Upgrading PC after 6 years: 60-70K

As the title suggests, I will be upgrading my system after 6 long years.
Currently my rig is running on a Intel P4 2.8Ghz, single core, 1GB DDR2 RAM and 160GB hard disk. My laptop is not good enough for gaming except the FIFA and F1. And frankly, I am scared to run too much demanding games on my laptop.
So, my search for a desktop begins.

Lets start with the usual Q-A part first suggested by ico.

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')

Ans:
I will mostly be gaming on this one.
I would like to play racing simulations like - F1 series and NFS Series
Sports simulations - FIFA, PES and Football Manager
Action games - Black Ops, Max Payne 3, Far Cry 3, LA Noire

Also I will be running informatica 9.5, OBIEE 11G, Oracle 11G, BOXI R4 softwares for learning purpose(no huge amount of data processing is required)

Apart from that, usual net surfing and watching movies is also on the to-do list.

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.

Ans:
70K at max. Can not extend at all.

3. Planning to overclock?

Ans:
Now, no. later, yes.

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?

Ans:
Win7 is good so far. Will try win 8 later.

5. How much hard drive space is needed?

Ans:
500GB is enough.

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.

Ans:
I have a LCD TV which I am planning to use as a monitor.
Details can be found Here
If you have some opinion about this, kindly let me know.

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?

Ans:
I will be using my keyboard and mouse. And also the TV as monitor.

8. When are you planning to buy the system?

Ans:
Hopefully next week.

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?

Ans:
No. It will be done by assembler.

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?

Ans:
I am from Kolkata. And will be buying from Chandni Market. I do not want to purchase online.

11. Anything else which you would like to say?

Ans:
I would like to have a mainboard with wifi and bluetooth (if possible within my budget)
Regarding graphics card, I have checked the AMD HD7950 model. I want your opinion about which variant to take.
Also, for HD7950, I would require atleast a 500W power supply. I am planning for Corsair GS600 (valued around 5.1K)
It will be good to have 16GB RAM (2*8GB) also
Cant remember anything else right now. Will update if I have anything else to add.

Thanks,
an arsenalfan

yup, got something. How far are we from Haswell? 2-3 months? Then I can wait. Else lets go ahead with a Sandy / Ivy based config.

arsenalfan001 said:
yup, got something. How far are we from Haswell? 2-3 months? Then I can wait. Else lets go ahead with a Sandy / Ivy based config.

Yes!! wait!!

Haswell, not before Q2 2013 AFAIK.

NoW coming to the config :

Core i5 3570K @ 14k
P8Z77-M PRO @ 10.5k ( Wifi and a BT Dongle can be added anytime later at less than 1k - mobos with these features just cost much )
CM hyper 212 Evo @ 2.2k ( Optional )
500GB WD HDD @ 3.2k
Corsair Carbide 400R @ 4.8k
Corsair GS600 @ 4.6k
Sapphire HD 7950 @ 20.5k
G.Skill RipjawsX 1600Mhz C9 4GB 2x 4GB @ 3.2k
CM STROM SIRUSS @ 5.7k

Total around 70k with ( not more ) with BT+Wifi Dongle and the cooler.

Thanks for the config Topgear.
If Haswell is that far, its difficult waiting for it.
One question, if I cut down on the cpu cooler and headset for the moment, will it be enough to get the 7970?
If yes, which one?

You might just about manage the Sapphire 7970 costing around 28k. Source

With High Quality AA and AF on u get ~ 60 FPS on Sapphire 7950 Vapor X with boost which is more than enough for ur needs.
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Vapor-X OC with Boost Video Card Review :: TweakTown USA Edition

Remember the review is before driver update.

Myth said:
You might just about manage the Sapphire 7970 costing around 28k. Source

Great news. Let me check with Vedant.

amjath said:
With High Quality AA and AF on u get ~ 60 FPS on Sapphire 7950 Vapor X with boost which is more than enough for ur needs.
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB Vapor-X OC with Boost Video Card Review :: TweakTown USA Edition

Remember the review is before driver update.

Still if I can push for 7970, I will go for it. Greed has no limits

Thanks for the help guys

so far the config is like:

Processor: Core i5 3570K
Mainboard: P8Z77-M PRO (I need to check this one)
Hard Disk: 500GB WD HDD
RAM: G.Skill RipjawsX 1600Mhz 2x 4GB
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD 7950 or the 7970
Cabinet: Corsair Carbide 400R
SMPS: Corsair GS600

Just need to finalize the graphics card.

Called up Vedant guys, got the below quotes from them:

Sl. No	Component	Desc	Price	Availability
1	Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K	13350	Ready Stock
2	Mainboard	Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3	29500	3 days time
3	Mainboard	Asus P8 Z77M - Pro	11000	Ready Stock
4	Mainboard	Gigabyte Z77x-ud5h-wi-fi	17600	Ready Stock
5	RAM	G.Skill F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL single stick	1450	Ready Stock
6	Graphics Card	Sapphire HD7950 oc Vapor-x	21000	Ready Stock
7	Graphics Card	Sapphire HD7970 oc	27900	Ready Stock
8	HDD	Seagate 500GB	3300	Ready Stock
9	SMPS	Corsair HX 650	6800	3 days time
10	SMPS	Corsair GS600	4250	Ready Stock
11	Cabinet	Cooler Master Elite 311	1850	Ready Stock
12	Cabinet	NZXT EVO Beta	3250	3 days time

With this, I can get the 7970 also within my budget and also one dvd-rw. Looks good to me. What do you guys suggest?

yep, go for the HD7970 but if you want to buy a cheaper cabinet consider NZXT Source 210 Elite / Bitfenix Shinobi @ ~2.6/8 K - Skip the Headphone, CPU cooler buying and don't get a Seagate HDD ( reason : only 1 year warranty )

So, there you are all set and ready to sail ;-)

Point noted, thanks for the help.
Some more confusion, I saw somewhere that 7970 requires 750W smps. So, can I run the 7970 on a GS600? Is it safe?
oh, and which model of 7970 to be considered?

Sapphire Vapor-X 3 GB and GS600 should be fine for a single HD 7970.

Final config :

Sl. No	Component	Desc	Price
1	Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K	13350
2	Mainboard	Asus P8 Z77M - Pro	11000
3	RAM	G.Skill F3-12800CL9S-4GBXL single stick x 2	2900
4	Graphics Card	Sapphire HD7970 Sapphire Vapor-X	27900
5	HDD	WD 500GB	3300
6	SMPS	Corsair GS600	4250
7	Cabinet	Cooler Master Elite 311	1850
8	Total	Without VAT	64550
9	VAT	At 4 %	2582
10	Total	Total including VAT	67132

Purchasing tomorrow. Thanks a lot to topgear for helping me out

Go ahead with Ivy.

HD 7970 is the right choice.

If possible, spend more on the cabinet. Get NZXT Gamma/Source 210 or a small level up with Corsair 400R.

Ya, get a good cabinet. Although you can fit HD 7970 with it but that will be too tight for the cabinet you've selected. Also in future if you get a big tower CPU cooler, there might be issues to fit in inside the cabinet.

ico said:
Go ahead with Ivy.

HD 7970 is the right choice.

If possible, spend more on the cabinet. Get NZXT Gamma/Source 210 or a small level up with Corsair 400R.

Cilus said:
Ya, get a good cabinet. Although you can fit HD 7970 with it but that will be too tight for the cabinet you've selected. Also in future if you get a big tower CPU cooler, there might be issues to fit in inside the cabinet.

Thanks guys.
I enquired about the NZXT, it will take 2-3 days to source it. So, was planning to get the CM Elite one.
Last night saw some pics of bundled intel coolers. They are horrible. Planning to get a CM Hyper 212 Evo. Will it fit into the cabby?
I cant wait anymore - need to get it all tomorrow anyhow

Tough cable management and slight space issue in the CM Elite's. Take the nzxt source/gamma.
Take the evo atleast. Will fit in mentioned cabinets.

R

my sincere advice is to select a good cabinet even if u have to wait for a day or two longer..

It will be really cumbursome otherwise..

One small update, called up Vedant guys to check the availability of CM Hyper 212 Evo and Corsair 400R. Both are available with him - so no issues at all.
Thanks for the tip guys

Congrts love to see ur rig.

Just one more day sir, tomorrow is the go-live of my rig

Your rig config looks great, just one suggestion go for Corsair TX650 instead.

somebodysme said:
Your rig config looks great, just one suggestion go for Corsair TX650 instead.

I asked about the same to topgear. And he said

topgear said:
GS600 should be fine for a single HD 7970.

If GS600 can handle, then I do not want to go for the TX650. And immediate availability is also an issue.

While making your purchase, do mention in Vedant that you got all the information and prices from Digit forum, will help to get reduced price and increase our forum reputation to them.

Cilus said:
While making your purchase, do mention in Vedant that you got all the information and prices from Digit forum, will help to get reduced price and increase our forum reputation to them.

Yup, will do that. I have talked to Mr. Rohit Singh from Vedant and told him about our Forum.

^^ can yu please re-confirm this :

Sapphire HD7970 Sapphire Vapor-X @ 27.9k ? ( if true the deal is a steal ) or it's just the OC version with dual fan cooler ?

^cilus contacted vedant it seems and got the prices from them

I was told its 30.5K+Vat for Vapor-x one.

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/shopping/...ng-advice-thread-kolkata-241.html#post1790007

^-- Sapphire card is a steal

Myth said:
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/shopping/...ng-advice-thread-kolkata-241.html#post1790007

^-- Sapphire card is a steal

Price quoted there is a oc version, probably with dual fan, it was not the vapor-x version. It is not available with them.

Got the system last Saturday from Vedant.
Mr. Rohit from Vedant helped a lot with the purchase and installation.
Just that, the graphics card was not in stock, will receive it this week.

A big thanks to everyone who has helped me selecting the components.
Special thanks goes to Topgear for helping me and Mr. Rohit for giving me a nice deal

.

@Mods, this thread has served its purpose - you can close if required.

Let it go on for some times. Other member can get help from it. Arsenalfan001, do us a favor; post the price of each of the components here so that other forum members can get the prices.

Let it open so that people like me say Congrats for ur purchase

Cilus said:
Let it go on for some times. Other member can get help from it. Arsenalfan001, do us a favor; post the price of each of the components here so that other forum members can get the prices.

Sure, I will do that tonight.

amjath said:
Let it open so that people like me say Congrats for ur purchase

Thanks a lot

Congrats and happy gaming

Myth said:
Congrats and happy gaming

Thanks. Yeah, time to game.
btw, add a graphics card and a better psu please

arsenalfan001 said:
Thanks. Yeah, time to game.
btw, add a graphics card and a better psu please

Ermm...who ? Me ?

Myth said:
Ermm...who ? Me ?

yup.

Here goes the pricing:

Asus P8Z77-M-Pro - 10900
Intel i5 - 3570k - 13100
G-skill Ripjaws - 1400x2
WDC 500GB - 3200
Corsair GS 600 - 4250
Corsair Carbide 400R - 4500
CM Hyper 212 Evo - 2150
Sapphire HD7970 Vapor-x - 30500

Total: 71400 + vat @4% = 74K

Yet to receive the graphics card :cry:

. Currently given a Gigabyte 7850 oc :cry:

- till the 7970 reaches here.

arsenalfan001 said:
yup.

Planning for sometime now.

Dont have the time to go and buy them yet.

arsenalfan001 said:
yup.

Here goes the pricing:

Asus P8Z77-M-Pro - 10900
Intel i5 - 3570k - 13100
G-skill Ripjaws - 1400x2
WDC 500GB - 3200
Corsair GS 600 - 4250
Corsair Carbide 400R - 4500
CM Hyper 212 Evo - 2150
Sapphire HD7970 Vapor-x - 30500

Total: 71400 + vat @4% = 74K

Yet to receive the graphics card . Currently given a Gigabyte 7850 oc - till the 7970 reaches here.

you got some really nice deal and you mentioned TDF name there, right ?

topgear said:
you got some really nice deal and you mentioned TDF name there, right ?

Yes. Prices are really good. And initially I dropped them a mail with the components you suggested for quotes and got a reply in half an hour. Frankly, I didnt expect such a prompt service in Kolkata.
I saw in some other thread Cilus suggesting Vedant to Anand (130K gaming rig built). Thanks to Cilus for the tip.

WoW! they even responds well to e-mails, that's really great. Some years back I've even contacted some distributors and hsops regrading some products availability but got absolutely no reply - things have changed now though not fully it's a good sign. I will try that for sure. Anyway, thanks for the info.

^^ It is because now they're understanding that forum business can help in increasing their sell and for that reason the attitude is changing slowly. BTW, one funny thing, Mr Rohit from Vedant called me asking about Arsenalfan and if he is a forum member : :-D

Congrats on the rig. Happy gaming.

Vedant also called me about you and as I recently purchased my PC so quite busy so I searched for you and then told them you the guy, LOL. :lol:

Seems like Vedant is going to be one of the favorite shop for many members here with their real sweet prices. I hope they don't screw up after getting reputation.

Cilus said:
^^ It is because now they're understanding that forum business can help in increasing their sell and for that reason the attitude is changing slowly. BTW, one funny thing, Mr Rohit from Vedant called me asking about Arsenalfan and if he is a forum member :

Free publicity and more potential customer. But I didnt expect them to reply to my email. That is really something. In Bangalore, one of the computer h/w shops have a online agent with whom you chat about products. But its Kolkata so its unexpected

gameranand said:
Congrats on the rig. Happy gaming.

Vedant also called me about you and as I recently purchased my PC so quite busy so I searched for you and then told them you the guy, LOL.
Seems like Vedant is going to be one of the favorite shop for many members here with their real sweet prices. I hope they don't screw up after getting reputation.

Thanks to both of you for helping me with the background verification

Nice pricing.

Cilus said:
BTW, one funny thing, Mr Rohit from Vedant called me asking about Arsenalfan and if he is a forum member :

Ok, So your role is kind of a rep of TDF forum.

You gotta love that!!

arsenalfan001 said:
Thanks to both of you for helping me with the background verification

lol.
When I had gone last time to inquire about a few items, one of the guys (guessing its Mr.Rohit) at the counter threw a few names at me. Took me some time to explain people dont use their actual names in the forum. Though he did mention 2 guys from tdf (guessing it was Cilius and Sumon) coming a few days ago to inquire about prices. And of course mentioning Anand's config shipping got him quite excited.

d6bmg said:
Ok, So your role is kind of a rep of TDF forum.
You gotta love that!!

Looks that way.

Where are the pics. Come on take some time off and share them with us.

Myth said:
lol.
When I had gone last time to inquire about a few items, one of the guys (guessing its Mr.Rohit) at the counter threw a few names at me. Took me some time to explain people dont use their actual names in the forum. Though he did mention 2 guys from tdf (guessing it was Cilius and Sumon) coming a few days ago to inquire about prices. And of course mentioning Anand's config shipping got him quite excited.

Lol, maybe us kolkata guys should meet up at Vedant sometimes in full group

gameranand said:
Where are the pics. Come on take some time off and share them with us.

I was thinking to save you guys some bandwidth

Go green

arsenalfan001 said:
I was thinking to save you guys some bandwidth
Go green

You can go green after posting the pics.

Myth said:
You can go green after posting the pics.

Ok, lets go green after posting pics - just need some time for posting them. Not before Sunday

arsenalfan001 said:
I was thinking to save you guys some bandwidth
Go green

I really don't think that you are going green by buying that power hungry RIG of yours.

Cilus said:
^^ It is because now they're understanding that forum business can help in increasing their sell and for that reason the attitude is changing slowly. BTW, one funny thing, Mr Rohit from Vedant called me asking about Arsenalfan and if he is a forum member :

Myth said:
lol.
When I had gone last time to inquire about a few items, one of the guys (guessing its Mr.Rohit) at the counter threw a few names at me. Took me some time to explain people dont use their actual names in the forum. Though he did mention 2 guys from tdf (guessing it was Cilius and Sumon) coming a few days ago to inquire about prices. And of course mentioning Anand's config shipping got him quite excited.

Looks that way.

gameranand said:
Congrats on the rig. Happy gaming.

Vedant also called me about you and as I recently purchased my PC so quite busy so I searched for you and then told them you the guy, LOL.
Seems like Vedant is going to be one of the favorite shop for many members here with their real sweet prices. I hope they don't screw up after getting reputation.

all right, background checking to determine who's who - fine. anyway, one day one of you guys may get a call about me ;-)

^^ Then provide us all the whereabouts of you, otherwise background check fails. : :-D

Cilus said:
^^ Then provide us all the whereabouts of you, otherwise background check fails. :

True that.

topgear said:
all right, background checking to determine who's who - fine. anyway, one day one of you guys may get a call about me

Time for a new rig?

update:

Just got a call form Mr. Rohit, Vedant.
My 7970 Vapor-x is in town and by evening will be powering my pc.
Will start Max Payne 3 then, the 7850 oc from Gigabyte was unable to run it at fill hd with everything pushed to max.

Cilus said:
^^ Then provide us all the whereabouts of you, otherwise background check fails. :

gameranand said:
True that.

I'm sure you guys will confirm my forum id at-least and I hope Cilus you still have your old phone no.- anyway, negotiating for something is mostly out of my league ;-)

arsenalfan001 said:
Time for a new rig?
update:

Just got a call form Mr. Rohit, Vedant.
My 7970 Vapor-x is in town and by evening will be powering my pc.
Will start Max Payne 3 then, the 7850 oc from Gigabyte was unable to run it at fill hd with everything pushed to max.

a new rig, who knows ? may be.

BTW, congrats for the HD7970 - by the time of this post you must have got the gfx card and hopefully have played some games on it.

^^ He is getting 7970 not 7950.

arsenalfan001 said:
Just got a call form Mr. Rohit, Vedant.
My 7970 Vapor-x is in town and by evening will be powering my pc.
Will start Max Payne 3 then, the 7850 oc from Gigabyte was unable to run it at fill hd with everything pushed to max.

gameranand said:
^^ He is getting 7970 not 7950.

Pics ?!?!

Myth said:
Pics ?!?!

Wait till Sunday for the pics

One doubt, a friend told me that the Corsair GS600 is not enough to run the 7970 vapor-x. Is he right?

arsenalfan001 said:
Wait till Sunday for the pics

One doubt, a friend told me that the Corsair GS600 is not enough to run the 7970 vapor-x. Is he right?

I won't say he is completely wrong, 7970 is power hungry card and you should have some headroom for overclock.
IMO your GS600 should be able to power your rig.

arsenalfan001 said:
One doubt, a friend told me that the Corsair GS600 is not enough to run the 7970 vapor-x. Is he right?

GS600 is ok. Heavy cpu and gpu OCing plus too many power hungry fans might push it to the limit.

Thanks guys. I was waiting for your replies and was scared as hell.
As of now, I see no need to overclock the card.
Will overclock the processor to around 4.0 - 4.2 after maybe a month or two. I can skip that also as the processor is anyway good enough now.

here's an example of real time power consumption of HD7970 OCed 1125/1575 with i7 2600k @ 4.4 Ghz :

arsenalfan001 said:
Thanks guys. I was waiting for your replies and was scared as hell.
As of now, I see no need to overclock the card.
Will overclock the processor to around 4.0 - 4.2 after maybe a month or two. I can skip that also as the processor is anyway good enough now.

I would suggest you not to overclock unless you need to. If you are getting desired performance on Stock then why overclock. Save Overclocking for later.

Guys, this is pic after playing Mafia 2 for around an hour or so.
The fourth core is running at 68*C. Seems it is a bit too much without any overclock.

Was planning to add a couple of fans to the side of the cabinet to cool off the CPU and the card.
Which one do you guys suggest? I suppose my case only supports 120mm fans.
I was checking this one: Cooler Master XtraFlo Cooler
Also this ones: Cooler Master Megaflow 200 RED LED Silent Fan Cooler, with 110CFM as rated airflow, But will it fit in my cabinet's side panel?
Please suggest guys.

68 degree is not a bbig deal, it is okay. For fan, I'll suggest you to replace the front fan with the CM Xtraflow fan, 120mm. The reason is the air intake from the front gets diverged because of the HDD caging and other wires present in this section and you need a fan with high CFM value to push as much cool air as possible so that a good amount of it reach inside the Cabinet where the main components are present. The Xtraflow can provide 96 CFM which is a very good value. Use the current front fan into the side panel into PUSh configuration as it will send the air directly to the GPU, keeping it cool. In the top I guess you're already having a fan in pull configuration to pull the hot air out of the box. Use another one into PULL configuration, resulting a PUSH-PULL configuration in the top. This setting will provide you best airflow over the main components like Motherboard (Northbridge and Southbridge Chip, CPU VRM area), CPU and GPU.

Cilus said:
68 degree is not a bbig deal, it is okay. For fan, I'll suggest you to replace the front fan with the CM Xtraflow fan, 120mm. The reason is the air intake from the front gets diverged because of the HDD caging and other wires present in this section and you need a fan with high CFM value to push as much cool air as possible so that a good amount of it reach inside the Cabinet where the main components are present. The Xtraflow can provide 96 CFM which is a very good value. Use the current front fan into the side panel into PUSh configuration as it will send the air directly to the GPU, keeping it cool. In the top I guess you're already having a fan in pull configuration to pull the hot air out of the box. Use another one into PULL configuration, resulting a PUSH-PULL configuration in the top. This setting will provide you best airflow over the main components like Motherboard (Northbridge and Southbridge Chip, CPU VRM area), CPU and GPU.

Cilus, man, awesome. Thanks a lot for the help. Will do that ASAP. Thanks again

Completed Mafia 2 last night and then ran the in game benchmark. This is the result:

*i46.tinypic.com/2crmyoh.jpg

Also completed downloading Metro 2033 via steam for free. And ran the in-game benchmark again. This is the result:

*i46.tinypic.com/2ypgroo.jpg

Will post some more benchmarks later.