Q6600 to i5-2500k Spec check

srv128

srv128

srv128

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6 Apr 2008
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12
Hi,

Its been some time since I built my current pc but I am now looking to update it and use it as a gaming PC.

I will be playing the usual stuff BF3, Diablo, WoW etc.

Budget is about £800 including GPU but I will hang on buying one until the new stuff is released. I will then decide if to adopt a new offering of get one of the existing ones after a price drop :-)

What I have is the following: -

Antec P182 case with a Corsair HX520w PSU and a Scythe Ninja. I have 1GB SATA Hard drive for Data, a copy of Windows 7 Professional on current PC which I will reuse and a SATA DVD RW drive.

I have a couple of question

1. Is the Power supply OK or should I just out that? not looking to do SLI as I know it wont do that.
2. The Ninja is 3 years old so not the latest. I have to dig out the box in the loft to see if it has an LGA1155 mount bracket as I currently have the LGA 775 fitted. Again should I keep or ditch? I plan to over-clock to 4.4 to 4.6 GHz.

The spec I have got down without GPU is the following: -

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £87.98
(£73.32) £87.98
(£73.32)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) £14.99
(£12.49) £14.99
(£12.49)
Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Venom Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin Akasa AK-FN059 120mm Ultra Quiet Venom Viper Cool Fan - 3/4 Pin £13.99
(£11.66) £41.97
(£34.98)
Sub Total : £422.42
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £86.38
Total : £518.30

Cheers

Steve
 
The spec looks ok, I am unsure if your cooler will come with the correct brackets!

With the Corsair RAM you might run into issues were the heatsink may interfere with the cpu cooler, you might need to look at memory with low profile coolers.
 
Good point regarding the memory, I was going with the corsair as it was on offer. I will have to have a look for some low profile as even the Ninja was above my memory on the current PC.
 
1. Is the Power supply OK or should I just out that? not looking to do SLI as I know it wont do that.

Yes, PSU is good.

2. The Ninja is 3 years old so not the latest. I have to dig out the box in the loft to see if it has an LGA1155 mount bracket as I currently have the LGA 775 fitted. Again should I keep or ditch? I plan to over-clock to 4.4 to 4.6 GHz.

How about this, you can opt for a different GFX card when the new one is released:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £371.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £87.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366, AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / 754 / 939 / 940) £41.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £6.98
Total : £805.31 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
jpod said:
1. Is the Power supply OK or should I just out that? not looking to do SLI as I know it wont do that.

Yes, PSU is good.

2. The Ninja is 3 years old so not the latest. I have to dig out the box in the loft to see if it has an LGA1155 mount bracket as I currently have the LGA 775 fitted. Again should I keep or ditch? I plan to over-clock to 4.4 to 4.6 GHz.

How about this, you can opt for a different GFX card when the new one is released:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £371.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT064M4SSD2) £87.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.38
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366, AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / 754 / 939 / 940) £41.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £34.99
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £6.98
Total : £805.31 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Click to expand...

WHY pay best part of £400 for a graphics card with the new cards out in just a few days?

no need for extra tim as some already comes with the cooler
 
*** re-read the post. The gfx card is in there to allocate some £ for that part of the budget.

'How about this, you can opt for a different GFX card when the new one is released:'

** No need for that **

Isn't the AMD 7970 gonna be better than a GTX 580?
Dawg there is a budget of £800 here so I have suggested a GFX card within budget.

As the OP suggests the £ of alternatives may fall with the release of the new card and IMO the GTX580 would be a good candidate.

Will it be better? Depends what you mean by better? I guess it is price versus performance gain in gaming terms. You need to critically appraise the benchmarks and look at what is available at each price mark and decide for yourself if its better.

Here you go Dawg have a read http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/12/22/amd-radeon-hd-7970-3gb-review/10
 
Last edited:
All,

Thanks for your replies. I have used them and some other input from other threads to come up with a list of the following components that I have just ordered.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £154.99
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £46.99
IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) IC Diamond 24-Carat Thermal Compound (4.8g) £14.99


Total : £590.33


On checking last night up in the loft I could not find the original box for the Ninja fan so thus have no mounting bracket. I therefore decided rightly or wrongly, but after a chat with a friend at work to get the Antec Kuhler H20, he’s getting great quite results from his PC. Plus this means that the height of the memory should not be an issue.

I removed the fans as my case already has 3 Scythe fans that I brought with the case 3 years back, as they are very quiet and have cleaned up perfectly I will see how they go to start with.

I upgraded the SSD as after yet more reading I think that 64GB would have been a bit small for me. Data is no issue due to other SATA drives but having the OS and games on the SSD should speed things up a bit.

Yes I agree that I probably don’t need to buy the Diamond thermal as I probably have enough arctic silver etc laying around and most probably will get some more thermal with the heatsink but I have seen good reviews and will be re building my old system parts to form a PC for the wife so having had to take the Scythe fan off to get at the 8pin power connector on the old board I will use it to build both PC's :)

As to the GPU. I will wait, I have waited long enough for the upgrade that a month or two longer on my Nvidia 8800GTS (yer shocking I know) means I might get a bargain, and then again I might not. But either way I will have given myself the best chance, not to mention another payday where I might be able to wiggle a bit more for the new card. ;)

Once again thanks to everyone who took the time to comment, your input has been very helpful in pushing me in the right direction. As usual by reading and listening I have ended up with something slightly different than I would have got and probably a bit better for it.
Thanks

Steve
 
oh forgot to mention that the asrock mb has mounting hole for skt775 as well as 1155/1156(they're the same) so you could reuse your current cooler for the time being, if not happy with the temps then can get a new cooler. tho saying that it's prob best to get it up and running the first time and not having to mess around at a later date :)

not sure on your case but with cases with a cutout in the motherboard tray behind the CPU socket area it makes it much easier to change the cooler, means you don't have to remove the motherboard to remove/change the back plate.
 
Oh darn. If I had seen this post before I ordered late last night I might have run with the Scythe Fan and not brought the H20.

Never mind, I will try both :), which ever is best for my setup I will keep on new PC and use the other on wifes ;)

I was going to use the standard retail fan that I had for the Q6600 for the wife's but now it seems I have a choice lol
 
*** re-read the post. The gfx card is in there to allocate some £ for that part of the budget.

'How about this, you can opt for a different GFX card when the new one is released:'

** No need for that **

Mr Fowler please accept my apology if I caused offence, that was not my motivation, I was only winding you up as per usual, kind regards jpod
 
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