spec me and/or diagnose me

DreadNiK

DreadNiK

DreadNiK

Associate
Joined
20 Mar 2006
Posts
692
so my pc has stopped booting, it was hard crashing in games, I started diagnosis and at one point set everything back to stock, and it now powers on for about a second or two, turns off for a few seconds, and repeats. I've swapped out memory and gfx, vacuumed it out, reset cmos repeatedly, taken out battery and put back in, no luck. Could be PSU but in my experience those go with a bang and PC goes completely dead (never to me though). So I think it is the mobo or the cpu, and I suspect the cpu.

I checked my order date for my cpu and realised my e6750 was coming up on 5 years on a fairly decent OC, which I guess might also have put some strain on the motherboard.

Anyway, I'm clearly due an upgrade of mobo and cpu, and I will likely be following it up with a gfx upgrade (from rad 5750 toxic). It is looking like I'm going to be getting a decent payrise soon making money not an issue, but until that is actually confirmed I don't want to go too OTT with it, so I figure I just want a solid platform I can build on.

I think a decent IB or SB with a decent air cooler (unless you think my arctic freezer pro 7 has still got game), and a decent mobo that will allow for SLI later on, and great ram, just to get me back up and running.

So someone needs to talk me out of the expensive gigabyte sniper board that seems to be the only one with the CA2010k (or whatever) latest Creative onboard chip, as I think creative make fantastic sound processors with great features (I was probably one of the first people with a x-fi hometheater hd at great expense), and also out of Crucial Ballistix Tracer top range ram as I just love how cool they look in my case, however I think they might have limited my OC/stability.

And the whole ib/sb range confuses the hell out of me, as do the socket types (i've been out of touch)...the 3570k seems like the way to go but the 3770k isn't all that much more expensive to me...

I'm planning to get a gtx 680 once my job stuff is confirmed, and then potentially doubling it up later to go super high rez and/or multimonitor or 3d, long time nvidia fan but currently on a radeon and have found their drivers especially for multi setups a bit annoying

runnings two ssds and have a nzxt apollo case, and corsair 520w so think just mobo, cpu and ram swapout will work for now.

How can you tell when an SSD is running out of life? My first SSD must be nearly 3 years old...
 
Hi :)

So, what sort of budget do you have for the motherboard/CPU/RAM? Do you have a 64bit OS? Is this just for gaming?

For the SSD, there's a program SSD Life that should give you an idea of the state of your SSD.
 
I'd say budget of £500, but can flex a bit, happy to be persuaded that I don't need the g1 sniper 2 z68 mobo just because it has built in top range x-fi (but I figure then I save the money on a soundcard, and dont have to have another card in the mobo)

it is pretty much just for gaming. got windows 7 64bit pro retail

I'm currently thinking:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-404-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-143-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat= (doubling up later), prefer orange/blue to red/green as am red/green colourblind

comes to 550. not sure if my current cooler would fit this cpu but then i have the stock cooler for the moment anyway as its retail. I think my corsair hx 520w should cope until I upgrade my graphics card (currently 5750 toxic)

EDIT: just saw
Idleman said:
You may want to upgrade your Psu, when you get the 680, especially if your thinking sli.
Click to expand...
yes, I am planning to

I imagine people might tell me I want a z77 board that is cheaper (but no x-fi hd onboard so would want to be buying one at some point) and the samsung green memory that is clearly better but doesn't look as cool (not even any heatspreaders on it?!) which could get the price well below £500
 
so the more budget option would be:

Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor -
Gigabyte Z77- G1-Sniper M3 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung Green 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US)
Total : £345.32


which is about £200 cheaper, would potentially have me wanting a soundcard at some point although the onboard would be alright for a while, and it is sandy not ivy, and a matx board even tho I don't need it to be. also assumes the freezer pro 7 will still fit this cpu which I believe it will
 
DreadNiK said:
so the more budget option would be:

Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor -
Gigabyte Z77- G1-Sniper M3 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Samsung Green 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US)
Total : £345.32


which is about £200 cheaper, would potentially have me wanting a soundcard at some point although the onboard would be alright for a while, and it is sandy not ivy, and a matx board even tho I don't need it to be. also assumes the freezer pro 7 will still fit this cpu which I believe it will
Click to expand...

The SB i5 2550K has a dead IGP, i.e it's a faulty 2500K. So no intel quick sync or onboard gfx (helps for troubleshooting trust me). It should be a lot cheaper for what it is. The i5K ivybridge is £10 more than the SB i5K. It uses less power, is clocked ever so slightly higher and has a better IGP over sandybridge.

The Z77 mobos have PCI-Express 3 slots but need an ivybridge CPU for that to work. THe Z77 also has lucid MVP to increase framerates in games, so the Z68 is now defunct
 
Last edited:
If it has socket 1155 or 1156 brackets it will :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £35.99
Total : £493.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Then you've got a PSU for SLI, and a motherboard good for SLI too. A better cooler to get a nice OC out of the i5
 
ah ok, just noticed the pci 3.0 thing but didn't know that about the 2550k...yes i definitely appreciate the diagnostic assistance of onboard gfx.

so will go pci 3.0 board and ivy, considering i will gfx upgrade most likely to 680 or will hold off for a short while
 
DreadNiK said:
ah ok, just noticed the pci 3.0 thing but didn't know that about the 2550k...yes i definitely appreciate the diagnostic assistance of onboard gfx.

so will go pci 3.0 board and ivy, considering i will gfx upgrade most likely to 680 or will hold off for a short while
Click to expand...

You'll probably find stock is an issue. I can already see the decent high end Z77 mobos going out of stock quick. We have told a lot of people to hold off for Ivybridge so there is going to be an initial supply and demand issue.
 
beejjacobs said:
If it has socket 1155 or 1156 brackets it will :)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £134.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £35.99
Total : £493.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Then you've got a PSU for SLI, and a motherboard good for SLI too. A better cooler to get a nice OC out of the i5
Click to expand...

cheers

ok so for the moment im just concentrating on the basic platform - if im going 3570k then i dont need cooler right away as can use retail if my afp7 don't fit, and i'm sticking with current gfx card until/if i get my payrise.

any reason for the corsair ram over the samsung? and would i want to potentially raise the budget on that mobo and get something a bit nicer or is it all much of a muchness? I've been reading for example there's no reason to worry about getting a 16x/16x sli capable mobo as there's no or hardly any gain even at high rez and multimonitor

I will need one that can have SLI and still have a pci-e x1 slot for a x-fi hd card too, looks like that one should cope
 
That one does SLI at 8x/8x which is plenty. It also has two 1x slots you can still use while SLIing. You can spend more if you like, if I was to spend more I'd get this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-388-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261
But its out of stock :(

Only because Corsair are a reliable brand who've been making RAM for a while!

The reason I specced what I did, was because you get more than you asked for in the budget, which allows for your future upgrades and a good OC on the i5
 
The corsair RAM is cheaper and has better timings i do believe if you check. If you want to Xfire/SLI then make sure it's a full sized ATX mobo not a m-atx. The smaller mobo will most likely lose the x1 PCI-E slot once the 2nd GPU is dropped in and to be fair they will get warm being so snug together.

Like i said expect to see stock go quick! You might see the m-atx mobos and get tempted simply as they are available.

p.s Hey Beej :)
 
Hey Hono!

Better motherboard [as above] no cooler for now:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £96.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £39.95
Total : £492.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).



I'm thinking you might aswell get the PSU if you can afford it? If you've rather spend that extra on a motherboard you like the look of, why not! :)
 
yeh - ok so this is crystallising now - definitely going 3570k, and gigabyte z77 mobo (and the one you specced is the highest spec one in stock, might look elsewhere though) as I trust gigabyte boards, i'll probably give the samsung ram a whirl though as I generally love samsung products (although love my corsair ssd and psu too)

any disagreements?
 
DreadNiK said:
yeh - ok so this is crystallising now - definitely going 3570k, and gigabyte z77 mobo (and the one you specced is the highest spec one in stock, might look elsewhere though) as I trust gigabyte boards, i'll probably give the samsung ram a whirl though as I generally love samsung products (although love my corsair ssd and psu too)

any disagreements?
Click to expand...

You know about free delivery right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom