Can't...resist...upgrade!

weringo

weringo

weringo

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Joined
30 Aug 2006
Posts
8,383
I'm currently sitting on a E6400 @ 2.6Ghz with 6GB RAM and a 8800GTS, fairly pitiful in the world of hardware today but it wasn't bad 3 years ago.

Anyway my student loan came through 2 weeks early and seeing as I only need to pay 2 months of rent for the rest of the year I'm really fancying an upgrade ;)

Looking at spending not much more than £850, I have a Corsair 520W PSU (don't know if this is still adequate?), Lian-Li PC-7 case, keyboard, mouse, 24" monitor, sound card, hard drives and speakers. So as far as I can tell I just need a new mobo, GFX card, some RAM and a CPU. I don't really fancy faffing around with overclocking so the pre overclocked bundles look attractive, I'd also like some extra storage of around 1TB.

Spec me up :D
 
Nice one - gotta love having £850 burning a hole in your pocket :D

What motherboard and CPU cooler have you currently got? Also, what OS are you running?
 
the corsair hx psu's are pretty effiecent, and should be able to power most, if not all pcs with single gpu's

they will struggle to run sli/crossfire with the latest cards thou
 
Windows 7 64 bit
Noctua NH-U12F
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P

Ideally I'd like a new CPU cooler as I've never managed to get my head around this one, no matter how many times I reseat it I still get idle temps of over 45 deg despite it being one of the best reviewed coolers when I bought it.
 
Pretty nice system TBH. You could do a drop-in upgrade to a Q6600/6700 if you want.

What will you be using the system for? Mainly gaming, or other uses?
 
I guess something like this?


There are also AMD Phenom II X4 or i5 750 overclocked bundle at £440 and £485 as well. But that i7 920 bundle is the most bang for bucks right now, with the current £45 off discount at £506.
 
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cmndr_andi said:
Pretty nice system TBH. You could do a drop-in upgrade to a Q6600/6700 if you want.

What will you be using the system for? Mainly gaming, or other uses?
Click to expand...

That would certainly save me some money. I just want it for gaming and some HD media streaming to my PS3 (my current PC handles 1080p streaming near perfectly). Maxing out Bad Company 2 would be nice.
 
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weringo said:
That would certainly save me some money. I just want it for gaming and some HD media streaming to my PS3 (my current PC handles 1080p streaming near perfectly). Maxing out Bad Company 2 would be nice.
Click to expand...

Wish Id seen that before what the work I did :p

Erm:
2nd hand Q6600 = ~£80.00
Re-use current cooler (or do you have a suitable one?) = £0.00
HD5870 1GB = ~£319.99
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB = ~£65.99

Very very rough calculation (3x HDD, Stuff listed above, Sound card, 4x 120mm fans, 1x another PCI-E and PCI card) suggests will only need 350W to power it at 90% load - so your PSU will be adequate :)
 
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Cookeh said:
Id go for an i5 750
Click to expand...
Hate to say this, but the 4.0GHz i5 750 bundle is at £485, while that 4.0GHz i7 920 bundle is only at £506. So for £21 extra, the 4.0GHz i7 920 bundle offer faster CPU, one of the fastest 1366 motherboard with 3-way Crossfire and SLI certification, and 2GB more RAM.
 
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Will a Q8xxx or a Q9xxx not work on my system then? Also what do you recommend for a new cooler for £30-40 or whatever they cost these days?
 
Marine-RX179 said:
I guess something like this?


There are also AMD Phenom II X4 or i5 750 overclocked bundle at £440 and £485 as well. But that i7 920 bundle is the most bang for bucks right now, with the current £45 off discount at £506.
Click to expand...

Spot on with this budget. Throw in another Samsung F3 for RAID 0 setup if you have some spare cash :D
 
weringo said:
Will a Q8xxx or a Q9xxx not work on my system then?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not.

Also what do you recommend for a new cooler for £30-40 or whatever they cost these days?
Click to expand...

For that price, you will be looking at a Titan or Nero S. However, if you can push the budget - the Megahalems is a beast (needs a fan tho). That said, bear in mind that the 965 is a pretty old board - so may not overclock Quad cores as well as it does with dual cores.

If you are mainly gaming - a Q6600 and a 5800 graphics card will do great and won't cost the earth. Perhaps you can spend some of the money saved on a shiny new 24in monitor - dual 24in is a sight to behold and certainly improves productivity, so a good use of your uni loan :D
 
Leaning towards the i7 spec atm as I've neer been one for saving money :p. Can anyone please post the dimensions of the 5850 as compared to my 8800GT? Also knowing the size of the Titan cooler would be helpful.
 
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