Is This A Good Rig?

[TheGamingLeague]

Hello.
I want to Upgrade my Gaming Rig to these parts. More specifically my  AMD R9 280 and my Intel Hazwell core i3  

 

 

CPU: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=27548

GPU: http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23603

 

Is this a good Upgrade

THanks in advance.

 

 

Please find attached the parts i want.

 

 

[Nergui]

Yes, it's a good upgrade, but you should check if your motherboard and ram will support that CPU.

 

Also, what OS are you running? If it's not 64bit and you need to upgrade your motherboard as well, you should buy these parts locally and get an OEM 64bit version of windows as well. This is only possible with a motherboard or HDD purchase given the OEM version is cheaper than the retail version and is essentially the same thing.

 

Also also, you should look at an MSI Twin Frozr video card as their cooling is one of the best available and comes with the excellent Afterburner utility.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1486&products_id=23720

[Mad Chieftain]

If you can spend the extra cash I would recommend a 770 with 4gb vram.

[FunkyLounge]

Why post this in adult section?

[Darkwisdom]

Indeed, you would've posted it to a different section. But I agree with madchieften, the GTX 770 is a great card but getting the 4GB vram would be invaluable for games like Skyrim and any games with mods available, since they need to render high quality, often uncompressed textures. 

[Emberheart]

Be certain the motherboard/mobo has the right socket to fit the CPU in. Don't go for those transforming brackets, or rather I just am skeptical about those converter pierces that let you stick CPU's on mobo's not meant for that particular CPU. That's bound to cause some issues. Mobo's also randomly die after a few years so sometimes it's a good idea to go for a new mobo if the rig is already a bit older.

[Darkwisdom]

Be certain the motherboard/mobo has the right socket to fit the CPU in. Don't go for those transforming brackets, or rather I just am skeptical about those converter pierces that let you stick CPU's on mobo's not meant for that particular CPU. That's bound to cause some issues. Mobo's also randomly die after a few years so sometimes it's a good idea to go for a new mobo if the rig is already a bit older.

 

Ah you mean putting one of those Xeons in a Socket 775 board? That's some gnarly shit there. 

 

Yeah, use a compatible board with the correct socket and get 8GB of ram at 1866 minimum. These video games suck up loads of bloody ram. 

[Emberheart]

 

Be certain the motherboard/mobo has the right socket to fit the CPU in. Don't go for those transforming brackets, or rather I just am skeptical about those converter pierces that let you stick CPU's on mobo's not meant for that particular CPU. That's bound to cause some issues. Mobo's also randomly die after a few years so sometimes it's a good idea to go for a new mobo if the rig is already a bit older.

 

Ah you mean putting one of those Xeons in a Socket 775 board? That's some gnarly shit there. 

 

Yeah, use a compatible board with the correct socket and get 8GB of ram at 1866 minimum. These video games suck up loads of bloody ram. 

 

 

There's a lot of converting bits nowadays, all made in Farawaykistan ofcourse. It reminds me of those chinese plugs for your gameboy that would fit in a car's cigarette lighter, which usually either spontaneously caught fire or destroyed your handheld device. Maybe it's decent though, in this era there isn't so much quality difference anymore. It's the tech behind it that makes me furrow my brows.

 

On the RAM, good latency, some numbers just don't tick well, there's a bit of calculus behind what to pick, powers of X etc. It's been too long ago for me to say how exactly it worked, which means I am probably eligible for a new rig myself.

[Darkwisdom]

Latency matters, but it's a harder thing to accomplish on the new generations. Because you don't really have BLK to overclock, you can't tighten the numbers very well. It does seem to be easier with bigger high frequencies. 

[TheGamingLeague]

I see, Thanks everyone for the input. I already have a rig with pretty much everything to make it work, the motherboard is a LGA1150 socket and the RAM is 4GB DDR3.

I the GTX 770 will have better or the same as this video: 

 

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cthevC_fXGw&list=UU4MGZcDG5hnzpi3hDpORkXw

 

But  alas my results as always are bad. 

 

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VubKyA9pug

 

I had a GTX 750 Ti before with the same results and now with a AMD R9 280 still the same.

I have updated drivers  as well. i just can't seem to get shaders or the game to look as good.

 

Cheers

[Darkwisdom]

Get an extra 4GB of ram dude, 4GB is the absolute minimum nowadays; with 8 you leave yourself an extra bit of memory headroom in case of those sneaky background processes. 

[Emberheart]

4GB nowadays is like driving home from work with the out of fuel light blinking red. It's holding your breath if you'll make it each time. Trust me, neither is comfortable. I can know, making it to the pump with less than half a litre.

[Darkwisdom]

Especially with skyrim's 3.5gb limit, if you have any memory hungry programs running in the background, it'll crash pretty quickly. 

 

Also I hate that Skyrim reviewer, mmoxreview or whatever. He's a bit of an arsehole. 

[Nergui]

Especially with skyrim's 3.5gb limit, if you have any memory hungry programs running in the background, it'll crash pretty quickly. 

 

Also I hate that Skyrim reviewer, mmoxreview or whatever. He's a bit of an arsehole. 

 

How so? Some of his videos can be really funny.

[Darkwisdom]

Ah, it's probably just me, he's incredibly arrogant. It's like he thinks he's amazing or something. 

[nutluck]

I am with the rest you need more Ram or the upgrades will be of limited use. Like for me my bottle neck is actually my monitor as it has a max res of 900.

[Emberheart]

In fact most individual modern RAM sticks are 4GB to 8GB themselves already.

[Darkwisdom]

I am with the rest you need more Ram or the upgrades will be of limited use. Like for me my bottle neck is actually my monitor as it has a max res of 900.

 

IF you're using a Nvidia GPU you can try using OGSSAA, which is basically using a resolution higher than your monitor's native. I only have a 1080p monitor but shifted it to 2560 x 1440. I don't have the grunt to run anything higher. It's good for games because it makes everything incredibly sharp and detailed. But for normal use on the web etc. it's more negative since things will be that much harder to read. 

[sorsharavenwing]

The CPU and GPU are decent. Given what you're running now, it's a definite improvement. And I'm going to give another chime in for more RAM for your system. I recently upgraded from 16GB to 32GB and I am a much happier camper. But I'm kind of a high end user. I can guarantee that if you up your RAM to even 8GB, you'll notice a marked improvement.

[nutluck]

 

I am with the rest you need more Ram or the upgrades will be of limited use. Like for me my bottle neck is actually my monitor as it has a max res of 900.

 

IF you're using a Nvidia GPU you can try using OGSSAA, which is basically using a resolution higher than your monitor's native. I only have a 1080p monitor but shifted it to 2560 x 1440. I don't have the grunt to run anything higher. It's good for games because it makes everything incredibly sharp and detailed. But for normal use on the web etc. it's more negative since things will be that much harder to read. 

 

Hmm that is the first I have heard of this. I am using a GTX 660 TI SC 2gig card currently. If I could just force it up to 1080 that would be nice, it as i mentioned max's at 900.

[TheGamingLeague]

Okay, So if i upgrade my RAM to 8GB or 16GB i'll be golden?

[hafertaler]

I have a gtx 770 and it's a good card, but upgrading from a R9 280 to it, isn't worth the money imho. 

 

Going for 8 GB Ram is a good first step, but keep in mind, that you lose a lot of performance if you you have a weird composition of RAM, like 2x2 GB and 1x4 GB, since you can't use Dual Channel. In addition to that the smartest move would be to either get a completely new 8 GB Kit (2x4 GB) or find the exact same RAM you already have installed and get additional 4 GB. Dual Channel also works with 4x2 GB (If your Mobo has enough slots), but you should go for RAM with the same Frequency and Timings, so getting the same brand and type is a must (if you want to add onto your existing RAM).

[...0...]

From 3gb downgrade to 2gb vram i won´t advice you doing that you will get trouble with skyrim it eats vram.

[afz53fu]

Honestly the Nvidia 800 series should be coming out before too long, wait and get an 8XX or save some money on the 7XX that you want.  The ram can be upgraded when it is convenient for you, not critical but I would go ahead and do it.