Advice and opinions on upgrades.

Mikchi

Mikchi

Mikchi

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Joined
30 Sep 2009
Posts
130
Location
Edinburgh
Hi guys,

I fancy upgrading my gaming PC and so far I've found the following items.


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-365-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1859

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-444-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS


I currently have an OCZ StealthXStream 2 700W PSU and I'm unsure whether or not this will suffice.

I'll also be needing a CPU cooler as I broke the Arctic Cooling one I had.

Any further recommendations you guys would make to the items listed above?

Thanks in advance,


-Mikchi
 
If you dont do anything like video rendering or other CPU heavy work that i7 will be a waste, theres very very little improvement over the i5 2500k for gaming. Also it's probably wise to pick up the retail version of the CPU for the warranty but it's up to you.

Also when you're spending that much i'd go with this mobo http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990
Support for next gen graphics cards with PCI 3.0 and is ivy bridge ready if you need to upgrade/replace sometime in the next couple of years. Plus you get the benefits of the z68 chipset like SSD caching and the such
 
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as bwaaa said, theres no difference between the i5 2500k and i7 2600k for gaming (look at FPS scores), so go for a retail i5 2500k instead:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

use the money you save to get either of these slightly more expensive motherboard:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-188-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

the support SSD caching, lucid virtu and intel quicksync for faster mechanichal hard dives, much lower power usage and vaster video encoding respectively. it also supports PCIe gen3 when an ivybridge processor is added.

ram is great, what i would have recommended. PSU will be fine too. its when your changing graphics cards that you want to ask about the PSUs

as for the cooler, what case do you have, and what is your budget?
 
Bwaaa said:
If you dont do anything like video rendering or other CPU heavy work that i7 will be a waste, theres very very little improvement over the i5 2500k for gaming. Also it's probably wise to pick up the retail version of the CPU for the warranty but it's up to you.

Also when you're spending that much i'd go with this mobo http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990
Support for next gen graphics cards with PCI 3.0 and is ivy bridge ready if you need to upgrade/replace sometime in the next couple of years. Plus you get the benefits of the z68 chipset like SSD caching and the such
Click to expand...

Agree with all of this.

Nothing better than that Asrock board for that money.
 
Reaper 392 said:
its when your changing graphics cards that you want to ask about the PSUs

as for the cooler, what case do you have, and what is your budget?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if my HD5870 is fried or not, I'll figure that out when I get the rest of my PC working, so I may be wanting to upgrade to the 7xx0 series when it comes out in October.

I have a Cooler Master HAF 932 case.

Budget... I have about £1500 to play with but there is no chance I'll spend all of that on what I need to get my PC working again, so I might buy myself a bicycle aswell.

As for the rest of the stuff you folks mentioned, let it be known I'm not too technologically minded. "they support SSD caching, lucid virtu and intel quicksync" may aswell have been written in French :)


-Mikchi
 
stulid said:
So buy these four bits (CPU/Ram/Motherboard and heatsink)

Fit them into you PC with you HDD and DVD and attach the 5870, then you know if it works or not
Click to expand...

Indeed.

I've added the ASRock into my basket aswell as the cooler, and swapped out the i7 for the i5.

Cheers for the help guys, appreciated.


-Mikchi
 
And if the 5870 doesnt work, you can still use the PC for basic stuff as the Z68 chipset and that motherboard has a DVI/HDMI/VGA and Displayport output for the CPU'S built in GPU core.
 
Ah that's great, I figured if it was dead I'd still have another month to wait before I see about another graphics card.

But here's hoping it's working!
 
Reaper 392 said:
what extras does it have? (i havent looked much but i dont see anything major)
Click to expand...

The PLX chip so it doesnt drop PCI lanes with three graphics card, the MSI only has capacity for two cards.

The front USB3.0 bay that provides two USB3.0 ports if your case doesnt have any, it can also be converted to a PCI adapter.

Theres probably more.
 
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