I need some advice on my upgrade. i5 2500K or i7 2600K?

zYx

zYx

zYx

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Hi everybody.

I think it's time to upgrade and I'd like to hear your opinion of the parts I am looking at to buy. Pretty much everything except for my Palit GTX 460 2GB, which in future could be doubled (in SLI) and except for my drives.

I'm not a maniac of over-clocking, but I like to play. I might even upgrade to a water cooling system some time in future, but for now, I was thinking about these components:



• CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I72600K] (or i5) £263.99​
→ Now, some people say that there is no point buying i7, tho I was hoping to get 6 cores, but I don't think I can afford it, unless you have any suggestions perhaps?​



• Memory - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) £139.99​
→ Regarding the memory (PC3-15000, 1866MHz), on the OCuK shop, in the description it says it has been tested at 1600MHz on intel based motherboards. What's that mean? Is it a typo? Because, it says exactly the same thing in the description of PC3-12800 memory from Corsair.​



• MotherBoard - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £134.99​
→ I just think that this motherboard will do.​



• PSU - Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W Power Supply £148.99​
→ Again, I think this is the best choice for now.​



• CPU cooler - Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) [CWH50-1] £54.98​
→ What do you think about this so-called water-cooling? It seems like it receives a good feedback, but what's the reality guys? (I've just discovered that my current one, Zalman CNPS9700 (I think it's CNPS9700, just need to find the box ;p) fits i-series CPUs as well)​



• Case - Cosmos S (1100) ~£150​
→ I like this case a lot. It will be perfect for my future water-cooling upgrades.​




• = £883​
→ The price.​






I am upgrading from: Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition, currently @ 2.8GHz with Zalman CNPS9700 LED, DDR2 OCZ 4x2GB 800MHz memory and motherboard Gigabyte GA-M750SLI-DS4.

Ant thoughts?

Best regards!
 
Now, some people say that there is no point buying i7, tho I was hoping to get 6 cores, but I don't think I can afford it, unless you have any suggestions perhaps?
Click to expand...

Well, at first glance, you just want the most kick ass stuff, where pretty much everything here is overkill as far as I'm concerned. If you just want a crazy overclocking build, the point about 2600K being pointless becomes redundant.

If you just want a good gaming rig, with some fun overclocking, then the 2500K will do. As the 12800 DDR3. and a £110 P67 board. and a 850W PSU (hmm dunno about watercooling requirements though). and a decent air cooler.

I have the H50 and it's ok. I bought it for noise, but it is actually not silent. I'd consider a good air cooler, or if you really want one of these, the Antec Kuhler. It's no match for water cooling though, and I would actually go with air cooling if I had to do a new build.

For the case, there are loads that can accommodate watercooling around that price, so I'd shop around.

So I don't know. What you aim for is not a value-for-money gaming rig, but a top of the line overclocking beast.
 
for mother board maybe go for the GD65 from MSI insted of the 55, you get a couple of extra sata II ports and dual bios and some other added extras which for the price difference of a few quid is probably worth it ?
 
wildman said:
for mother board maybe go for the GD65 from MSI insted of the 55, you get a couple of extra sata II ports and dual bios and some other added extras which for the price difference of a few quid is probably worth it ?
Click to expand...

You're right, I didn't look properly. It's only £5 difference :D
Thanks!
 
Surely a SSD for your OS would give you massive speed improvements where as spending the extra for an i7 instead of an i5 might only give you a small increase?
 
Peerzy said:
Surely a SSD for your OS would give you massive speed improvements where as spending the extra for an i7 instead of an i5 might only give you a small increase?
Click to expand...

I decided to go for the i7 since it's "8threaded" :) I do a lot of different stuff so it might become handy.

SSD yes, it will come eventually. I was thinking about some small capacity ones, but fast, times two in RAID0, just for the OS. Probably something like ~128GB. (64x2) (?), not now, but definitely in future.
 
get the 2500k and 4GB of the blue ripjawx c7 and with the money you save u must come pretty close to 60% price of a 120gb vertex 3 ssd? :)

seems quality though with some nice parts and i would hope you are going to overclock the pants off that cpu!
 
Rofflay said:
get the 2500k and 4GB of the blue ripjawx c7 and with the money you save u must come pretty close to 60% price of a 120gb vertex 3 ssd? :)

seems quality though with some nice parts and i would hope you are going to overclock the pants off that cpu!
Click to expand...

The thing is that I do need 8GB of RAM memory.

I was trying to save some money last time I was upgrading and that didn't work quite well, so this time I am going to spend a little bit more ;)
 
Yeah the PSU is massive overkill, around 1000W is the power requirement for dual HD6990s and the rest of the PC (hexcore processor, 8gbs RAM etc). You could run all that on 750W easily.
 
• CPU - Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I72600K] (or i5) £263.99
→ Now, some people say that there is no point buying i7, tho I was hoping to get 6 cores, but I don't think I can afford it, unless you have any suggestions perhaps?

2500K - overclock to 4.5ghz easy save a lot of money.. you will barely notice a difference in gaming.

• Memory - Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) £139.99
→ Regarding the memory (PC3-15000, 1866MHz), on the OCuK shop, in the description it says it has been tested at 1600MHz on intel based motherboards. What's that mean? Is it a typo? Because, it says exactly the same thing in the description of PC3-12800 memory from Corsair.

MASSIVE overkill massive overpriced - Id get a 4gb kit, again unless you video edit or manipulate huge files 4gb is still plenty. i went from 8 down to 4 no difference.

• MotherBoard - MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £134.99
→ I just think that this motherboard will do.

One of the most important components upgrade to the top of the range one for a few quid more.

• PSU - Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200W Power Supply £148.99
→ Again, I think this is the best choice for now.

700-800W will do I wouldnt even bother SLIing id just get a new single decent card 2 years down theline.

• CPU cooler - Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) [CWH50-1] £54.98
→ What do you think about this so-called water-cooling? It seems like it receives a good feedback, but what's the reality guys? (I've just discovered that my current one, Zalman CNPS9700 (I think it's CNPS9700, just need to find the box ;p) fits i-series CPUs as well)

These watercooling things are not as efficient as the top of the range air coolers but i like the size of them - a SB chip is hardly going to fry on a modest OC. Its not somethign i would throw money at. More for looks.

• Case - Cosmos S (1100) ~£150
→ I like this case a lot. It will be perfect for my future water-cooling upgrades.

Personal choice i dont know the case but if its good get it :) Lot of money better be nice hehe
 
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