Post your setup!

[Luis]

Guys, I'm Still rocking the following:

 

Core 2 Duo E7500 2.93 GHz @ Stock

4 GB of Corsair DDR2 ram

AMD HD6750 1GB

some 1,5 tb of storage on 2 drives

Cooler Master CM690II Basic Case (With extra LED fans)

Corsair CX500 500 PSU

 

I need to upgrade to run GTA IV.

 

I plan to get a i5 4960, 8 gigs of DDR3 1600, a 970 but I'm still not sure on the motherboard as I haven't kept up with the latest in most reliable brands and new features in motherboards, I've used budget chipsets for my builds (this is an embarrasing G31 that I didn't even list up there) and had some bad experiences with reliability so I'd like to avoid that but still don't go into premium territory. What are your suggestions?

[sheridanm962]

There's some few subtle differences in my setup.

 

CPU: AMD FX 6300 @4.5GHz

GPU: Asus Radeon R9 270 (1080MHz Core, 1500MHz Mem)

PSU: Corsair CX750W

RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz

Monitor: BenQ V2400W (1920x1200)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2

Keyboard: 1989 IBM Model M

Mouse: Logitech G400S

Headset: Logitech G35 "7.1" (virtual surround) Audio Headset

HDD1: Kingston V300 128GB SSD

HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2TB

HDD3: Hitachi 5400RPM 750GB

HDD4: Hitachi 7200RPM 320GB

 

I love my new motherboard and I hope to get another R9 270 so I can have the full crossfire experience (with issues in mind and what have you).

 

With the added VRM heatsink and a new case to suit with now a proper 120mm fan instead of NO fan, I'm having a good time overclocking.

 

Not bad... Should be able to run most games at maximum settings with at least 40 FPS.

 

More than that... Unless you're thinking of 4K.

[Obsidian]

I've made some updates to mine a few months ago.

 

CPU: Intel 5930K 6-Core, Hyperthreaded and OC'd to 4.7 GHZ

RAM: 32GB DDR4 Crucial Ballistix

Mobo: Asus X99 Deluxe (rev 1, so no USB 3.1)

GPU: Nvidia GTX 980, no aftermarket branding to be seen

PSU: 1000w EVGA SuperNova Platinum

SSD: 1TB Samsung 840 Evo

HDD1: 6TB Seagate

HDD2: 3TB Seagate 7200RPM

Monitor1: Dell 4K 24-inch IPS display

Monitor 2: LG 1080P 23-inch IPS display

 

Why the hardware updates so soon? Well, I've been working a lot more with VMs, general deployment and programming, so the extra horsepower is very helpful for quick testing in multiple OSes. It games very well, too,

 

The cooling is where things get interesting, I'm now running a custom water cooling loop. I'll upload pictures later if I remember. It's very quiet and very cool, which is awesome considering I'm living in a desert basically.

[Blightmare]

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB & PNY XLR8 8GB

Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX

GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 290. Three fan variety

PSU: 850w EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR

HDD: WD Black Series 4TB

Monitor: ASUS VX228

 

Originally supposed to have only 16GB of ram but got a free extra 8 stick. As much as I like ASUS parts I don't think I'll be going with their monitors again anytime soon. Keep having issues with them :S

[BTGBullseye]

I plan to get a i5 4960, 8 gigs of DDR3 1600, a 970 but I'm still not sure on the motherboard as I haven't kept up with the latest in most reliable brands and new features in motherboards, I've used budget chipsets for my builds (this is an embarrasing G31 that I didn't even list up there) and had some bad experiences with reliability so I'd like to avoid that but still don't go into premium territory. What are your suggestions?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131981 (ASUS Z87 motherboard for $100)

 

For brands, I'd say to stick to ASUS and Gigabyte. (they also produce some of the best boards there are for gaming) Stay away from ASRock and Biostar!

 

I'd also recommend going at least to DDR3 1866, as there is no price difference, and you'll usually get a noticeable increase in framerate. (up to 10 FPS in some games that would otherwise be going under 45 FPS)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104461 (HyperX DDR3 1866 4x4GB for $85)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233278 (Corsair DDR3 1866 4x4GB for $89)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231617 (G.SKILL low latency DDR3 2133 4x4GB for $95)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231671 (G.SKILL DDR3 2400 4x4GB for $95) *my recommendation for you*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233778 (Corsair DDR3 2400 4x4GB for $95)

 

Finally, DO NOT GET THE 970!!! Get 960's, or a 980, but don't even consider the 970. (there is a MAJOR flaw in the memory design that causes a drop to 5-10 FPS in certain games that should be going at 60+ FPS)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709%204814%20600358543%20600007787%20600565061%20600559642%20600536050%20600374090%20600007797%20600537575%208000 (here's a decent list, stick to ASUS, EVGA, and Gigabyte for the best results IMO)

[Luis]

I plan to get a i5 4960, 8 gigs of DDR3 1600, a 970 but I'm still not sure on the motherboard as I haven't kept up with the latest in most reliable brands and new features in motherboards, I've used budget chipsets for my builds (this is an embarrasing G31 that I didn't even list up there) and had some bad experiences with reliability so I'd like to avoid that but still don't go into premium territory. What are your suggestions?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131981 (ASUS Z87 motherboard for $100)

 

For brands, I'd say to stick to ASUS and Gigabyte. (they also produce some of the best boards there are for gaming) Stay away from ASRock and Biostar!

 

I'd also recommend going at least to DDR3 1866, as there is no price difference, and you'll usually get a noticeable increase in framerate. (up to 10 FPS in some games that would otherwise be going under 45 FPS)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104461 (HyperX DDR3 1866 4x4GB for $85)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233278 (Corsair DDR3 1866 4x4GB for $89)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231617 (G.SKILL low latency DDR3 2133 4x4GB for $95)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231671 (G.SKILL DDR3 2400 4x4GB for $95) *my recommendation for you*

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233778 (Corsair DDR3 2400 4x4GB for $95)

 

Finally, DO NOT GET THE 970!!! Get 960's, or a 980, but don't even consider the 970. (there is a MAJOR flaw in the memory design that causes a drop to 5-10 FPS in certain games that should be going at 60+ FPS)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007709%204814%20600358543%20600007787%20600565061%20600559642%20600536050%20600374090%20600007797%20600537575%208000 (here's a decent list, stick to ASUS, EVGA, and Gigabyte for the best results IMO)

 

I cannot deploy so much money just on a GPU man :S.The 960 is good right now but I'm going for some future-proofability and I still wanna be able to crank things up to high in a couple years. Can you provide me with some more info? I checked some reviews oon youtube and nobody even mentioned it. The mobo is really good, probably what I will get

[BTGBullseye]

You can do a single 960 now, and add a second later on to double the performance... (what I'm planning if they don't come out with better before I start my personal build) 960 SLI at 8x/8x is just slightly lower performance (a couple FPS difference at most, and some games will actually do better under the SLI) than a single 980. (and supported by that moboard)

 

The issue with the 970 is that if the VRAM gets filled to 3.5GB (quite possible on modern games at higher settings) it will drop the framerate to under 15 FPS because it causes a glitch.

[BTGBullseye]

Just added a secondary monitor to my setup... An IBM T545! (complete with color balance issues from use)

 

At least it gives me some secondary screen real estate, and goes up to 75Hz refresh...

[Swamp]

Here is mine!

 

Motherboard: Asus M4A88T-M/USB3

Processor: QuadCore AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 965, 3415 MHz

RAM: 8gb DDR3 1333MHz

Video: ATI Radeon HD 7750 (getting it tomorrow, so right now I'm with the integrated one, the HD 4250)

 

I'm the kind of guy that likes to play in medium settings and I'm not planning to play the newest games, like GTA V, so I'm guess I'm good with this for now. I'm currently working so I will get a chance to keep upgrading it.

[Blightmare]

I'm going to go ahead and sticky this topic since it could also be helpful for other topics as well.

[Luis]

Guys, I have the option of getting a GTX 780 for $280. Do you think it's a good deal? Seeing that I could get a 960 for that kind of money, online + the shipping. I've seen the 780 can come ahead in most benchmarks. It needs much more power as well, The recommended PSU is 600W and mine is a Corsair CX500, which I guess that with my modest Core 2 Duo and 2 hard drives, shouldn't be saturated and could run the card as its maximum power seems to be 250w. I just calculated the total consumption of my current system with that card (as I may buy this ahead of the other components and install it on my system, even if it bottlenecks as f^ck it will be far better than my HD 6750 for the weeks I take to get the other parts) and it stands at 474W, with the future I5 and DDR3 memory, it ramps up to 484, so I may be pushing it a bit, what do you guys think? The i5-8gb system would consume 404w with the 970, I guess a bit less with a 9060 so with that setupp the PSU would not be an issue.

[BTGBullseye]

$280 isn't a bad price, but it's a little high for last-gen.

 

Also, I'm seeing a bunch of GTX 960 cards on Newegg for $170... So they are about $110 cheaper. (not including S&H) If you're looking at regular price only, the 960 comes in around $200-$210 on Newegg. ($80-$90 cheaper, not including S&H)

[Luis]

$280 isn't a bad price, but it's a little high for last-gen.

 

Also, I'm seeing a bunch of GTX 960 cards on Newegg for $170... So they are about $110 cheaper. (not including S&H) If you're looking at regular price only, the 960 comes in around $200-$210 on Newegg. ($80-$90 cheaper, not including S&H)

 

Dude, It's actually a 780Ti. I think I might have stumbled across something. What do you think? The thing about going for a card on newegg or amazon is that the import fees can be abour 25% the price of the card easily or 30%. The guy also has a waterblock for $60 for it. lol. Also, I'f im going 960 I'm going 4gb for the sake of future-proof, eyecandy and a potential 4gb SLI being better than 2GB, so that's gonna drive the price up to $220 for the MSI on Newegg, plus importing.

Should I go for the 780Ti? :B According to these benchmarks, it's next to the 970 in performance, with half a gig of ram less. http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-970-vs-GeForce-GTX-780-Ti

[BTGBullseye]

If it's a Ti, get it! That's a steal! The Ti is on-par with an overclocked 970, and doesn't have any memory issues.

 

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

[lightningterror]

Here you go.No pics btw.

 

 

CPU:Intel Core i3 4160 - undervolted -0.114v vcore offset

Motherboard: Asrock B85M - DGS

RAM: Kingston Hyper X Savage 16GB kit (2x8) DDR3 1600MHZ CL9

GPU: Asus AMD Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5

Case: Delux DLC-MG866 mid tower ATX case

Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1 TB 7200 rpm 64MB cache HDD

PSU: Corsair CX 430 V2

Display(s):Main monitor LG 24M45HQ-B , second monitor Samsung SyncMaster 720n

Cooling: CPU ( Hyper TX3 EVO) , 120mm front intake , outtake letting the psu(top mounted) and cpu coolers blow out.

Keyboard: Genius KB-G265

Mouse: Delux DLM-528BU 5D Optical Mouse

Sound: some Philips speakers with subwoofer

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 64 bit

[BTGBullseye]

CPU:Intel Core i3 4160 - undervolted -0.114v vcore offset

Motherboard: Asrock B85M - DGS

RAM: Kingston Hyper X Savage 16GB kit (2x8) DDR3 1600MHZ CL9

GPU: Asus AMD Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5

Case: Delux DLC-MG866 mid tower ATX case

Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1 TB 7200 rpm 64MB cache HDD

PSU: Corsair CX 430 V2

Display(s):Main monitor LG 24M45HQ-B , second monitor Samsung SyncMaster 720n

Cooling: CPU ( Hyper TX3 EVO) , 120mm front intake , outtake letting the psu(top mounted) and cpu coolers blow out.

Keyboard: Genius KB-G265

Mouse: Delux DLM-528BU 5D Optical Mouse

Sound: some Philips speakers with subwoofer

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 64 bit

Not bad... I hope you don't mind, but I like to suggest upgrade paths for systems posted here.

 

First thing you should look into is getting an SSD. Doesn't have to be huge, but it'll be a significant system performance boost. They are as low as $130 for a quality 480GB SSD from Newegg. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100011693%204814%20600136715%20600076740%20600038499%20600038502%20600038492%20600038491)

If you want to go really high-end there are 960GB drives with good performance for as low as $250.

 

Second would be the PSU, simply because most better GPS will require more power, and that would be the biggest bottleneck for gaming in your system. Don't go for under 600w for a new one though, or 800w if you're thinking of doing multi-GPU. Also, higher rating is ALWAYS better, as it reduces strain on the PSU, and reduces power fluctuations that are sent to the motherboard and peripherals. (the fluctuations can get bad enough over time that it can literally fry the hardware in your system, usually starting with the RAM, and northbridge/southbridge of the motherboard)

I personally recommend the Rosewill brand. They are inexpensive, but good quality. A 600w from them with 80+ Gold rating is only $75. If you don't care about efficiency, you can drop down to 80+ Bronze rating for a $50 Raidmax PSU @735w. (Raidmax is another good brand with generally low prices, but not quite as good in quality as Rosewill in my experience)

 

Third is, of course, the GPU. Since you aren't likely to go spend $300-$500 any time soon on the previous upgrades, I recommend waiting for the Nvidia Pascal GPUs that will be coming out later this year. I don't recommend any AMD cards currently out (or in the planning stages) as an upgrade over what you already have, mainly because they aren't better on the price/performance ratio than competing Nvidia GPUs. Also, AMD can't make a professional driver to save their lives. (they have been known in the past to flat out ignore entire portions of standard OpenGL and DirectX code calls when deploying drivers, and I have personally been burned by them MANY times by AMD on various levels of GPUs, but never on the numerous Nvidia GPUs I've used and abused, even if they were cheap or old)

 

After those three upgrades, you'd really need to get a new motherboard/CPU/RAM setup for increased performance, so I won't get any further into the upgrades unless you'd like a full new system design made for you.

[Humin]

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k overclocked to 4.4Ghz. Batch number 887.

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i.

Motherboard: MSI Z97M Gaming.

Memory: 2x ADATA AX3U1600W8G9-DGV 2x8GB(16GB) 1600Mhz. (32GB)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 250GB. Seagate Barricuda ST3000DM001 3TB.

Video card: MSI GTX 980ti Gaming 6G.

Case: Obsidian 350D Window.

Power supply: Corsair RM1000.

Optical Drive: LG Blu-ray HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS40.

Operating System: Windows 10 Home Premium.

Display: Asus PB278Q 1440p 60hz 27" PLS monitor in portrait orientation. Acer XB270HU 1440p 144hz 27" IPS monitor. Acer B326HK 2160p 60hz 32" IPS monitor.

HMD: Oculus Rift CV1 (but not until July).

Keyboard: Corsair Gaming K70 Cherry MX RGB Red CH-9000068-NA.

Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Core.

Speakers: Bose Companion 2.

Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT 990.

Microphone: Zalman ZM-Mic1.

UPS: APC BX1500G 1500VA 865W 10 Outlet.

 

What I'd like to do is get 4 reliable 500~1000GB SSDs and Raid 0 them. It would leave me with 1 extra sata port just in case. Also, cherry mx reds are mediocre, don't get them.

[BTGBullseye]

Speakers: Bose Companion 2.

Ew, Bose... That's what you get when you want the illusion of quality.

 

Nice headphones though.

[Blightmare]

UPDATED

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance Pro 16GB & PNY XLR8 8GB

Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX

GPU: MSI GTX 970

PSU: 850w EVGA 220-G2-0850-XR

HDD: WD Black Series 4TB

Monitor: ASUS VX228

[lightningterror]

CPU:Intel Core i3 4160 - undervolted -0.114v vcore offset

Motherboard: Asrock B85M - DGS

RAM: Kingston Hyper X Savage 16GB kit (2x8) DDR3 1600MHZ CL9

GPU: Asus AMD Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5

Case: Delux DLC-MG866 mid tower ATX case

Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1 TB 7200 rpm 64MB cache HDD

PSU: Corsair CX 430 V2

Display(s):Main monitor LG 24M45HQ-B , second monitor Samsung SyncMaster 720n

Cooling: CPU ( Hyper TX3 EVO) , 120mm front intake , outtake letting the psu(top mounted) and cpu coolers blow out.

Keyboard: Genius KB-G265

Mouse: Delux DLM-528BU 5D Optical Mouse

Sound: some Philips speakers with subwoofer

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 64 bit

Not bad... I hope you don't mind, but I like to suggest upgrade paths for systems posted here.

 

First thing you should look into is getting an SSD. Doesn't have to be huge, but it'll be a significant system performance boost. They are as low as $130 for a quality 480GB SSD from Newegg. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100011693%204814%20600136715%20600076740%20600038499%20600038502%20600038492%20600038491)

If you want to go really high-end there are 960GB drives with good performance for as low as $250.

 

Second would be the PSU, simply because most better GPS will require more power, and that would be the biggest bottleneck for gaming in your system. Don't go for under 600w for a new one though, or 800w if you're thinking of doing multi-GPU. Also, higher rating is ALWAYS better, as it reduces strain on the PSU, and reduces power fluctuations that are sent to the motherboard and peripherals. (the fluctuations can get bad enough over time that it can literally fry the hardware in your system, usually starting with the RAM, and northbridge/southbridge of the motherboard)

I personally recommend the Rosewill brand. They are inexpensive, but good quality. A 600w from them with 80+ Gold rating is only $75. If you don't care about efficiency, you can drop down to 80+ Bronze rating for a $50 Raidmax PSU @735w. (Raidmax is another good brand with generally low prices, but not quite as good in quality as Rosewill in my experience)

 

Third is, of course, the GPU. Since you aren't likely to go spend $300-$500 any time soon on the previous upgrades, I recommend waiting for the Nvidia Pascal GPUs that will be coming out later this year. I don't recommend any AMD cards currently out (or in the planning stages) as an upgrade over what you already have, mainly because they aren't better on the price/performance ratio than competing Nvidia GPUs. Also, AMD can't make a professional driver to save their lives. (they have been known in the past to flat out ignore entire portions of standard OpenGL and DirectX code calls when deploying drivers, and I have personally been burned by them MANY times by AMD on various levels of GPUs, but never on the numerous Nvidia GPUs I've used and abused, even if they were cheap or old)

 

After those three upgrades, you'd really need to get a new motherboard/CPU/RAM setup for increased performance, so I won't get any further into the upgrades unless you'd like a full new system design made for you.

 

Right now I don't plan on upgrading anything. Maybe a used 4690k and a sdd. Also for gpus I wouldn't go with Nvidia since they lack Asynchronous compute for dx12.