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#1 Apr 04 2014 at 9:20 PM Rating: Good
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So I put together a parts list.

And by "put together" I mean I took the cheapest-but-similarly-rated parts from different build lists from the last week or so on Toms Hardware.

I figure my upgrade schedule would be to add another 8 gb RAM, toss in a second HDD to have it as a back-up, and eventually change out that i3 for an i7?

The one thing I'm worried about is the potential space issue for the GPU...

So? Thoughts?
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#2 Apr 04 2014 at 10:17 PM Rating: Good
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I would grab an SSD for your main drive and leave that TB drive for data. I would also look at at least a 650 watt PSU.
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#3 Apr 04 2014 at 11:00 PM Rating: Excellent
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For most purposes, there's no reason to go above an i7 or 8GB of RAM. The primary difference between an i5 and an i7 is hyperthreading and very few games support it (although heavy utilities like video editing do) and most programs won't strain 8GB. Now if you're planning on doing a lot of heavy video editing and the like then that's different.

Kao will grouse about the Radeon card but I've been very happy with my 7950.
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#4 Apr 05 2014 at 2:14 AM Rating: Excellent
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That GPU will fit in that case. I wouldn't reccommend that case particularily though, but it will work. The case is the one piece of your computer that you will likely reuse, so it pays to get a good one. The power supply will be adequate, but undersized if you are planning on adding extra drives or other such expansion down the line. See if there is a 650 watt you like to give yourself some upgrade room. Radeon drivers are a pain in the *** to maintain compared to nvidia ones, but go with what you are used to. That motherboard is a piece of junk, get an Asus motherboard, you will be much happier in the long run. You can live with an I3 initially, an I5 shouldn't be too much more if you want the additional cores.

I'd second getting a SSD if your budget would allow it. They are magical speed enhancement devices.
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#5 Apr 05 2014 at 5:40 AM Rating: Good
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If I don't go for the Radeon 270, the price point competitor is the Nvidia GTX 660, yes? Thing is, the benches all look worse for it (8-10 lower in everything), and it's more expensive. That seems like a big performance hit... If I was stepping up to the next budget range, I'd grab a GTX 660 ti or the 770.

I don't have any brand loyalty when it comes to cards, so I'll probably stick with the Radeon.

As for the SSD, the idea is to just toss the OS on it, yes? Or should I partition off part of it to be used for my core games, too? Just trying to see what space range I need to be looking at for pricing...

I'm willing to spend more on the case, I'm just having difficulty finding one I like. Smiley: lol

Rosewill 80+ Gold 650w PSU with solid reviews for $75? Alrighty then. Anyone heard anything terrible about Rosewill, or have a vendetta against non-modular PSUs?

Still looking at mobos...
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#6 Apr 05 2014 at 6:41 AM Rating: Good
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Okay, how this this?

It's slightly more than I wanted to spend, but I think I'm willing to do it if it's worth the cost (say, the better case/PSU).

Also, for a few bucks more I could step up to a 750w Gold PSU that's modular. Worth the upgrade?
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#7 Apr 05 2014 at 9:18 AM Rating: Good
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Man, I need to upgrade my CPU. The Phenom II X4 955 was a nice budget CPU at the time, but I'm ready for something a bit better.

Oh, and I've had a 7970 since June, and have had zero issues with it.

Edited, Apr 5th 2014 11:23am by Spoonless
#8 Apr 05 2014 at 11:28 AM Rating: Good
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Redditors and folks over at Toms Hardware seem to really like the GTX 760...

So right now I'm mostly torn between whether or not I want to just shell out $20 more for that card or not, because I'm having trouble finding benchmarks that actually compare the 270 against the 760.

The one other hangup I have is whether or not I should just toss out $40-50 more now for a quad core i5, and just not have to think about upgrading for that much longer...

Gah. Damn PC building and the fact that there's always another upgrade just tens of dollars later. Smiley: lol
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#9 Apr 05 2014 at 11:45 AM Rating: Excellent
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idiggory the Fussy wrote:
Okay, how this this?

It's slightly more than I wanted to spend, but I think I'm willing to do it if it's worth the cost (say, the better case/PSU).

Also, for a few bucks more I could step up to a 750w Gold PSU that's modular. Worth the upgrade?

The 660 GTX has one major fatal flaw. It doesn't have the full 256 memory pipes that it should have. It only has 128. That means it really can't utilize all the bandwidth it has available. The card should be much faster than it is.

Rosewill is Newegg's generic no name piece of junk hardware brand. Avoid anything critical by them.

idiggory the Fussy wrote:
Redditors and folks over at Toms Hardware seem to really like the GTX 760...

So right now I'm mostly torn between whether or not I want to just shell out $20 more for that card or not, because I'm having trouble finding benchmarks that actually compare the 270 against the 760.

The one other hangup I have is whether or not I should just toss out $40-50 more now for a quad core i5, and just not have to think about upgrading for that much longer...

Gah. Damn PC building and the fact that there's always another upgrade just tens of dollars later. Smiley: lol


760 GTX is a good card. That Seasonic power supply is also a much better manufacturer than the rosewill one, so even though the rosewill one should be theoretically adequate if you aren't ever planning on running a second video card in linked mode, the seasonic would be a better choice.

The motherboard is better. Gigabyte makes good stuff. I'd still pick an Asus over it personally but I have no major issues with them either and I have used them when an asus board was not available.

The CPU upgrade is probably worth it if you factor in the time it takes to swap out a CPU. You're pulling the case out, blowing the dust out, pulling the cpu fan, cleaning the surface, pulling the cpu, putting the new one back in, adding the case fan back in, re-plugging everything in, etc. Is the time to do that worth more to you than the cost of the higher end CPU?
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#10 Apr 05 2014 at 12:23 PM Rating: Good
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More build shenanigans.

I upped the CPU and switched to the GTX 770. The PSU was actually switched out to a lower wattage. Which isn't an issue right now, at least, because the MOBO doesn't support SLI anyway. The cheapest I'm seeing SLI boards are still like $140, so that upgrade probably isn't happening in this build.

It looks like it's a choice between the i5 and a larger PSU, unless anyone can spot better cuts elsewhere in the build.

[EDIT]

I suppose I should point out that Crossfire-ready boards are available at this price point, if that affects feelings about the Radeon card... I don't have any specific plans to add in a second card, but all upgrades are going to be evaluated next to how the rig is performing... It might just be worth it to take the cheaper MOBO now and upgrade to an SLI board whenever I hit the point where I'm looking into that option.

[EDIT2]

Side note, I wasn't including a monitor in the budget, but I am buying one. There seems to be a decently reviewed Acer on sale for 110 on Amazon. Does anyone have strong opinions about going for 23" over 21.5"?

Edited, Apr 5th 2014 2:27pm by idiggory
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#11 Apr 05 2014 at 12:33 PM Rating: Excellent
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the wider monitor is going to give you additional height as well. I find the 21 inch widescreens to be too short for my tastes.

Radeon cards hardwarewise are ok. Its just the drivers I really have an issue with. That and the Nvidia higher end ones tend to be faster.

I just bought my second 780 GTX Ti though for the main computer so I may be biased in that regard.

XFX makes decent power supplies, no issues there if you aren't planning on any expansion. Look at the minimum wattage requirements for your video card choice though and remember that doesn't include wattage allocations for any additional hard drives or perephrial cards. I'd still reccommend at least a 600 watt to be safe.
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#12 Apr 05 2014 at 12:57 PM Rating: Good
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I really like 23" monitors. It doesn't sound like that small of a size disparity makes a difference, but it really does in my opinion. Also, if you didn't notice, that Acer is DVI and VGA inputs only, so make sure you get the appropriate cable for it if you do get it. I fell into the trap of just thinking everything was HDMI when I bought my last monitor that I couldn't use it for a couple days because I had to order a DVI cable. Smiley: lol Well, also I had thought I ordered the same model as I already had, but apparently it was a slightly different one and didn't have all the inputs my existing screen had.

Edited, Apr 5th 2014 2:59pm by Spoonless
#13 Apr 05 2014 at 1:32 PM Rating: Good
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Hmmm, idea from someone on the Build a PC subreddit in order to more easily future proof.

Go for a cheap, 450 (bronze certified) PSU now in order to upgrade to an SLI-ready card, and then just move to upgrade the PSU down the road since that'll be easier than switching out the CPU or Mobo.

There are 500w bronze PSUs up for $30 (Corsair) $35 (EVGA)...

That... makes sense, right?
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#14 Apr 05 2014 at 2:33 PM Rating: Good
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If I go for the SLI mobo option, there's this Asus (3/5 stars on Newegg), MSI (4/5 stars), and Gigabyte (4/5).

I'm inclined to go for the MSI, but I know nothing about the brand. But it had quite a few reviews with that 4/5 average.

[EDIT]

This one (MSI) is $20 cheaper...

Edited, Apr 5th 2014 4:35pm by idiggory
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#15 Apr 05 2014 at 4:08 PM Rating: Excellent
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Do you really plan to go SLI later? I find my card more than meets my needs at present. If it ever didn't, I'd probably just upgrade the one card rather than but a second of the same. Game consolization left a large gap between tech and actual graphics that has yet to be filled.
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#16 Apr 05 2014 at 4:48 PM Rating: Good
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I definitely don't plan to do so; I'll just make the upgrades as they make sense as I need them.

I figure having SLI as an option makes sense, if it's not really going to hurt my rig now. If I don't need to add another card, my PSU will probably be fine for whatever I upgrade to. If I add another card, I'll need a new PSU, but I won't need a new MOBO.

Or maybe it doesn't make sense at all, I dunno, I'm a chronic overthinker.
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#17 Apr 05 2014 at 4:51 PM Rating: Excellent
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idiggory the Fussy wrote:
Hmmm, idea from someone on the Build a PC subreddit in order to more easily future proof.

Go for a cheap, 450 (bronze certified) PSU now in order to upgrade to an SLI-ready card, and then just move to upgrade the PSU down the road since that'll be easier than switching out the CPU or Mobo.

There are 500w bronze PSUs up for $30 (Corsair) $35 (EVGA)...

That... makes sense, right?



Not if you are going to buy a video card with a 525 watt minimum power requirement.

Going small on the power supply never makes sense.
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#18 Apr 05 2014 at 5:24 PM Rating: Excellent
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The joys of partslists, somehow that one $20 upgrade always manages to turn into $200.
#19 Apr 05 2014 at 6:12 PM Rating: Good
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Smiley: madSmiley: lolSmiley: madSmiley: lolSmiley: madSmiley: lolSmiley: madSmiley: lolSmiley: mad

So should I just go ahead and pull the trigger on the last build I linked?

[EDIT]

And how long do people think an i3 would last? 2 years? Less than that?

[EDIT]

Or maybe the better question is how much longer the i5 would last.

Edited, Apr 5th 2014 8:20pm by idiggory
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#20 Apr 05 2014 at 6:38 PM Rating: Excellent
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It's you're money. If you think you'll be happy with that, go for it.
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#21 Apr 05 2014 at 7:18 PM Rating: Good
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I'M NOT GOOD WITH DECISIONS. Smiley: oyvey
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people

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#22 Apr 06 2014 at 8:47 AM Rating: Good
Just tossing in two things:

- I lurv my GTX 770
- The Rosewill PSU I had is what crapped out as soon as I installed my GTX 770

Otherwise what Kao said.
#23 Apr 06 2014 at 9:47 AM Rating: Good
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A redditor pointed out I actually COULD get a 770 in my budget, but it would require dropping down to the first mobo I linked (ASRock), dropping to this case, and this PSU.

But I'm thinking the system would be loud, and the case probably wouldn't be awesome?

Edited, Apr 6th 2014 11:47am by idiggory
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people

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#24 Apr 06 2014 at 10:42 AM Rating: Good
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All you really need from a case is for it to be as anonymous as possible as there aren't many good looking ones.
#25 Apr 06 2014 at 10:54 AM Rating: Good
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This is the one in my build list now.

$30 less, $40 less.
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IDrownFish wrote:
Anyways, you all are horrible, @#%^ed up people

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#26 Apr 06 2014 at 11:56 AM Rating: Good
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I would never even consider getting one of those Zalman cases, it's like they're trying to make them as ugly as possible.
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