New Rig

DarkED · Nov 28, 2014

EDIT: Added an SSD

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

So, with next-gen finally making it's way to PC, and various production software packages I use for work receiving a steady stream of new features, my five-year-old system simply can't keep up anymore. I've really been wanting to build a new one, so I put my old rig up for sale on Craigslist and it sold today. That system had the following:

*Core i3-530 @ 2.97ghz
*Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
*Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 socket 1156 mainboard
*4GB (2x2) G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 RAM
*SeaSonic 620W PSU
*XFX ATI HD5850 1GB
*Rosewill Destroyer case
*1TB WD Black HD
*250GB Seagate Barracuda HD
*Asus 24x DVD-R
Cost to build in mid-2010: ~$1,100

Now that it's gone, I've got an extra $350 I'll be putting towards this parts list. I'm waiting on some clients to pay their invoices and I should hopefully be able to order the parts first of next week. My new system won't be anything crazy like Maverick's because I'm going for a budget build, but it should still be a nice all-around rig:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26648926

*AMD FX-6300 Vishera Hexcore @ 3.5/4.1 GHz
*Asus M5A97 LE AM3+ Mainboard
*Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Heatsink/Fan
*G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2x4) DDR3-1866
*Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 280 3GB
*Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD
*WD Blue 1TB SATA III
*Raidmax Hybrid 2 730w Modular PSU
*Rosewill Galaxy Case
Cost to build: ~$750

What do you think? From the CPU and GPU benchmarks I've seen this system should run games like Far Cry 4 on Ultra quality and give 50+ FPS, which is just fine to me

Down the line I can upgrade the CPU to the FX-9370 Black Edition if I ever want more CPU, and adding another 8GB of RAM is a cheap upgrade.

The best part is that I've already got three identical 23" 1680x1050 monitors so now I'll finally be able to get my Eyefinity on

[SCREENSHOT]http://i.imgur.com/YDXkHZt.jpg[/SCREENSHOT]

I'll post back when it's built.

KaL976 · Nov 28, 2014

Given some new games are using more than 3GB VRAM already & 8GB RAM is the new 'recommended minimum' if it's within the realms of possibility I'd get a 4GB card & at least 12GB RAM now.
Another idea would be an SSD just for your OS install as this provides the most obvious speed increase. 60GB drives are dirt cheap now & that's plenty big enough.

Carbon · Nov 28, 2014

Yep, its a decent budget build. But if you plan on gaming, that 280 is going to choke big time pushing all of those pixels (if you are going to game with Eyefinity). No chance you will get FC4 on Ultra @ 50fps with a 3 monitor setup and that card alone. On one monitor, sure.

Not sure what "next-gen finally making it's way to PC" means.

DarkED · Nov 28, 2014

KaL976 said:
Given some new games are using more than 3GB VRAM already & 8GB RAM is the new 'recommended minimum' if it's within the realms of possibility I'd get a 4GB card & at least 12GB RAM now.
Another idea would be an SSD just for your OS install as this provides the most obvious speed increase. 60GB drives are dirt cheap now & that's plenty big enough.

Eh, price is the factor and a 3GB card has plenty of VRAM for the time being. I don't expect to run everything on Ultra

I look at it like this -- upgrading to a 4GB GPU and adding an SSD to the order just isn't in my budget, and I'd have to wait a lot longer to get there; I'm already really pushing it at $620. Down the road I can add a 128GB SSD, another 8GB of RAM, and a 280 for Crossfire and it'll cost ~$250. That should buy me another few years at least.

Carbon said:
Yep, its a decent budget build. But if you plan on gaming, that 280 is going to choke big time pushing all of those pixels (if you are going to game with Eyefinity). No chance you will get FC4 on Ultra @ 50fps with a 3 monitor setup and that card alone. On one monitor, sure.

Yeah, I am mainly interested in running Assetto Corsa in Eyefinity. The HD5850 I had could do it with a very small loss in FPS so I don't think this card will have any issues with it. For more demanding games I can always turn down visual settings or run lower resolutions.

Carbon said:
Not sure what "next-gen finally making it's way to PC" means.

Aside from Watchdogs and Far Cry 4 (both of which I could run at playable speeds before) not much I'd consider to be 'next-gen' has made it to PC yet. Of course, that will change very soon.

Carbon · Nov 29, 2014

Ah, I see. I thought you were referring to next-gen hardware.

The Dunia engine is quite forgiving, so who knows how you will fare. The 280 is a nice card...lots of performance for a good price. Watchdogs was crap from a performance point of view. I would put that in the 'wannabe' next gen category.

Anyhow, good luck with the build. Let us know how it goes.

Big-Al · Nov 29, 2014

Yes, get an SSD for your OS.

DarkED · Nov 29, 2014

Carbon said:
Ah, I see. I thought you were referring to next-gen hardware.

The Dunia engine is quite forgiving, so who knows how you will fare. The 280 is a nice card...lots of performance for a good price. Watchdogs was crap from a performance point of view. I would put that in the 'wannabe' next gen category.

Anyhow, good luck with the build. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks. Will do!

Big-Al said:
Yes, get an SSD for your OS.

Yeah, I finally broke and added one.

*Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD

DRT-Maverick · Dec 1, 2014

Is it fair to say I'm just not very impressed by this build? :lol:

No but seriously, good luck with it, I'm not actually serious about the above statement. Hit me up if you need any configuration help. The setup looks like a decent one, you'll be able to do some nice gaming with that rig.

*edit*
As mentioned the 280 might later on become a slight bottleneck, however you can always do crossfire later on if you want to stick with the 280.

DarkED · Dec 1, 2014

Since black Friday is over, some of the parts on the original list have gone up. Now I am thinking about doing an Intel build with (more-or-less) the same specs; that build looks something like this:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=31736187

*Intel i5-4690k Devils Canyon @ 3.5ghz
*ASRock H97M Pro4 LGA1150 mainboard
*Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Heatsink/Fan
*G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB (2x4) DDR3-1600
*Sapphire Dual-X Radeon R9 280 3GB
*Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD
*WD Blue 1TB SATA III
*Raidmax Hybrid 2 730w Modular PSU
*Rosewill Galaxy Case
Cost to build: ~$830

DRT-Maverick said:
Is it fair to say I'm just not very impressed by this build?

Yes actually, because you're doing a $4,000 megabuild that will kick my build's ass

For me, the most impressive builds are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. I was originally trying to stay under $500, but that proved to be impossible and the result wouldn't have been much better than my old system.

DRT-Maverick said:
No but seriously, good luck with it, I'm not actually serious about the above statement. Hit me up if you need any configuration help. The setup looks like a decent one, you'll be able to do some nice gaming with that rig.

Thanks! I'm hoping it'll get me by for a few years.

DRT-Maverick said:
*edit*
As mentioned the 280 might later on become a slight bottleneck, however you can always do crossfire later on if you want to stick with the 280.

Yeah. I can also upgrade to the FX-9xxx octo-core if I need more CPU.

DRT-Maverick · Dec 1, 2014

Yeah Normally I wouldn't go for anything close to the build I'm doing. Remember my old build log was going to be an AMD and everything was going to be under $2,000? The build I'm doing is not a normal build, will be a once in a lifetime thing for me hehe.

DarkED · May 5, 2015

I finally ordered my new build today! I opted for 3-day shipping and rush processing, so with any luck the parts will be here on Friday.

Board: AsRock B85m Pro4
CPU: Core i5-4690K Devil's Canyon @ 3.5ghz
RAM: G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1600 (1.5v, 8-8-8-24 timings)
GPU: Sapphire R9 290X 4GB Tri-X OC New Edition
PSU: Corsair CX600 80+ Bronze 600w
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 240GB SATA6.0
HDD: WD Blue 1TB SATA6.0 64mb Cache
Case: Raidmax Vortex 403WB + 2 Apevia 120mm fans
Display: Asus VS247H-P 23.6" LED 1080p 2ms response
KB/Mouse: CM Storm Devastator combo w/ blue backlighting

Final cost w/ shipping and rush processing: $1,138.19

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New Rig

DarkED

The Great Oppression

KaL976

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Carbon

Altiloquent bloviator.

DarkED

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Carbon

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Big-Al

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DarkED

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DRT-Maverick

Lover of Earwigs

DarkED

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DRT-Maverick

Lover of Earwigs

DarkED

The Great Oppression

New Rig

The Great Oppression

*nubcake*

Altiloquent bloviator.

The Great Oppression

Altiloquent bloviator.

amateur de bière

The Great Oppression

Lover of Earwigs

The Great Oppression

Lover of Earwigs

The Great Oppression

nubcake