Gaming MB, CPU and RAM Which ??

Been out of the loop for the last few years, looking for a new MB CPU and RAM for my 14 yo son's PC for his birthday what is the hotness for that now. Mainly playing FPS type games.

The weak link will be the GPU's as he will have 4870's in X-Fire setup.

Help please

 

Budget? Does he know about computer stuff much I.e. Will he want bling or just be happy with upgraded PC? What is the current computer?

 

you may be better off just going with a bigger video card depending on what he has now...

 

He wants performance doesn't care for bling. The cpu and mb are 775 q6600 if i remember correctly. Budgetwise thinking aroun $500ish

 

Its a tough decision really but I think for 550 you can get a

4670k
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws Z F3-2400C10D-8GZH 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Keep the current gpu's and save for upgrade maybe gtx 960 in a few months or look to the second hand market on OCAU

Games will get a small boost as would every day usage.

I steered away from upgrading with a 500 gpu (gtx970) as it would be heavily bottlednecked anyway.

 

The Q6600 is not a bad CPU, I would probably just buy a new graphics card and another stick of RAM. That way in 3-6 months you can buy a new MB/CPU and have basically a brand new machine. But I suspect the GPU upgrade would make 10x the difference of a new platform.

 

I'd go second hand gpu if you really want to upgrade gpu as even an aging gtx580 would be heavily bottlenecked let alone anything more powerful.

 

Yes graphics card

Turn up the graphics settings to take
Bottleneck away from CPU as much as possible

 

Get new GPU for good money such as this for sale thread in Brisbane right now. http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1152656

$160 for a 280X is a nice purchase. Upto $200 probably a reasonable price. 7970 would be a good buy too and likely to be a little cheaper. GTX670's are going for $100 - $150 and are a very strong card.

I would then consider maybe a 120GB SSD for $72 @ Computer alliance. It wont run full speed but will be so much faster than an old HDD. It will make the biggest difference in day to day computing. Maybe even go a 240GB for $125 and then have room for a game or two on it (not really necessary though).

Both of those upgrades will carry over to a new build in the future and give the most noticeable difference. Then keep an eye out for motherboards and CPU's. Z87 boards go pretty cheap now, in the $70 - $90 range for the non bling ones. Might even pick up a 4770 or 4790 for $250 second hand which would be the icing on the cake.

280X - $160
120GB SSD - $72
Z87 Mobo - $70 - 90 (or even H87 even cheaper maybe $50)
4770 or 4790 - $200 - 250 (some 4770K's have gone for $250 recently)
8GB DDR3 - $60 - $80.

 

Im not entirely sure about this. I think CPU would also get a fair share of extra strain when turning up the settings.

 

http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-alpha-gpu-and-cpu-benchmarks/

New cpu with powerful Grfx

CPU 15-20 fps difference
Which is quite significant

 

Yes true
It is a balance between CPU and gpu

... I'm just remembering an example when I had high end
Grfx card on 775 socket in bf2142 (few years ago now )

I had Grfx turned down thinking it wouldn't handle
High Grfx settings in game ... Then I thought
I'd try setting all Grfx very high and

Surprise surprise I got fps increase ( the CPU was bottle necking)
The fps


Which was lesson to me that there are
Bottlenecks

Noticed same with medieval 2 total war
Tends to be cpu limited if you turn Grfx too low
For a powerful Grfx card the fps will become
A slide show


If all data for Grfx and CPU were funnelled
Thru the CPU it just don't work that way

Grfx data goes to Grfx card and cpu data to cpu

And both together combine to give you
Fps in the specific game

Some games more cpu bound
Some more Grfx bound
And all depend on in game settings

 

Yeah that is true but will it really hurt? My 670 previously ran 70-80 FPS in BF4 with a combination of Ultra/High and MSAA 2x. Same settings the 660 runs about 50-60 (surprisingly lower). Take 15-20 FPS off the 670 FPS and it would still be a nice enough experience. Hell the 7970 and 280X are meant to be stronger so likely with same settings it would run 60+ FPS with occasional dips. Don't forget the reviews go full ultra, which whilst has all the bling doesn't add to the gaming experience except when you stop to enjoy the fine details (usually ending up in getting sniped for standing still).

There is a bottlenecking comparison for BF3, and the i7 CPU had to be underclocked dramatically with cores off until GPU untilisation suffered.

I would go GPU upgrade (not money wasted) and possibly SSD as per post above for overall experience improvement.

 

I agree
I think your suggestions in above post
Are good

 

Well ended up going
MB :Asus Sabretooth Z97 MK2
CPU i5-4690K
RAM Ripsaw Z 2400 8G kit

Hopefully did ok with this combo (pick apart if you don't think its ok combo) and it will be put on water and have two 4870-1G atm look at new card soon.

Thanks for the input

 

Nice combo. Have you bought it? An ASUS Z97-A supports crossfire and will save you half the cost of a 120GB SSD. A SSD with Windows is where the real "wow a new computer" factor will kick in.

 

Yes bought it all, so now the fun of setting it all up in the spare Xigmatek case for him and dummy up the rad's ( 1 x 360 internal 1 x 120 external) SSD is to come.