i5-2500K worth the upgrade ?

cbr

cbr

cbr

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current system in my sig.

Thinking of upgrading to i5-2500K Sandybridge with 8gig. etc etc
costing roughly £350

Will I really see £350 of a difference in real world use, not benchmarks

I do a bit of everything including gaming / video editing
 
You definitely should. Dual core to quad is a big jump.

Thought about getting a second hand Q6600 and overclocking it?

A lot cheaper than 2500k and does video editing and games just fine.

Mines runs at 3.6 and coupled with a decent GPU it maxes most modern games.
 
If you have £350 to spare, then yeah go for it. WIth a Z68 if you do lots of transcoding (video ripping and conversion). You will see quite an improvement.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £161.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £49.99
Total : £353.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



This will kick all kinds of butt. Add a £30 cooler on top for an easy 30% overclock.
 
Definately.

I had a E8600 @ 4.3Ghz, same ram + asus rampage board.

In eq2, I had to play on the lowest settings in busy situations (raiding) due to the game raping my CPU. Now with quad core I can play on balanced with sometimes around 40fps, never drops below 25.
 
Cheers folks ;)

olivier renault
your spec is almost exactly what i'd been advised on here, apart from the M-board.
Was advised this spec

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz Retail THIS WEEK ONLY OFFER £161.99

MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 £99.98
or
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 £89.98


Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB 1600MHZ £49.99 inc VAT


Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler £25.99 inc VAT

Total £328 - £338


Do you think the extra £30-£40 on
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98 inc VAT

would be a wise choice ?

or if I did decide to spend that little bit extra, would it be better spent on ram or a better cooler !!

Grateful for your advise
 
unless you dont need the Z68 features, theres really no point in buying it, if you want sli/crossfire then get the p67a-g45 or g53.
 
Hi Again Jony27

to be honest im still trying to get my head round everything, trying to read up on boards, I dont know what the Z68 features are over the other chipsets.

Been away from the hardware scene awhile, god how it changes :confused:
 
Oops forgot to say,
Dont think i will be needing sli/crossfire.
When i really get fed up with my 4870 i will just upgrade, cant afford to with this new kit at the minute
 
Z68 chipset offers, ssd caching, which will remember your programs you use often and speed them up and such, and offers lucid virtu, which will boost some programs graphicalyl to ease the strain on the gpu, and it offers uefi bios, which is basically just a shiny bios in which you can use your mouse. :D
 
cbr said:
Cheers folks ;)

Do you think the extra £30-£40 on
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98 inc VAT

would be a wise choice ?

or if I did decide to spend that little bit extra, would it be better spent on ram or a better cooler !!

Grateful for your advise
Click to expand...

Depends if you feel you'll need the overclock straight away or not. If I had to choose, I would take the better motherboard and get a cooler later for overclock. SLI is only a moot point, most non-budget motherboard will support SLI / XFire by default. Some would say get the cooler now, but the 2500K is plenty fast stock, or even slightly overclock, wich the stock cooler will allow a little.

Z68 has some nice toys, but overall, that motherboard is a good £130 motherboard. A compromise would be the MSI-GD53, which is a good budget board. That, and a Gelid, but it would be slightly over budget.
 
Last edited:
As infernox listed. . . Apart from the ssd caching I dont think I would be bothered with the other bling!

Though im sure the board is probably better in other ways too

Choices choices :confused:
 
Asus P8P67-M PRO Intel P67 £104.99

How would this compare with the others

Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68
MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 £99.98
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 £89.9
 
I think when you're looking at those kind of prices it depends really what you're after and clearly like me you're on a money saving mission!

The key difference between the boards is the sli/crossfire. You said you're not going to use that so I'd go for the c45, saves you money to go towards a new graphics card.

With the jump from c2d to quad you're going to see a huge improvement right away and with 8gig of 1600mhz ram vs 1066 already another performance increase.

Its situational, depends what you're playing now and what you plan on playing in the future. Your video editing time will shoot down to. I guess no-one can really tell you if its worth it other than yourself.

You're going to sell your un-used parts on to, thatll take the sting out of it. I think the 8400 will probably go for 60-70ish on ebay, the ram probably 40-50.. unsure of the mobo though as thats not something I've been hunting for lately haha!
 
cbr said:
Asus P8P67-M PRO Intel P67 £104.99

How would this compare with the others

Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68
MSI P67A-G45 Intel P67 £99.98
MSI P67A-C45 Intel P67 £89.9
Click to expand...

Overclocks well (like all Asus pro boards), compromises the PCI slots, and can be a pain with 3rd party coolers (its a bit tight around the socket). I also don't know if they fixed all their gremlins (their P67 boards had loads of problems for a while).

That's why I'd say, get a good board with a sensible layout and good build quality, it pays in the long run.

If you compare budget boards, I would pick up the G45 at a push.

Again the GD53 is probably the best price / performance.
 
ToejaMz0r
i see your using the C45 board, i take it there are no problems like,, coolers, OCing, etc



olivier renault
Thanks for the advise, thats exactly the type of problems im trying to avoid, while trying to keep the price down.
 
Stunning board so far mate, can't fault it. No problem overclocking it to what it is now, I got lucky.. first voltage I put in and first multiplier, bang on.. no problemo.. I've yet to tweak it down to get slightly better temps or to see if it'll go higher. I think the most I'll get out of it is 4.8ghz but I'll be needing close to 1.35volts and for the extra 400mhz I dont feel its worth it so I'm happy where I am.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18298480

Check that out for space on the board, just scroll to the pictures. Mines the black and yellow, missus is the white one.

Can't say I had any trouble at all with the setup.
 
Her case (Xigmatek Midgard) is what i use, I think its great.

hard to judge space for the cooler as i'v not got it yet (Gelid Tranquillo)
But i suspect its not too much bigger than ur Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2
 
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