Gaming & Work PC

[AndyJB]

Hey guys, I think it's time I got myself a new PC but I'm thinking of salvaging some of my current hardware to put into my new PC. Also, what do you guys think of the specs?

Current
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-970 (3.20GHz) 6.4GTs/12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P6X58D-E: DDR3, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, 3-Way SLI
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 460 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
800W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£79)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE Need For Speed™ World Starter Pack with any Nvidia® GTS450 or above!
Quantity
1

New
Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-4930K (3.4GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G
Memory (RAM)
32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1 PCI-E Soundcard - OEM
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

So I'm thinking of salvaging these but I have a few questions about it -

• 1TB HDD - Silly question I know but I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to hardware but this is possible / easy put in to the new PC?
• RAM - Although I don't need more.. I could go for less in my new and use my current RAM? However, one of my work mates said that it's not a good idea to use two different types of RAM from different manufacturers.
• Graphics Card - Again I don't really need it but can I use my old as well as the new? Another work mate said that many games and programs like Autodesk Maya only use 1 card so is it sort of pointless of having two?
  If it is beneficial to having two.... Could I just have two GTX 970 rather than 1 980? Two 970's is double of 1 980 for about £30 more.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[AndyJB]

Don't want to be a pain but any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[steaky360]

You could copy/paste your specs into a post here to make it easier to view (its frustrating trying to look at a 'screenshot' if I'm honest) much easier for others to give advice if they can see your full specs, there's a link at the bottom of the page once of the configurator you click continue which will format it for easy posting here.

Harddrives are really easy to swap, you can do that without a problem.

I wouldn't recommend using your older ram with the new ram. It can and does work, but might cause problems and there might be issues with compatibility.

The consensus is to always get the best single graphics card you can, so I'd recommend a single 980 over two 970s, that way you can always add a 980 in the future if you wanted to.

 

[AndyJB]

Ah sorry! Didn't know, changed the post

Ok so I will stick with the RAM. In regards to the graphics card... You mentioned about having 1 graphics cards but then two 970's? as I said above I could get two GTX 970 rather than 1 980? Two 970's is double of 1 980 for about £30 more. But I'm not sure if it's beneficial.

 

[AndyJB]

Sorry, I misread your post... early morning All cleared up thanks

 

[AndyJB]

One or two graphics cards?

Hey guys, I've chosen all the other bits but I'm not too sure if I should go with one or two graphics cards.....

My logic behind it is that I can get two Nvidia GTX 970's (8gb in total) for the same price as one GTX 980 (4gb).

Just wondering what you guys think?


Specs:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM STORM TROOPER - GAMING ENTHUSIAST CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-4930K (3.4GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® SABERTOOTH X79: SOCKET 2011, R.O.G
Memory (RAM)
32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Extra Case Fans
2 x 12CM Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1 PCI-E Soundcard - OEM
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

 

[steaky360]

As I said above, getting one single more powerful graphics card is always better than getting two less powerful ones (certainly in my opinion).

You're quoting the vram of the cards (both the 970 and 980 cards have 4Gb of vram) and getting two cards doesn't mean doubling the vram unfortunately, sli doesn't work like that. So if you get two 4Gb cards, you have 4Gb vram to use, if you have one 4Gb card, you still have 4Gb vram to use.

You can compare the 980 to 970 SLI by looking at benchmarks (google can help here http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2308460/dual-gtx-970-sli-single-gtx-980.html.

However, I'd still opt for the single 980 if it were my money, because you could add another 980 in the future for larger gains than you'd get adding another 970.

I would say however, that I've neglected to properly consider that you're suggesting the two 970s are cheaper than the single 980.

 

[SpyderTracks]

It totally depends on your usage and what resolution you're outputting to?

Pro's of sli'd 970's vs single 980:
Better FPS in SOME games optimised for SLI
Higher framerates on high res
Cost makes it very appealing

Con's:
Heat! You would need to change the H60 cooler to at least the H80i or even H100
Noise! Would sound like an airplane taking off under load.
Future proofing, would be better to start with a single 980 and SLI in future if you needed it.

I'd go with steaky's advice personally.

 

[keynes]

Heat! You would need to change the H60 cooler to at least the H80i or even H100

I think you mean if overclocking the cpu

 

[AndyJB]

Ok thanks again guys and sorry to be a pain! Now my only problem is, I can't find a 980 with two DVI ports (I'm using dual monitors) but EVGA 970 has two DVI ports.

 

[steaky360]

Ok thanks again guys and sorry to be a pain! Now my only problem is, I can't find a 980 with two DVI ports (I'm using dual monitors) but EVGA 970 has two DVI ports.

You don't need one with two DVI ports really, you can just use an adapter to go from HDMI to DVI.

Does the monitor not have a HDMI in?

Something like: http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-HDMI-Adapter-Cable-Feet/dp/B001TH7T2U/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1416578846&sr=1-2&keywords=hdmi+to+dvi

I had assumed you were getting the 980 from PCS with the build, so was looking at the palit GTX 980 (essentially reference card) http://www.palit.biz/palit/vgapro.php?id=2405

 

[AndyJB]

You don't need one with two DVI ports really, you can just use an adapter to go from HDMI to DVI.

Does the monitor not have a HDMI in?

Something like: http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-HDMI-Adapter-Cable-Feet/dp/B001TH7T2U/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1416578846&sr=1-2&keywords=hdmi+to+dvi

I'm not entirely sure, I'd have to check... Good call on the adapter though! How much better is the 980 to the 970? Just thinking about money wise, I can afford the 980 but if it's only better by a margin would it be better to go with the 970?

 

[steaky360]

I'm not entirely sure, I'd have to check... Good call on the adapter though! How much better is the 980 to the 970? Just thinking about money wise, I can afford the 980 but if it's only better by a margin would it be better to go with the 970?

A single 980 is better than a single 970, plenty of benchmarks online to check out - Essentially though, if your budget is tight, the 970 might be the better card for you. If you can stretch to a 980 it would be better in the long run (in my opinion) as it would essentially 'last longer' (in terms of providing consistently high framerates on newer games).

 

[AndyJB]

A single 980 is better than a single 970, plenty of benchmarks online to check out - Essentially though, if your budget is tight, the 970 might be the better card for you. If you can stretch to a 980 it would be better in the long run (in my opinion) as it would essentially 'last longer' (in terms of providing consistently high framerates on newer games).

Ok, I think then.... I'm going to go for the 980... and maybe do what you and SpyderTracks said - SLI the 980 at a later date.

Thanks for the help guys! Is there anything that sort of 'sticks out' about the specs? or are they all ok?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok, I think then.... I'm going to go for the 980... and maybe do what you and SpyderTracks said - SLI the 980 at a later date.

Thanks for the help guys! Is there anything that sort of 'sticks out' about the specs? or are they all ok?

If you're going to do sli in future then you'd want to upgrade your psu to maybe 900 watts or 1000. Other than that, pretty top spec build!