4yrs new build

[Imager]

Back with a new build my friends. Looking for some advice on what I've come up with.
The PC will be used mainly for streaming to the TV via plex and used for minimal gaming...mostly just skyrim from time to time. Most of the gaming is done on the xbox nowadays so the kids and I can play together.

Please don't slam me, but the build is from cyberpowerpc.com so I'm kinda limited on what I can change out, but opinions on what I do have the option(s) is greatly appreciated.

I will also be transferring a total of 6TB over from my current build.

Thanks everyone!

BTW my sig shows what my current rig is...aside from a swapped out HDD or 2.

Gaming Chasis: Thermaltake Urban S21 w/ USB 3.0
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4670 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150
Freebies: Intel GRID 2 Gaming Coupon
CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Intel Certified CPU Fan & Heatsink
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate ATX w/ Military Class 4, OC Genie II, GbLAN, 2 GEn3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 2 PCI
RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply: 750 Watts - Thermaltake SMART Series SP-750PCBUS 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Hard Drive: 64GB ADATA SP900 SATA-III 6.0Gb/s - 550 MB/s Read & 505 MB/s Write (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive & DVDRW, 3D Playback Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)

 

[Charlie98]

Looks pretty good to me. The limiting gaming factor is the GTX650, which rates below, even, than my GTX560ti 448... which is saying something.

The only other thing that may be limiting would be the 64GB SSD... I see that's what you have now, as did I in my initial desktop build, but it's not ideal. I would have gladly knocked the RAM down to 8GB for a 120GB SSD.

Not knocking you, but it would be interesting to do a price compare on what that rig cost vs just assembling one from parts.

 

[Imager]

Looks pretty good to me. The limiting gaming factor is the GTX650, which rates below, even, than my GTX560ti 448... which is saying something.

The only other thing that may be limiting would be the 64GB SSD... I see that's what you have now, as did I in my initial desktop build, but it's not ideal. I would have gladly knocked the RAM down to 8GB for a 120GB SSD.

Not knocking you, but it would be interesting to do a price compare on what that rig cost vs just assembling one from parts.

Thanks for the quick reply! I'm surprised I never put my GPU in my sig :-/ I forget the exact one I have, but I would assume that anything now would be better then what I currently have from 4 yrs ago (and then it wasn't top of the line either). I can still play Skrim fine now.

Good call on the 60gb ssd drive...

as for a price comparison...I priced product for product on newegg (we as darn close as possible) and the price was within a few $$ either way. To me, that's worth it to have someone else put it together for me. I love doing it, but being a single dad with 4 young boys and doing A LOT of volunteer charity work keeps us extremely busy...this would be a huge stress relief

I have 8gb of ram currently and I can see the slowness...so I would like to bump that up.

 

[Imager]

my other option for a PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B 80 Plus Bronze for roughly $27 more or this one Cooler Master i700 700W 80 Plus Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply for roughly $18 less

switching to the Cooler Master i700 700W 80 Plus Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply and bumping it from 60gb ssd to 120 raises my price to just over 1K. Wanted to try and stay under that but if that makes it a much better config system I'm ok with it. I can request "slowest" delivery and save another 5% too

I could bump the GPU to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB GDDR5 for another $79. But that would put me way over budget. Unless I'm totally off as stated I think any "newer" card would be better/faster then what I currently have from 4 yrs ago.

 

[Charlie98]

Unless there is something going on, your current 8GB RAM isn't the reason for your slowness... More than likely the 64GB SSD and/or a tired OS. Do you regularly top out your RAM?

If this rig is going to last another 4 years, I would spring for the better GPU.

One other thing, you could easily get away with a 650w PSU, if that would save you a little money you could apply elsewhere.

 

[Imager]

Thermaltake Urban Series S21 VP800A1W2N Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Mid-tower Chassis

Thermaltake Urban Series S21 VP800A1W2N Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Mid-tower Chassis
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EVGA SSC 01G-P4-3652-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

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SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold ((SS-650KM Active PFC F3)) 650W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Ha

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G.SKILL Value 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-16GNT

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Item #: N82E16820231637


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MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX High Performance CF Intel Motherboard

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Intel Core i5-4670 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54670

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Item #: N82E16819116898


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LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner, Bare Drive, 3D Play Back (WH14NS40) - OEM

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SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

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Item #: N82E16820147192
TOTAL $1007.92

NEW CONFIGURED System through Cyberpowerpc.com

Gaming Chasis: Thermaltake Urban S21 w/ USB 3.0

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4670 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150
Freebies: Intel GRID 2 Gaming Coupon
Performance Tuning Protection Plan by Intel: None
Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: No Overclocking
CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Intel Certified CPU Fan & Heatsink
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate ATX w/ Military Class 4, OC Genie II, GbLAN, 2 GEn3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 2 PCI
RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
Power Supply: 700 Watts - Cooler Master i700 700W 80 Plus Bronze Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Hard Drive: 120GB Corsair Neutron GTX SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 330MB/s Write (Single Drive)
Optical Drive: LG 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive & DVDRW, 3D Playback Combo Drive (BLACK COLOR)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
Internal Network Card: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
Keyboard: AZZA Multimedia USB Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: AZZA Optical 1600dpi Gaming Mouse with Weight Adjustable Cartridge
TOTAL $1115

 

[Imager]

Unless there is something going on, your current 8GB RAM isn't the reason for your slowness... More than likely the 64GB SSD and/or a tired OS. Do you regularly top out your RAM?

If this rig is going to last another 4 years, I would spring for the better GPU.

One other thing, you could easily get away with a 650w PSU, if that would save you a little money you could apply elsewhere.

Yeah my ram pushes it quite a bit with all the stuff I always have open/running. Firefox alone takes up almost 2gb of ram most of the time.

See my reconfigured setups and lets keep in mind the less cost of the Newegg one is before TAX and Shipping charges

 

[Charlie98]

CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: Intel Certified CPU Fan & Heatsink
Coolant for Cyberpower Xtreme Hydro Water Cooling Kits: Standard Coolant

Uhhh... coolant for an air cooler?

And... I guess I better axe: Is there an OS included in either of those, or do you already have a key?

The revised list is pretty square, either one will work (as soon as we find out about the OS.) The GTX650ti is a reasonable GPU for your needs and should hold up over the next couple of years for decent gameplay.

 

[VirtualLarry]

for modern gaming, I wouldn't go any lower than the GTX650 Ti BOOST. The "BOOST" part is important, it's quite a bit better card than the regular 650ti, for not much more money.

 

[mfenn]

Why not just get a new GPU for your current machine. An i5 760 isn't the top of the line anymore, but it's not super slow either. It should be fast enough to play Skyrim.

 

[Imager]

Why not just get a new GPU for your current machine. An i5 760 isn't the top of the line anymore, but it's not super slow either. It should be fast enough to play Skyrim.

I don't have a current gpu issue...its time to upgrade and move this PC down to the kids.

I do have an OS/key so none is needed...

 

[Imager]

Uhhh... coolant for an air cooler?

And... I guess I better axe: Is there an OS included in either of those, or do you already have a key?

The revised list is pretty square, either one will work (as soon as we find out about the OS.) The GTX650ti is a reasonable GPU for your needs and should hold up over the next couple of years for decent gameplay.

yeah I dunno how the "coolant" part even got in there...but there will be none of that

Yes have an OS!

 

[XiandreX]

Yeah my ram pushes it quite a bit with all the stuff I always have open/running. Firefox alone takes up almost 2gb of ram most of the time.

See my reconfigured setups and lets keep in mind the less cost of the Newegg one is before TAX and Shipping charges

I may be wrong but wouldn't Chrome be more efficient with memory usage compared to Firefox?

 

[Imager]

I may be wrong but wouldn't Chrome be more efficient with memory usage compared to Firefox?

based on the amount of tabs I have open, chrome too takes up quite a bit...grant it not as much as FF but still quite a bit.

My mains reasons for shopping for a new PC are:
1) its been 4 years and it's around that time
2) my pc froze, rebooted and it's now forever stuck at "loading operating system"...hence the thought of also 1)
3) The current PC will be handed down to the kids to use as a streaming media device as well as playing some games.

 

[mfenn]

I don't have a current gpu issue...its time to upgrade and move this PC down to the kids.

I do have an OS/key so none is needed...

Are you open to building your own or does it have to be prebuilt? I ask because the Cyberpower rig you posted has a laughably underpowered GPU for an $1100 gaming PC (Cyberpower's fault, not yours).

 

[Imager]

Are you open to building your own or does it have to be prebuilt? I ask because the Cyberpower rig you posted has a laughably underpowered GPU for an $1100 gaming PC (Cyberpower's fault, not yours).

I'm not opposed to building my own no. My 4 kids and I do A LOT of charity work and I do a lot of coaching and other community work in the township so for the price difference of the 2 the $115 (or so) more was worth it for it to already be put together. That was really the only reason with going to cyberpower.

Isn't the GPU the same if it's the same GeForce GTX 650 Ti? excuse my ignorance if i'm not seeing something correctly

 

[mfenn]

I'm not opposed to building my own no. My 4 kids and I do A LOT of charity work and I do a lot of coaching and other community work in the township so for the price difference of the 2 the $115 (or so) more was worth it for it to already be put together. That was really the only reason with going to cyberpower.

Isn't the GPU the same if it's the same GeForce GTX 650 Ti? excuse my ignorance if i'm not seeing something correctly

No, you're right a GTX 650 Ti is a GTX 650 Ti. I missed that in your list of parts, sorry about that. At any rate, a GTX 650 Ti is incredibly underpowered for a $1000 machine, you should be looking at cards that cost around $300. See my weekly build here for an example.

 

[Imager]

No, you're right a GTX 650 Ti is a GTX 650 Ti. I missed that in your list of parts, sorry about that. At any rate, a GTX 650 Ti is incredibly underpowered for a $1000 machine, you should be looking at cards that cost around $300. See my weekly build here
for an example.

I appreciate the concern and knowledge of the gpu. If this box is going to be mainly used for streaming video content to my tv with the exception of 1 (maybe) 2 games, I don't think the $300 is worth it to put out. I only have a gtx 460 now and that can currently run Skyrim, so the need for a higher end I don't see the justification...I could be wrong however.

I am looking for a pc with 12-16gb of ram though, which is a step up from what I have.

 

[mfenn]

I appreciate the concern and knowledge of the gpu. If this box is going to be mainly used for streaming video content to my tv with the exception of 1 (maybe) 2 games, I don't think the $300 is worth it to put out. I only have a gtx 460 now and that can currently run Skyrim, so the need for a higher end I don't see the justification...I could be wrong however.

I am looking for a pc with 12-16gb of ram though, which is a step up from what I have.

There is nothing wrong with only getting a GTX 650 Ti, however you should not be spending $1100 on a machine in that case.

You could get 16GB of RAM, but I honestly don't see the need. Nothing that you've told us about will use more than 8GB. Maybe you're not looking at the memory usage correctly? In Windows 7, you shouldn't look at the Free row, because that counts memory that is taken up by the transparent page cache. You should instead look at the Available row.

 

[Imager]

There is nothing wrong with only getting a GTX 650 Ti, however you should not be spending $1100 on a machine in that case.

You could get 16GB of RAM, but I honestly don't see the need. Nothing that you've told us about will use more than 8GB. Maybe you're not looking at the memory usage correctly? In Windows 7, you shouldn't look at the Free row, because that counts memory that is taken up by the transparent page cache. You should instead look at the Available row.

i didn't have an option of 12gb otherwise I would have gone with that. Under task manager I just did a quick add and i'm at almost 1/2 of ram with just a quick addition and I don't have a lot running currently either.

even IF I cut the ram down in 1/2 that's still not keeping me in the same price range with upping the video card to something much higher.

Does the video card make a huge difference in streaming video? Again it's main use is as a media server, not the gaming, but I do want that option there so I can play when I feel the need...it's just not the priority.

and mfenn, I really appreciate your help! I think you helped me breakdown, reconfigure and create my last build ;-)

 

[hackerballs]

streaming video is more about your internet provider as the lowest of lows GPU's can do this effortlessly. A better GPU card is all about gaming.

ps...just as a other thought!
When was the last time you reformatted your PC and brought it back to "new". I would imagine that your little SSD is almost full and therefor is almost useless for speed anymore. Anytime after 1/2 full one should look to other means. Sweet spot is 240 gigs SSD

gtx650 = 80.0 GB/s
gtx650 Ti = 86.4 GB/s

both lousy for gaming as you should be about 150 GB/s or better (660Ti = 144.2 GB/s) or find an older 7850 (153.6 GB/s) for cheap

 

[Imager]

streaming video is more about your internet provider as the lowest of lows GPU's can do this effortlessly. A better GPU card is all about gaming.

ps...just as a other thought!
When was the last time you reformatted your PC and brought it back to "new". I would imagine that your little SSD is almost full and therefor is almost useless for speed anymore. Anytime after 1/2 full one should look to other means. Sweet spot is 240 gigs SSD

gtx650 = 80.0 GB/s
gtx650 Ti = 86.4 GB/s

both lousy for gaming as you should be about 150 GB/s or better (660Ti = 144.2 GB/s) or find an older 7850 (153.6 GB/s) for cheap

WOW...an older 7850 is better then a newer 650 Ti?!

yes my current ssd is near full...only about 1.5gb left...

 

[VirtualLarry]

WOW...an older 7850 is better then a newer 650 Ti?!

Probably. It certainly has more memory bandwidth. That's why I was saying to go with the Ti BOOST as a minimum for gaming. I think that those have more memory bandwidth.

yes my current ssd is near full...only about 1.5gb left...

While I have yet to see conclusive evidence that having a full SSD affects read speeds, it certainly does affect write speeds. So for some things, like web browsing and pagefile operations, it will cause significant slowdowns.

 

[lehtv]

Probably. It certainly has more memory bandwidth.

Yep. 7850 has almost double the memory bandwidth, and almost 50% more performance. 650 Ti BOOST however has 144 GB/s memory bandwidth, same as GTX 660 (Ti) and almost the same as 7850. 650 Ti BOOST performs almost the same as the 7850.

 

[Imager]

hmmm...wow!

So I need to upgrade the GPU to at least a 760? That puts me at an additional $250+. Even if I cut it down to 8gb that only drops me roughly $80

I was trying to stay within a $900-1000 budget.

I'm transferring over 6TB of storage from my current build.