Frankensteining my HP's Case

[Gerowen]

So I've talked about this for a while, but I'm looking to Frankenstein my current PC into a gaming rig.  I've got an old HP Pavilion P6803W desktop PC that is ancient and I should have some extra cash laying around at the first of the month (I'll get 3 or 4 paychecks all at once), and I'm thinking of yanking out its guts and installing my own.  I would get a new case along with it, but I'm not looking to spend a fortune.  I already upgraded the power supply to a 550 watt modular one, and my current case already has a smart card drive with like 7 different slots, 750 GB hard drive, un-used bays for Blue Ray drives and such, so as long as the motherboard will fit I don't need a case (current mobo is microATX).  However, without spending a fortune, I would like to at least match the performance of my Playstation 4 and provide room to grow for 5-10 years, and I'd like some input.

 

I'm debating on a couple of motherboard and processor combos.  One of them is a little bit cheaper (combo 1), but gives me PCI Express 3.0 slots so I could get better performance out of newer graphics card, but the other one (combo 2) gives me a bit more CPU power.

 

Combo 1

This motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132406

This CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113360

 

Combo 2

This motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130790&ignorebbr=1

This CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284&ignorebbr=1

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Don't go with AMD, my friend. You'll get a lot more out of an Intel.

[Gerowen]

8 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Don't go with AMD, my friend. You'll get a lot more out of an Intel.

I'm still browsing around keeping things in mind.  One thing I've noticed is that the vast majority of motherboards, even the ones aimed at gaming, don't have PCIe 3.0 slots.  The "combo 2" listed above were actually part of a bundle deal with a graphics card, but the graphics card was PCIe 3.0 and the motherboard only 2.0x16.  I know the card would plug in and function, but wouldn't that older/slower slot be a bottlneck for the graphics card?

 

I'll poke around in the Intel section and see what kind of deals I can find.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

I really do not have an opinion on AMDs.  However, your second option would obviously be the better one.  Didn't realize the PCIe 3.0 was dependent on the CPU for AMD ... this caught me off guard a bit "Only FM2+ Processors can support PCIe3.0.) ".  Anyway, pretty much all Intel boards will have 3.0 (though really it isn't that much of a bottleneck...when compared to 2.0).

 

Personally, I would go with an Intel setup.  It appears that your budget (minus RAM) is somewhere between 150-260.  I would recommend something like this...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2956057

Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP + Intel i5-6500 for $260

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2885167

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-H170 + Intel i5-6500 for $280

 

or something like a Intel i5-6400 for $180 and...

Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H for $80

or ASrock H170A-X1 for $77

(all prices are from NewEgg)

 

Personally, I think I would go for the Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H/i5-6400

 

Anyway, you can do various combinations for under/around 260.  Having a firm budget would be helpful ... as well as what all components are required (such as memory, hard drive, case, etc.).

 

 

[Gerowen]

39 minutes ago, jjkusaf said:

I really do not have an opinion on AMDs.  However, your second option would obviously be the better one.  Didn't realize the PCIe 3.0 was dependent on the CPU for AMD ... this caught me off guard a bit "Only FM2+ Processors can support PCIe3.0.) ".  Anyway, pretty much all Intel boards will have 3.0 (though really it isn't that much of a bottleneck...when compared to 2.0).

 

Personally, I would go with an Intel setup.  It appears that your budget (minus RAM) is somewhere between 150-260.  I would recommend something like this...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2956057

Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP + Intel i5-6500 for $260

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2885167

Gigabyte G1 Gaming GA-H170 + Intel i5-6500 for $280

 

or something like a Intel i5-6400 for $180 and...

Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H for $80

or ASrock H170A-X1 for $77

(all prices are from NewEgg)

 

Personally, I think I would go for the Gigabyte GA-H170M-DS3H/i5-6400

 

Anyway, you can do various combinations for under/around 260.  Having a firm budget would be helpful ... as well as what all components are required (such as memory, hard drive, case, etc.).

 

 

Using one of your suggested motherboards I actually spend less money and get a better motherboard.  I'm not sure how the processor compares to the one I had listed, but the motherboard, being the heart of it all, can fit an i7, so if I really start starving for horsepower later I can just upgrade to an i7.

 

Edit: Woops I forgot to include RAM,

[Jim K Global Moderator]

8 minutes ago, Gerowen said:

Using one of your suggested motherboards I actually spend less money and get a better motherboard.  I'm not sure how the processor compares to the one I had listed, but the motherboard, being the heart of it all, can fit an i7, so if I really start starving for horsepower later I can just upgrade to an i7.

 

Edit: Woops I forgot to include RAM,

You'll probably will not need an i7.  However, since you are buying a GPU ... can you hold off ... or do you need it now (mind you the i5 has an integrated GPU...not necessarily good for gaming)?  Reason I ask is that both AMD and nVidia will be releasing mid-range cards in the very near future (probably a month or two).  So you might be able to double your GPU performance for the same price.

 

Of course...if you have to upgrade now ... that GPU you selected will be fine.

[Gerowen]

10 hours ago, jjkusaf said:

You'll probably will not need an i7.  However, since you are buying a GPU ... can you hold off ... or do you need it now (mind you the i5 has an integrated GPU...not necessarily good for gaming)?  Reason I ask is that both AMD and nVidia will be releasing mid-range cards in the very near future (probably a month or two).  So you might be able to double your GPU performance for the same price.

 

Of course...if you have to upgrade now ... that GPU you selected will be fine.

I thought about holding off on a GPU since that motherboard has a built-in Intel GPU which would blow the on-board AMD Radeon I'm currently using out of the water.  I thought it was the open source drivers in use by Linux (what's currently installed) so I installed Windows 7 on this machine and the AMD drivers and actually got WORSE performance than I do with Debian and the open source drivers (I've got a handful of games that have both Windows and Linux versions so I was able to compare), so it's not the drivers, it's just that the GPU and the computer as a whole are old as dirt,   I could pick up the motherboard, CPU and RAM, save some money, see what the limits of the on-board video are and watch prices for a little bit.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

17 minutes ago, Gerowen said:

I thought about holding off on a GPU since that motherboard has a built-in Intel GPU which would blow the on-board AMD Radeon I'm currently using out of the water.  I thought it was the open source drivers in use by Linux (what's currently installed) so I installed Windows 7 on this machine and the AMD drivers and actually got WORSE performance than I do with Debian and the open source drivers (I've got a handful of games that have both Windows and Linux versions so I was able to compare), so it's not the drivers, it's just that the GPU and the computer as a whole are old as dirt,   I could pick up the motherboard, CPU and RAM, save some money, see what the limits of the on-board video are and watch prices for a little bit.

Linux has better drivers out of the box. With Windows, you have to install drivers for your GPU.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

3 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Linux has better drivers out of the box. With Windows, you have to install drivers for your GPU.

I know you've probably said it a billion times, but what is your favorite flavor of Linux? I'm considering.....well, I'm considering things........

 

EDIT: I'd consider a dremel.....thinking about getting one myself.......

[T3X4S]

24 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

Linux has better drivers out of the box. With Windows, you have to install drivers for your GPU.

Thats not true 

In fact, if you have a newish nVidia card, and trying a mint 17 or 18 install - there is a decent chance you not only need to edit GRUB just to get the thing to boot, you have to manually install drivers.

So... yeah
 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

9 hours ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi said:

I know you've probably said it a billion times, but what is your favorite flavor of Linux? I'm considering.....well, I'm considering things........

 

EDIT: I'd consider a dremel.....thinking about getting one myself.......

I use Mint 17.3. But I was a big Debian fan around Wheezy days. (need to edit my OS...)

 

8 hours ago, T3X4S said:

Thats not true 

In fact, if you have a newish nVidia card, and trying a mint 17 or 18 install - there is a decent chance you not only need to edit GRUB just to get the thing to boot, you have to manually install drivers.

So... yeah
 

nomodset....

[Mando]

On 6/15/2016 at 3:08 PM, Gerowen said:

I'm still browsing around keeping things in mind.  One thing I've noticed is that the vast majority of motherboards, even the ones aimed at gaming, don't have PCIe 3.0 slots.  The "combo 2" listed above were actually part of a bundle deal with a graphics card, but the graphics card was PCIe 3.0 and the motherboard only 2.0x16.  I know the card would plug in and function, but wouldn't that older/slower slot be a bottlneck for the graphics card?

 

I'll poke around in the Intel section and see what kind of deals I can find.

I run a 970 GTX on pci-e 2 (despite being a pci-e 3 card) and it doesnt bottleneck the clocked system i have in my sig  even 2 970s sli doesnt max out pci-e 2 tbh.

[Mando]

16 hours ago, T3X4S said:

Thats not true 

In fact, if you have a newish nVidia card, and trying a mint 17 or 18 install - there is a decent chance you not only need to edit GRUB just to get the thing to boot, you have to manually install drivers.

So... yeah
 

correct Widows install media has had reference nvidia WHQL drivers in them since Windows XP, it will even run native resolution after install 1st reboot. Not the latest/full featured but deffo Nvidia supplied for gold image. TBh ive been watching mint with great interest and oncei know for sure my mrs is done with my X201 i7 (60gb ssd, 8gb ddr3) lenovo and ssd for college, im thinking just mint, the live distro runs a treat on that system, so running from the SSD it should rock  heck W10 flies on it. 

Edited June 16, 2016 by Mando