PC Upgrade

Only comment I have after being burned by it was that the Intel i7 -K series of CPUs support overclocking but disable Virtual Technologies. That means no (efficient) VMs which are very popular for a wide number of things including VMs for Android if you do development. I would not intentionally buy a CPU without VT these days but if you want the extra power from overclocking that is up to you.
 
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Thanks for the input guys! :)

What about that?

CPU: Intel i5-2500K
Mainboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme11
RAM: 4x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1333Mhz Red
Kühler: Corsair H60 Kompaktwasserkühlung
 
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Several people here have given you very useful advice, unlike my recommendations. Sorry for misleading, it wasn't intentional.

pibbur who now goes back to his safe policy of not recommending hardware and other things he knows little about.
 
What about that?

CPU: Intel i5-2500K
Mainboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme11
RAM: 4x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1333Mhz Red
Kühler: Corsair H60 Kompaktwasserkühlung

Sure. Why not? :)

Just make sure your case is compatible with the H60 (it should be since the H60 just has a single 120mm radiator fan right?) and that you have the space.
Also be aware that this is not really a very silent solution. I have once looked into these AIO sets as well and according to my research there is only one somewhat silent AIO which is the Corsair H90 (single 140mm). All others are actually louder than most silent air solutions.
However, with an AIO you might be able to push the i5-2500K to 4.5GHz+. Every i5-2500K will easily do 4.2/4.3GHz even on (silent) air but for 4.5GHz+ you could put that H60 to good use. It also depends a little on luck of the draw with regard to the individual CPU but it should be possible.
 
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Not silent is not what I wanted to hear. :(
This CPU runs @4.8 GHz.
 
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Not silent is not what I wanted to hear. :(
This CPU runs @4.8 GHz.

4.8GHz = a very fine specimen of this particular class of CPUs :)

As for the noise, well, it is very subjective, of course, but I can not imagine that the CPU will do 4.8GHz in a truly silent environment. The fan will probably have to run at/near the full 2000rpm to keep the temps in check at that OC level.
However, if you want it to be more silent maybe clock it down to 4.2GHz and use a 7V fan adapter?
Also, if this is a used kit maybe ask the person whether this is the first or second generation H60 and if there are any issues with the pump (pump noise). The first gen had pump issues AFAIK.
 
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Buy, yes, buy!
Well... If the price is not overpumped.
 
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It turned out I need to have the PC repaired and provide an invoice.
What's a reasonable o/c-able i5 combo for
a) socket 1150
b) a cheap but decent bundle for socket 1151 DDR-4?

We can spend ca. 500€ for mainboard, CPU, 16 GB RAM and a power supply. Service comes extra.
 
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What do you guys think of this?

i5-4690K
ASUS Z97-E
EVGA GeForce GTX 970
CORSAIR 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
CORSAIR CX750M 750W
Noctua NH-D14
Case

I could maybe add a few $ for big performance increase and/or am willing to change out for cheaper price for minor performance drop. I don't really care what it looks like, I do like quiet. I'm the first to admit I don't follow component news so advice is welcome, I threw this list together after reading a couple threads.

Seems like a perfectly good midrange setup, to me. For a significant boost to gaming performance beyond that, you'd probably need to spend a good bit more on a high-end GPU.
 
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What do you guys think of this?

i5-4690K
ASUS Z97-E
EVGA GeForce GTX 970
CORSAIR 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
CORSAIR CX750M 750W
Noctua NH-D14
Case

I could maybe add a few $ for big performance increase and/or am willing to change out for cheaper price for minor performance drop. I don't really care what it looks like, I do like quiet. I'm the first to admit I don't follow component news so advice is welcome, I threw this list together after reading a couple threads.

Looks good but are you planning to over clock the CPU? The reason why I ask is that I have the same CPU as the one you listed and OC to 4.0 GZ but the CPU utilisation never really goes above 50 - 60% in games like Witcher 3 but the the GPU utilisation is 100% with 970. So if I have the choice now, I might get cheaper CPU and buy an expensive GPU (980?).
 
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I was thinking of overclocking some, maybe there is no need. My cpu/mb hopefully won't get upgraded again for quite some time so I am a bit hesitant to go too much lower there. Guess I could forget the aftermarket cooler and not overclock, that would save some and I could always OC in the future.

GTX 980

That is about $180 more. I could prob swing that if the boost is worth it.

Case and power supply look ok? I was back and for between 750 and 850. I admit I don't know jack about that. Haven't bought a new case in like 10 years. I just kind of randomly picked a mid price one with good reviews.
 
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A 750W PSU should be fine if you don't plan on having a lot of peripherals besides what you've listed. I'd go with a Thermaltake though. You'll spend more money, but it's worth it. I've had Corsair PSUs in the past and they're hit or miss.
 
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750W PSU seems overkill since the machine is singleGPU, but who knows, maybe you'll add some ATI card inside just to test directX 12 features when a software that supports it gets released.
Better safe than sorry. ;)

The same thing about better safe goes for CPU too. It's a great CPU that will run anything smoothly on it's default tact and although it's true you currently don't need to overclock it for anything, who knows what the next year brings.

As for the case, I'd always take some with 3 fans (like Zalman's ones), but this one is great too.

Buy what you've listed now.
 
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GTX 980

That is about $180 more. I could prob swing that if the boost is worth it.

I don't think the 970 to 980 modest performance boost is worth the money. I'd either stick to the 970, or take the plunge and look at a 980ti, which offers markedly better performance.
 
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Placed the order. Went with a little nicer case and the Thermaltake PSU.

I did go 980. I just couldn't pull the trigger for another $200 on top of that for the ti though (I did have the extra $200 last week but ended up getting a new Scotty Cameron. I had some pro shop credit also and that putter just feels so smooth!). Ended up spending a little more than I was expecting when I started looking but I don't upgrade that often.

I'll post again when things come in and I get everything up and running. Hopefully this weekend I can get it done but it is duck season opener this weekend also so we'll see.

Thanks for all the advice.
 
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Rats… missed this topic. I just got a new PC myself and I think the case might be my favorite part. It's a Thermaltake Overseer. It's got plenty of ports all over the place but the thing I really like is the swappable hard drive slot. I was able to just pop the hard drive out of my old PC, pop it in the slot, and copy everything to the new hard drive! Once I'm sure I have everything, I can clear my old hard drive off, drop it in the slot whenever I like, and do backups to it. It's like having a 2TB, super fast flash drive!
 
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Nice piece Zloth!
My Zalman Z9 has something similar, no screws needed, just pop in and you're good to go. Plug&play, lol
I bet we'll be seeing this design becoming standard for all manufacturers in a year or two.

The only drawback in my case is that it supports only 3.5' HDDs so I can't use it for SSDs and "brackets" that serve to "resize" SSD. Those are still screw-based, but eventually I guess that'll come around too.
 
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Got everything up and running. Every piece I ordered came in last Friday but one that came Monday so I couldn't build over the weekend.

Freshly unpacked:

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I only do builds rarely (last one was 4+ years ago) so it did take me a little bit of time to get things together. Lots of manual reading. But after a couple hours things looked good.

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I do like that cooler but man it is ginormous. It fit in the case ok. Video card clearance is tight. RAM is the bigger challenge. I don't think 4 sticks would fit, I don't see how you could get one in slot 1. It took some work and a bit more muscle than a person loves to push on computer parts but I got it into slot 2. Slots 3&4 are no problem. My advice: put the RAM in before the cooler unlike me.

Here's the finished product in place.

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Zloth, I think that case is one of the ones I was considering. It was just too blingy for me, I like a plain case. Even the case I got is pushing my tastes a bit but the look is growing on me.

Thief is probably the only game currently on my computer that would push my old system a little running at 1920x1080 and not many features on. GeForce Experience has it now optimized at 2715x1527 with everything at max and it is running supper smooth. Looking forward to using it more (come on Withcer 3 sale!)

Thanks again for all the help!

All in all a really good 4 day stretch of hobbies. Limit of ducks in the morning, 18 holes of golf in the afternoon Saturday. Limit of ducks in the morning, 18 holes of golf in the afternoon Sunday. Built a new computer system after work Monday. Limit of ducks in the morning, 18 holes of golf in the afternoon Tuesday.
 
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What about this used PC? It's complete except for a graphics card. Sounds rather attractive to me:

  • case: Fractal Design Define XL, incl. low noise isolation
  • i7-3820, 10M, 3,6Ghz, Lga-2011 (the 3820 has some O/C options enabled, not as much as a "K" though)
  • Asus P9X79, Intel x79, ATX, 8x DDR3 Slots, 3x PCIe Slots (-> that's the cheapest version of a great board; supports the v2 Xeons up to 10 or 12 cores)
  • Kingston HyperX 32GB Kit, DDR3-1600 (4*8 to use quad-channel on the Asus)
  • cooler: Noctua NH-U12
  • PSU: Enermax Modu87+, 850W (this one doesn't exist, it's either 700W or the successor with 850W)
  • Samsung SSD, 512GB (older model, 830 or so)
  • Western Digital WD1003FBYX, RE4 1TB
The whole PC for 500€.
 
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