Has anyone here ever built a PC?

[Jusatsushi 0]

So I built my PC in September 2010 and the only thing I've changed is the GPU.

 

3 years on, I still see this when testing new games (Metro Last Light btw):

 

[Guest SlyEnemy]

Nice. What was your spend Jusat?

[Jusatsushi 0]

The original build was just under £700

 

Since then, I sold the GT 465 for £110 and bought a 560ti for £200, then sold the 560ti for £100 and bought a 660ti for £220, so all in £900.

[Jusatsushi 0]

Well, after an epic trial, I've now got my ol' girl all Haswell'd up. Picked up an Asus Z87-A motherboard and an i5 4670k and swapped out the old first gen i7.

 

First off, the new MB was bigger, and the gpu used a different slot, so I had to shift everything around. Secondly, the haswell chip was thinner than my old one, so the heatsink wasn't connecting properly and I was having ridiculous heat issues. Finally, google suggested I could swap out these bits without a windows reinstall as 7 is supposedly good with upgrades and both boards were Asus. Not the case. Windows threw up all kinds of hissy fits trying to boot with my old settings, so I had to do a wipe and clean install and lost all my frickin' game downloads including the FFXIV beta, which I was well into.

 

Anyway, tl;dr building a new rig is easier than swapping motherboards on an existing one, but at least it's all done now and seems fine, and I basically have bought my PC right back to current tech and have an upgrade path for hopefully the entire next gen as this motherboard is SLI ready (maybe another 660 in a few months??).

[pickled 0]

I just swapped out the motherboard in mine and windows seemed to play nice with it. Though I reinstalled it anyway as I wanted 64 bit to be able to use all my RAM. Had no joy unlocking my AMD cpu from an X3 to and X4 though, booo

[Jusatsushi 0]

I spoke too soon. Just had two bsod's...

 

I knew I should have just waited and done a complete re-build in a few years!!

[Guest SlyEnemy]

Just teething troubles I'm sure. It's not overheating is it?

[Jusatsushi 0]

Temperatures are all ice cold now. I think the RAM may not have made the switch to the new board too well. Tomorrow I'll have another look but I'm sick of it now!

[Jusatsushi 0]

Yup, it was the RAM. I replaced it now though, so am now rocking a Haswell 4670k overclocked to 4.4ghz with a coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo, along with 12Gb RAM and a 660Ti.

 

Been playing Saint's Row 4 and FFXIV pretty much all day with no issues so hopefully all is now grand.

 

[Guest SlyEnemy]

^same CPU as myself. Thought I'd get the latest to save me in the future.

[Jusatsushi 0]

Well, my original case from 2010 is no more. I picked up an Antec GX 1200 and was going to do a complete rebuild on Saturday, but got bored and ended up doing it last night. My God, building has got a lot easier with modern cases. Everything is so well organised, and there's so much more consideration given to cable management. This case is the same size as my old one (mid tower) but it felt like building in a tardis. All that empty space!!

 

 

I ripped the two exhaust fans out of my old PC and put them in this one and they look a bit off, so I may replace them in the near future, and also tidy up the cabling around the GPU a bit but apart from that, pretty happy with it. Runs much cooler than my old build too.

[Papa 0]

Nice rig! This is my current PC. It's a little dusty, but the Fractal R5 case keeps it pretty much silent during normal running.

 

[Somerset_Bumkin 0]

Is that a liquid CPU cooler? Really weird this but I was think about doing a rebuild. Only problem is I bought Windows 7 and got a free upgrade to X bia download but I'm not sure how I would reinstall it. Anyone know?

[Shufty 0]

Think you can create your own recovery media and it shouldn't matter but not completely sure that's the case.

[Jusatsushi 0]

Nice James! I'm tempted to fit a liquid cooler myself just cos it'd look nice through my clear side panel!

[toneeblair 0]

Is that a liquid CPU cooler? Really weird this but I was think about doing a rebuild. Only problem is I bought Windows 7 and got a free upgrade to X bia download but I'm not sure how I would reinstall it. Anyone know?

 

You might need a new copy, tbh (or at least a new license key).

 

I know when I upgraded my PC before with a new mobo it detected it wasn't the "same" PC and required a new key.

 

Otherwise, you can just download an installer and stick it on a USB stick. You can get your current license key by right-clicking on My PC and selecting "Properties", it'll show up at the top.

[Somerset_Bumkin 0]

Hmm. I still have the disc Windows 7 with as I bought it standalone.

[Jusatsushi 0]

Anyone looking for a CPU water cooler, Amazon's international store are flogging the really nice looking EVGA 120mm one for 50 quid!

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N9X3HY1/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Papa 0]

Nice. It's only single fan, but at that price it is a steal.

[Jusatsushi 0]

I'm not even running an overclock on my 4790 so bought it entirely for the look. The green RGB should match my case and founders 1080 nicely!

[Papa 0]

RGB?! Egghhhh. My PC looks like the black monolith in 2001 space odyssey.

[Jusatsushi 0]

Built my mum a budget gaming PC and it looks better than mine