Which motherboard and CPU?

[kikie]

Hello




I have no clue what so ever which motherboard/CPU I should get to start gaming again.

In case of a new pc, what motherboard and CPU should I get? I want to use this new pc for several years without having to upgrade. I want to play a few older games and Assetto Corsa and pCars.

I'm interested in a Asus motherboard and an Intel CPU.
A couple of days ago I heard about Mantle and DX12. Is it necessary to take this in account when building a new pc?
And what about DDR4?





Thank you.

I forgot to mention that I'm not interested in overclocking because I don't have enough knowledge to overclock.

 

[Excalabur50]

Go with an I5 4590 and a mid range Asus or MSI board and you should do fine you don't need a system with DDR4 so dont worry too much about that, and have you chosen a new card and if not a budget limit you may have will help , also so you don't get into trouble with the Mod's edit your post rather than double post

 

[kikie]

I've seen other dubble posts, that is why I thought it was not a problem. Especially when there is almost a day between the posts.

Thanks for the help.

I don't know what a mid range motherboard is. I have been looking at Asus Z97 pro gamer or Asus Z97-A board. I don't know if these are any good.

Another question:

I still have a AMD X4 Phenom 965 black edition and HyperX DDR3, 4gig 1600 memory. I'd like to install another 4gig of memory (new).
Is a Asus M5A97 board good enough with this CPU and memory? A friend of mine told me not to install older "stuff" on a new board? Is he correct?

If I could use the AMD CPU and memory again, I could spend more money on getting an SSD and a more expensive graphics card.

 

[Excalabur50]

Very few sections of the forum allow double posting but don't stress too much about it you will learn the forums and the Mod's are really good and fair and they know you are new
Now onto your question yes you can put more ram into your current system and another 4 gig certainly won't hurt, what you need to think about is do you feel your current system is worth adding an SSD and GPU and other bits and pieces to it or are you maybe better off updating to later tech if later tech then you need to work out a budget that you are willing to spend and then members here can certainly help you find the right tech for the money

 

[kikie]

My situation is this. 14 days ago my Asus motherboard M4A89TD Pro/USB3 (3y.o.) stopped working.

The CPU, PSU, RAM, HDD all is still in good working order. I was wondereing if I could buy a new AMD board (Asus M5A97) and use my CPU (X4 Phenom 965 black edition), HyperX DDR3 4gig 1600 on this new motherboard. Or is it better not combine a new board with older parts and get a complete system? A friend of mine has a compter store and he said that a system with new and older parts combined can be unstable and cause problems.
I just want to see if I can safe some money by just buying a new Asus M5A97 board.


Budget for a new system: I think around $1500.

* Motherboard

* 8 or 16 DDR3 1600

* SSD or should I keep my 500gb HDD?

* CPU. I was thinking about the i5 4690 or the i7 4790. Not K because I'm not going to overclock.

* Graphics card: the GTX970, I think and maybe replace it in the future with the GTX Titan X.

Games that I want to play is Assetto Corsa and pCars in maximum setting on a 1080p monitor. Maybe in the future buy a triple monitor setup.

I hope this information makes it easier to help me out?

 

[Excalabur50]

Well you could buy a new board and everything theoretically should work ok but if you want to future proof yourself a little bit then
MSI Z97 Gaming5 or Asus Z97 pro gamer with the 4690 and try and get at least 16gig 1866-2133 ram either corsair kingston or gskill whichever is cheapest where you are
and an MSI or Asus 970 with a crucial mx100 ssd and it will eat 1920x1080, a single 970 though will struggle a little at 5760x1080 though unless you are willing to turn some settings down and then get either the titanx or maybe even the new AMD 390x later to drive your three screens when you get them Oh and make sure you run all your new kit on a good powersupply like Corsair or Superflower or Seasonic around the 750W mark
If the boards are a bit too expensive then just drop down one level eg gaming3 and try and keep the other bits good

 

[kikie]

Maybe I'm saying too many time 'thank you" but again, .... thanks!

That is what I wanted to know. I'm going to see which is best for me, the MSI or the Asus motherboard.

I have a Corsair modular 1000W PSU from my previous pc. I'm going to use that PSU for this new build.

Is it a problem to mix a Asus motherboard with a MSI GTX970 or vice versa? Or is it best to have a board and graphics card of the same brand?

 

[hmmblah]

It's perfectly acceptable to mix brands and it shouldn't cause any problems. My current build is an ASUS motherboard and MSI GTX980 for example.

 

[kikie]

Ok!

 

[Excalabur50]

Maybe I'm saying to many time 'thank you" but again, .... thanks!

That is what I wanted to know. I'm going to see which is best for me, the MSI or the Asus motherboard.

I have a Corsair modular 1000W PSU from my previous pc. I'm going to use that PSU for this new build.

Is it a problem to mix a Asus motherboard with a MSI GTX970 or vice versa? Or is it best to have a board and graphics card of the same brand?

You are Welcome

 

[kikie]

Update:

This is what I'm going to get:

* Asus Z97 pro gamer

* Asus strix GTX970 DC2OC or the MSI GTX970 Gaming. I don't know which one to get because there is a price difference. I believe that OC means, overclocked?

* Corsair Vengeance Pro Series DDR3, 16 GB 1866

* i5 4690K or the i7 4790K. I'm keeping in mind that for future race games, like pCars, the CPU is also important.

* I'm not going to get an SSD for now but keep using my 500 GB HDD

* I'm using the PSU, Corsair 1000W.

* I'm also keeping my old case.

* DVD drive is also recuperated from my previous pc.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

I'd get MSI just because its not restricted by bios and prefer brand but if you really like strix looks then go for it as it does look sweet as a nut. they are both oc out of box but you have higher potential for oc with msi over other brands due to power delivery limitations.

at this day and age I couldn't recommend ssd enough, even a small 160 or 250 for OS

apart from that looks good

 

[kikie]

Completely off topic but due to a serious medical blunder, my father has a physical disability and this has cost me indirectly more than 15,000 euros (the last one and a half year).
I have to be careful with what I spend and thus an SSD is out the question for now.

The looks of a graphics card is absolutely not important, for me personally. It's the performance, the reliability etc... that is important. And ofcourse the company has to be trusted when it comes to waranty and stuff.

 

[Dawelio]

It's perfectly acceptable to mix brands and it shouldn't cause any problems. My current build is an ASUS motherboard and MSI GTX980 for example.

It shouldn't be an issue at all, although I ran into some compability issues with my MSI Z97M-G43 motherboard and my ASUS GTX 980 Strix graphics card.

It was that the backplate of the graphics card was pinching the bottom locking mechanism of the RAM slots, which made the graphics card bend a bit... it worked and all that, but wasn't very pretty and all that.
So I went with ASUS Gryphon motherboard and all is fine now

Just a thought though... but it's completely acceptable to mix dude, no worries there.
Just a heads up, just in case... I'm probably one of the very, very few that has actually encountered such a situation around here hehe

Regarding your post above, I'd go with the i5 4690K for gaming as that i7 4790K is not worth it to be honest.
You won't really see any difference in games with Hyper-Threading, i5's are the best bet for gaming today really.

The i7 4790K would be ideal if you'd be doing some kind of rendering, such as video rendering, where the Hyper-Threading would be helpful

 

[Excalabur50]

If you aren't going to overclock the K version is a waste so just buy the one under it and just get the cheaper of the two cards they perform about the same anyway and use the money saved for an SSD

 

[Dawelio]

If you aren't going to overclock the K version is a waste so just buy the one under it and just get the cheaper of the two cards they perform about the same anyway and use the money saved for an SSD

^ +1 on this

 

[kikie]

Ok, I'm going for the i5 4690 or maybe the i7 4790, without the K.

It's just, a friend of mine works in a pc store and he's also an avid gamer and knows his stuff. He told me to get the i5 4690k because this CPU can overclock itself a little bit if the game requires it. That's the only reason I went for the K-version.

He also said the same thing as you guys to get the Z97 pro gamer. He also told me to the Corsair Vengeance Pro series.

I only wanted to get the i7 for future games.

 

[Excalabur50]

the little bit between the k and non k will not be noticeable in a game the only real notice and still not by much is in benchmarks, overclocking it is a different matter and Tom and others here have proved time and again the best CPU's for gaming bang for buck hands down go to the I5 series of CPU
And the money that you will save from not getting an I7 or K should be enough that you could afford an MX100 Crucial SSD or close enough to it you only need to add a couple of bucks so just get the 4690

 

[Dawelio]

Exactly as Excalabur50 says, you don't need the i7 4790 for future games dude, it's a waste of money... get the i5 4690, as that will handle any game you throw at it without any issues at all

And like he stated above, the money you save by going for an i5 4690 rather than an i7 4790, can get you an SSD for those money... it's a big win win situation here for you dude, I'd go for it without hesitation

 

[kikie]

Ok, thanks for the advice. It's decided then, I'm going for the i5 4690. Not the K-version, just the 4690 as you guys told me to do.

I'd be stupid of me to ask for advice and not follow it, so I'm going to do what all of you told me.

I'll update this thread to let you know what pc I've bought.