Scrub Questions

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hi... new here... I think it was time for me to join teksyndicate as I have watched  some of Logan's videos and purusing the fourm for a while now.... Also to join in the world of PC gaming, for a bit at least...

 

With that outta the way.. I have a older computer that I won a VanaFest a few years back.... (AMD Pheonom X4 9850 64bit (iirc) , HD5770 GPU, full tower case, 6 gigs of ddr2 ram, 650w psu, and an AsusTEC M2N-E)... And I wanted to upgrade...  

Now a few questions that pertain to that, and a few that I feel I should know the answer to, but don't... >.< In no particular order...

1) I can reuse my case/psu? I mean 650w seems to still be plenty in this day in age... or is it better to by new?

2) If its better to buy new ... whats the diffrence bewteen 80+ bronze, silver, gold, and platinum? just quailty? and whats with the 80+ anyways? 

3) I realize AM2+ is outdated and will need a mobo for any real improvements... and that DDR2 got replaced by DDR3... no problems there.. Guess no question here.. just pointing that out... 

4) If I get a Z77 / Z87 can i buy a "cheap" i3 3rd/4th gen and when i get some more money buy a good i5/i7 3rd/4th gen without having to get a new mobo?

5) Could I reuse my HD5770 in a Z77 / Z87 mobo?

6) Brand don't matter for any of the compenets do they? I mean a MSI GTX 660 is going to be the same as a EVGA GTX 660, just with diffrent cooling options, right? Cruical 1600DDR3 RAM is going to be the same as G.Skill 160DDR3 ram? A Gigabyte Z77 is going to be the same as a Asus Z77? or is there a lot of diffrences?

7) Are there brands that I should avoid? or is it all personal prefrence?

8) How important are fps? I mean.. If Im plaing a game on high/extreme a 60 fps will I even notice the diffrence if it was runnig at 70 fps instead? 120 fps?  At what point can you not tell?

9) I'm not going to list parts that im going to buy (at least not yet) because with sites like pcpartpicker, passmark benchmark, and logical Incriments I have a pretty good idea on what I want to go with... any other sites like those I can use for refrences?

For some reason when I started I thought there be a lot more the 9 (8 really)... But I guess this will do for now...

Hopefully I put this in the right sectiion...

 

Thsykea... 

2

Welcome to the TEK. Yes, your system is a little older but it is a 64 bit system. Before I ran out and practially rebuilt my system I would upgrade the amount of RAM I have. It always helps to have lots of RAM. AMD still makes great quad core CPU's for the AM2+ socket. Check Newegg there is a black edition quad core that is very nice. The difference between PCIE 2 and 3 is not that big of a deal. I would upgrade my GPU to something like the HIS Ice Q 7880 2Gb. That along with top quality thermal paste a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU cooler and you should have a kick butt unit. You have a great PSU, leave it alone. As long as your case provides good air flow then it is fine to. No need to waste your hard earned coin when you don't need to. Anyway, as always, that is just my opinion. I have built 7 rigs, upgraded 3 and repaired 2 laptops. I do have some practice in what I preach. You can check out my rig on my profile page if you want to see how to spend too much money. LOL.

3

I got a chance to look at it... Its actually a AMD Phenom X4 9860 with a mobo of AsusTEK M2N-E accoriding to sppecy anyways... and i'll edit it up above aswell...

I get the whole ram thing you where talking about but DDR2 ram is so much more then DDR3 at least where i live... especially when you want to buy more then 4 gig worth... ; ;

4
  1. Depends if it has any proprietary connectors.
  2. "80% energy efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load" means it uses power better. This also goes hand in hand with quality as better capacitors are used to reach 80+.
  3. Can't use ddr3 ram on a ddr2 board. So yes, would want a new board.
  4. Yes you can get a cheap I3 ivy bridge and go to a i5 ivy bridge, or i3 haswell to i5 haswell.
  5. You could but I think an APU would give it a run for it's money.
  6. Brands are 99% of the time compatable due to standards. The difference can be as much as warrenties, quality, clock speeds, bandwidths, memory amounts, fans, or a sticker on the front of the box.
  7. Some personal, avoid stuff that has been downvoted below 4 stars.
  8. You don't want to drop below 30. 60 is optional but makes movement better. Above 60 not really. As I wait for the 120 hertz people to chime in. Extra is never bad, just means it takes longer for game developers to hammer you below 30 fps.
  9. pc part picker is mostly the norm on this site.
5

also that gfx will work with my stuff? I can post the full sppecy if that would be helpful...  might just do that and hold out a little longer for new

6

Not sure where you live but there are usually lots of people selling used DDR2 RAM. Usually a fairly safe bet as most RAM comes with a life time warranty because it usually never faiils on its own. Check mom and pop computer stores as they often have this stuff for sale and usually some great free advise.

 

7

Yes. a Nvidia gpu would work.

8

Thanks for the info... these where just some of the stuff i couldn't quite figure out on my own.. thanks..

9

It never even check mom and pop stores... or thought about used... I shall look into that...

10

1) you should be able to use that psu in a future build. You just have to make sure that it can deliver enough amps to your gpu (if you get one). The case will work fine if you get the right motherboard type in it. Ex. Atx, m-atx. 

2) bronze, silver, gold, and platinum represent its power efficiency. Platinum being the most efficient, and anything without one of the 4 names above is least efficient, and are not very reliable. I dont know what the 80+ means, but you can surely find it easily on google. 

3) you basically answered it yourself. But if you were wondering, you cannot use ddr2 ram on a mobo that uses ddr3 ram.

4) There are cheaper and better cpus than the i3 made by AMD. I3 aren't haswel yet (from what ive read and learned, correct me if I'm wrong), but if you get a 3rd gen i3, you should be able to upgrade to an i5 3rd gen, but not fourth gen because ivybridge (3rd gen) and haswel (4th gen) have different socket types. 

5) you could use that gpu, but it wont preform very well. 

6)brands matter. Some use different thermal compounds, cooling fans and fins, and they may factory overclock it (depending on the brand). The ram may have different cas latency's, have a different cooling unit, or warranty/quality. 

7)if you go for an am3+ cpu, dont get an am3+ mobo from gigabyte if you ever overclock. Not sure about other ones to avoid. 

8)you may notice a slight difference in fps between 60 and 120, but not much. If you get a 120hz monitor, and compare it to a 60hz monitor, you will notice the 120hz runs a little smother because it runs at 120 fps instead of 60fps. 

9)you can read newegg review s and see what people say about that certain product.  

 

This should help you a bit. But if anyone notices im wrong with anything, please do correct me. 

11

your welcome

12

While I didn't mean perminatly on my number 5...  I just wanted to make sure my HD5770 would work on a Z77 / Z87 / AM3+ mobo or if i would have to buy a new one right away...

Because if I could get away with just buying a mobo/cpu/ram for now and reuse my case/psu/gpu/cpu-heatsink for now.. it would be awesome... and then i could save up for the better gpu at a later date...