Our house was struck by lightning. A lot of stuff is damaged, including my PC. Let's say I want to build a new rig, but I already have 16 GB DDR 3, all drives including an SSD and an underpowered ATI 6850. Also all the minor stuff.
The budget is 500€. I do other stuff which uses 100% CPU power. Mild overclocking, Prime stable, is an option.
What would you buy and when?
You need a bit more than 500€.
- We know already that DDR4 won't bring up significant performance increase and I've also linked to news about Intel's Optane technology yesterday so I'd put it in some future plans. Stick with that good old DDR3 you have.
- HDD/SDD already there, working, good.
- PSU, ah well, if it farted you'll have to buy a new one definetly.
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That leaves MoBo, CPU, GPU.
New CPUs are out. And dunno who already planned to buy the new brand new i7 in another thread capable of 7Ghz in laboratory… Just don't. There is no game nor will soon be that would put that CPU as necessity. Go with already proved gamer's dream i5 4690K (cca 250€):
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32901-4.html
https://www.ditech.at/shop/details.php?art=172807
Sure, i7 4790K is better, but is it worth 100€ more (the price is cca 350€) just for the clock increase that's not necessary? IMO it's better to use those 100€ to buy one more SSD instead of irrelevant performance boost.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690K
I have i5 4670K in my rig which is lesser than both of these, but honestly, I don't see any reason to upgrade it as it runs everything. Even without OC. But it's paired with Z87 chipset which is kinda "old".
You want some overclocking and Z97 chipset. Will you go for superexpensive greatlooking board with options on it you'll never really use? You can. I suggest not. Go for something good and not superexpensive. This board, cca 150€, will fit any of your needs perfectly and will last you for years:
https://www.ditech.at/shop/details.php?art=172158
That leaves you with cca 100€ for GPU which… Isn't enough if you want to see hairworks on Geralt. Hairworks on just him means at least GTX 960, or converted into money about 200€:
https://www.ditech.at/shop/details.php?art=200866
GTX 750Ti is another good option if you can live with upcoming games on medium graphics but it's cca 150€.
Pascal cards will appear next year thus I see no reason to invest into superexpensive 980 or Titan today. You'll buy one when their price drops significantly next year. In the meantime, stick with something not as expensive.
Anyway, maybe someone can combine something in 500€ total. I tried but just can't, whatever I try, it's 600 in the end.