pc rebuild/upgrade log

[scottybo]

ok so in a few weeks ill be putting together a new gaming rig as my current PC is due an upgrade

 

i was thinking about doing a bit of a build log and to show people how its done (i dont want to seem as if im feeding people eggs or being patronizing, i just thought people might be interested)

 

so basically what im saying is, would people be interested on here and should i bother lol

[JC]

do it, I need to upgrade my PC, new MB, CPU, Ram, GFX, so be interesting to see your choice of components

[scottybo]

at the moment the line up looks like this

 

CPU - retaining my phenom2 x6 1100t be - always had AMD its just force of habit now and no need to upgrade from thuban core to FX as they are all much better than FX chip

CPU cooler - corsair H100 closed loop radiator

MOBO - gigabyte 990xa UD3 - one of the only decent AM3+ socket SLI mobos you can get atm

RAM - 16GB corsair XMS3 1600mhz - chose 1600mhz as ill be over clocking the system and its easier to do with slower ram, corsair xms is really nice stuff

RAM cooler - corsair dominator airflow cooler

GFX - currently have 1 ASUS GTX 560ti directCU2, so will be getting a second to use in SLI, 560s are the absolute sweet spot for gaming performance vs price

PSU - corsair tx 850 - no modular..........bought it by mistake about 6 months ago, really wanted a modular one

Opticals and Accessories - samsung bluray rw drive, nzxt fan controller, asaka 2.5'' external drive slot and card reader

Case - corsair vengeance c70 - awesome looking case and great cable management utilities

 

so thats how its shaping up, as soon as i have all the bits ill start my little build an how to log

[Stu]

So more of an upgrade than a new PC?

 

What about SSD?

[scottybo]

So more of an upgrade than a new PC?

 

What about SSD?

 

yeah i suppose its more of an upgrade, but why would i not use perfectly good reusable parts, ive got an ocz agility 3 120gb sat on my desk right here!

 

forgot about storage, ive got 2 x 2tb samsung 7200rpm hdd's to go in as well

[sidrick]

So more of an upgrade than a new PC?

 

What about SSD?

 

yeah i suppose its more of an upgrade, but why would i not use perfectly good reusable parts, ive got an ocz agility 3 120gb sat on my desk right here!

 

forgot about storage, ive got 2 x 2tb samsung 7200rpm hdd's to go in as well

 

(I assume) He's not saying you shouldn't reuse parts, but it's not exactly a new PC if you're retaining core components.

 

Same SSD as me, but mine is the 60gb. Loving the price drop recently!

 

My advice would be to install all drives to start with, as if you do what I did and run the SSD on it's own before adding 2 normal HDs, then you'll really notice noise difference (this was a 'silent' HD as well) and whip them out again For the price of NAS units these days it might be worth looking into if you're bothered about having a completely silent machine (like I am).

[scottybo]

So more of an upgrade than a new PC?

 

What about SSD?

 

yeah i suppose its more of an upgrade, but why would i not use perfectly good reusable parts, ive got an ocz agility 3 120gb sat on my desk right here!

 

forgot about storage, ive got 2 x 2tb samsung 7200rpm hdd's to go in as well

 

(I assume) He's not saying you shouldn't reuse parts, but it's not exactly a new PC if you're retaining core components.

 

Same SSD as me, but mine is the 60gb. Loving the price drop recently!

 

My advice would be to install all drives to start with, as if you do what I did and run the SSD on it's own before adding 2 normal HDs, then you'll really notice noise difference (this was a 'silent' HD as well) and whip them out again For the price of NAS units these days it might be worth looking into if you're bothered about having a completely silent machine (like I am).

 

yeh i think the 60gb is only like £40 atm which is awesome! noise isnt an issue for me at all, ive got my silent media centre pc for films etc, this is my personal dedicated rig so itl be used mainly for games and such, and if u can hear the fans over the explosions then ur playin in 'pussy quiet' mode lol

 

ok if i could change the title id change it to = pc rebuild/upgrade log

[Craig855S]

Yes I'd be interested in watcing you build it up, the one thing scaring me away from building my own is setting the BIOS up. I know I could easily follow instructions and do it but where do you find these instructions?

 

I've heard that SSDs are amazing and once you've tried one you'll never go back. They are most definately the future..or the present as it is. (Did you know the share price of Solid State PLC has gone from 5p per share to £2.50 per share in the last 2 years....)

[scottybo]

Yes I'd be interested in watcing you build it up, the one thing scaring me away from building my own is setting the BIOS up. I know I could easily follow instructions and do it but where do you find these instructions?

 

I've heard that SSDs are amazing and once you've tried one you'll never go back. They are most definately the future..or the present as it is. (Did you know the share price of Solid State PLC has gone from 5p per share to £2.50 per share in the last 2 years....)

 

unless your overclocking the system. u never need to to touch the bios really. most hardware components will self configure these days!

[Craig855S]

What? So you can just screw and plug it all together and turn it on with the windows disc in and it will work fine?

[scottybo]

What? So you can just screw and plug it all together and turn it on with the windows disc in and it will work fine?

 

as long as all the parts are compatible (and work) and you have a psu thats capable of powering it then pretty much yes lol

 

- ram will adjust itself to the maximum clock that your processor will support (obviously up to the rams maximum)

- sata pretty much eliminated hard drive jumpers from existence and most bios now will just boot from whichever drive has an operating system on it automatically

- sata optical drives nowadays so u can plug em into whichever sata port on the mobo and it work just fine

 

with very little guidance the complete novice could put a pc together nowadays. only confusing part is processor sockets. the box of a mobo will say 'supports intel i7', but neglects to say that i7's can come in about 5 different sockets and u need to check or it might not fit

[stoo2000]

at the moment the line up looks like this

 

CPU - retaining my phenom2 x6 1100t be - always had AMD its just force of habit now and no need to upgrade from thuban core to FX as they are all much better than FX chip

CPU cooler - corsair H100 closed loop radiator

MOBO - gigabyte 990xa UD3 - one of the only decent AM3+ socket SLI mobos you can get atm

RAM - 16GB corsair XMS3 1600mhz - chose 1600mhz as ill be over clocking the system and its easier to do with slower ram, corsair xms is really nice stuff

RAM cooler - corsair dominator airflow cooler

GFX - currently have 1 ASUS GTX 560ti directCU2, so will be getting a second to use in SLI, 560s are the absolute sweet spot for gaming performance vs price

PSU - corsair tx 850 - no modular..........bought it by mistake about 6 months ago, really wanted a modular one

Opticals and Accessories - samsung bluray rw drive, nzxt fan controller, asaka 2.5'' external drive slot and card reader

Case - corsair vengeance c70 - awesome looking case and great cable management utilities

 

so thats how its shaping up, as soon as i have all the bits ill start my little build an how to log

Very very similar to my current setup.

 

I have

• Phenom 2 x6 1055T
  
• Gigabyte 990FXA UD5
  
• AMD Radeon 6870
  
• 16GB G.Skill DDR 3 RAM (1600mhz)
  
• 80GB Corsair ForceGT
  
• A few 250GB SATA 2 drives for storage (had a few left over from previous RAID setups)
  

 

The biggest change with this build was not using RAID0 at all, I now have all of my systems backing up to a local Windows Server 2012 machine.

 

My choice for the motherboard was really related to the socket type, I wanted something that I could use with one of the new APU/FX chips if they ever sort out the issues with the newer chips + games.

 

My upgrade was from a Athlon x2 x64, with 2GB DDR1 ram. It's quite a bit quicker

[smithyandco]

What? So you can just screw and plug it all together and turn it on with the windows disc in and it will work fine?

Hardest bit... finding the bargains.

 

Graphics card choices are not as simple as they used to be. It used be pick a side then pick a number, the higher the number then better the performance.

Now, due to marketing tricks an Nvidia 590 is hugely more powerful than a 650.

 

Also as power supply needs are increasing, so are the cheap crap from China... ex: 350W cheapo make psus labelled as 80+ certified 1200W.

(Keep to branded, and you'll not worry about this).

 

Just bought a Cooler Master Elite 120 itx case and Agility 3 120gb (£60 from PC World of all places... usually crap for parts) for a bedroom build.

Most likely reuse my now unused office pc (Core2Duo based with Quadro card), just replacing the graphics card and changing the motherboard.

(Case can take full size psu, drives and takes giant gaming graphics cards)

 

Tried the SSD with a Core2Duo M based itx board and although I've not strained it fully, the difference is insane!

[Craig855S]

Speaking of computers today I received a graphics card i bought from ebay the other day. HD6790 1GB by XFX. Only to find when fitting it that my PSU lacks a PCI-E plug, so I've bought a cable that will convert 2 Molex supplies to the 1 PCI-E and i'll hopefully be good to go.

 

I do need a new Mobo soon though so I can get DDR3 ram and significantly upgrade my CPU (at the minute the best I can have is a quad core 3.3GHz)

[sidrick]

You'll need to look at upgrading your PSU, I'd imagine.