upgrades -- £1,000

arishi · 2 Jan 2012 at 18:32

I have a tower & power supply, DVD/CD-RW, keyboard & mouse. I need a new motherboard, CPU, memory, video card... plus I'd really like a good SSD, if money permits. Oh, and necessary coolers for all that.

I'd also like a copy of the latest 64bit Windows (a new edition, NOT an upgrade) -- preferably a family edition with several licenses for one household. Is that possible? If not, just a normal version.

Finally... is an SSD plus normal HD (I can use my old one) difficult to install? Do I need to follow a guide to set-up the correct file structure for Windows and/or do anything special to physically install the SSD? As you can probably guess, I'm not very good at this, though (by begging or with a small bribe) I can get friends to help.

Anyway, I'm looking to spend up to £1,000. I might be persuaded to go higher, but I'd need a very good reason. Any recommendations?

beejjacobs · 2 Jan 2012 at 20:09

What power supply do you have? What do you do with your PC? I.e. gaming, editing etc...

beejjacobs · 2 Jan 2012 at 20:21

Assuming your PSU is up to the job, this will be good:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 PC Game** £275.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £265.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £154.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £70.00
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/AM2/AM3) £62.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
Total : £1,011.92 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Unfortunately I don't they do family licenses for Windows 7 (atleast not on OCUK).

SSDs and HDDs are not difficult to install. If you are going to put windows on it, I believe you plug JUST the SSD in first, set the SATA port to AHCI mode, install windows. Then add the HDD after. There's a few threads on here asking similar questions (possible in the storage/HDD section)

fowler002 · 2 Jan 2012 at 20:53

beejjacobs said:
Assuming your PSU is up to the job, this will be good:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 PC Game** £275.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £265.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £154.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £70.00
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/AM2/AM3) £62.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
Total : £1,011.92 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Unfortunately I don't they do family licenses for Windows 7 (atleast not on OCUK).

SSDs and HDDs are not difficult to install. If you are going to put windows on it, I believe you plug JUST the SSD in first, set the SATA port to AHCI mode, install windows. Then add the HDD after. There's a few threads on here asking similar questions (possible in the storage/HDD section)

they have a family licence think its 3 pcs but as you said not on ocuk plus think its upgrade licence not from scratch so need to have xp/vista(well if you have vista you can do a from scratch install and just type in the key for it before the key for win7).

cooler would say http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-AN similar performance and cheaper

don't forget to mention that the graphics card is 310mm so needs to make sure the case can accommodate it.

beejjacobs · 2 Jan 2012 at 20:56

fowler002 said:
they have a family licence think its 3 pcs but as you said not on ocuk plus think its upgrade licence not from scratch so need to have xp/vista(well if you have vista you can do a from scratch install and just type in the key for it before the key for win7).

cooler would say http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-005-AN similar performance and cheaper

don't forget to mention that the graphics card is 310mm so needs to make sure the case can accommodate it.

Thank you! What he said

I didn't realise they were so long. Are Nvidia one's as big? (570/580? Getting a 460 soon, and put one in a friends PC before, they are so small!)

fowler002 · 2 Jan 2012 at 21:11

beejjacobs said:
Thank you! What he said

I didn't realise they were so long. Are Nvidia one's as big? (570/580? Getting a 460 soon, and put one in a friends PC before, they are so small!)

not all the 6970 are that long, the one you suggested plus the lightning edition(also msi) are custom pcb, there maybe others as well but reference pcb is shorter.

can't answer for sure how long the 570/580 are, check the specs on the one/s you're interested in.

arishi · 3 Jan 2012 at 21:02

Thanks for all the advice.

What power supply do you have?

Sorry about the delay, had to open it up to check. It's an Antec Neo He 500 watt.

What do you do with your PC? I.e. gaming, editing etc...

I play some games. Usually, I wait until a game I like is running too slowly, then I upgrade and wait as long as possible before upgrading again. Now it's Skyrim -- at max settings and with extra graphics mods, it starts to really drag.

fowler002 · 3 Jan 2012 at 21:18

hmm not sure but think it maybe time for an upgrade on the psu if going with the 6970, as far as I can see it only has 1 pci-e connector(for the graphics card).

arishi · 4 Jan 2012 at 17:54

So what PSU would you all recommend? I'm okay with what has been suggested so far.

fowler002 · 4 Jan 2012 at 18:48

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB Twin Frozr III GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with Dirt 3 PC Game** £263.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £173.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £149.99
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £112.98
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £46.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £43.99
Total : £1,044.49 (includes shipping : £10.50).

unless you'll be doing video editing and the like that'll make use of hyperthreading save the money and get the i2500k.
the psu gives you option for xfire in the future, if you don't plan on xfire in future then can go for the 650w version and save ~£40