Budget 41-50k PC Upgrade

aman.pitbull

Skilled
Questions
  1. What is your budget?
    • 50K
  2. What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
    • CPU - Intel E6550
    • Motherboard - XFX n650iUL
    • GPU - nVidia 8800GT 512MB
    • RAM - Patriot 4 x 1GB CL4 PC6400
    • Monitor - Dell U2312HM
    • PSU - Corsair VX450
    • Cabinet - Antec 200 with a side mounted 240mm CoolerMaster intake fan; 2x Front 70CFM 120mm intake; 1 x top 140mm and 1 x rear 140mm exhaust fans;
    • Mouse - Logitech G300
    • Spealers - Altec Lansing ATP3
    • HDD - 2TB Samsung SV35
    • HDD - 640GB WD640AAKS
    • DVDRW - LG H44N
    • Sound Card - Asus Xonar DG
  3. Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
    • Monitor - Dell U2312HM
    • Cabinet - Antec 200 with a side mounted 240mm CoolerMaster intake fan; 2x Front 70CFM 120mm intake; 1 x top 140mm and 1 x rear 140mm exhaust fans;
    • Mouse - Logitech G300
    • Spealers - Altec Lansing ATP3
    • HDD - 2TB Samsung SV35
    • Sound Card - Asus Xonar DG
  4. Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
    • CPU - Intel Core i5 4670 (Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H ?) or AMD FX 8350 (Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 ?)
    • Motherboard - any compatible and reliable motherboard
    • GPU - nvidia GTX660 or any comparable more VFM GFX from AMD.
    • PSU - Seasonic make ONLY; S12II 620W
    • RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2 x 4GB C9 1600Mhz
    • Keyboard - TVS Gold Mechanical
    • Speakers - any decent one better than ATP3 :D (Logitech Z523 ?)
    • HDD - Samsung 840 EVO ONLY for (OS & Games) suggestions here will be appreciated
    • Monitor - Cheapest and most VFM 18.5'' Monitor to go with older setup (Dell E1914H ?)
    • Optical Drive - Asus DRW-24D3ST
    • Spike Guard - Belkin Surge Protector (4 socket)
    My room gets hot due to inefficient ventilation with the current setups, thus looking for a setup that will not overheat my room. This is the reason why I dont want to OC and also the reason why I'm leaning towards i5 w.r.t FX-8350(Octa Core best use if OC'ed). This system should last for the next 5 years at least (current system is 6 years old).
  5. Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
    • Yes, will upgrade the following within 6 months
      • Cabinet
  6. Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
    • Mumbai
    • Open to online purchase (FK; Amazon fulfilled and other reliable e-retailers)
  7. Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
    • No
  8. What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
    • Gaming
    • Browsing
    • Watching HD movies
  9. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
    • I trust Corsair, Seasonic, Asus, Gigabyte
  10. If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
    • Strategy - Dota 2
    • Racing - Grid; Dirt 3
    • Metro 2033
  11. What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
    1. Gaming - 1920x1080
    2. Desktop - 1920x1080
  12. Are you looking to overclock?
    • No(STRICTLY NO)
  13. Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
    • Windows 7 64 bit (70%)
    • Linux - Xbuntu 14.04 (30%)
The main confusion is choosing between i5 4670 and FX-8350, I want the system to not generate too much heat, and it should last for the next 5 years.
 
I think you should go for the 4670 or 4690 if it's in your budget. Not that the AMD processor is bad for gaming and the tasks you have listed but the i5 offers somewhat greater per core performance. But the FX-8350 is better at handling threaded applications. Either way you would be good, but I suggest you go with the i5.
 
As you're not going to overclock, you could go for i5 4690 (new haswell refresh) or i5 4460 (new as well, slightly lower clocked, similar performance and cheaper) and one of the H97 boards from Asus.

Get an R9 270x as its the best value right now. For the class of GPU you're pairing with, i5 4460 should be plenty of power and the 2k or so saved here can be utilized for getting R9 270x instead of GTX 660.
 
I think i5 4460 + Asus H97 Plus will be a good combo. This board is available at prime for 8.7k. The i5 is not yet listed in prime so you may have to order it from somewhere else.

There is also Asus H97 ME, which is mATX but 1k cheaper.

You can also order the combo from theitdepot for around 20k-21k (dunno how prompt is their service)

Linux drivers are there for AMD too but Nvidia may have slightly better drivers. You'll get 2 free games with R9 270x as part of AMD rewards.
 
How is this board : Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H , I want a decent quality board that can last long. I don't plan to OC at all. Does the newer chipset - H97 offer any performance benefit over B85 ?
I've compared the same range of boards for the three chipsets: B85, B87, and H97 here. I don't see any difference apart from the number of USB 3.0 and Sata 6GB/s ports.
According to this thread, the drivers released for R9 270x are decent, I'll try to confirm it via more sources. How do the Linux drivers for AMD compare to nVidia ? those who have experience with it do share.
 
AMD drivers caused me a lot of problems but that was on my laptop, the graphics weren't switching properly, but that is only a laptop problem, I am sure.

If you are still worried, you can go for a 750Ti for around 11k on flipkart.
 
I'm sorry I dont understand why that would happen, unless the drivers don't get initialised properly as was the problem in my case.

I really don't think you will have any problems at all.
 
Thanks for clearing my doubt, let me give some more details so that the idea becomes a bit more clear.

That did happen on a few Laptops (having AMD A10 and AMD A8 crossfire based laptops) on which I installed Ubuntu, but since Ubuntu uses 3D based Unity it used to generate a lot of heat. I wanted to confirm if that issue still persists with the latest drivers for Ubuntu from ATI. I'm using Xubuntu which has XFCE which is a 2D interface, hopefully 3D acceleration wont be used for it.

Usually graphic cards under-clock themselves when the usage is not too high, but in Ubuntu(tried unity as well as LXDE on the AMD A10 - A8 crossfire based laptops) they seem to have the full clock-rate operational 24x7 even if the GFX usage is not high.
I have an older graphics card - nVidia GTX8800GT, which does not have such throttling inbuilt. I under-clock it by modifying the xorg .conf file and manually under-clocking it via nVidia X-Server. It reduced the power dissipation and also reduces the GFX card sensor temps by 3-5 C. But to achieve this I have to open the nVidia X-Server and under-clock it manually after every restart, this gets a bit tedious hence I wanted to know if the current version of ATI drivers allow the GPU to run throttling on its own.
 
I've finalized on this configuration:

  • CPU - Intel Core i5 4670: Rs.14400
    • or Intel i5 4460: Rs.12000
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H: Rs.5500
    • or Gigabyte H87M-D3H: Rs. 6700
    • or ASUS H97-PLUS: Rs.8750
    • or Gigabyte GA-Z97M-DS3H: Rs.9000 (cannot find GA-H97-D3H ) (suggest the most appropriate one)
  • GPU - Sapphire R9 270x 2GB BOOST OC: Rs.13750
  • PSU - Seasonic S12II 620W: Rs.5600
  • RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2 x 4GB C9 1600Mhz: Rs.6300
  • Keyboard - TVSe Gold Mechanical: Rs.1900
  • Speakers - F&D A555U: Rs.3700 (MORE SUGGESTIONS NEEDED)
  • HDD - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB: Rs.5350
  • Monitor - Dell E1914H: Rs.5500 led
    • or BenQ G2025HDA: Rs.5550
    • or BenQ GL950A: Rs.5500 led
    • or Dell E1920D: Rs.5350 (suggest the most appropriate one)
  • Optical Drive - Asus DRW-24D3ST: Rs.1100
  • Spike Guard - Belkin Surge Protector (4 socket): Rs.750
People I need a little more help in confirming the Mobo as I don't know the difference in performance of the given chipsets(B85 vs H87 vs H97).
Also suggest me a speaker set that is better than ATP3.
 
87 series chipset is kind of last gen, it doesn't have support for M.3 Drives(useless in desktop in my opinion), the 87 boards probably wont support broadwell processors unless the manufacturer comes out with a UEFI update.

As you would have guessed from the above line, H97/Z97 boards have support for M.3 and a sure support for Broadwell.

As for the B series chipsets, they are well, 'Budget' Business series chipsets.

If you want greater details, as to the chip specific capabilities check out this link: http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z87-H87-H81-Q87-Q85-B85-What-is-the-difference-473/
and
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/What-is-new-in-Z97-and-H97-561/

You should go with the Asus H97 Plus, its the latest, supports broadwell if you feel like upgrading and has Asus' reliability.[DOUBLEPOST=1404996652][/DOUBLEPOST]Can't do much for your speaker problem, but are you sure you want a 19 inch screen?
 
@realmo Thanks a lot for such a detailed reply.

I found the following benchmarks review for the performance of B85, H87, z87 chip-sets.
33 Haswell motherboard group test: 26x Z87, 4x H87 and 3x B85

From the reviews I can concur that the performance difference in the chip-sets is almost negligible. So buying a better chip-set makes sense only if I need those specific additional features. And the build quality of the boards stays the same for these chipsets.
Gigabyte B85M-D3H = Rs.5500
+ 21% increase in price
Gigabyte H87M-D3H = Rs.7000
+ 22% increase in price (+ 38% increase over B35)
Gigabyte GA-Z97M-DS3H: Rs.9000 (worst build quality among these 3)

I wont ever use M.2 or M.3 (the devices will be very expensive and SSD will be enough for me) and I wont be upgrading to a Broadwell chip(expected to be available in the DDR4 days) in the next 6 years.
 
I've finalized on this configuration:

  • CPU - Intel Core i5 4670: Rs.14400
    • or Intel i5 4460: Rs.12000
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H: Rs.5500
    • or Gigabyte H87M-D3H: Rs. 6700
    • or ASUS H97-PLUS: Rs.8750
    • or Gigabyte GA-Z97M-DS3H: Rs.9000 (cannot find GA-H97-D3H ) (suggest the most appropriate one)
  • GPU - Sapphire R9 270x 2GB BOOST OC: Rs.13750
  • PSU - Seasonic S12II 620W: Rs.5600
  • RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2 x 4GB C9 1600Mhz: Rs.6300
  • Keyboard - TVSe Gold Mechanical: Rs.1900
  • Speakers - F&D A555U: Rs.3700 (MORE SUGGESTIONS NEEDED)
  • HDD - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB: Rs.5350
  • Monitor - Dell E1914H: Rs.5500 led
    • or BenQ G2025HDA: Rs.5550
    • or BenQ GL950A: Rs.5500 led
    • or Dell E1920D: Rs.5350 (suggest the most appropriate one)
  • Optical Drive - Asus DRW-24D3ST: Rs.1100
  • Spike Guard - Belkin Surge Protector (4 socket): Rs.750
People I need a little more help in confirming the Mobo as I don't know the difference in performance of the given chipsets(B85 vs H87 vs H97).
Also suggest me a speaker set that is better than ATP3.

  • CPU - Intel Core i5 4570: Rs.13400
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B85-D3H: Rs.5500
  • GPU - Sapphire R9 270x 2GB BOOST OC: Rs.13750
  • PSU - Seasonic S12II 620W: Rs.5600
  • RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2 x 4GB C9 1600Mhz: Rs.6300
  • Keyboard - TVSe Gold Mechanical: Rs.1900
  • Speakers - F&D A555U: Rs.3700
  • HDD - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB: Rs.5350
  • Monitor - Dell E1914H: Rs.5500 led
  • Optical Drive - Asus DRW-24D5ST: Rs.1100
  • Spike Guard - Belkin Surge Protector (4 socket): Rs.750
Go with the above specified config which will last another 3-4 years at most.Ok.
 
I've finalized the following configuration, considering the cheapest prices on local market, Snapdeal, and Flipkart:
  • CPU - Intel Core i5 4670: Rs.14400 (local price)
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte H87M-D3H: Rs. 6700 (local price)
  • GPU - Sapphire R9 270x 2GB BOOST OC: Rs.13970 (Snapdeal)
  • PSU - Seasonic S12II 620W: Rs.5390 (Snapdeal)
  • RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2 x 4GB C9 1600Mhz: Rs.6050 (Snapdeal)
  • Keyboard - TVSe Gold Mechanical: Rs.1900 (Flipkart)
  • Speakers - F&D A555U or Logitech Z443 Rs.3010 (Snapdeal)
  • HDD - Samsung 840 EVO 120GB: Rs.5226 (Snapdeal)
  • Monitor - Dell E1914H: Rs.5350 (Snapdeal)
  • Optical Drive - Asus DRW-24D3ST: Rs.1100 (Flipkart)
  • Spike Guard - Belkin Surge Protector (4 socket): Rs.800 (Flipkart)
Can someone guess by when the post budget prices will start reflecting in the market.
 
I wonder why the audio chip is always overlooked when it comes to choosing between motherboards.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H97PRO/specifications/

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H97PLUS/specifications/

I have read in some forums that the 887 chips are not upto themark and are crappy.
Correct me if I am wrong.

It's pretty commendable that you're pressing the fact that I should look for a quality Audio source while choosing a board, but(mentioned in the first post) I already own a Asus Xonar DG sound card that I'm planning to use with the new configuration. Apart from that I dont like going for the current ASUS motherboard lineup as their CPU VRM arrangement is not looking as good as similarly specked Gigabyte models.
Please do share why the Intel H87 chips are crappy, I've not heard so or read anywhere. When I searched for it on the net all I found was that if you're not overclocking then the net performance difference between B85 , H87, and H97 is almost nill, but the price difference is over 40% .
 
You got me wrong mate. I said that I read somewhere that the Realtek® ALC887 audio chip is crappy as they have low SNR value when compared to the Realtek® ALC892 which the H97 PRO equips

Can you share your experiences with the XONAR ?. Is it worth getting it ?
It requires some tuning to get good results, right ?.
Is there HW acceleration or it uses only software emulation ?

Sorry for shooting several questions

thanx
 
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