Hi guys,
I need your help looking for replacement for my 8 years old home PC. Main users are my siblings (18yr-25yrs old siblings):

Budget: Max RM 1.6k

Purpose: All-in-one regular rig

Hardwares that will be re-use: Monitor, speaker, mouse, keyboard. Graphic Card AMD Radeon HD7xxx series.

Monitor resolution: 1280 x 1024 max. Still using big old CRT 21" monitor.

Games & softwares that use frequently: Anime-like MMORPG, Adobe Photoshop, Office.

Personal preferences: Anti-surge & humidity protection for PC hardware. Windows 8 ready spec.

Location: Rig to be located at Terengganu. I can go to KL to find stuff

Thanx

This post has been edited by dark_report: May 17 2015, 12:46 PM

For SSD.

Liteon 900S 128GB RM269/256GB RM429

Are you going for AIO water cooling or custom?Custom will cost you a bomb. Plus not all water cooler beats an air cooler.

Since they are both around the same price, would you go for:
1) Xeon E3-1231 V3
or
2)i5-4690k

for gaming?

Which HD7xxx series GPU do you've?HD7850?HD7870?

Intel Core i5 4460 3.2GHz RM676.28
MSI B85M-E33 RM232.14
Corsair Value RAM 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RM229
WD Caviar Blue 1TB RM199'
FSP Hexa+ 550W RM199
Thermaltake Versa H25 RM135
Total:RM1670.42
Prices of the CPU and MoBo are from Jayacom@LYP and the rest are from Viewnet@LYP.

Umm,Terengganu to KL is kinda far.. Another option is this..order from IdealTech.They provide shipping.

Intel Core i5 4460 3.2GHz RM675
Asrock H81M-VG4 RM179
GSkill Aegis 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RM249
WD Caviar Blue 1TB RM199
FSP Hexa+ 550W RM179
Thermaltake Versa H25 RM135
Total:RM1616
Prices are from IdealTech.

I've no idea which anti-surge protection thingy is great.No idea on those stuffs.Haven't heard of "humidity protection" too..

Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 all the way!

thanks a lot, bro...
ops, sorry my mistake..it's not HD7xxx, but HD6870.
i thought high humidity would cause MoBo to short-circuit in long time? afraid that Mobo will have shorter lifespan after year-end monsoon season. once per month I will drive to KL, so its OK to bring it myself

This post has been edited by dark_report: May 17 2015, 02:33 PM

Sorry Sifu... My MOBO - Asrock B85M HDS and MSI GTX970 having issue with my Reuse monitor Samsung 732NPLUS W which only support old VGA cable !

Any idea how to solve this problem?

Thanks

This post has been edited by ahgan91: May 17 2015, 02:59 PM

AIO water cooler..

current rig already bsod 3 times last 48hours..
time to upgrade

Get a DVI to VGA adapter, sometimes its bundled together with the graphic card.


DVI-I port of your GPU should support analog signal and compatible with VGA.



This post has been edited by Human10: May 17 2015, 05:58 PM

I will update my progress here

hi guys, how does liquid cooler work? do i have to add or change the liquid everytime?

If use AIO liquid cooler then no need to refill.

Hi Guys, recently my 6 years old rig is... erm unstable. So may be it's time to change, may I ask for few questions? (My current rig is in sig, all are 6 years old except G-card)

It's a gaming rig:

1. Is it worth to invest DDR4 rig? (i7-5XXX and mobo)
2. If change, is GTX 970 more than enough or shall I wait for 980ti?
3. I'm simple gamer, so wont do much overclock, so no point buying the intel k series CPU?
4. I already have an 240GB SSD + an good old 1TB hd. Is it worth to replace the hd with fusion drive? Is SSD+fusion drive better than SSD+normal hd? (reason is I like to install game on the other hd, and will finish it before start next game)

I will plan my budget according to the feedback. (that means how long shall I starve to save up the $$)

Thanks in advance guys!

This post has been edited by Vorador: May 17 2015, 10:37 PM

1)depends, if for gaming the normal i7 is enuf imo, but if for productivity, you might benefit from upgrading to the gen.
2)If you're not desperate , I suggest wait, with the new amd cards coming out around the corner , there could be substantial improvement coming from them.
3)yeah , there's no point buying the k cpu if you're not overclocking.

Hmm, what sorts of instability do you experience? how old is the psu btw?

X99 rig which uses DDR4 RAM is not cheap now and you say you are not doing much overclock so just get normal locked i5 or Xeon will do. If playing on 1080p, GTX970 is enough.

Thanks bro!

PSU a bit younger, may be 4 years old? (Changed once)

Instability as in suddenly entire PC freeze, can't be restarted. (If press restart button the comp will keep on and off but nothing shows up) Need to unplug, wait for 1 minute then on again.

Actually as long as my rig can tahan, I don't mind wait for a while for new G-card come out. (also I will definitely buy a smaller PSU, many ppl said my PSU is overkill and waste lots of power)

Yope only play on 1080 (27" monitor) and probably no plan to buy a new one in near future... (4k monitor price is too high!)

Oh may I add 2 more questions?

4. I already have an 240GB SSD + an good old 1TB hd. Is it worth to replace the hd with fusion drive? Is SSD+fusion drive better than SSD+normal hd? (reason is I like to install game on the other hd, and will finish it before start next game)

5. How many of you are using branded PC set? (like asus ROG) Worth it? (I notice they give some sort of mid-range gear but price seems ok)

Probably the culprit could be the psu, could be bad capacitors since you need to uplug and wait for 1 minute(capacitor discharge) , its my assumption anyway but worth the try if you can get your hand on a new psu.

Its ok buying a psu with high power rating since it allows more headroom and allows the psu to run a bit cooler thus prolong the lifespan of it. But yeah since you're not hitting the power rating, the efficiency could go down slightly but its a give or take situation

1. If you are power users and often do heavy rendering, you can consider 5820k as it is just a tad more pricy than 4790k, but it is hexacore vs quadcore of 4790k. But mind you, it not going to be helpful in gaming much (any time soon) and you probably need some overclocking to match the clockspeed of normal i5/i7. Other than that, an entry Haswell-E rig will cost just a little over high end 4790k built (I assume you getting value DDR4 RAM).

2. 970 is a mid high range card which is surprisingly powerful for its price and a beast for 1080p gaming. But as always, if you have the money to burn, the more powerful the better. But practical wise, I will say grab a 970 now and speculate how things develop in the next couple of months (AMD R9 300 series and Nvidia 980TI).

3. Yup, k series is for overclocking. And generally, overclocking don't provide much gaming performance improvement as long as the clock is over 3.5Ghz. Example, gaming wise, i5 4460 probably can handle what i5 4690k can handle.

4. Seperate drive is cheaper and easier to maintain. Hybrid drive is for laptop which having limited HDD bay. It is not a concern (generally) for desktop users.

Budget wise, I will say 4k for rig along provide you with a pretty solid specs for gaming.

The durability or reliability of components are largely depend on your luck. The best you can help it is to operate them under cooler temperature and a solid and reliable power supply, that's all you can do. Also try to find parts with longer warranty. Many parts do have warranty of 2-3 years.

As for the PSU, you have a misconception there. A 1kW PSU doesn't mean it consume 1kW at all time. It just mean it can support up to 1kW. What it consume is still depend on the components you run and its efficiency. A system total power consumption of 400W on a 80% efficient PSU will draw 500W from your wall socket.