That's a really good deal. In fact, it almost sounds too good to be true. Do you know the person who's selling it?
PC Upgrade
- Thread starter Gorath
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That's a really good deal. In fact, it almost sounds too good to be true. Do you know the person who's selling it?
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Hey, that's a bit more enthusiastic than I expected. 
I thought these parts cost roundabout 600-650€ if I buy them used, so 500€ sounded like a good deal.
I can see that there is no weakness in this PC, but what makes it so special? The CPU is still very decent, but the mainboard is "only" the consumer version, not the geek version with a thousand PCIe slots and dual Intel LAN chips, and also not the still very expensive workstation edition.
I don't know the guy personally, but he claims he bought the PC in 2012 and he still has the invoice. I could install a Win7 on the PC and check it before I pay.
I thought these parts cost roundabout 600-650€ if I buy them used, so 500€ sounded like a good deal.I can see that there is no weakness in this PC, but what makes it so special? The CPU is still very decent, but the mainboard is "only" the consumer version, not the geek version with a thousand PCIe slots and dual Intel LAN chips, and also not the still very expensive workstation edition.
I don't know the guy personally, but he claims he bought the PC in 2012 and he still has the invoice. I could install a Win7 on the PC and check it before I pay.
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It's actually supercheap server!
Not odd there's no separate GPU in it.
For that kind of cash I'd buy it right away.
Ignore SSD models, from what I've seen all those benchmarks which one is faster have no actual impact in daily use. But Samsung SSDs had some slowdown problem which is supposed (if happens at all) to easily fix by flashing firmware.
You know already that I bought more than a year ago i5 4670K "just in case" but all this time I'm keeping it on default tact and had no problems anywhere, seems that games don't really need 4+Ghz.
Erm... No, sorry, I forgot one game. Perhaps maybe the unoptimized garbage AC4 would not microstutter here and there if I OCed CPU as that Ubi's crap port hammers one core to 100%, second gets 30% average use and other two cores are on 0%.
Not odd there's no separate GPU in it.
For that kind of cash I'd buy it right away.
Ignore SSD models, from what I've seen all those benchmarks which one is faster have no actual impact in daily use. But Samsung SSDs had some slowdown problem which is supposed (if happens at all) to easily fix by flashing firmware.
You know already that I bought more than a year ago i5 4670K "just in case" but all this time I'm keeping it on default tact and had no problems anywhere, seems that games don't really need 4+Ghz.
Erm... No, sorry, I forgot one game. Perhaps maybe the unoptimized garbage AC4 would not microstutter here and there if I OCed CPU as that Ubi's crap port hammers one core to 100%, second gets 30% average use and other two cores are on 0%.
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He used it as a gaming machine. He has already built a new Skylake PC and moved the graphics card over.
The mainboard doesn't have graphics jacks, so a graphics card has to be installed.
The mainboard doesn't have graphics jacks, so a graphics card has to be installed.
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Another question:
Is this CPU cooler powerful enough to try some overclocking? As joxer correctly said, games don't need more CPU power. I'm doing chess analysis maybe once a week though. Some chess engines support up to 32 cores - HT should be disabled - and use 100% of the available cycles. Generally speaking this kind of software reacts well to a higher clock speed. If I could push it from, say, 7000k nodes per second to 9000kn/s, it would reduce the time needed considerably.
There's a fair chance the CPU would make 4.5 GHz, according to the interwebs.
Is this CPU cooler powerful enough to try some overclocking? As joxer correctly said, games don't need more CPU power. I'm doing chess analysis maybe once a week though. Some chess engines support up to 32 cores - HT should be disabled - and use 100% of the available cycles. Generally speaking this kind of software reacts well to a higher clock speed. If I could push it from, say, 7000k nodes per second to 9000kn/s, it would reduce the time needed considerably.
There's a fair chance the CPU would make 4.5 GHz, according to the interwebs.
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That's a highly rated cooler, so I'd say it's worth a try. How much of an overclock you'll get still depends more on the CPU itself though.
Overclocking often boils down to pure luck. Some chips can be pushed harder than others.
Overclocking often boils down to pure luck. Some chips can be pushed harder than others.
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I picked the PC up today. It's in superb condition. Now I hope it survived the ride over the autobahn. 200 km through rain and a bit of snow.
A couple of additions to the specs:
- The graphics card he removed was actually a GTX 980. And the other card too.
- The HDD is the server version. Running it 24/7 is perfectly okay.
- The RAM kit is not 4*8 MB, it's 8 * 4 MB.
- The PSU is the one he said, just with 800W instead of 850W.
- The case seems to be very good for a mid price tower (120€ or so).
- The whole system is amazingly silent. With the sides open.
- He gave me all the paperwork, all remaining small parts, all remaining retail boxes, etc.
- I bought a 1 TB external HDD too.
- The price went down a bit. I paid 480€ for everything. Of course I had to spend the money I saved on gas, but that's how it is if you want to handle things face to face.
Now I hope it survived the ride over the autobahn. 200 km through rain and a bit of snow.A couple of additions to the specs:
- The graphics card he removed was actually a GTX 980. And the other card too.
- The HDD is the server version. Running it 24/7 is perfectly okay.
- The RAM kit is not 4*8 MB, it's 8 * 4 MB.
- The PSU is the one he said, just with 800W instead of 850W.
- The case seems to be very good for a mid price tower (120€ or so).
- The whole system is amazingly silent. With the sides open.
- He gave me all the paperwork, all remaining small parts, all remaining retail boxes, etc.
- I bought a 1 TB external HDD too.
- The price went down a bit. I paid 480€ for everything. Of course I had to spend the money I saved on gas, but that's how it is if you want to handle things face to face.
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Honestly Gorath if I didn't have PC I wanted already, I'd buy that one.
Sure, you will have to buy GPU (assuming you don't have some old but "gold" one), but as usual, I just can't suggest spending too much of cash on cards when pricedrops are expected next year due to completely new technology both on nVidia and AMD side.
Which means, don't go for GTX 980, please.
You'll survive without full hairworks in TW3 and I don't think you'll ever buy AC:Unity just to check on 980 if it's true what people say that it's the worst unoptimized garbage of a game that lost the crown to Batman:AK a few months back.
Sure, you will have to buy GPU (assuming you don't have some old but "gold" one), but as usual, I just can't suggest spending too much of cash on cards when pricedrops are expected next year due to completely new technology both on nVidia and AMD side.
Which means, don't go for GTX 980, please.
You'll survive without full hairworks in TW3 and I don't think you'll ever buy AC:Unity just to check on 980 if it's true what people say that it's the worst unoptimized garbage of a game that lost the crown to Batman:AK a few months back.
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I'm still on a 760 and I can play almost any game.
I never play on highest settings so that's not a problem.
If you don't care about highest graphics just get a mid tier current gen card in my opinion.
I never play on highest settings so that's not a problem.
If you don't care about highest graphics just get a mid tier current gen card in my opinion.
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€480 is a steal for that system. Nice find, Gorath . As for the snow, yeah, it's gotten kinda cold in central EU here all of a sudden, hasn't it? When I went running this evening it did not snow but I thought I was gonna freeze to death any moment now.
As for your new PC and the essential missing part, I'd get an "intermediate" not-too-fancy GPU solution (GTX 970 max) until next year and then when nVidia Pascal becomes available in Q2 (hopefully) buy a real nice card that will last a little while. It's not really worth investing big into 28nm at this very late point in the game. It's done.
. As for the snow, yeah, it's gotten kinda cold in central EU here all of a sudden, hasn't it? When I went running this evening it did not snow but I thought I was gonna freeze to death any moment now.As for your new PC and the essential missing part, I'd get an "intermediate" not-too-fancy GPU solution (GTX 970 max) until next year and then when nVidia Pascal becomes available in Q2 (hopefully) buy a real nice card that will last a little while. It's not really worth investing big into 28nm at this very late point in the game. It's done.
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Since it's now official that 2 GB cards are no longer an option if you buy new (->PC Games (Hardware?) comparison with 15 new games), I'm leaning toward a 4 GB card. Either a GTX 960 or a Radeon 380. Both cards would suffice for FHD for a couple of years. Maybe a used R280X with 3 GB is also an option. Such cards can be found for 130-150€.
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GothicGothicness
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Well, get at least a 4GB card.... this is my opinion of course.
It's funny that these days Sweden is often warmer in winter than other parts of Europe
It's funny that these days Sweden is often warmer in winter than other parts of Europe
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Your mobo has 8 DIMM slots?
*Edit* Nevermind, I see you mentioned that in the original description.