Building a new PC (kinda)- Need some suggestions

[LFarish]

Hi there everyone.


At the moment I am using a midi tower case and have these components within my build:


CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750k Black Edition
RAM: 1x 8 gb (unknown brand)
PSU: 400 watt (also unknown) *not modular at all*
GPU: Nvidia GTX 960

I have a stock cooler and literally nothing special it only cost me around £250 to make this computer a few years back.

However now it starting to grind to a halt when I start to play certain games.

Any suggestion on what to upgrade to?






Here's the dilemma. I want a small form factor PC. I was looking at the Obsidian 250D as a case. I do not want to upgrade my GPU as for me I only game at 1080p and that is sufficient enough but would you recommend parts for this new build.


I would like to water cool if possible- I have heard that a H100 fits well in this case but I am not sure.




Thank you for any suggestions.

[MrJim]

What's your budget for your new build? With a high performance cooler like the H100, I assume you're planning to overclock your CPU?

[EndlessWaves]

The Obsidian 250D is not a small form factor case.

The average midi tower takes up about 25-30 litres of space. The 250D takes up 28 litres. It is a different shape and being more of a cube it may feel smaller (no large side profile) but it's still a large case, almost triple the size of the smallest case that's capable of taking your graphics card (e.g. SG13).

Although the small cases tend to be designed for small and sufficient cooling systems, not large and fancy closed loop coolers.

The default CPU choice right now is an i5.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What motherboard and PSU do you have??

What games are you playing??

[Bonebreaker777]

With a nVidia 960, I wouldn't bother for a behemoth case like Corsair. A single rad. AiO cooler fits in most ITX cases nicely, even if using a non-modular PSU.

But yes, echoing CAT's question: what motherboard you have? Did you try to over clock your CPU? Also I guess you could squeeze a little extra system performance out of your machine by addition an additional memory module (not much but RAM is cheap these days and a mere £15-20 for a module is less that a complete system) which would go nicely with your CPU over clocked.

[LFarish]

Not really a budget, I want to try and get as much out of the build as possible, maybe to the £500-£700 range

[LFarish]

My CPU, does not really have the potential to be overcloxked, it runs at high temperatures out of the box and I would rather upgrade the CPU itself to be able to overclock for better performance in general.

I have an old Gigabyte FM2 socket mother board (not too sure on the modal number, I will find it and post when sure)

[LFarish]

I have a 450 watt seasonic non modular PSU.

I play many varieties of games including H1Z1, CS:GO, BF4, mostly triple A titles and other assortments of games (recently Squad-which is currently unplayable on my system on the lowest settings)

[Bonebreaker777]

For £500-£700 one would suggest an i5 CPU, corresponding MB, one extra 8GB RAM and a nVidia 970 or AMD 390 (would suggest the 390) and possibly a beefier PSU.

Edit: The 970 and 390 GPUs go for £250 before possible cashback or Flubit.

A nice Haswell i5 4460 from Cex would cost £115 + postage.

CPU cooler of your choice. Popular model for about £20.

While buying from Cex,add another 8GB DDR3 module for £22.

Add a motherboard of your choosing for £50-75.

Plus in order to accommodate the more power hungry 390, a 500-550W PSU is suggested. Just to be sure. For £35ish.

Would come about £500 for the lot and should be more than capable to accommodate your gaming needs.