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Request for PC Build with GTX 760
Well, its that time again. Im getting ready to build a new PC and I want to use some old scrap parts out of my older system to save some money. At this point I have 8gb of 1600 DDR3 ram and a 760 Im willing to use in the new build.
The parts I need advice with as basically the PSU, Mobo and CPU with a budget of around 500-700 dollars. Im basically shooting for a longer lasting gaming system which falls in the midrange category.
Any advice is welcome 
Comments
I'm currently using a AMD Phenom II 965 BE and a very old Asus M478t-e. It was great for its time but way past its prime.
Generally speaking I don't overclock and Id rather use the old parts for some other purposes
It's still a very capable CPU to be using if you are mostly gaming. But if you really want to to switch it out the FX 8350 has dropped to $179 since the FX 8370 and FX 8370-e is out. You can get an FX 8350 and a decent mobo for about $250. If your current PSU is at least 600w you should be good to go.
The AMD Phenom X II should perform close to what a FX-8350 can perform in single-threaded games. Upgrading to a FX-8350 will be better for multi-threaded games, but not by much. If you really want to upgrade, you should consider an overclockable Intel CPU, like the i5-3570K or i5-4670K.
Your other option is to overclock your CPU. Buy a decent air cooler, like the Hyper Evo 212, and increase your clock speed by up to 25%. It should be just fine, but if your CPU does die, you can use the heatsink on a better CPU.
Overclocking is nothing to be afraid of. It is like taking a car that is "rated" for 60MPH and going 80MPH in it. The hardware can handle it, especially if you make the right preparations.
Most overclocking motherboards have automatic revert ability in case you overclock slightly too much and can't POST. As long as you have adequate cooling and don't increase the voltage too much, you won't hurt your CPU. You can usually get a decent overclock without increasing the voltage, though.
I would not suggest overclocking a video card on its stock cooling. They are generally pre-clocked close to the limit of the cooling solution and the hardware.
What about a case, optical drive, and storage? Do you have components there that you're planning to reuse, or do you need them, too? And if you're going to reuse components, what components are they?
Also, a new motherboard will probably mean that the old OS license is no longer valid.
In general I am pretty happy with the system I have right now. It doesn't play games at the highest settings all to well, but its more then acceptable. However I wanted to upgrade due to a rare window where I had the money to do so and I wanted a system I could further upgrade in the future.
As for your question Quizzical, I will have all the peripheral devices such as mice, optical devices, monitors and case. The PSU is desperately in need of a upgrade due to its age and its only 500w. It runs what I have, but just barely. So I figured Id need a new motherboard for forward upgradability and a new CPU to run on it. As for ram, I figured Id be fine with what I have on any new mobo at this point. Id need a new HD for the OS and thats fine. My old black caviar mite due if I wiped it and installed a new os, but im open to options.
That all being said, feel free to mention a total rebuild includings the GTX 760 and ram to just give me ideas
That idea doesn't work in practice.
GPUs have used PCI-express for a while, and will likely continue to do so through the next iteration of PCIe. So, yes, you can upgrade your GPU in the future and it will likely be compatible with your motherboard.
RAM just switched to DDR4, but the gaming performance didn't improve yet. Even if it does improve, you won't likely see any significant difference in FPS.
CPUs require a specific socket on the motherboard to work. Guess what happens when a major advancement is made in CPU technology? It needs a new socket. This is where the idea of upgrading over time falls apart. You can upgrade your GPU, but at some point, games will become limited by your CPU rather than GPU. At that point, there will be little you can do to upgrade and you will basically be buying a new system when you replace your motherboard and CPU because you have to replace the Windows license as well.
Don't try to use your old power supply. When you install a new CPU and motherboard, do you really want to trust an old piece of electronics to not fry your newly purchased items? If you're swapping the PSU, CPU, and motherboard, you're replacing half of the critical system components (GPU, RAM, and drive being the other half required to boot) and you're basically building a new system.
Well at this point I have run into the CPU barrier. Even with the current GPU upgrade over what I had, its not really having the same impact. So at this stage what would be a feasible new system so to speak which would warrant the upgrade and provide enough power to be worth the money? If it simply isnt worth the money when would it be?
As for the PSU... yeah that bugs me.
Overclocking your current processor would provide a decent improvement in gaming performance if you feel you're being bottlenecked by the CPU. That will cost you about $35 if you buy the Hyper Evo 212 CPU cooler.
As I mentioned, upgrading to AMD's latest processor probably won't result in significantly better gaming performance. The most sensible option beyond that is an overclockable core i5 processor. That will cost you about $375 with a decent motherboard, and doesn't include a power supply.
I suggest buying a heatsink and overclocking your current CPU first. See if it helps enough to get you by for a while. If it doesn't, you can use the heatsink on your next system, assuming you save all the parts.
Optical what? Why not a floppy as well?
I would wait a few months before upgrading anything myself, DDR4 seems to finally be around the corner and even if OP wont go for them the prices of DDR3 and their motherboards will drop.
Exactly what case do you have?
If you're going to reinstall anyway as part of the upgrade, then you should definitely get an SSD.
How old is the hard drive? If it's already got several years on it, it might be fine for bulk that that is easily replaced, but don't assume it will last, as hard drives don't last forever.
Well Quizzical I have a Antec 300 case. Its heavily modified on the inside to fit larger GPU units. Mostly due to having a old ATI card in it at one time. I have a Western Digital WD Black WD7501AALS 750GB for my hard drive. Its been a really good drive. Probably 2 years old at the time. I have 3 external drives for most of my data storage.
Exactly what case do you have?
If you're going to reinstall anyway as part of the upgrade, then you should definitely get an SSD.
How old is the hard drive? If it's already got several years on it, it might be fine for bulk that that is easily replaced, but don't assume it will last, as hard drives don't last forever.
I still have a first gen sata hdd still working fine.SSD is much overrated, as long as you keep your system disk/partition tidy you can have SSD-ish performance.
Great that it's still working. You have an outlier though, and i wouldn't be making recommendations based on that.
And no, you can't get SSD-like performance from a HDD, I don't care if they are tidy or empty or if you have 15k RPM drives in RAID0. As to if they are overrated or not is a matter of opinion. Personally, I won't build or buy a computer without one, even if that means cutting back on the CPU or GPU to make it fit in a budget.
Here you go:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117372
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130776
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226371
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182071
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416776
With promo codes, that comes to $653, including shipping and before a $20 rebate.
I'm assuming that you re-use your old memory, case, optical drive, hard drive, and video card. The hard drive will now be for bulk storage, not what you install the OS and programs on; that goes on the SSD instead.
I'm also assuming that your 8 GB of memory is either two 4 GB modules or four 2 GB modules; if it's a single 8 GB module, then you'd be leaving a memory channel vacant and you'd want to fix that.
Thanks Quizz! Hits the right price range and I love msi.
The single question I had was about the Windows 8.1. Would using Windows 7 severely impact the systems performance? Ive really avoided 8.1 up until now due to all the issues Ive seen it have on other peoples systems. If there is a substantial reason to use it I would. Just isnt something Id do if I didnt have to.
They're not terribly different. The two reasons I'd recommend Windows 8.1 are:
1) It's $12 cheaper at the moment, and
2) It has about 9 years of support left, while Windows 7 only has about 5. The whole "Windows XP is no longer supported even though millions of people use it" is going to happen to Windows 7 in a little over 5 years, and your computer could easily have a longer useful lifetime than that.
Not sure if this is the exact same motherboard or not, but saw a combo deal on the i5-4690k and MSI motherboard at: http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/420291 in case it could save a few bucks.
edit: not sure if there are any special instructions I'm missing but TigerDirect is showing a different price then the TechBargains site is advertising even following the TechBargains affiliate link. I didn't see the deal was expired, so might be overlooking something.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
If you're not sure if a motherboard is the same, you could try checking the name. What you linked is a substantially lower end motherboard. It's also more expensive if you get that combo from Tiger Direct, in addition to being out of stock, so that it will take weeks to get it.
The bundle price that was advertised was $284.99 whereas the NewEgg price for the two components was $362.99. As I said in the edit though, the price showing on TigerDirect ($359 not factoring in the $15 coupon) wasn't reflecting the advertised amount. I didn't see any indication that it was out of stock so my mistake if that is the case. That doesn't really matter if it's the wrong motherboard anyhow. I am certainly not an expert and saw MSI Z97 LGA1150 in common between the two and posted in case it was the same and had potential to save a few bucks. I figured either yourself or one of the other regular posters would be able to say for certain, so thanks for the correction.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
I'll keep that in mind. When I had looked at the details on the shipping, the time frame was attributed to being shipped from a 3rd party warehouse, so thought it was being sold via an affiliate program and figured that as the delay. Out of stock/back order certainly makes more sense and could also explain the difference between the price I saw advertised and the price listed on the site. Thanks again for clarifying.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
I could be wrong as the pics weren't too clear, but Im counting 4 or 5 power phases on the boads you linked, and 8 on the one quiz linked.
If Im looking at that right , The board he linked is better, in terms of possible reliability. If you overclock then, much better.
That said it may not come in to play. The boards are designed to do what they say they can. I would, if I could afford it, feel better with more power phases.
See the world and all within it.
Live a lifetime in every minute.
It's not just the number of power phases, though that is one difference. There is also the quality of power phases, as they look substantially different between the two motherboards. The MSI Z97-G55 uses the power phases that MSI tends to use in its higher end motherboards, and the Z97 Guard-Pro the ones it uses in its lower end motherboards; I'm betting that the former are better than the latter.
There are also differences in expansion slots (e.g., the Z97-G55 has three PCI Express x16 3.0 slots, which allows for proper CrossFire/SLI support, while the Guard-Pro only has one), USB ports, and heatsinks (not all of the power phases on the Guard-Pro have a heatsink, and keeping them cool allows better performance; compare also the heatsinks covering the chipsets).
The Z97-G55 is also a substantially larger motherboard, which allows more space to spread things out. It also allows the Z97-G55 to be mounted using the full 9 screws, while the Guard-Pro is only held on by six. While both are ATX size rather than Micro ATX, the Guard-Pro doesn't use the full width of the ATX specification. You're not required to use the full size of a motherboard form factor; the form factor basically means you can go "up to" this large; smaller will still fit in cases, while larger may not.