Thats huge case there - what are you planning to put inside? I mean seriously?

And what about OC'ing? interested, not or want to have the possibility in the future?

Z87 mobos are for OC'ing i believe.

I'd be surprised if you can buy any new computers with a BIOS, typically UEFI is what's been used for years, it's just that in many cases the UEFI itself was programmed to look and act like the BIOS did.

Typically there'll be a switch somewhere in the program that lets you choose the mode it works in.

Very true.

My(!) recommendations:case+cpu+mobo

1) mATX & no OC
case: BitFenix Prodigy M Midnight Black - 87.90 €
cpu: Xeon E3-1230V3 - 235.00 €
mobo: AsRock H87M Pro4 - 76.90 € or AsRock H87M - 84.00 €.

2) ITX & no OC
case: BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black, Mini-ITX - 74.50 €
cpu: Xeon E3-1230V3 - 235.00 €
mobo: AsRock H87M, LGA1150, Intel H87, DDR3, mITX - 108.00 €

3) ATX & no OC
case: i dont touch these any more ;)
cpu: Xeon E3-1230V3 - 235.00 €
mobo: AsRock H87 Pro4, LGA1150, Intel H87, DDR3, ATX - 79.00 €

(Prodigys come in alot of colors if you like that sort of thing)

If you want to OC:
Mobo: Change mobo from H87 -> Z87. They are better quality and more expensive naturally.
Cpu1: I7-4770k - from proper shop starting at 283€
Cpu2: I7-4770k - yes again, but from this seller huuto.net, you can get it for about 240€. if you look at closed deals, they are sold pretty much weekly.
Cpu3: I5-4670K - starting 203€

The main difference between these 3 cpu's is that E3-1230V3 and I7-4770K are hyper threading - while the cheaper I5-4670K is not. So if the game/program can utilize more threads, E3-1230V3 and 4770K are even more valuable. I decided to buy E3-1230V3 for myself and cant complain. Equal power to 4770K, but is not overclockable - didnt want to bother with that any more.

I5-4670K -could- be overclock to faster speed than E3-1230V3, but still wont naturally be able to use hyperthreading no matter what. Anyways, all three are very powerful and none are bad choices.

Note that if youre going to OC, youll definitely want to buy better CPU cooler. Id buy better anyways, but then again i am allergic to noise. I am using Noctua NH-U12S which is slim, powerful and bit expensive at around 60€ - but then again, dont have to listen to the noise or be afraid cpu cooking itself no matter what :)

Search cheapest price in Finland here

For shops i recommend: Jimms, Systemastore, Verkkokauppa.com & swedish Webhallen(wut)

Also note i am not some computer guru, i just happened to buy ITX set early this year and had to do some thinking for it.

EDIT: if youre going to order from Jimms, check their daily deals site on Muro BBS. Atleast I7-4770K is there 283€ & I5-4670K 193€ atm.

Here is the final system that i purchased with assistance from people on this forum;



ASRock Z87 Extreme4 LGA 1150 Motherboard $189.00
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10B $108.99
Antec EA-650 EarthWatts Platinum Power Supply $142.81
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" SATA III SSD MZ-7TE250BW $195.00
Antec X1-E Mid-Tower Gaming ATX Case $69.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM 64-Bit $115.00
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB OC Edition Video Card $415.00
Intel Xeon E3-1230v3 Quad Core LGA 1150 3.3GHz CPU Processor $317.99
Microsoft 2LF-00020 Wireless Desktop 800 Keyboard & Mouse $59.98

TOTAL = $1607.79 (Australian)

(Note that i did have to change it a bit from my original choices in order to buy the whole system from 1 supplier, but it is still ok i think)

Well, I would always recommend picking up at least a $20-$30 aftermarket cooler solution just to keep it under 70c at loads/prime95 for stock performance. I have a Noctua ND-D14 and...it was quite large and the performance is overkill for my needs if I do say so. xP

And if your mobo is dying..I hope it's still under warranty and you can call customer support/RMA. Otherwise if you're still upgrading, I don't think you'd need more than an i5 45xx or 46xx + whatever z87 you feel is the most stable for you in terms of reliability, brand, and having all of the slots/audio driver type/etc. you need. They don't actually affect your performance, only overclocking and extra features.

Size too, though you've never said what case you have or its size from what I see.

KneeTheCap,

You can buy i5-4670K from cdon.com 204€ -15% with shipping. The offer is valid online today.

at the bottom of my previous post ive linked 4670K discount offer for Jimms.fi 193€, free shipping.

Not entirely on-topic, but hey...

Something is acting up in my computer, and I really don't know what. Two days ago my computer managed to lose my second HDD. By losing I mean that it literally vanished from the "my computer" screen and was inaccessible. Only a reboot helped. It did that twice.

I opened the case and took tha sata-cable off and put it back on again, it did work fine after that. But now it didn't start. It just froze in the "loading windows" screen, reset didn't do anything, it only started working after I selected the drive from the boot settings. I also fiddled with the sata cable, just to be sure.

Now, what is dying? My motherboard? My sata-cable? My HDD?

You could try switching the sata-cable and sata-port on the mobo. however, if you have multiple hdd's and still only one makes that sort of trouble, id think its more likely to be hdd.

you should still check the mobo product page and update all the drivers manufacturer has put there, with maybe the exception of gpu driver.

Ive had both faulty cables and sata slot actually dropping off from mobo... but ive also had broken hdd's. Theyve been quite old however.

Check the SATA rating of your motherboard and HDD (i.e. whether they are 1, 2, or 3). If the SATA of your motherboard is less than the HDD they may be struggling to communicate with each other. I had this problem with a SATA 3 drive connected to a SATA 1 motherboard and it exhibited the same problems you have described. If this applies in your case the HDD website should provide a solution (in my case it just involved changing the jumpers on the drive).

Whatever the cause is, I wish you the best of luck in solving it.

It actually might be an issue with that sata thing, I checked and the mobo connectors are indeed SATA and the HDD's are SATA2 (or 3, I don't remember)

Anyway, that should be corrected with the upgrade.

Mobo is set as Z87-G45 GAMING, that's good enough for me. The case is going to be the coolermaster HAF X, as I want it to actually have space in order to maintain good cooling. My current case is too small, not all components fit in and tha cabling is a mess.

But one remains, and that is the question of processors. i5 or i7?

100e price difference between them, that is doable. But what do you suggest?

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to back that hard drive up if you haven't already.

I would suggest getting a i7 instead of i5 because new technology is constantly emerging and the life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter for PC components. So if you don't want to upgrade for a long time then that is the way to go, it also makes a difference in games using a better processor albeit not as significant as the GPU.

They are actually becoming longer and longer, I'm not sure what you're basing your assertion on.

What I'm wondering is how the new low level API's (Mantle, DX12) will affect the gaming market. On one hand they reduce CPU overhead significantly, on the other hand they also allow making better use of multithreading, which might in the long run make games take better advantage of many cores.