OCUK Pre-OC'd bundles?

dglover14 · 11 Jul 2011 at 12:54

Hi,
I'm looking at buying one of the pre-overclocked bundles in september, when my student loan comes through, as my PC is now somewhat outdated, begining to border on average..

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but I could have sworn that there was an i5 bundle, OC'd at 4Ghz, with 8 or 16Gb RAM? (In this case, a large ammount of ram is crucial due to the fact that my course focuses on visual effects and animation, and a fairly huge ammount of memory is needed, unless I want to spend half my time sitting around waiting for renders to finish..). However, I now can't seem to find the said bundle?

Also, I'm currently running a 700 Watt Tagan PSU, which has always sufficed up until now, although I'm not sure if I'd need something with a bit more power behind it? (And I have to admit, the modular Corsair PSUs are looking more and more attractive, after the utter nightmare of managing the cables on my current PSU!)

Reaper 392 · 11 Jul 2011 at 14:46

i remember the bundle you were thinking of but i cant find it anywhere. the only bundle that comes close to what you want along with a decent motherboard is this one:

"Krypton Baronyx" Intel Core i7 2600K 3.40Ghz @ 4.60Ghz Overclocked Bundle - MSI £590
(its got the i7 2600k which will make it way more expensive too)

however, if you are happy to overclock it yourself you will save a truckload of money

before i forget, i'll need to know what case you have. the last thing i'd like to do is recommend something with a cooler (or motherboard) that wont fit.

*edit*
heres a 16GB i7 2600k upgrade for you.
(it doesnt take a genius to change it to an i5 2500k, or 8GB RAM)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £239.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
Total : £555.34 (includes shipping : £9.50).

CaptainUnlikely · 11 Jul 2011 at 16:13

I can't recommend that Asrock motherboard. I'd personally get a Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 or UD5, very good high end boards.
If your software for animation, etc is multi threaded, it might be worth the extra for the 2600K, for the additional 4 threads. Obviously, if not the 2500K does save you a fair bit of cash and they clock exactly the same.
That Kingston memory is an excellent choice, it's the most reliable memory I've ever encountered.

Reaper 392 · 11 Jul 2011 at 16:16

CaptainUnlikely said:
I can't recommend that Asrock motherboard. I'd personally get a Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 or UD5, very good high end boards.

why should the OP get a motherboard that is more expensive, yet doesnt have Lucid virtu and one other of the Z68 chipset's goodies that i forget the name of.

the Asrock is the best motherboard your going to find for your needs, and even comes approved by the god of overclockers, stulid (he owns one)

CaptainUnlikely · 11 Jul 2011 at 16:40

I'm just making a recommendation, based on my own experiences. I assumed, based on the OP saying he needs it for university studies, that reliability would be a major factor, for which I'd choose Asus or Gigabyte all day long.
The P8Z68-V Pro has the "full fat" Z68 experience and is a massive £5 more than the Asrock, so I'd probably recommend that instead. I didn't realise the UD4/UD5 was quite that much more, if the price difference is too great then my mistake.

dglover14 · 12 Jul 2011 at 01:44

Thanks for the replies! At the moment, I'm using a Corsair 800d, so space isn't an issue! (Hell, this thing is huge) And I currently have a Corsair H60 as my CPU cooler, which should still hold up pretty well.

For the most part, I'm using Maya and 3DS Max, the latest versions of which, I believe support multi-threading.

One thing that I will say though is that I have very little experience with overclocking. (Read: None at all)

CaptainUnlikely · 12 Jul 2011 at 19:22

If you're not too sure about overclocking, I would steer you towards a pre-overclocked bundle personally. You may say I'm biased as, obviously, I'm staff, but to me the peace of mind and the collect and return warranty would be quite attractive just in case anything did go wrong.
Again, for multi threaded tasks I'd go for the 2600K, the extra threads at the same clock as the 2500K would help performance.

dglover14 · 16 Jul 2011 at 20:27

CaptainUnlikely said:
If you're not too sure about overclocking, I would steer you towards a pre-overclocked bundle personally. You may say I'm biased as, obviously, I'm staff, but to me the peace of mind and the collect and return warranty would be quite attractive just in case anything did go wrong.
Again, for multi threaded tasks I'd go for the 2600K, the extra threads at the same clock as the 2500K would help performance.

My thoughts exactly - while I'm sure overclocking the hardware myself would save a fair ammount of money, the voiding of warranties, and chance of it damaging the hardware, due to my inexperience, isn't worth it.

And of course, the warranty is another feature that makes the bundle look like a more attractive option.

What about the PSU? I currently have a 700 watt Tagan. (Although, I'm afraid I'm unsure about the model, off hand.) Would that be sufficient? Or is it time to upgrade? I'd also like to point out that, as a poor student, my budget is limited to around £500, at the very most. (I still need to purchase a decent video camera on top of this!)