New gaming build - any wise words?

[mistral_blue]

Hi all,

Just upgraded to an MSI R7950 3TC OC BE G/C and decided it might be time to start again and build a new system. I tend to drift in and out of keeping track with the latest tech but I reckon I've come up with a fairly decent system for the price (reckon about £1k all told) and I've tried to make it fairly futureproof for a couple of years...

I'm thinking of the following specs:

[EDIT!]Corsair Obsidian 750D case with cable management - thanks TTaskmaster for spotting my deliberate Coolermaster mistake
Corsair RS850 gold modular 850w PSU [bought]
MSI Z97 Gaming 7 mobo with USB 3.1
Intel I5-4960K Devils Canyon 3.5/3.9GHZ CPU with Corsair H110 cooler
8gb Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 1866MHz
MSI 3gb R7950 OC BE GC with Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV 280x cooler [bought]
W7 64bit
Iiyama ProLite GE2488HS 24" Monitor [bought]
Creative 5.1 Surround Sound speakers [old]

I plan to do a bit of light-moderate overclocking at some point and depending on the success with the Arctic cooler, may liquid cool the GPU with a Kraken G10 kit and some probably an H80 or something.

Any comments/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

[Ttaskmaster]

Coolermaster Obsidian 750D case with cable management
Any comments/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Don't ever mistake a Corsair case for a Coolermaster one, especially one of the lovely Obsidian range!!

Do you have wifi capability in hand?
What about hard drives/SSDs?
Keyboard? Mouse?

[mistral_blue]

OOps - good spot - wanted to see if you were paying attention

Got a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse and just a basic Microsoft black wired 600 keyboard (not bothered about a gaming keyboard)

HDD-wise I have the OS on a 256MB Samsung 840 Pro, with a 4TB HGST and a 750GB Seagate for Data/Games etc plus a QNAP T119-Pro NAS for backup with 2TB WD Caviar Black HDD (I think from what I can remember!...)

Wifi is via a BT dual-freq USB dongle

[EndlessWaves]

What's your current system? Probably not worth updating for a <£150 card unless you're on a Core 2 Quad or maybe first gen i5/i7 at most.

[kalniel]

Comments-wise, you have made your system cost £1K that's true, there were savings to be made but chief among them would be the PSU and GPU

As above, with that slow (relative) a card you're probably not being held up with a current system, if gaming is your thing. If not, what is your expected usage?

[mistral_blue]

What's your current system? Probably not worth updating for a <£150 card unless you're on a Core 2 Quad or maybe first gen i5/i7 at most.

It's on my profile, dropdown the arrow under my name by a post - currently an E8400 Wolfdale 3GHZ OC'd to 3.6GHZ

Yes - gaming and usual browsing etc is my planned usage - I'm not doing bitcoin mining/video editing or anything ridiculous like that... I'm not trying to go as cheap as possible, aiming for middle of the road/higher end stuff that will last a few years before it needs upgrading again, modern gaming seems to demand more all the time to run at decent detail levels - can always get another G/C or run another 7950 in crossfire I suppose...

[gupsterg]

I think your rig is long over due an upgrade, like mine was , as the 7950 is same spec as R9 280 I would think your E8400 would be bottlenecking it. Also run some benchmarks same as online reviews and do comparison (I did that).

Like the case . I have same PSU, very good IMO as OEM is Seasonic (even though I don't need the wattage but was at crazy price of £85). I think the MSI Gaming 7 is good board, was on my shortlist after reading reviews of it but ended up with Asus Ranger due to promo price at the time.

Be great to see pics of your build when you done .

[mistral_blue]

Thanks for the input - yeah the CPU is @ 6.9 on the Windows experience (and memory 7.0) with everything else significantly above that so I agree with you that it's the restriction now I think... only a dual core too and I believe games are starting to take advantage of multi-core too?? I picked up the PSU for £99 on Today Only from Scan so I think I did pretty well... as for G/C I know it's not latest greatest but I think if I can get a good OC on R7950 vs the newer cards it's not THAT much slower from stuff around the £200 mark that I can see... (although I do have my eye on a GTX 970 OC edition now, but think I'd better get the rest built first and wait for them to come down a bit!)

Futuremark 2011 scores 512MB HD4870 with turbo switched 775 Core/1000 Mem - 66239 Ice Storm/6266 Cloud Gate
Swapped 3GB R7950 in (at stock settings 810 Core/1250 Mem) - 78820 Ice Storm/8158 Cloud Gate so a significant improvement just from the card (as you would expect!)

Am looking forward to using the cable management too as I hate having cables everywhere - from what I can see the 750D has the PSU at the bottom, exhausting underneath too, which is a neat idea... going to put H110 radiator off CPU at the top and then see about maybe an H80 to the rear (depending on how good the Arctic Accelero is).

[mistral_blue]

Well I finally went ahead and did it late last year, although I've got a couple of 'upgrades' since then - I 've tried to go for pretty much the best (within vaguely sensible £) of everything... I think I may have created a MONSTER! Pics to follow...

Corsair Obsidian 750D case
Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm fans x3
Corsair RS850 gold modular 850w PSU
MSI Z97A Gaming 7 mobo with USB 3.1
Intel I5-4960K Devils Canyon 3.5/3.9GHZ CPU - just bartered a NEW I7-4790K for £210!
Corsair H110iGT 280mm AIO CPU cooler upgraded with x2 Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm fans
8gb Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2133MHz
MSI 3gb R7950 OC BE GC with Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV 280x cooler - about to buy a Corsair 980Ti Hydro GFX (MSI 980TI+Corsair AIO cooler)
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Iiyama ProLite GE2488HS 24" Monitor
Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Surround Sound speakers
Logitech Anywhere MX Wireless Mouse
Pioneer BDR-209M BR-RW CD/Blu-ray RW Drive

...and as of the 15:00 release yesterday I have just pre-ordered HTC VIVE! #goodbyerealworld!

Here's the promised pic (and before anyone comments, I know Noctua Fans are a gross colour but I wanted the best and quietest fans I could get!) - sooooooooo much room!

[mistral_blue]

Just got my new processor - a new 4790K for only £210 off Fleabay, turns out it's a Vietnam chip which are supposed to be good - currently got it stable at 4.9GHZ @ 1.29V which is pretty epic, it will boot at 5GHZ but looks like it will need >1.35V which I don't fancy doing really...

[ivanfrosy]

What is better for gameing:
intel pentium g3250 + r7250 1gb
or
amd athlon x4 840 + r7250 1gb
or
intel celeron g1820 + r7 360 2gb

[EndlessWaves]

What is better for gameing:
intel pentium g3250 + r7250 1gb
or
amd athlon x4 840 + r7250 1gb
or
intel celeron g1820 + r7 360 2gb

I'm not sure how that's related to the rest of the thread.

It'll depend on the game, the resolution and whether the 250s are DDR3 or GDDR5 versions.

Generally though I'd say the 360 setup would be the one to go for. It's a bigger improvement over a 250 GDDR5 than the other CPUs are over the G1820 (the faster G1840 is often the same price by the way).