Hello guys!

Last Sunday - November, 20th - my graphics card died. Four years together, thousands hours of videogames and other stuff. RIP, my dear friend.

And now I'm a little bit puzzled what to do next. I need a new graphics card ofc. But should I buy a really good one or smth a bit better then my old one? Should I buy a whole new PC or just upgrade some parts? And what segment should it be?

I'll try to explain my thoughts. Like a typical girl I'd like to buy really cool and beautiful PC you know :D But like a smart girl I understand that I play CS only and I don't actually need smth like GTX 1080, lol. My current PC is quiet good (except freezes and noise). Also it doesn't really make sense to buy smth so-so to change it again in 2-3 years. Really weak place in my current config imho - 2 old HDDs. They're noisy as hell. So my minimal must have is graphics card and SSD+HDD.

A little note about these freezes because I don't really know the exact reason. Most painful freezes were during playing CS. It's like when you face your enemy and start shooting aand then your PC freezes (sound too) for 1-2 seconds and then you find yourself dead because you weren't actually shooting during this pause. It was f-cking annoying. I thought it was because of a high load but I noticed freezes even while playing a little flash game. What could it be?

Here's my current PC
Case Midi Tower InWin EAR001
Graphics card [RIP] Asus GeForce GTX560Ti
RAM Corsair DIMM DDR3 8GB
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
CPU Intel Core™ i5-2320
Power supply FSP FSP600-80EPN
CPU cooler Xilence COO-XPCPU.I240.PWM
HDD 1 Hitachi HDS721010CLA332
HDD 2 WDC WD20EZRX-00DC0B0

And here's what I want to change:

PC v2
Graphics card MSI Geforce GTX 1050 Ti
SSD Samsung 850 Evo 250GB
HDD only if my old WD has bad sectors, need checking
CPU cooler Scythe Kotetsu

What do you think?

TL;DR
hey guys im girl and i suck in hardware what should i buy to play cs again and get rid of that awful noise? xD

Oh. And I promised a couple of GAs. Here you're. 1 2 3 4 5 RU/CIS

P.S. Sorry for such a higgledy-piggledy topic and bad english.

Update
So. Things are getting more clear. At this point I decided not to renew whole PC but graphics card and SSD+HDD.
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 6GB should be fine, shouldn't it? And would my current PC unlock the potential of this card?
And I still don't know what SSD(Samsung 850 Evo 250GB?) and HDD(1/2Tb) to choose.

Update 2.1
I convinced myself that 750ti 1050ti will be enough :) Special thanks to Bentosan.

8 years ago*

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helpless bump! (cause I have no idea) :(

8 years ago
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bump:)

8 years ago
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AYYY GUISE I'M A GRILL

8 years ago
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exactly ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

8 years ago
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I'm not exactly a hardware wizard, but a 1060 should be more than fine. It should bottleneck with your 2nd gen i5, but it will not be so notable. And ram, games these days are using giant amount of memory, if you have slots remaining, 12GB should work fine inb4 but dual channel

8 years ago
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Your proposed rig looks very good right now... But I am not really an expert, so feel free to ignore me. :)

And thank you for the couple of GAs, and bump!

Edit: I felt a world of difference when I upgraded my computer with a SSD drive! Boot times, loading times.... Amazing! It was an EVO 500GB, by the way.

8 years ago
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If you only play CS GTX 1060 is too much, Go cheaper and get a GTX 760, it'll hold the fort for years to come.

About SSD, I'm using a SanDisk 960 GB and it's doing fine until now. Samsung looks a secure choice too.

8 years ago
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yeah, it's too much. but I HOPE I will overcome my fear and try to play something else :) you never know what will happen tomorrow. and it's better to have a good videocard for that purpose than to cry or pay twice.

8 years ago
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I understand. Try Borderlands 2 too, it's SO MUCH FUN playing coop!

8 years ago
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don't tell me about borderlands :D I tried it 5(!) times with different friends and I gifted them this game and we never come further than 10 lvl ;c

8 years ago
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If you want to try one more time I'll be very happy to help you out. :)

8 years ago
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That is the right SSD to choose, as for the HDD a Western Digital Blue will suffice. GTX 1060 6GB is the best option for a regular 1080p gaming PC, would suggest an Asus version preferably, but MSI is fine.

8 years ago
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It is always hard. Have spent weeks on my setup and ended up changing nothing, since it is really not needed yet... well maybe some more SSD.

Looking at your games you have been playing on Steam, you don't really need that much of a power card.

New Cards:

A cheap and worthy replacement would be a Nvidia GTX 750TI or a Radeon 460. Those would be around 100$ and both are as capable as your old one at lower power consumption with 75W vs 170W. ( You might consider the Nvidia GTX1050TI - if you can get it cheap, ok, otherwise the gap between 1050TI and 1060 would be to low to recommend the 1050TI, at least if you look at the price/performance ratio)

If you are thinking about some newer games with a decent FPS you will have to look at the mid-price section. That would either be the Radeon 480 or the Nvidia GTX 1060. These are perfect for any current 1080p games. Thinking of CS:GO as main game... not sure if you need that much power. Having some power left is a nice thing to, so this one would be quite suited. The MSI you chose is one I favor myself, since it got a very good and silent fan equipped. The only thing you might wanna consider is the fact, that the real potential is in the manual overclocking - taking that into account you might as well go for the basic 6GB gaming. Besides, you can still install the gaming x bios on the gaming, the cards are the same, just a different preclock. In terms of overall speed you might notice a lil more FPS with the X over the normal Gaming. Again... looking at your games, even a founders edition already is overkill...

The 1070 would only be an option, if you are planing to play (newer) games maxed out on 3 monitors at 1080p or on one monitor at 1440p. You will get a nailed 60fps+ in "almost" any current game. Looking at CS:GO as main game here... this still would be no reason to go for that card. So this one really should be out of question.

Nvidia GTX 1080 or Titan X Pascal... uhm yeah ..figures...Unless you are a hardcore gamer that aims for everything max at overkill FPS at highest resolution possible and 144hz on a custom overclocked Monitor...those are kind of pointless in my opinion, but they do have nice fancy led's ^^ ...maybe that could change your decision, yes? Any standard 1080p player won't need that much power... well, maybe if you use the GPU for rendering... but other than that... it's overpriced and totally pointless to mention, unless they lower the price.

Used cards:

Starting with older cards, as a simple replacement I would favor the Nvidia GTX 660 oc as 2gb or 3gb Version, last time I checked it was sold for 40$ on Ebay. Depending on the price difference a Nvidia 770 or 770TI, but I never really saw a reason to switch from the 660 to a 770 or 750ti... well maybe the power consumption on the snd.

  • I still am using two 660 in my rig (basically just for more monitors... the support for SLI is barely worth mentioning). Sure, newer title could need some more power and memory, but there is no need to rush for a new card yet . After Xmas the cards will drop again and at the current development rate there might even be a new card in half a year or one, so the price drops are a sure thing.

Mid - high go for a used Nvidia GTX 970. Saw some at 70-90$

  • pretty new and still old compared to the new cards, Might be a good pick, if you want to update your system a lil later. Unless the card doesn't smoke of pretty fast, you might as well use that one in your next PC. In terms of power that would almost be like a 1060 at much lower costs.

HARDDRIVE:

Well... had to learn my lesson too... still using way to many of the them, but since 2016 you might call the SSD the new harddrives. The prices are low and affordable. There are 2 main reasons to go for a SSD. Boot up speed and loading times... unless you don't do much rendering and/or processing stuff here.

If it is for space I would still go with a normal HDD but in most cases as storage for multimedia or some bigger files or archives.
SSD should be a bootdrive. Be safe and go for at least 250GB-500GB. In terms of which one to get... there are a lot of things that can count into that decision.... but to explain that, it would take a lot of time...

Tech Deals is explaining some basic stuff about SSD and HDD and how things actually work. This does not cover everything about the SSD's and in which circumstances which on is to favor, but it helps to reduce the selection quite a bit and saves some money. It is explained in a simple way and easy to follow, like almost any video he features.

For the HHD: I do like the Segate Barracudas for example the ST2000DM006 - solid performance and got good rates at a reasonable price. 2TB with 7200/min at 72€ (discounted)

For the SSD: Well, the Evo would be the fastest, but you are better of to choose your own, based on what Tech Deals explained about SSD and the "real usage". In terms of boot up speed, even the worst SSD on the market will boost your boot time noticeable. In the end its the decision, if you want to go for more space at cost of marginal reduced speed in common usage and the top one with best ratings and less space at higher costs. I would suggest the middle way... take a look at some benchmarks and the speed in normal usage. Why would you buy a car that is capable of 300mph, if you can only drive it at 50mph?

If you want to save a bit more money you might as well go for an SSHD like the 2000GB Seagate Desktop SSHD ST2000DX001 64MB. It has a flash drive of 8GB and would be suited as boot drive as well. Files that are used frequently, such as files required for booting up the system, are moved to the flash drive after a few reboots. After that you will notice a significantly reduced boot time. Usually I would use those in laptops with a reduced amount of HDD/SSD ports, but it is functional in desktops as well. This one should be around 90-100€
(personally I would always go for a SSD, but wanted to mention this one as well)

YOUR RIG:

With the games you are playing right now, there is no need to go for a new rig yet.

In terms of your chosen components for an upgrade...are you planing on overclocking your new pc? In that case you might want to get a more suited case with more movable components and designed for better airflow (I do favor Crosair here). Your chosen cooler is not to bad, but to powerful for a non OC system and not really that good matched for a OC gaming machine. I would rather go for some water cooling (like a combo-set), if you are going to overclock. Using a the top fans for water-cooling and front and rear to reduce and maintain the overall heat production seems to be one of the most common setups for OC rigs, at least to keep them cool and quiet.
Depending on the case tower cooler can alter the airflow in a bad way, which reduces the overall efficiency of the cooling. Think of an air condition right behind a pillar... sure it provides cooling, but you would be better of without the pillar (tower). Water cooling is to favor in OC builds since its a lower size build and increases the airflow capability of the case. I am not saying that fan coolers are bad, but not all of them are a good pick. Positioning of the fan... maybe blocked components like RAM and at last, the stress they can put on the mainboard itself. Those towers can be heavy!
For standard usage and standard gaming even the stock cooler should be enough, if you got front and rear coolers installed. Less stress on the mainboard and better airflow. Only the quality itself is a good reason to replace the stock one.

650W looks too powerfull at the first glance, than again, to weak isn't good either. In this case just check the efficiency graph delivered by Corsair to figure out, if the consumption is in the suited area. Depending on the GPU you choose this one might not be the best choice. What is the point of getting gold efficiency power supply's, if you fail to hit the perfect point for best efficiency ^^

If you don't plan to overclock your PC, there is no need for the K series nor the Z170 chipset board. You are simply paying for features you won't ever use.
H170 mainboard would be enough as well as a basic i5 6500 or I5 6600. After checking the prices... it's not that much of a difference where I live... still I don't know if 200MHz more are worth 30€... It's not like it would run twice as fast....and given your games, there hardly would be any difference in FPS at all. Rather put that money in a bigger SSD or better GPU.

With your current CPU, I don't see any reason to go for any of the current new releases. You should have enough power to go for a few more years and looking at your games, you even could have gone for an I3 and still be fine with a suited GPU.

Theses are just my personal opinions, anyone is free to choose the parts he/she prefers. ;)

Good luck and much fun with your new hardware, whatever you choose.

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8 years ago
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jaw dropped what a comment! huge thanks!
speaking honestly I'm a kind of casual gamer as you've mentioned. and I can tell myself hundreds times that I will play some cool new games... but I don't play them /sigh/ so idk what videocard to choose ._.
I know nothing about OC and don't think I will do it someday. I just wanna get a silent PC. Something is humming except an HDD.
oh gosh.. it's soo hard to make a right decision.

8 years ago
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Is it really?

Since you are currently uncertain what to do, just go for a cheap replacement. Get a used GPU so you are back for some nice gaming. Regarding the SSD, you really should watch the Tech Deals video to get a general idea what you should be looking for.

If you are really just a standard gamer, what else do you need? You just need a new (or used) GPU that is able to run the games you like at a decent framerate. Want to save some time on boot process get "any" brand SSD and you are fine. Best are still 460gb-500gb as starting point due their increase speed and gig/price, still, as a casual user/gamer you will hardly notice the difference if you compare them. Guess this will be a price question in the end. If you are willing to get pay something more, get a bigger one. At some point you will always run low on space unless you use more than one SSD to separate your programs on the additional SSD for more multitasking and faster workspeed. So you need it? Not really... one SSD has enough speed to deal with the stuff you will do. Just get a bigger one and you are ok. No worries, no new buy, no data shifting due lack of space.

The further you look the more complicated it will get. Have you been happy with your setup.... u seemed so. You called you rig quite good, so why even thinking about going for some mayor upgrades?

You want it to be more silent.. start with some basics

Case: Corsair Carbide Quiet 400Q for example. Silent plates, great component management and tons of options to place your components, for best performance and cooling. If you really want to do some mayor OC, this is a good one that offers a lot of features you will really love.This is my choice, there are cheaper once and more expensive and different brands as well.

The idea with the power supply was good as well. The chosen would be a lil bit to big, still until 250W usage will be running without fans.. so no noise. Best efficiency would be at 300-325W usage... even if you put a 1080 in there, you have to OC a lot parts to even get close to that amount or get two 1070 upwards. Since already one 1060 would be overkill... why even thinking about it?
Look for a different PSU maybe even a passive one, more silent.

The 2TB Barracuda is silent, low watt usage and still pretty fast. Got the green star as well, reduced power consumption if not used.
SSD... any is silent.

You are playing to have some fun, that's it and that should be it. Everyone does like to have a great machine and all top parts but if you don't need them.... why buy them?
Why is everyone so up to high here and high there.... is the games less fun if I do have a few less shadows? Does it change anything of the way you play the game.... maybe if you do shadowboxing.. Do I really need god rays maxed ? Do i really have to see 30km far if I only shoot enemies that are 200meters away? Maybe 10km if I do play some insane multiplayer sniper games... but else... oh yeah I always take breaks during in-fights to enjoy the distance. I never heard any FPS player say something about a nice landscape in the distance, if it comes to competitive gaming...

You want to start some OC? Go to Ebay and get some old PC for 50 bugs and make your first tries there. You will get a ton of experience and won't waste any new expensive parts. Besides... that way you might even create a spare PC that still is able to run most of the games you play.

I still got a Core2 Duo E8400 8GB Ram and one 660. I don't even need to OC that one to get decent FPS in most common games. At some points I do even ask my self why I upgraded. Currently there might be 10-20 that could do better with that one... gosh even Doom is running on that one maybe at 720p... but damn it's running on High-Ultra on an E8400 -.-

There will always be a lot of things to think about if you want "your" perfect system, but in the end... It simply has to be capable to do its job. Add things you want to know by time and you will have your perfect PC at some time. Want to safe some energy cost.. look at the GPUs, their performance and so on.

Just a crappy basic build. Get 8GB Ripjaw 4 2400 DDR4, get your self an I3 6100 and put in a 750TI or 1050TI 4gb and you will still have an
awesome pc to work with and is able to do some basic gaming. Adding a 1060 and you will be able to play games like Fallout 4 as well, even though it is still a dual core. Mabye even with the 1050ti if you exchange the basic graphics in a lower resolution - 1440 texture size Mod instead of the 4k standard....

Watt usage summed up at max gpu 750ti+ CPU + USB + Monitor.. Using my stuff I would reach around 160W if everything is on and running at MAX usage... that is what a one of my 660 is using....
175W using a 1050TI on max as well. With your games you won't even reach max usage anytime soon.

To play your CS:GO at a decent rate you could even go with a I3 4370 and the internal CPU Graphics chip to have a decent FPS... that build won't even reach 100W Monitor and USB included and will still be a awesome workarea for Desktop work. Did build that one for my mother... even Paday 2 was running at 60fps nailed... on Medium

As you can see it isn't that complicated at all. It only get complicated if your start building a pc around some certain parts. Bigger Card more fps more than 60fps either vsync or higher HZ Monitor... how much HZ 75, 100, 144 ? which card to nail it... what if it is above or below and jumps a lot... freesync or gsync... do I need them... which monitor... 1 or 3... or better a 21:9... do I need both gsync and freesync... oh my the monitor is at 1300€ and so on... oh yeah and some games have issues above 60fps... well....

Is this really what you are looking for?

About that humming, can you locate the area where it is coming from?

Humming could be a bad fan, a cable connecting with the fans itself, to much dust on a fan... or mabye a capacitor... which again could be within PSU, Mainboard or GPU. GPU noises can result in to low Ampere delivered by the PSU, f.e. this nasty coil whining "can" be caused by a bad PSU as well... Both PSU and Mainboard could explain the mentioned freezes. If the PSU delivers not enough power those freezes can happen. If it is on the mainboard those can cause it as well and might be an indicator, that it stops working anytime soon.

8 years ago*
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Thank you again. You're like a voice of reason in my head :) I've updated main post. Now I'm pretty sure that 750ti will be ok. Still don't know 250 or 500 Gb SSD to choose tho. And I've found a PSU at home: Xilence RedWing Series SPS-XP350. Will it be ok and silent?
I'll order videocard and SSD at Monday if everything is okay.

8 years ago
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In terms of power you should be ok.

95W CPU 60-75W GPU so you should be arround 155W-170W. So at best you might end up at half of the actual capacity which really should be fine. Since you don't always have the maximum usage the fan should be turning slower which means more silent. If it is more silent than your current one, no idea. Found no economy or db graphs either, but you should be fine and even if the efficiency shouldn't be that great, compared to your old GPU you do save quite some energy costs.

Again back to your GPU :)

The 750 TI "should" be as good as your old card, so this really is just a replacement. In some games it might perform better, in others it could be worse than the 560TI.

560ti vs 750ti

GPU Boss compare
Userbenchmarks
gamedebate
hw bench

I simply want to make sure you won't regret this. The 560TI was and still is a powerful card for a lot of games. The main problem in comparison with older and new cards are the difference in technology, which really is hard to measure. Even though my 660 should be better as a 750ti there are a "newer" games that do perform worse, others do awesome.

I did suggest to buy a cheap used one and exactly for that reason I just mentioned.

560ti vs 660 oc

GPU Boss
userbenchmarks
game-debate

How much would you pay for the 750 TI 4GB and how much for the 1050 TI 4GB. With me it is just about 30-50€ difference.

The 1050 TI would be a "small" upgrade for sure and looking at the 4gb version of the 750TI the price difference is not that big. If you scroll down a bit you, I posted a list of data I collected through dozen of benchmarks and FPS videos in different environments. You will find yourself between a 960 and 970 in terms of performance and you will have one big advantage... you can make use of new technologies like DX 12 which will be interesting if you might choose to play a newer title some day.

The PSU you got would be still ok for the 1050 TI, If you really put stress on your PC you might get some more fan noises, still it will be enough to power everything. I rather would use a 400-450 PSU with that card, still 350 should be enough, since you already got it anyway.

Regarding the SSD simply look at the price. Scandisk Ultra II is a very good SSD as well. Not as fast as the EVO, still it is fast. Curcial is a good brand as well. 250gb already is plenty. I am currently still using a 120gb SSD from kingston, won't recommend this one, still, system is starting within 15-16 seconds. Why did I get that one? Well it was discounted my 775 mainboard didn't support the max speed anyway... so there you go. Reduced the boot time from almost 2 min to well lets say 20 sec to be fair.

Any SSD will increase your speed drastically. In terms of size... I do use HDD for the Programms and only a few games are on my SSD, less than should be...current usage on my boot drive is at 85GB so... yeah not much room left...250 offers already a lot more space, having 500 GB you are safe to go. Still 250 GB should be enough for normal usage, programs and a few games. If you want the EVO, go get it if you got the money. You won't make anything wrong with that drive.

I used a 250GB 850 Evo in a different computer and yeah it is faster than my Kingston. Would I buy this Kingston again? Got it for 59€ 4 years ago.. great deal!... but today... 50 kingston 56 evo... you bet I would go for the evo.

Looking at the prices with me:
Evo 850 250GB = 100€ (0,4€/GB)
Scandisk Ultra II 480GB = 123€ (0,26€/GB)
Evo 850 500GB = 169€ (0,33€/GB)
Scandisk Ultra II 960GB = 202€ (0,21€/GB)
Crucial MX300 1TB = 251€ (0,25€/GB)
Evo 850 1TB = 328€ (0,33€/GB)

Honestly... looking at this I always will go for the Scandsik Ultra II 960GB
4x more space at the 2x price of Evo 250gb. 39% cheaper than the Evo 1TB.

In your case.. why not get the 480GB and put the rest into a better GPU, like the 1050TI to be sure to have some more options and more power with less consumption?

8 years ago*
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(ಥ﹏ಥ)
1050 then?

8 years ago*
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:P

Updated the text above again.

Well, this is really up to you.

I can't promise you that with a 750 TI 4GB everything will be the same as before. It is a newer model and offers different technologies "that should be on par" with your old one and in some areas even be better... it even got a lot more memory. To be sure to get something better I would rather go with a slightly better card since... this is a chance for an upgrade and to be able to get access to new the features currently available. DX 12, openGL 4.5 and so on.

I simply try to offer you some ideas and some reasons why I would recommend one over an other hardware. There is always a reason to go to the next bigger card. The gap between 1060 and 1050 TI in terms of money is bigger, still in performance this is an awesome deal, same goes for the 1070, but you won't need it yet...

Depending on the price difference, "I" would rather go for a 1050 TI. It's newer and for sure more powerful than the 750 TI at a reasonable pricing / watt usage / performance. Let's call it the middle way between replacement and upgrade.

Take a look at some Youtube videos, how both cards perform. How it does look like from your point of view. If there maybe are games you would like to play some day.

CS:GO has been out for a long time and even been played on way older cards than yours before. So there should be no question about the 750 TI delivering a decent game experience. Yet, you already had a powerful card and you might notice a negative difference in different areas, since 750 TI simply is no 560 TI. The 1050 TI offers a solid upgrade for your system in every area. More performance less power usage and it should be more silent. As said before I can't guarantee the performance for the 750 TI.

8 years ago
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it seems that you can make anyone to buy anything you want ;D

ok. another attempt to make a final decision.
MSI Geforce GTX 1050 Ti and Samsung 850 Evo 250GB.

today I disassembled my PC, changed thermal grease, cleared dust from PSU. and I've found that CPU cooler is still rather noisy. though it was really silent when I bought it. could you recommend me a new silent one?

8 years ago*
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Not really... there are a lot of good CPU cooler out there which are silent.

I don't really know how warm your CPU will get while playing. If you do play more demanding games the heat might go up so this is like the problem which GPU is best.

Basically you should be able to put any top down or tower cooler on there... even a good passive one might be an option.

fun pick

Enermax ETS-T40F-BK Tower Cooler would be a funny match for your mainboard :P maybe some blue light shimmers through the side from your case :P .... but its huge again and might be to much :(
Still it has great cooling abilities and is pretty silent.

I think a Scyth Iori might be a fitting choice to go with. It is not that expensive extremely silent, until a certain load, and even capable to provide higher RPM if you really should need those. RPM from 300 - 1800, if you do use a manual cooling setup you can adjust it just right for you. 4,5DB up to 26,5 at full speed. During normal desktop work and surfing, you shouldn't be able to hear it at all.

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8 years ago*
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Enermax cooler reminds me of Tesla machine :d I won't see these beautiful blue lightnings because my case doesn't have a window and even if it had - my case is inside of my table :)
I've looked through reviews and Scythe Kotetsu seems a better choice than Iori.

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8 years ago
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You could install a spy cam XD

Inside the table? Some kind of case stand? I do hope there is enough space to the back,which allows the hot air to get away. If it is connecting to the table, you might as well use some buffers on the outside to reduce the noise transportation.

As I said, there are tons of coolers out there. If you want a tower go for it. Using one myself since I currently got a K series installed.
Since you aren't doing any overclocking, there should be no need for a huge cooler, at least from what I learned so far. You could even get another Xsilence again, which should be fine for some time. Fan's won't last for ever as well as the thermal paste, which should be replaced from time to time.

As long as the CPU has a good cooling ratio everything works fine. Making it cooler won't add any speed benefit on it, since you are not overclocking. You might as well say: "It might use less energy if there is a huge cooler on it!" Ok, but how much would you save and how long would have to run that machine to be even with the more of costs?
You want to use a MSI 1050TI which should be around 65C° - 70C° at max. The critical spot of your CPU was measured at approximately 80C°-82C°. Since you do have fans in there, there should be no heat accumulation, which means, even if the CPU overall heat would increase due the temperature of the GPU, you are still cooling it and as long as your fan isn't broken or much worse than an Xsilence stock cooler, you will have a real hard time getting the temperature up there (without overlocking).
Most of the actual cooler tests are stress tests, that max out everything to full load. You won't have that on normal usage, rarely while gaming and for sure not with your games and that many power parts. Looking at the parts you have and are going to be installed compared to your main game:

CS:GO:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 processor or better
Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 3.0

Simply pick a cooler you like or got good ratings and is not that expensive. Since you won't see it, it simply has to deliver a good job, that's all there is to.

8 years ago
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here are my mad paint skills :D case is inside a table as you can see, but there's nothing behind it. and yeah, my table is almost the same color :>

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8 years ago*
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yeah, I am getting the picture ^^

You really got the wildest color combination I ever saw... Blue white mainboard, black red GPU, non modular PSU with all fancy cable colors displayed and a... is it mint green? Table..

Why not going for a neon yellow or pink led cooler :P

Ok, last thinking process of mine - self-reflecting on the chosen GPU to advise and giving you my thoughts to think about and compare them with you own requirements.

Basics:

If I try to setup a new system, I am usually checking first, what I want to do and what I might be doing. This includes several factors like general usage, efficiency, my personal timetable, current prices, overall development in technology and, regarding games, the way they actually work - single CPU, multi CPU and if they rather stress the CPU or the GPU maybe even sli or crossfire support.
Usually I don't really see a reason for a "normal" user to overclock a CPU, best example would be some of the AMD CPU like the FX 840 as a cheap one. To get this one overclocked you will require a bigger cooler... those do cost money and the overall performance gained from this overclock is not that great. You spend a lot of money into cooling, where it would be simply cheaper and way more efficient to buy a stronger CPU. More performance and less energy consumption. Overclocking is still fun though ^^ but this is more about rational and efficient thinking.

Back to your GPU:

I really think in terms of usage and possible future usage, this one is the best one for you to go with. In terms of power and performance this one already is to big for the games you are currently playing. But... as you are playing and still thinking about maybe trying something new, you should have at least the chance to get to play them.
In terms of price/performance the basic 1050 2GB would have been the best pick. To have a longer lasting, well doing 1080p system for newer and upcoming games it would have been the 1060 6GB or the RX480 8GB (rather going with Nvidia atm due the over all Watt usage).
So the 1050 TI can be called the sweet spot between those two options. You do have 4GB memory which should be enough for most current games. In terms of FPS it is overall 5-10 FPS faster than the normal 1050. Depending on where you gain those it will make a big difference. You won't notice them in CS:GO, but you will in every newer more performance demanding game. You won't be able to play all new titles on high or ultra at 1080p with 60FPS, but you will be able to reach a good playable result at low-high settings depending on the games demands.
The 1060 6GB would have been about another 100$ for something "you" can't even tell for sure to be used to it's full potential at all. This is where your Evo 850 literally comes in for free ;)

If you would go for a smaller replacement, it will still do awesome in CS:GO and a lot of other games, but you will be way more limited in a lot of the current and upcoming titles that might pick your interest.

Having a kind of overview between those cards you might look at this video as reference, to see where I am coming from.

Bottom line:

Overall you will now have a significantly faster boot speed with a decent amount of space - enough for some games to be installed on the SSD and gain the loading speed advantage there, too. You will be able to play almost any game out there with decent till good settings and doing awesome in any game you are currently playing with about half the energy consumption on your new GPU.
I think that sounds pretty solid to go with.

I do hope, you have a lot of fun with your new parts and will be satisfied with them.

8 years ago*
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The irl color of my table with daylight lamp, differs slightly of the real color, the real one is a bit warmer

I can't express my feelings and my thankfulness for all that you've written here. You rock :) Keep it going!

View attached image.
8 years ago
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You'r welcome.

Since I already checked tons of this stuff for my own system, why not share it with someone with a similar issue :)

There is no point in posting random cards with no explanation why you would suggest them.

In the end it convinced myself to wait a bit longer to aim for a new GPU, since mine is still doing ok.

Btw. after reading back at the end of this thread I was led to a different site that might help you out with your cooler.

Yellow fan!!!

8 years ago*
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How did your little upgrade work out?

7 years ago
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Lots of good info above. I will have to look through it myself for the Vid card info. A 1060 with 6GB kinda looks like the way to go from skimming it myself. But I don't have an opinion on that. Just reading it myself.

I just wanted to note.... An SSD drive is the best bang for your buck by far for general speed improvements to any system. Its a night and day difference. I will not buy a machine for work anymore without an SSD drive. But being work machines, I've not done the research for Vid cards as nothing fancy is needed for any machine I've bought in the past few years.

For a regular workstation or for your parents or any non gamer. A 256GB SSD drive will be ok. For the rest of us. Go with a 480GB at least, they are not a lot more and you will be glad you have the extra room after you install just a couple 60GB games. I install and run all programs and games from the SSD drive. I want performance. I have a secondary 4TB drive for data in my main box. But, I'd say 2TB is plenty for storage for most people.

I have a 480GB SSD and its just over half full. But I think its plenty big enough. I see there are bigger but I think they currently cost to much for the difference in space.

Good Luck.

8 years ago
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Don't know your Rig, but looking at the price/performance, the best choice for any standard player that enjoys some basic gaming as well as some newer titles should be the 1070 8GB to be future prove with the current offers. Another thing that might as well be worth a thought is the memory size. 6GB sounds plenty... still there are games that already use up to 7,5 gig of a 1080.. like Mafia III... that might still be blamed on the bad optimization, but if your are willing to spend a lot of money, at least get a GPU that will withstand the next card/game releases. By any means the 1060 is a great card... compared to the 1050Ti 4GB it almost doubles the performance. Looking at the 1060 and 1070 its about 80% more performance. Taking the price into consideration... 1050TI->1060->1070... at least with me the 1070 is the best choice. I am currently waiting for the official release of the 1080ti which is rumored to have 10GB memory and should cost about 1.000$. Once all the 10XX are released the prices should go down again and all the former cards might get adjusted as well.

If it comes to watt usage/performance the 1050TI is taking first place. and than again... we are talking about the max usage... if you won't max the card out, it will consume less power... looking at the power supply connectors on a few cards... PCI-E 75W, 6pin 75W 8 Pin.. i think it was up to 150W since there have been some modifications. So you could fire up to 300W into a single GPU where a lot 1050TI just got the PCI-E to receive power from. I said could, because it would require a huge amount of cooling to get a 1060 use that much. 1080 G1 Gaming got a Watt usage of approximately 215W where it is claimed to have 180W.
Any card featured only shows the base consumption (Founders Edition). Most custom cards can be bought OC which usually requires more power... also never mentioned are energy spikes, the higher the OC the more often this can occur, which again means more power usage. There is a reason why some cards do suggest a higher PSU than others.

Maybe this might help a bit. Took me some time to figure out a pattern to compare old and new cards. Since I am still using a gtx 660 this is where I usually start.

Nvidia GTX 660 oc 2GB vs Nvidia 750 TI 2GB

  • almost the same FPS result. 750TI wins thx to newer technologie... 140W (up to 160W) vs 60W (up to 75W)

750TI 2GB vs 950 2GB

  • 950 Wins 60W (up to 75W) vs 90W (up to 120W)

960 2gb vs 1050TI 4GB

  • 1050TI wins 120W (up to 140W) vs 75W (up to 100W)

1050TI 4GB vs 970 4GB

  • 970 wins 75W (up to 100W) vs 148W (up to 160W)

970 4GB vs 1060 3GB vs 1060 6GB

  • 1060 3GB slightly faster, 1060 6GB clear winner... 148W (up to 160W) vs 100 (up to 120W) vs 120W (up to 140W)

1060 6GB vs 1070 8GB

  • 1070 Wins 120W (up to 140W) vs 150W (up to 180W)
8 years ago
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I really don't know a lot abaout this...Sorry. But have a new bump!

8 years ago
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Эх, Даша, Даша... Спрашиваешь не пойми у кого... Надо у наших людей спрашивать) ты же наша!)

8 years ago
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уже скоро годик, как не ваша :3 где я спрошу-то?) и было бы почти то же самое, только на русском )

8 years ago
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I'm too lazy to read all comments, so I'll answer for the post itself.
If you mainly play CS, even GTX 1060 is overkill. Think twice, if you really need it. Like, you know, ask yourself "am I going to play AAA games anytime soon?", and if answer is "Hell, NO" - buy something cheaper. If you answer "maybe" - just let it be)
Also, I'm agree that you don't need to buy a new PC - buying a new graphics card and ssd/hdd should be enough. I would recommend checking SMART parameters on your old HDD - if it's OK - maybe buy SSD and leave old HDD(s) for large files. Of course, this will leave you with your noise). I strongly recommend this check, because the freezes you described sound like your HDD have problems.
About HDD - I don't recommend Western Digital - all HDDs that died in my PC was WD. On the other hand, HDDs of all other brands never died for me. Of course it's not representative selection, but still. If you want it quiet - take something with 5400rpm - it could be slower, but more quite too. And if you will use SDD - speed should not be very important for you.
Any modern SSD is fine. If you like Samsung - let it be.

8 years ago
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I'm changing my view from "HOW ABOUT NO" to "maybe I could try to play them" :<

8 years ago*
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I have no suggestions to offer but have a bump.

8 years ago
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I have the same SSD as you. I went with Western Digital Black model HDD.

8 years ago
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Something I haven't seen anyone mention yet... your freeze issues could be because of a virus or spyware. I had one a couple of years ago that would interfere with gameplay but would only do it every hour and the other 59 minutes things were fine. When it dialed home it would flood my connection and my RAM and CPU usage would briefly spike and sometimes make whatever game I was playing freeze or crash.

Your freezing issue could be entirely software related but it's hard to tell without knowing what else is running in the background when you get these freezes.

8 years ago
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my freezes occured too often but unsystematic. it could be like 5-10 freezes in 15 minutes or it could be 15 minutes of nice perfoming. I check my PC for malware regularly. and freezes occured even right after OS reinstall, so it's not the real reason. it's a hardware problem.

8 years ago
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Bump!

8 years ago
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any seagate or any western digital would do the work. At 1tb WD seems to be lightly better

Samsung evo 250gb its an excellet choice for an SSD

8 years ago
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This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

8 years ago
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bamp?

8 years ago
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For SSD I would sugest Samsung Evos or Crucial Mx units, I've been using both and performance is pretty similar for home computing, limiting factor for modern sata SSD units is Sata bus, Go for the cheapest one for desired capacity

8 years ago
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As stated in many replies, your CPU is fine. I've recently upgraded from a 2500 to a 6600K and to be perfectly honest - very little improvement. Save your money.
I didn't read through all the replies so please forgive me if I make you repeat yourself, but:
How old is your PSU? It could be the reason for your freezes. I've had similar issues and have learned to replace mine every 3 years or so.
You seem very insistent in getting an NVidia card, but if you are budget conscious and only really playing CS:GO - the AMD cards work fine for a lot less money. I've seen a few mention the RAM involved on the card - DO NOT get a 3 or 6 GB. There have been a lot of posts regarding problems in the load of 3 and 6 GB cards - There are a lot of assumptions and guesses involved in why but no definitive answers - from what I would guess - and while I've worked in the industry for 20+ years, it's an informed guess but still only a guess - it's to do with the basic math in programming.
1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,1024,2048 - you get the idea? 3 and 6 don't really feature there as independents do they?
Not to mention that most games are now optimised for 2 and 4 GB cards. An 8 GB is considered "Futureproof" at the moment, but I would not expect that to last more than another 4 to 5 years.
I recently upgraded from the R9 380X 2GB to the RX 480 8GB and at around 1/4 - 1/2 the price of the 1060 (Depending on where you get it from), It's a bargain. I get a solid 75fps in most games at 1080p and 45-65 @ 4K in Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE.
As to your Hard Drive...
The Samsung Evo 850 500gb is the best on the market hands down. However - if budget is a constraint, I would recommend the new Kingston SSDNow 480's - now look - before anyone goes on with a rant, I am aware that Kingston has a bad rep and high fail rates - however the new Kingston's are made with better components, and are starting to repair that bad rep. They now actually have the same write/read/life guarantee offered by Samsung and have the same speed - for a lower price.
For storage the newer Seagate hybrids are fast, quiet and affordable. They do have a slightly higher negative reputation due to some of their older drives being crap - but the fail rate on the new Hybrids are much lower then previous models. They are also faster - while having a standard 7200rpm, they also have an 8 GB flash NAND drive that automatically stores the most used data - giving very fast load rates. With the 4TB drives costing less than a 500gb SSD from Samsung, they are very budget friendly. Even the 1TB's at around AU$69 - (US$51) are a bargain.

8 years ago
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As far as I remember the cards featuring 3gb are treated as 2GB+1GB as for the 6GB its 4+2GB. Would have to look this up again to go into the details, but as far as I remember the additional memory was added for different calculations and not really meant to be used as "real" Memory to play with. The 960 3gb featured the same issue, where in some games it only showed 2GB instead of 3. Haven't checked into that regarding the 1060 3gb, at least within my circle of friends, there has been no issue with the 1060 6GB at all.

corrected below, sry, my bad.

Amd is of course a solution, but the prices differs in regions, as for me, the 480 8GB costs the same as the 1060 6gb. Of course the 480 8gb is a good card, but the power consumption is higher, as well a its usage increases if you use more than one monitor. If it is just for the 8gb, I would prefer the rx 480 over a 1060 and a 1070. In terms of power... I still would rather go with the 1060 for less power consumption and "currently" same performance or paying more for the 1070 with a significant boost at same power usages - at least in terms of future prove. Keeping Vulcan in mind, Amd might really get some more perforance... on the other hand... I don't really think Nvidia tried to implement a good Vulcan support yet... there is simply no need for it. Same goes for SLI... how awesome would gaming be if you would have a decent driver... than again.. not all games do support it... so why bothering with it...

I am not a nvidia fanboy, don't get me wrong. I switched from a gerforce 2 mx to a radeon 3650 and kept that one 7 years ^^... talking about casual gaming. Later on I changed to the gtx 660 where I am still at. Unless Amd comes up with a good card with good power consumption and a good performance that outtakes the 1070 or almost equals it, I will end up with Nvidia again. I do hate them for the Gsync pricing, which might be a reason to switch again.... on the other hand... who needs this? As long as you are able to optimize the system you won't run into such trouble.

8 years ago*
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See my reply below.
There is no such thing as 2GB +1GB for different calculations.
There also wasn't a 960 3GB version as far as I'm aware.

8 years ago
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Fair enough, messed up there .. 970 was with a 3gb Edition and yes you are right I guess I totally messed up with this 2+1 part... it was quite a while.

Thx for the correction there.

8 years ago
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Regarding the 3/6GB memory on a GPU, you're misinformed.
The amount of memory on a GPU is dependant on the widdth of it's memory bus,
Usually you would have a 128 or 256 bit bus which led to 2, 4 or now 8 GB cards.
But you also can have 192 bit like on the Nvidia 1060 which leads to 3 and 6 GB cards.
If you look at the chart comparing the Nvidia 9 and 10 series specs:
http://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-gtx-1060-review/

The biggest problem with the 3GB version is not only is there less memory you also have less GPU power:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3109132/hardware/nvidias-new-200-geforce-gtx-1060-3gb-challenges-the-radeon-rx-480-head-on.html
"For $200, the GTX 1060 loses half of its memory, dropping from 6GB in the original card to 3GB in the cut-down version. The 3GB GTX 1060 also sees its CUDA cores reduced to 1152 from the full-fat version’s 1280. That cut-down combo results in performance that's roughly 5 percent slower than the full $250 GTX 1060 with 6GB of memory. To put that in perspective, the GTX 1060 3GB is about 3 frames per second slower if you're targeting 60fps."

The GTX 970 3,5 or 4GB fiasco was a different can of worms which eventually led to a successful lawsuit in the US:
http://www.pcgamer.com/why-nvidias-gtx-970-slows-down-using-more-than-35gb-vram/
http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-settles-gtx970-false-advertising-lawsuit/

8 years ago
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Bump!

8 years ago
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If you are playing CS and other light games you should get only the GPU, because SSD is for loading games 3-4 times faster than HDD. You can wait when you have more money and get m.2 SSD later.

8 years ago
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SSD is not for games only. I hope it'll make Photoshop and my other stuff work faster :)

8 years ago
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Yes it will make the Photoshop way faster and is good for working, also you should try to get used gtx 760 or 960. The gtx 750 Ti is similar to your old GPU.

8 years ago
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Don't get me wrong, this is no way meant offensive, but might save you some money as well.

Just 2 side-notes...

  1. Why would you suggest a m.2 SSD for a board that does not support it?

  2. Why would any casual gamer need a m.2 SSD? here might be your answer

8 years ago
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You were probably late to see that he edited his post.

He had Asus z170 PRO Gamer motherboard selected before which supported m.2 SSD and if you don't see he uses his PC for work more than Gaming.

8 years ago
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I did, since I have been pretty active her. Besides you didn't watch the video I suggested, otherwise you would have not answered with this...

The z170 board was regarding the question if "she" should upgrade her rig, which already has been covered with a no for several reasons. Her main request was for a new graphics card to play again and to be safe for future games she "might" play, as well as some ways to make her system more silent with maybe new diskspace.

Maybe this short summary helps out...

M.2 drive for work do make sense, if she would use the PC as server or workstation with several virtual machines running, which had permanent write and read access through network. Unless you don't do "heavy" multitasking, there is no need for such a drive at all, not at that costs and not with this small differences in random read at lower access rates compared to way cheaper SSD.
You won't ever need a m.2 drive for some Photoshop work or gaming, if this is all you are doing. M.2 Is very fast in deed, but no normal user will ever get near to those promoted numbers, which usually are sequential read, which again, in most cases will only be used watching movies, listening music, copying files etc. as general usage.
Even writing will not be used that often.... when do you write on your SSD or HDD? Saving files... browsing, making an update, download a game or windows update. Do you really need 226MB/s write speed for some desktop work? How big is your internet connection? Any basic SSD is way faster than any HDD, even doing a Raid 0 with several HDD is way slower than the oldest and slowest SSD.
Loading games is random read. This would be 50MB/s per second on a 950 Pro compared to 34MB/s of an Evo 850. Yeah it is faster, but double the price of an Evo 850 1 TB and only have the space and only about 3/4 gained more speed that you might actually use.
Opening a program, playing games, accessing some files, browsing through the web is all random read.

If you are going to say, this is about loading and working with big pictures, she rather should get some more RAM for a virtual memory drive to work with, way cheaper and even faster than the m.2.

Evo 850 is "more" than enough for most computer user. Any other SSD would do the job as good only at lower costs price/GB.

In her case the SSD was meant to improve the overall capability and boot speed of her system, the faster loading times in games is just a positive side effect. Loading times are the only benefit you will ever notice in games using a SDD and any other would have improved that as well.

Seriously, why is everyone buying stuff that you actually won't ever use or at least use to it's actual potential. No human would buy a 1800ccm motorcycle for choking it down to 125ccm -.-

Evo's are fine. Everyone should have one. Does everyone need one? No they don't!

8 years ago*
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like most ppl have said. cpu is fine. just upgrade the gpu. i am still on a amd fx 8120 cpu. i just upgraded from a radeon hd 6850 to a radeon rx 480. doom barely ran on the hd 6850 at 5fps. the radeon rx runs at 60fps on high

8 years ago
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Just one or two more things ;)
If you get an SSD make sure it has a long warranty, preferably 5 years. Also check if the manufacturer/distributor will replace it quickly in your country or EU wide. And remember to back up your stuff regularly. Unlike HDDs, which would make weird noises or spin up slowly when they started to fail, an SSD can fail without warning meaning all data is unretrievable.
Another thing concerning the CPU. There is nothing preventing you from getting a faster CPU for your system at a later stage if you should need more performance.
Don't fall for the usual hype of "You need a Z-170 board and i5-6600K for overclocking!"
By the time you actually need that performance an i7 processor will have become much more affordable.

8 years ago
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Closed 7 years ago by nkv.