Upgrading old PC + Building new one

[FMod]

I run my own online business, so I want upgrade-ability and I also want it to perform very well with Skyrim and also the new creation kit.

Are you hosting your online business at home? Then it would be a good idea to keep two computers. One as a server, one for everything else.

Otherwise the server will become unresponsive whenever your PC is running a game, and offline whenever it crashes. And web surfers won't come back tomorrow, they'll figure you for dead.

 

You almost certainly already have an old PC, and it will suffice.

 

With ordering an assembled PC from any builder, the main problem is you don't know what components exactly they are putting in. Sometimes you don't care, but almost always you should, especially since they often omit very important information.

 

Also, there are a few major problems with the configuration:

 

HDD:2TB (2TBx1) SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Drive)

HDD2:500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+94] (Single Hard Drive)

What's that 500GB drive doing here? You're getting another one, above. Or get 2x2TB, if you need 2 HDD.

 

Strange they're not telling what it is, like they do with all other components. That almost certainly means Seagate (the cheapest, and the least reliable maker).

 

MOTHERBOARD:* [CrossFireX] Asus P8Z68-V LX Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 ATX Mainboard LucidLogix Virtu and Intel Smart Response Technology & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, 2x SATA-III RAID,2 3 PCIe Gen2, 2 PCIe X1 & 2 3CI

They package an extreme-overclocking targeted i7-2700K CPU with a stripped-down, powerless motherboard - pretty typical.

It's OK for non-overclockers of course. But no use for 2700K there.

 

OVERCLOCK:Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+49]

That's not needed - 20% overclocking on new CPU only takes about a couple minutes. Especially since they're certainly counting from the stock clock of 3.5 GHz, up to 4.2 GHz. And doing it wrong, SB CPU should be overclocked via turbo boost multipliers, not via stock clock rate increase.

So remove that.

 

POWERSUPPLY:700 Watts - Standard Power Supply - SLI/CrossFireX Ready

UPS1:OPTI-UPS VS575CB 575VA/345W Uninterruptible Power Supply [+46]

Doesn't sound good. There is no such thing as "standard power supply". An easy bet that it's not a Seasonic. You might luck out and get a Channel Well PSH, which will be reasonably quiet. Or you might not, in which case all the noise reduction made will be useless.

 

A 575VA or 345W UPS for an o/c'd PC with a 700W PSU is a joke - unless the PC is running idle, the UPS will go screaming in ten seconds and shut down, been there, seen that. You want a 1000VA unit here. Maybe a 750VA will do.

 

Most of their stock configurations are :facepalm: ridiculous, so I wouldn't be surprised at getting a noisy PSU in an otherwise silent build.

 

Don't get sucked in by all the "FREE" stuff. It's all already in the price, or sometimes bundled by the component maker (e.g. games with GPU or CPU). "Specials" like that run something like 300 days a year, the day after one ends, another one begins.

 

 

VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

VIDEO2:AMD Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card [+109] (Major Brand Powered by AMD)

What in the world is this, two video cards from different makers in one PC? That makes no sense whatsoever, they won't work together, and since the Radeon here is much less powerful, it's not done for Physx either. Pick one.

Edited February 26, 2012 by FMod

[anicolorful]

hijacked -.-

[SluggoV2]

I agree with FMod, he's on point.

[SuperAxilla]

I agree with FMod, he's on point.

 

Thank You. Sorry if I "hijacked" this thread. Perhaps I should have made a different one. The info provided helped me out a lot. While I kinda figured I would be overpaying, I don't mind to much as I would be leery to piece together and assemble it myself. I'll probably upgrade the 800 power supply to a Thermaltake. I did change the second hard drive to an inexpensive SSD (probably unnecessary, but I'm curious to learn how they compare and at least have a second HD), when I placed the order they did knock off a few redundant parts within the configuration. I changed the chassis to a Thermaltake Level GT 10. I liked how roomy it is and the upgrade-ability. As far as the business, I'll be doing quite a lot of scanning and image editing with this PC. I also have my notebook that will be good for back-up and when I travel. As of now, I don't plan on web-hosting with the PC, so it should be alright for my scans and listing online. I'd rather have overdone it to safe and hopefully the GT 10 will leave me some room for future upgrades. Hopefully, this will give me the opportunity to learn more about PC hardware.

[SuperAxilla]

hijacked -.-

 

Sorry.

[FMod]

While I kinda figured I would be overpaying, I don't mind to much as I would be leery to piece together and assemble it myself.

Building a PC is not as hard as it sounds. When they were creating the architecture, the whole idea was that users would buy the pieces and assemble them on their own. It's as easy as it gets, you just insert one thing into another and fix it with a few screws. And everything is new and clean, it's not like crawling under a car.

 

The only part that requires some caution is dropping in the CPU, but the worst that can happen is you bend a socket pin that's easily fixed back with a needle, and you have to be careless to do that. A first-time build will probably take you the whole day, if you take your time to read the manuals through, but the experience will stay with you and will be useful throughout the PC's lifetime.

 

And it's not all about cost, it's about quality. When you control exactly what components go into your build and how exactly, you can get a solid, lasting, quiet system. I can turn the amp off in the middle of a demanding game, squeezing 4.8 GHz out of the CPU, and only hear my own breath, the mouse sliding, an occasional noise outside. You don't get that with systems coming in a box. Well, you can, but for outrageous kind of money. For me it just took the right case, the right cooling, the right voltages on everything (voltages are a very big deal), and the right fan speed curves.

 

 

I'll probably upgrade the 800 power supply to a Thermaltake.

Thermaltake PSU are OK (unlike the baseline 500W unit), but not the best. If it's TR2, it's just old. If it's Toughpower Grand, it's overpriced - inside there is a cheap CWT DSG platform that Corsair only has in their TX series.

 

If you haven't bought it yet, Better take Corsair 750TXV2. They have it, it's a Seasonic platform (note that PSU simply built by them aren't necessarily as good as the ones they choose to sell under their own brand), and it's an improvement over TX's and Thermaltake's CWT platforms.

If you were considering something more expensive, going all the way to 750AX also makes sense. AX is rebranded Seasonic Gold, the best PSU line on that list. TXV2 can be a little loud (still quieter than what you were considering), AX is completely silent when not gaming.

[SuperAxilla]

While I kinda figured I would be overpaying, I don't mind to much as I would be leery to piece together and assemble it myself.

Building a PC is not as hard as it sounds. When they were creating the architecture, the whole idea was that users would buy the pieces and assemble them on their own. It's as easy as it gets, you just insert one thing into another and fix it with a few screws. And everything is new and clean, it's not like crawling under a car.

 

The only part that requires some caution is dropping in the CPU, but the worst that can happen is you bend a socket pin that's easily fixed back with a needle, and you have to be careless to do that. A first-time build will probably take you the whole day, if you take your time to read the manuals through, but the experience will stay with you and will be useful throughout the PC's lifetime.

 

And it's not all about cost, it's about quality. When you control exactly what components go into your build and how exactly, you can get a solid, lasting, quiet system. I can turn the amp off in the middle of a demanding game, squeezing 4.8 GHz out of the CPU, and only hear my own breath, the mouse sliding, an occasional noise outside. You don't get that with systems coming in a box. Well, you can, but for outrageous kind of money. For me it just took the right case, the right cooling, the right voltages on everything (voltages are a very big deal), and the right fan speed curves.

 

 

I'll probably upgrade the 800 power supply to a Thermaltake.

Thermaltake PSU are OK (unlike the baseline 500W unit), but not the best. If it's TR2, it's just old. If it's Toughpower Grand, it's overpriced - inside there is a cheap CWT DSG platform that Corsair only has in their TX series.

 

If you haven't bought it yet, Better take Corsair 750TXV2. They have it, it's a Seasonic platform (note that PSU simply built by them aren't necessarily as good as the ones they choose to sell under their own brand), and it's an improvement over TX's and Thermaltake's CWT platforms.

If you were considering something more expensive, going all the way to 750AX also makes sense. AX is rebranded Seasonic Gold, the best PSU line on that list. TXV2 can be a little loud (still quieter than what you were considering), AX is completely silent when not gaming.

 

Thanks, My order is still in the "warehouse" so I might be able to give them a call and switch the power supply to the Corsair and if they don't have it, I can always order it elsewhere. I've heard great things about the Corsair brand. I guess one of reasons why I chose the GT 10 is because it looked like something roomy enough to where I could get into up-grading. What's I find kind of funny is maybe that this setup with the GT 10 has a big chassis but will be a bit empty and lacking on some of higher performing/quality components for such a big chassis. What you said about about building a PC is reassuring for me so when I begin to upgrade, I won't feel as nervous about doing it myself. I'm glad I'm not just buying a Dell or HP pre-built, so maybe this will be something I can have some fun with, experiment and get into building and upgrading to some higher quality components. So, I'll definitely be making notes from your reply on the Corsair 750TXV2 and the warning about dropping in the CPU. That makes sense and I wouldn't want to mess that up. Thank you again.

[hoofhearted4]

just remember when dropping the CPU, zero force. if you need to press, your doing it wrong.

 

 

i personally dont like the GT10, i think its ugly lol. removeable mobo tray is nice, but there a bunch more cases out there that are beter and cheaper. can you even do W/C in it? idk how the layout is. i ask only because if your going to buy a case that expensive, then it needs to natively supposer W/C

[SuperAxilla]

It definitely is quite different looking, lol. Quite a bizarre and different design. I think I can do W/C on it, if you're talking about the ability to add liquid cooling. At least that is from what I read on the specs. For me it wasn't an expensive upgrade and honestly I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to change any of the components (since I am using it for the business too & well tax write-off etc.). I did think it was kind of cool that BMW was in on the design of it and the whole "colorshift" fan thing is neat. Not going to lie, I do want it to look pretty and cool. :facepalm: But, yeah if I really get into this, then I can see eventually changing out the chassis or maybe even modding it if I can learn enough, as well as upgrading from a standard mobo but I'll have to see how well it all runs and whether it suits me well overall.

 

I did forget to mention that I went with the AMD 7970 only and did not add a second graphics card (just yet). Just like Fmod said, that the selection of different cards did not make sense. I kinda suspected that would be the case. So yeah, I went with just the one 7970.

Edited March 11, 2012 by SuperAxilla