rapidcobra15 said:Budget isn't my primary concern; I'm expecting to land somewhere around $3000. My goal is to build a top-tier workstation that offers longevity and handles my various IT projects without breaking a sweat. I just want to verify that these specific components are fully compatible so I don't run into any headaches once I pull the trigger at Best Buy. I didn't just copy a list; I hand-picked every single part from the Newegg site.
But what kind of work are we talking about here? 🤷 You haven't actually specified your workload. For instance, if you aren't doing heavy rendering, that GPU might be total overkill. On the flip side, if this is purely for high-end gaming, you might actually want to trade some GPU power for a beefier CPU. It’s all relative to the task at hand.
Yes, you can definitely hit 4.2GHz on an H81 board even with just the stock cooler—though, obviously, it all comes down to the silicon lottery. I actually saw a post on a forum once where someone managed to push 4.4GHz on an H81 chipset
RAM - roughly $50 APU - maybe $133 Motherboard - up to $67 SSD - unfortunately, it's a total money pit (you'll need at least $100 new ones), maybe $50, or hit it for 200 if you're feeling reckless PSU - up to $50 max Case - about $17
No, with 8GB, you're basically playing in diapers. At least when it comes to gaming.
Besides, swapping out the CPU alone isn't going to give you much of a boost (maybe just in those specific spots where your Intel Pentium G3450 is bottlenecking the GPU—likely just a few heavy hitters or titles that struggle with dual cores). To see any real, meaningful improvement, you really need to upgrade both the processor and the graphics card. If the total cost is hitting your wallet too hard, just split it into two phases. Personally, I'd go with the i5 first, then tackle the GPU later.
Andrew Garcia89 said:I think it’s actually a 200 series 🙂 So it isn't exactly top-tier. Since I bought it about a year and a half ago, I doubt I could pull in any significant cash for it if I sold it. I'm not aiming for high-end AAA gaming; I just need something capable of running most upcoming titles at least on medium settings.
The GPU specs are shown in the image below: View on imgur
There is no such thing as a "200." Use Speccy or some similar utility to find the exact model. You also need to identify the power supply—find the specific model; if you don't have the receipt, check the manufacturer's website for your case to find where the label is located. The photo doesn't show anything (at least not to me).
Basically, if it's a 260X or better for that kind of money, I'd prioritize upgrading the processor first. Though, honestly, it all depends on which games you plan to play.
Which specific GPU are we talking about here? The NVIDIA GeForce GTX Series can range from a total piece of junk like a 240 all the way up to a 260X or 265, which is actually a decent card you could still get some use out of for a while.
If you're aiming for AAA gaming, I’d definitely suggest prioritizing an i5 upgrade first. Since you already have a Z-series motherboard, you have the option to overclock an i5 4690K, though even just grabbing the budget-friendly i5 4460 would do the trick. Once you've saved up a bit more cash—maybe by tossing in whatever money you make from selling your old gear —you can pick up a better graphics card.
If you're looking at AMD, then here’s what I’d suggest: an i5 6402p For the motherboard, it really depends on how much you want to spend, but I wouldn't go lower than an ASRock H110M-DGS. Grab 8gb ddr4 and you should be fine.
Also, don't skip the SSD—you can always add one later if things are tight right now, but maybe aim for something like a 240gb $167 drive. Just a heads-up: Best Buy has a pretty weak selection and some pretty high prices when it comes to SSDs, though their other components are decent. If you're sticking to a budget, I'd probably start with this one.
Surfing in 2010 versus surfing in 2016 are two completely different worlds. A single-core processor and just 1GB of RAM have been insufficient—honestly, they've been a total struggle for quite some time now.
You could definitely hang onto the case, the power supply, and your hard drives, since you’d have plenty of room to swap out everything else. Ultimately, it all comes down to what kind of budget you're working with.
I can't speak to how foreign sites operate, but we have our own forum marketplace right here (just like any other major forum). If you list your gear at fair market prices, everything will move without any trouble. Just last week, I sold a Phenom II setup to a buddy. If he had wanted to grab everything immediately, there was a 99% chance it would've been gone on day one, but he held out to see if someone would take the whole lot—or as much as possible—so it took a few days to wrap up.
Aha, that could definitely work. Though, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably hold off on the RX 470 until we see how it actually performs in the wild. By the time you're ready to pull the trigger, they should be widely available. Plus, there's a good chance NVIDIA will drop the price on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 by then anyway.
Even 16GB of RAM is going to put a serious strain on that motherboard. I also have to side with crimsonstag84 regarding the Intel Core i5-6400; a buddy of mine picked up the exact same chip, and it actually outperforms the Intel Core i5-4460 in synthetic benchmarks. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of those lower clock speeds, but it seems like the boost clock handles the heavy lifting when it matters—hitting 3.1GHz across all four cores, plus it boasts slightly better IPC than Haswell architecture.
$633is overkill for an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960. An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 is dropping soon, but let's face it, it’s probably going to blow his budget out of the water. If he’s dead set on staying with NVIDIA, he should just grab an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 right now while they're still in stock. Otherwise, buying an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 just doesn't make sense given the upcoming AMD cards. Even at current prices, you can snag an AMD Radeon R9 380X that packs more punch (and even the non-X version edges out the GTX 960)
There are plenty of articles covering this topic, so you might find it helpful to look these over.
(this one focuses more on refresh rates and input lag) http://www.cnet.com/news/should-you-...-tv-for-gaming/ http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-...-c-monitor/best http://www.itworld.com/article/28326...r-monitor.html http://www.pcgamer.com/giant-tv-pc-gaming-4k/ http://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-use-...-as-a-monitor/
It would also be worth trying to plug the monitor directly into the graphics card rather than the motherboard (since you're currently running on integrated graphics right now)😬