Old System Refresh

[Shifter2014]

Hello!
I wanted to run my build by you to see if you could offer me suggestions for parts I haven't picked quite yet. This is going to be a revamp of my old system, originally an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250F. I have everything in here except the second GFX Card. I would love suggestions for a case, cooler, etc. The primary color of the build is blue.

Original PC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147177
New Build Parts List:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cw7FMp

 

I appreciate any help and will try to take criticism as best as possible.
Thank you!

[Demons Wrath]

 

Hello!

I wanted to run my build by you to see if you could offer me suggestions for parts I haven't picked quite yet. This is going to be a revamp of my old system, originally an HP Pavilion Elite HPE-250F. I have everything in here except the second GFX Card. I would love suggestions for a case, cooler, etc. The primary color of the build is blue.

Original PC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147177

New Build Parts List:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cw7FMp

 

I appreciate any help and will try to take criticism as best as possible.

Thank you!

 

 

You in the USA? What's your budget? Why oh why do you want to Xfire a pair of R7 260x's?

[Shifter2014]

You in the USA? What's your budget? Why oh why do you want to Xfire a pair of R7 260x's?

 

I knew someone would question the XFire, and my answer is simple. FOR SCIENCE OF COURSE

I just finished a very simple, cookie cutter performance build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/f8KbD3

And it leaves a lot of OC work to guides and auto-tuning software. I wouldn't trust myself to do it as I have never OC'd before. With this new build here that I'm proposing, I plan to practice OC'ing and figured learning how to X-Fire wouldn't be bad either. Budget isn't much of a problem though I don't want to pay premium prices for parts I might end up frying, which would explain the cheaper cards, and older processor I have from this otherwise obsolete computer. Does this all make sense? 

[Demons Wrath]

I knew someone would question the XFire, and my answer is simple. FOR SCIENCE OF COURSE

I just finished a very simple, cookie cutter performance build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/f8KbD3

And it leaves a lot of OC work to guides and auto-tuning software. I wouldn't trust myself to do it as I have never OC'd before. With this new build here that I'm proposing, I plan to practice OC'ing and figured learning how to X-Fire wouldn't be bad either. Budget isn't much of a problem though I don't want to pay premium prices for parts I might end up frying, which is why I'm going with a cheap and outdated setup. Does this all make sense? 

 

Practicing OC on your current setup will not give you the same idea of overclocking something like Haswell. For one thing, Haswell is much simpler to overclock. It's easier too, and safer. In fact there is no way that Haswell isn't entirely better than that old 1156 stuff. But you can learn the essentials from 1156. Those being up the mhz in tiny increments and stress testing until satisfaction or failure, then up the volts in tiny increments until same. Alternate between the two until you end up only with failures no matter what you do, back it down to your last stable setting and voilá, max overclock.

 

If you want to practice overclocking for relatively cheap, get a Pentium G3258 and base a system around it. When you master it, buy an i7 4790k and away you go.

 

As for "learning how to xfire", there isn't much learning to do. You install drivers, enable, then frown in disappointment (at least you will with a pair of R7 260x's).

 

If you want, I can spec you something on the cheap for learning overclocking, which you can then upgrade to the big boys club when you're happy with your overclocking skills. Sound good? If not, I could probably recommend a case, CPU cooler and PSU if that's all you need.

[Demons Wrath]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($49.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Performance ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)  ($138.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($82.99 @ NCIX US) 

Optical Drive: HP bd340i Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (Purchased For $0.00) 

Total: $431.95

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-01 11:35 EDT-0400

 

Here's an example of what you could try. The H97 board (like most boards on 1150) supports overclocking thanks to the voltage regulator being on the CPU rather than the board itself. PSU is massive overkill but it will support a pair of R9 290's in Xfire (now that's a xfire setup). Something to ponder for the future. Because the RAM you have is massive, there aren't many air coolers that will easily accommodate such RAM. I chose an AIO water cooler for that. It will keep the Pentium nice and cool, and will do the same for a i7 4690k.