Rebuild Imminent -- Advice?

[Blue Shift]

Update: After reading all of the replies here, I have decided not to upgrade right now. It would be a relatively large expense, for little gain. Instead, I will be starting another thread to diagnose my computer's current issues.


My computer's chronic cooling issues are beginning to cause it to lock up when room temperature is in the 80s. At least i think that's the cause. In any case, it's about time to ditch this Phenom II. And this $30 junk case. And nab a SSD.

So, I would like to go with the Silverstone FT03 for a case. It can fit full-length video cards, and is easy to tote around and doesn't take up much space. Plus I love the styling and innovative layout. As far as CPUs go, I remember that the 2500K was very popular when Sandy Bridge was king of the hill. There's probably a similar go-to Ivy Bridge CPU for good value and performance.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
I use my computer for gaming, programming, and artsy stuff in Adobe. And general home/office purposes, of course. I'd like to get higher framerates in CPU-intensive games like StarCraft 2. Booting up more quickly would be nice as well.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Roughly $500-600.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
United States

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
As mentioned earlier, I'd like to go with a Silverstone case (FT03). I used to buy AMD in most cases to "vote with my wallet," but that no longer makes much sense. Intel it is, then.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Yes. Two monitors, a GTX480, 12GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, a 650W modular power supply, and a 1TB HDD.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I am willing to overclock, but won't do it just for kicks. In other words, if buying an unlocked processor and overclocking it will legitimately give me more bang for the buck in my situation, then sure. Otherwise, I'd rather not.

8. What resolution will you be using?
Dual 1920x1080; will only be gaming on one screen in most situations.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP. If there are any major sales coming up that I should be waiting for, then that would be fine too.


So, here's a template build list:

PART - COST - SELECTION
Case - $165 - Silverstone FT03
MoBo -- ??? - ??? [Micro ATX Required]
CPU --- ??? - ???
SSD --- ??? - ???
DVD --- ??? - ??? [Slot-loading Required]
TOTAL = $165/$600 (4 PARTS REMAINING)

PSU -- $0 --- Rosewill Libertas 650W
RAM -- $0 --- 12GB DDR3 1333MHz
GPU -- $0 --- EVGA GTX 480
HDD -- $0 --- 1TB WD Black


My apologies for the crappy formatting. I wish we could insert tables. Also, the FT03 is mysteriously out of stock at Newegg and Amazon. Any ideas as to why?

Thanks in advance for your help!

PS. If there's an issue with fitting everything in the budget, please say so. The budget mentioned above is what I have already pretty much allocated and committed to the upgrade, but I would be willing to spend more if there's a compelling reason to.

 

[Durvelle27]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116505 i5-3550 $200

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293 ASRock Z77 Extreme4 $115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442 Crucial M4 128GB SSD $130

why do you want that case ?

 

[Blue Shift]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116505 i5-3550 $200

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293 ASRock Z77 Extreme4 $115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442 Crucial M4 128GB SSD $130

why do you want that case ?

Good work; that would bring the total to $610 plus the cost of a slot-loading DVD drive. I'd like to do better than that, but we'll see...

However, I have two immediate concerns here:
1. That motherboard is not a MicroATX board, so it would not fit in the case.
2. Is there a reason for selecting the Crucial M4 SSD? The Corsair Force GT (also 120GB) is available for $120, and also has free shipping and a $30 MIR to boot. Is the M4 better in terms of performance or reliability?

As for the case... There's an explanation at the top of my post, but basically it comes down to "it's interesting and I like it."

Edit: More info on the case: When I look at most computer cases, I see a standard metal box with a front panel latched on. Those front panels change drastically from case to case, but the box is, externally, nearly identical; they only change in measurements, number of holes, and the occasional handle or window. The FT03 exists outside of that paradigm. It's not a very practical thing to base a purchasing decision on, but if there's any part that should be purchased because of its looks, the case is that part.

 

[Smoblikat]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116505 i5-3550 $200

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293 ASRock Z77 Extreme4 $115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148442 Crucial M4 128GB SSD $130

why do you want that case ?

Swap out that 3550 for a 2500K. Ive bridge runs hotter WAY hotter than SB due to the 3D transistors and how tight and small the cores are packed. Plus, it offers almost no performance benefit to SB.

Full length boards wont fit in mATX cases, ill get you a mobo. Its a bit pricy, but if you HAVE to have that case then this is the best to get.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157294

The M4 is generally reguarded as a high quality and high reliability drive with great performance.

 

[Durvelle27]

1.the Corsair GT is actuallt better but i didn't see it because its sold out
2. If you get a MicroATx board it will slow down the peroformance of your card because all the 1155 Z77 microatx board are 2.0 x16 @x4 so you won't get full performance from your GTX 480

 

[Blue Shift]

Swap out that 3550 for a 2500K. Ive bridge runs hotter WAY hotter than SB due to the 3D transistors and how tight and small the cores are packed. Plus, it offers almost no performance benefit to SB.

Full length boards wont fit in mATX cases, ill get you a mobo. Its a bit pricy, but if you HAVE to have that case then this is the best to get.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157294

2. If you get a MicroATx board it will slow down the peroformance of your card because all the 1155 Z77 microatx board are 2.0 x16 @x4 so you won't get full performance from your GTX 480

The motherboard that Smoblikat linked definitely has the issue you mentioned, Durvelle. x8 speed would probably be fine, but at x4 I'd be losing performance.

Could I save money and resolve that issue by going with a Sandy Bridge processor and one of last year's chipsets for the motherboard?

 

[Durvelle27]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128495 GIGABYTE GA-Z68 $118

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072 i5-2500K

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065 hyper 212+ $30

 

[krnmastersgt]

Swap out that 3550 for a 2500K. Ive bridge runs hotter WAY hotter than SB due to the 3D transistors and how tight and small the cores are packed. Plus, it offers almost no performance benefit to SB.

Full length boards wont fit in mATX cases, ill get you a mobo. Its a bit pricy, but if you HAVE to have that case then this is the best to get.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157294

The M4 is generally reguarded as a high quality and high reliability drive with great performance.

Ivy runs cooler than SB at stock clocks and voltages, Ivy starts getting stupidly hot in comparison when you start bumping up the voltages. IB also outperforms SB at the same clocks, so I'm not sure why you think SB is superior when it's only really better at higher overclocks.

As far as CPU/Motherboards go, are there any particular features you were looking for OP? Also all the boards listed so far do 16x, the 8x you're seeing is when there's more than 1 card in play and as long as you're not planning on CF/SLI it isn't really an issue (isn't an issue even if you are actually). Do you need USB 3.0 or have any use for it currently?

 

[ElFenix]

what voltage is your ram that you're carrying over? SB and IB processors should run their ram at 1.5V or lower. older DDR3 ram could be 1.65V. that's overspec for SB and IB.

 

[Blue Shift]

Ivy runs cooler than SB at stock clocks and voltages, Ivy starts getting stupidly hot in comparison when you start bumping up the voltages. IB also outperforms SB at the same clocks, so I'm not sure why you think SB is superior when it's only really better at higher overclocks.

As far as CPU/Motherboards go, are there any particular features you were looking for OP? Also all the boards listed so far do 16x, the 8x you're seeing is when there's more than 1 card in play and as long as you're not planning on CF/SLI it isn't really an issue (isn't an issue even if you are actually). Do you need USB 3.0 or have any use for it currently?

From Newegg:
PCI Express 3.0 x16 --- 2 (x16/0 or x8/x8)
PCI Express 2.0 x16 --- 1 @x4

That's where we were getting this from.
But you're right; PCI Express 2.0 cards work in 3.0 slots, so this is a non-issue.

what voltage is your ram that you're carrying over? SB and IB processors should run their ram at 1.5V or lower. older DDR3 ram could be 1.65V. that's overspec for SB and IB.

I'll check on this when I get home, thanks.





Thanks again for the help, guys!

 

[krnmastersgt]

If you don't require USB 3.0 ports then this ASRock B75M for $73 is actually quite a good price, still gets you SATA 6 Gb/s ports so you fully benefit from an SSD.

As for CPUs, overclocking does have some decent cost/performance benefits however this may be a moot point for you. You say you want a strong CPU for something as intensive as SC2, well unfortunately SC2 only scales off 2 cores (unless they've patched in support for more than that), so I see no reason to go beyond an i3 2100 or thereabouts for your system unless there are games more CPU demanding than SC2 that you play. Even if there are you're paying roughly twice the price of the 2100 to get 2 extra cores + overclocking, so they better require 4 physical cores or you're just burning your money away.

 

[mfenn]

1.the Corsair GT is actuallt better but i didn't see it because its sold out

Not really. Sandforce SFF-2281 drives are faster than the M4, but that doesn't make them better. There is a very small difference in feel between the two, but the M4 is much more reliable than any Sandforce drive.

2. If you get a MicroATx board it will slow down the peroformance of your card because all the 1155 Z77 microatx board are 2.0 x16 @x4 so you won't get full performance from your GTX 480

The top PCIe slot on MicroATX Z77 and H77 boards is PCIe 3.0 x16. The second slot (if it exists) is PCIe 2.0 x4. There is no performance penalty to using MicroATX because you would just use the 3.0 slot.

 

[mfenn]

what voltage is your ram that you're carrying over? SB and IB processors should run their ram at 1.5V or lower. older DDR3 ram could be 1.65V. that's overspec for SB and IB.

Good point.

Another question is the configuration. An older 12 GB setup is probably 6x2GB, though it could be 3x4GB. 1155 boards have a maximum of 4 DIMM slots. If the current setup is 6x2GB, that means the OP would either need to go down to 8GB (not really a big deal) or shell out for a 16GB setup.

 

[the_meatloaf___]

It just seems silly to me to spend $165 on a case, when that is almost 1/3 of the overall budget. I agree it's a good looking case, but on that budget, it would be smarter to go with $50-$100 case, so you don't have to skimp on other components.

 

[Venom20]

While this might be offtopic, if you are looking to change your paradigm on boxed cases, why get a box at all?

look at the Antec Skeleton. It's open concept, and only $120, which is cheaper than the Silverstone.

 

[Blue Shift]

As for CPUs, overclocking does have some decent cost/performance benefits however this may be a moot point for you. You say you want a strong CPU for something as intensive as SC2, well unfortunately SC2 only scales off 2 cores (unless they've patched in support for more than that), so I see no reason to go beyond an i3 2100 or thereabouts for your system unless there are games more CPU demanding than SC2 that you play. Even if there are you're paying roughly twice the price of the 2100 to get 2 extra cores + overclocking, so they better require 4 physical cores or you're just burning your money away.

I typically play all or most of the AAA PC releases these days. Starcraft II is just an example. Also, I don't want to switch platforms just to make a sidegrade.

Another question is the configuration. An older 12 GB setup is probably 6x2GB, though it could be 3x4GB. 1155 boards have a maximum of 4 DIMM slots. If the current setup is 6x2GB, that means the OP would either need to go down to 8GB (not really a big deal) or shell out for a 16GB setup.

2x4GB + 2x2GB. Operating at 1.5 volts.

It just seems silly to me to spend $165 on a case, when that is almost 1/3 of the overall budget. I agree it's a good looking case, but on that budget, it would be smarter to go with $50-$100 case, so you don't have to skimp on other components.

I've had my current case (a $30 "In Shin" that I settled on to make a budget work) for 6 years; far longer than any of the components in it. I'll get a lot of mileage out of the next one as well. Also, it's not like I'm trying to build an entire gaming rig for $600-700. Most of one, certainly, but not all.

I'd like to do another upgrade next year to upgrade to a higher-resolution display (and a faster GPU, most likely).

 

[Blue Shift]

I'm planning to buy one of these after work today:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-20227706-L0F

The rest of the parts are to some extent dependent on one another, but an SSD is something I can purchase immediately and see a big improvement in everyday use. I'm somewhat wary of putting it in a machine that has thermal problems, though. (Edit: Supposedly this would not be an issue.)

 

[Blue Shift]

...and the desktop won't start today. Ugh.

 

[mfenn]

I'm planning to buy one of these after work today:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-20227706-L0F

The rest of the parts are to some extent dependent on one another, but an SSD is something I can purchase immediately and see a big improvement in everyday use. I'm somewhat wary of putting it in a machine that has thermal problems, though. (Edit: Supposedly this would not be an issue.)

The Vertex 3 is a decent performer to be sure, but be aware that you're taking gamble with an OCZ SFF-2281 SSD. Make sure that you have a solid, automated backup plan in place.