V2 (not V3 as it is different socket) which is basically an i7 without the IGP and with the same price as an i5. If you have the extra money then sure change the PSU but as I said if you are strapped for cash it is not absolutely necessary. You can use the calculator on this website and you will see you need a power supply of minimum 350W or 400+W is recommended.

So what I would buy is the following with the PSU being optional:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

*CPU:* Intel Xeon E3-1230 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£169.67 @ Scan.co.uk)
*Storage:* Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5&quot; Solid State Drive  (£69.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
*Power Supply:* Zalman 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£49.08 @ CCL Computers)
*Total:* £288.33
_Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 12:22 BST+0100_

If you are going for the 2nd hand market then you can probably find an i7 for the same price as well. And as others have said install 64 bit of windows.



RCoon said:


> *Note: H61 does not have native SATA III 6Gbps ports. As such, your SSD will be crippled and halve the performance. There's no point in buying an SSD if you're stuck on SATA II.*



This is absolutely *NOT *true. Real life performance difference is minimal and improvement vs using a HDD is outstanding. I can vouch for this from personal experience but also the following article (one of many) support my claim:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-sata-3gbps,3469-16.html


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## RCoon (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> This is absolutely *NOT *true. Real life performance difference is minimal and improvement vs using a HDD is outstanding. I can vouch for this from personal experience but also the following article (one of many) support my claim:



It's certainly not ideal. I would not feel comfortable spending hard earned cash on an SSD only to kneecap it with SATA II.

I also wouldn't be looking at Xeon CPUs either.

EDIT: I certainly wouldn't be recommending Zalman PSUs either.


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

RCoon said:


> It's certainly not ideal. I would not feel comfortable spending hard earned cash on an SSD only to kneecap it with SATA II.


If you bought the SSD for posting AS-SSD benchmarks on the forum then yeah you are gonna have crippled performance if you bought it for booting windows in <15s  and application responsiveness then SATA 2 vs SATA 3 makes no difference. As I said I have an MX100 on sata 3 port and a V100+ on sata 2 port (which is slower than the MX100) and in everyday use i see no difference between the 2.


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## RCoon (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> If you bought the SSD for posting AS-SSD benchmarks on the forum then yeah you are gonna have crippled performance if you bought it for booting windows in <15s  and application responsiveness then SATA 2 vs SATA 3 makes no difference. As I said I have an MX100 on sata 3 port and a V100+ on sata 2 port (which is slower than the MX100) and in everyday use i see no difference between the 2.



Cost increase to B75/H77 is minimal, and will net more benefits than just SATA III.


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Cost increase to B75/H77 is minimal, and will net more benefits than just SATA III.


It's all about how much money the OP is willing to spend. With 1150 the CPU becomes more expensive if he wants 4c / 8t. I personally would rather have i7 on 1155 vs i5 on 1150 because i need the extra threads


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## RCoon (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> It's all about how much money the OP is willing to spend. With 1150 the CPU becomes more expensive if he wants 4c / 8t. I personally would rather have i7 on 1155 vs i5 on 1150 because i need the extra threads



B75/H77 is 1155, so he can use whatever CPU is available to him already. Those boards cost like ~£50 from outlets in the UK.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

I believe i have roughly £500 for anything i further need.

i also have no clue what you two are talking about x_x


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

RCoon said:


> B75/H77 is 1155, so he can use whatever CPU is available to him already. Those boards cost like ~£50 from outlets in the UK.


My bad I had the asus z97 in my mind you recommended earlier when writing that. Still that's 50 pounds that not need be spent. In the end let's agree to disagree

Edit: In the end he might as well then get a Z77 / 97 board and an overclockable CPU


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## RCoon (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> My bad I had the asus z97 in my mind you recommended earlier when writing that. Still that's 50 pounds that not need be spent. In the end let's agree to disagree



No worries, you do these build-a-pc things more than I. That SATA II article was highly useful and I'll use it in future.



Richarz said:


> I believe i have roughly £500 for anything i further need.
> 
> i also have no clue what you two are talking about x_x



SATA III just means your storage has "wider pipes" than SATA II. When those pipes are flooded with (usually synthetic) data, SATA III has the edge.

H61 boards dont have SATA III, whereas B75 and H77 boards do (and they can use the same 1155 processors as Krusha is suggesting). They offer a few more features like extra USB 3.0 and all that jazz, and they don't cost an awful lot. You can usually buy them from outlets at minimal cost.


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## ne6togadno (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> If you bought the SSD for posting AS-SSD benchmarks on the forum then yeah you are gonna have crippled performance if you bought it for booting windows in <15s  and application responsiveness then SATA 2 vs SATA 3 makes no difference. As I said I have an MX100 on sata 3 port and a V100+ on sata 2 port (which is slower than the MX100) and in everyday use i see no difference between the 2.


every day use of ssd isnt just booting and application start up. sometimes you have to download and copy files too and sata 3 gives benefits there.


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

ne6togadno said:


> every day use of ssd isnt just booting and application start up. sometimes you have to download and copy files too and sata 3 gives benefits there.


Because your download speed is >300 MB/s and a HDD can keep up with an SSD?


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

i dont think your doing yourself or anyone else a favor buying something that outdated.. like why is this thing on the shelf and a h97 right next to it for 10 bucks more? why is my system crawling? why am i running 1600mhz ram with 16 threads blazing away?  idk what im doing haha

ok a little sarcasm but its just a fact they give us more bandwidth and developers start using it so you start using it.


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## ne6togadno (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Because your download speed is >300 MB/s and a HDD can keep up with an SSD?


nop my dl speed is 100mbit but copy from one and same hdd to sata 3 ssd is faster then to sata 2 sdd (both ssds are same)


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

Everyone saying different things makes me uneasy, when it comes down to it im still unsure as to what i should purchase even though you've all given suggestions


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

its ok man.. there is a lot to learn. 

you have a 980 already so your going to be wanting to check out 1440p monitors or maybe even 1600p but there is better selections on 1440p (gsync if you can afford it) with a h97 and a i5. 

if you want 4k or 3 1080p then your going to want another 980 with a z97 and a i5 or i7 if you think you might get into something more than just playing a game and listening to music at the same time.


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

xfia said:


> its ok man.. there is a lot to learn.
> 
> you have a 980 already so your going to be wanting to check out 1440p monitors or maybe even 1600p but there is better selections on 1440p (gsync if you can afford it) with a h97 and a i5.
> 
> if you want 4k or 3 1080p then your going to want another 980 with a z97 and a i5 or i7 if you think you might get into something more than just playing a game and listening to music at the same time.


He actually stated that for the time being he is keeping his 900p screen.



Richarz said:


> Everyone saying different things makes me uneasy, when it comes down to it im still unsure as to what i should purchase even though you've all given suggestions



Of course because this is a forum with different people that have different mind set, financial situation and priorities. We have shown you that you can go away with as little as 240 pounds and go up to 500 easily for few % more performance. Price vs Performance is an exponential function, at some point you pay much more for just a few more %. It is up to you to decide how much $$ are these few % improvement worth and should you or shouldn't you do it.

You never answered if you plan to overclock or not. Assuming you won't these are your options:

Option 1: used i7-2600 / new xeon e3-1230 v1/v2 with 4 cores / 8 threads + SSD for ~240 pounds
Option 2: i5 4c / 4 threads + Z97 Board + SSD ~ 280 pounds
Option 3: E3-1230 v3 4c / 8t + Z97 Board + SSD ~ 325 pounds

PSU is another 50 - 70 pounds extra

If you plan to overclock things become more complicated because depending on applications faster 4 threads may be better than slower 8 threads (for example games)


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> He actually stated that for the time being he is keeping his 900p screen.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



i don't plan on overclocking as of yet and i feel as if an extra few % won't affect me unless it literally stops me playing a game. a general all high is what i'd like, it doesn't need to be the best of the best.

what's the benefits of the i5 vs the E3? 
it's probably going to turn out that a new mobo is needed, think the z97 is a good choice personally?


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> i don't plan on overclocking as of yet and i feel as if an extra few % won't affect me unless it literally stops me playing a game. a general all high is what i'd like, it doesn't need to be the best of the best.
> 
> what's the benefits of the i5 vs the E3?
> it's probably going to turn out that a new mobo is needed, think the z97 is a good choice personally?


Slightly higher clock (100 mhz) but you loose 4 threads which in my opinion is not worth it. If not overclocking I personally would choose option 1 or option 3 if you have the extra money. Option 2 is not worth it in my opinion.

So basically it comes down to do you want to change the board or not. Is sata 3 and usb 3 worth for you to spend extra 100 pounds? In gaming you won't notice any performance change and in my opinion same goes for everyday usage.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Slightly higher clock (100 mhz) but you loose 4 threads which in my opinion is not worth it. If not overclocking I personally would choose option 1 or option 3 if you have the extra money. Option 2 is not worth it in my opinion.
> 
> So basically it comes down to do you want to change the board or not. Is sata 3 and usb 3 worth for you to spend extra 100 pounds? In gaming you won't notice any performance change and in my opinion same goes for everyday usage.



I'm unsure as to the benefits of more threads but in any case i'm sure i can take your word on that.
it seems the third option would be the most reliable way to go?
i'm not fully trusting in reusing my current mobo as my friend who gave me the pc wasn't able to add his newer graphics card onto it although it may be entirely different for my gtx980, i can never be to sure. i suppose i can order the vitals i need and if it comes down to it get a mobo after.
i also still need to buy a new OS


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## krusha03 (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> I'm unsure as to the benefits of more threads but in any case i'm sure i can take your word on that.
> it seems the third option would be the most reliable way to go?
> i'm not fully trusting in reusing my current mobo as my friend who gave me the pc wasn't able to add his newer graphics card onto it although it may be entirely different for my gtx980, i can never be to sure. i suppose i can order the vitals i need and if it comes down to it get a mobo after.
> i also still need to buy a new OS


Just try your vga now. I don't see why it wouldn't work. The thing is the cpu for your current board and a z97 board are different socket and not interchangeable.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

Try and hook up the 980 to my current board now? i guess i could tink around with it.


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## Iceni (Jun 8, 2015)

I'm in agreement with Krusha03.

The i7 2700K I originally linked is fine, The SSD on sata 2 is still a hell of a lot faster than a spinning disc. And warrants the upgrade.

Upgrading the motherboard just for USB 3.0 and SATA3, Isn't worth it unless you want one of the overclocking chip sets. It's just as easy to add a bootable PCIe 1x SATA 3 controller for £5. Even that isn't an upgrade I would do personally. Granted the SSD will not be running at full speed, but the speed even on sata2 will blow you away.

And you still have the option to get a better motherboard, It's just not a priority.

OS wise. Get what you can. The 32 bit one you have is trouble if your on it longterm, but if you wanted to wait for windows 10 then I would fully understand since it's so close to release. Attempting to find out if your key will work on a 64 bit install is a great idea, but if it doesn't then wait for 10, and see if the benchmarks and DX12 offer speed improvements and make an educated choice with benchmarks to hand. Don't blind buy windows 7 64 until that hits as you don't know if it's an educated choice or if prices will fall on 7.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

Iceni said:


> I'm in agreement with Krusha03.
> 
> The i7 2700K I originally linked is fine, The SSD on sata 2 is still a hell of a lot faster than a spinning disc. And warrants the upgrade.
> 
> ...



I don't have a key to test out or i would. but true the price may go down once 10 is out although i thought the first year 10 is out you can upgrade from 7+ to 10 for free, thusly buying a copy of 7 would get you 10 so the price may not drop


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## Iceni (Jun 8, 2015)

Richarz said:


> I don't have a key to test out or i would. but true the price may go down once 10 is out although i thought the first year 10 is out you can upgrade from 7+ to 10 for free, thusly buying a copy of 7 would get you 10 so the price may not drop



I don't know the details of the upgrade path yet, There is a free way to do it but I don't know what you need. It might be worth looking into for yourself. And i don't know what version of 10 it'll drop you onto. There is a huge thread on windows 10 running but I refuse to look at it until I have the performance benchmarks. Only then would I consider it an option.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

According to the previous owner of this PC the reason they couldn't upgrade the graphics card and decided to just get a new whole rig is because the mobo apparently could not handle it, something to do with the bios not changing accordingly or along those lines, i believe he said the graphics card he tried was a GTX 750Ti. i don't know if this issue is real or to do with that graphics card or my mobo but it's something i'd like to adress before i tinker with my current pc to see if it can take the gtx 980 fine

hopefully someone has any clue to the issue described


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

the reason may be that the 750ti pulls power from the motherboard unlike your 980 that relies almost completely on a direct line to the psu.

it should be ok to try out as long as you havnt been noticing your pc acting weird.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

xfia said:


> the reason may be that the 750ti pulls power from the motherboard unlike your 980 that relies almost completely on a direct line to the psu.



that sounds reasonable, know how the bios would react to me switching to the 980, will it require me to work any settings or anything else? because of the issue the pervious owner had i want to see if my current mobo is fine with the 980 before i order a new one


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

the bios should be fine but your going to want to uninstall your current nvidia driver and replace it with newest whql driver after your 980 is in.


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

xfia said:


> the bios should be fine but your going to want to uninstall your current nvidia driver and replace it with newest whql driver after your 980 is in.








This one here? I'll take note of the curent nvidia one i'm using in case i swap it back


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## xfia (Jun 8, 2015)

yup game ready and certified to run on windows. you may be able to use the new one on your old gpu if you switch it back.. not totally sure with that oldy. sure someone around here knows the best driver to use for it.

edit-what your probably going to experience is your 980 not being fully utilized at 900p.. crank up that aa


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## Richarz (Jun 8, 2015)

the 980  requires 2 PSI-e connectors with 6 slots where the power supply i have could only provide a single 6 slot, on boot up it was asking for me to connect the psi'e(s)

It was good that i could tinker with taking a graphics card out/putting one in for future knowledge at least

edit: i'm a dumbass and found the 6 piece cables as additions in the graphics card box. whoops

edit2: i'm less of a dumbass than originally thought, those were adapters, it seems my power supply is indeed unfit to power my graphics card as far as i can tell


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## Caring1 (Jun 8, 2015)

Those adapters will connect to spare Molex connections, there should be at least two spare.
Once connected to the PSU you can plug it in to the GPU and it should be good to go.


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

How is the ASROCK Z97 for a mobo?
or any z97 if you'd recommend that card at all


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## xfia (Jun 9, 2015)

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html

this should explain a lot and it looks like they have been updating it so it should have most motherboards tiered.. just expand the top section to see full content.


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

xfia said:


> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2383150/motherboard-tier-list.html
> 
> this should explain a lot and it looks like they have been updating it so it should have most motherboards tiered.. just expand the top section to see full content.



I'll take a read now, that's one of the big things i'm still deciding. 
i've chosen the 
Intel Core i5 i5-4690K CPU (Quad Core 3.5GHz Processor, 6MB Cache, Intel HD 4600 Graphics, Socket H3 LGA-1150) & 
XFX 650w XTR Gold Fully Modular Power Supply Unit but haven't ordered them yet,  still picking a motherboard and ssd


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

woowee, reading up a storm x-x

No matter how much i read, it still doesn't become any easier of a choice


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

i think i want to go down the z97 route but choosing which board still comes down to being difficult
i realize the h97 is extremely similar but offers more options(?)
unless a h97 is extremely cheaper


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## Jetster (Jun 9, 2015)

Richarz said:


> i think i want to go down the z97 route but choosing which board still comes down to being difficult
> i realize the h97 is extremely similar but offers more options(?)
> unless a h97 is extremely cheaper



H97 has less options. Ram limited to 1333 some overclocking and voltage but not as good as the Z97


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

Jetster said:


> H97 has less options. Ram limited to 1333 some overclocking and voltage but not as good as the Z97


Oops, that's what i meant, less options. x_x


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## xfia (Jun 9, 2015)

1600mhz ram for h97


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

down to the matter of which brand and shit to get of the Z97


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## xfia (Jun 9, 2015)

its hard to go wrong with any of the boards from the first couple tiers. there is a lot of brand loyalty but yeah they all make some good stuff.


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## Richarz (Jun 9, 2015)

xfia said:


> its hard to go wrong with any of the boards from the first couple tiers. there is a lot of brand loyalty but yeah they all make some good stuff.


i realize a lot is branding but surely some are still better/more useful than others in cases, msi have ones branded specifically for gaming and such and should i bend to this marketing or are there ones that are cheaper but practically the same


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