New CPU motherboard bundle recommendations

[Fisher]

Hey guys, I've never been that tech savy, even after excessive research, so I was wondering if you guys could give me some recommendations.

My rig:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Processor o/c to 3.6 GHz from 3GHz
RAM: 8GB
System type: Windows 7 64 bit
PSU: 750w
GPU: MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3

and I'm looking for a CPU and motherboard upgrade, something which should handle the total war games pretty nicely (shogun 2 mainly) but also hopefully handle the future RomeII (I know its incredibly early and difficult to tell how it will). From what I understand, Total war games aren't great for their multi-core optimization, so it would have to be pretty powerful using just, say, two cores. Again, I'm not very tech savy, so please feel free to correct me.

I have a £500 budget.

At the moment I'm looking at a bundle consisting of:
Intel core I5 - 3570K o/c to 4.5GHz
16GB Corsair DDR3 Memory
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Motherboard
3 Years Warranty

for £469.99 inc VAT.

Do you guys think this is a good choice, or would you recommend something else?

 

[SkeeterUK]

Hmm, you could do:

3570k (£150-170 ish) 4.5ghz oc with a £30-£40 quid cooler or £45 quid water cooling setup like antec h20 620.
8gb ddr3 1600mhz should be enough (£35 ish)
Gigabyte Z77 - D3H - £78-82 ish

£332 ish. Sell your old gfx card and put the rest to a decent gfx card which i believe ocuk are selling some at a nice price atm.

My 2p worth anyhow since im moving atm from a q6600 to a i5 3570k setup for around £300 ish i.e mb, cpu, ram and cooler. Would like to update my 460 1gb card but im sure it will be fine till i can save a bit of money again and then sell it on mm and maybe spend a little money together with what i got for my card for a 560ti for example.

 

[HankScorpio]

Any reason you need 16gb RAM ?

Someone in another thread said they rendered a 100gb video file overnight and it only ever peaked at 9gb usage. Think 8gb is a good call.

 

[Fisher]

Hmm, you could do:

3570k (£150-170 ish) 4.5ghz oc with a £30-£40 quid cooler or £45 quid water cooling setup like antec h20 620.
8gb ddr3 1600mhz should be enough (£35 ish)
Gigabyte Z77 - D3H - £78-82 ish

£332 ish. Sell your old gfx card and put the rest to a decent gfx card which i believe ocuk are selling some at a nice price atm.

My 2p worth anyhow since im moving atm from a q6600 to a i5 3570k setup for around £300 ish i.e mb, cpu, ram and cooler. Would like to update my 460 1gb card but im sure it will be fine till i can save a bit of money again and then sell it on mm and maybe spend a little money together with what i got for my card for a 560ti for example.

Any reason you need 16gb RAM ?

Someone in another thread said they rendered a 100gb video file overnight and it only ever peaked at 9gb usage. Think 8gb is a good call.

I just saw the RAM as a bonus to be honest. However, you might be right.

So you are both saying I should go for the individuals to save money? If so, do you have any trusted sites good for CPU's and motherboards?

Also, do you think the pairing of that motherboard and that CPU is good?

 

[SkeeterUK]

The pairing of the mb and cpu, if you mean what i suggested i.e gigabyte z77-d3h with 3570k then yeah because as you see below ocuk sell gaming overclocked bundles with that combo and many sites and reviews use the combo too so yeah a nice match. If you mean the one you listed the GA-Z77X-D3H, im sure it would be fine yes but i will let others vouch for that as not 100% sure on it.

Ocuk do some reasonably priced bundles.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2053&subid=2288&sortby=priceAsc


"Krypton Z77 665i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, MSI Z77A-G43 DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock £389.98
(£324.98)

THIS WEEK ONLY OFFER
"Krypton Z77 670i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Asus P8Z77-V LX DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock
£431.96
£407.96
(£339.97)


"Krypton Z77 660i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Gigabyte Z77-D3H DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
Gigabyte 10+ in stock £409.97
(£341.64)


Krypton Z77 TURBO Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.20GHz DDR3 Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.20GHz, Gigabyte Z77-D3H DDR3 Motherboard, Kingston HyperX Blue 4GB 1600MHz C9, Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock £359.99
(£299.99)


The last one would be suitable if u can get them to bump the ram to 8gb. They did have one of these on offer not long ago for 360ish which was reasonable i think that was the 660i one.

Getting the parts yourself and building it yourself might be cheaper and more fun and rewarding plus you can customise the parts better to suit your needs but if you prefer to take the guess work out then one of the bundles above should suit. Then like i said, sell ur old gfx card and then with the rest of the money you have left out of the 500 budget and with the money from sale of the card, grab one of them amd special deals atm ocuk are having i hear one of them 7xxx range ones is tasty at a nice price for performance. Personally im a nvidia fan so i would be waiting for a nvidia cheap deal but thats me.

Oh and about your psu. It is 500w, i am not 100% sure but that might need a upgrade to something like 600w or better for what your planning, like i said im not 100% sure tho but something to ask about with ppl who know if the setup ur planning will do for that psu or u need a better one or not.

 

[opethdisciple]

Looking at the specs of your old computer, I would actually wait untill Haswell or the new round of AMD CPU's.

The only component I see fit in your current set up to upgrade would be the gpu.

Something like a 7970 or a GTX 670 would be nice.

Yes the cpu would not get the most out of those gpu's but I dont think your Phenom is for the knackers yard yet.

Try and over clock it further, I say. Aim for 4Ghz.

 

[Fisher]

The pairing of the mb and cpu, if you mean what i suggested i.e gigabyte z77-d3h with 3570k then yeah because as you see below ocuk sell gaming overclocked bundles with that combo and many sites and reviews use the combo too so yeah a nice match. If you mean the one you listed the GA-Z77X-D3H, im sure it would be fine yes but i will let others vouch for that as not 100% sure on it.

Ocuk do some reasonably priced bundles.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2053&subid=2288&sortby=priceAsc


"Krypton Z77 665i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, MSI Z77A-G43 DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock £389.98
(£324.98)

THIS WEEK ONLY OFFER
"Krypton Z77 670i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Asus P8Z77-V LX DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock
£431.96
£407.96
(£339.97)


"Krypton Z77 660i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Gigabyte Z77-D3H DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
Gigabyte 10+ in stock £409.97
(£341.64)


Krypton Z77 TURBO Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.20GHz DDR3 Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.20GHz, Gigabyte Z77-D3H DDR3 Motherboard, Kingston HyperX Blue 4GB 1600MHz C9, Prolimatech Panther CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock £359.99
(£299.99)


The last one would be suitable if u can get them to bump the ram to 8gb. They did have one of these on offer not long ago for 360ish which was reasonable i think that was the 660i one.

Getting the parts yourself and building it yourself might be cheaper and more fun and rewarding plus you can customise the parts better to suit your needs but if you prefer to take the guess work out then one of the bundles above should suit. Then like i said, sell ur old gfx card and then with the rest of the money you have left out of the 500 budget and with the money from sale of the card, grab one of them amd special deals atm ocuk are having i hear one of them 7xxx range ones is tasty at a nice price for performance. Personally im a nvidia fan so i would be waiting for a nvidia cheap deal but thats me.

Oh and about your psu. It is 500w, i am not 100% sure but that might need a upgrade to something like 600w or better for what your planning, like i said im not 100% sure tho but something to ask about with ppl who know if the setup ur planning will do for that psu or u need a better one or not.

Thanks for the advice. I actually posted the wrong PSU, I have a 750w, so I don't think that'll be too much of a problem. As for the GPU, I think I might want to move away from AMD, so maybe I'll also wait for an nvidia deal.

Looking at the specs of your old computer, I would actually wait untill Haswell or the new round of AMD CPU's.

The only component I see fit in your current set up to upgrade would be the gpu.

Something like a 7970 or a GTX 670 would be nice.

Yes the cpu would not get the most out of those gpu's but I dont think your Phenom is for the knackers yard yet.

Try and over clock it further, I say. Aim for 4Ghz.

I've tried, but I've heard from people that my motherboard is not great at supporting overclocks (voltage increase), that it might make the system unstable. 3.6GHz is the highest I can reach without altering the voltages. When I go into the bios, there is an "optimized CPU overclocking" setting, which would enable me to get to 4GHz at 35%. I'm guessing the 35% is the increase in voltage.

The person said:

"Revert all overclocking to stock settings. Your mother board has a 4 + 1 power phase and cant handle overclocking well. You are lucky as it is and can possibly ruin other hardware. Get a 8 + 1 power phase motherboard if you want to overclock heavily. A 970 series or better."

However, I'm not sure if this is reliable, as it came from a Battlefield 3 forum.

Do you know if this is true? If it isn't then I'll get straight on overclocking to 4GHz.

 

[SkeeterUK]

I think the asus p7z77v-lx is a 4+1 phase and that can overclock a 3570k to around 4.5ghz i believe.

My motherboard i bought the gigabyte z77-d3h is 6 phased iirc and that does 4.5 or more i believe.

So based on 4+1 phase thing, it could be able to overclock ok. But for amd im not really sure but i cant see there being much diff for overclocking based on phased alone between the two types.

 

[Fisher]

I think the asus p7z77v-lx is a 4+1 phase and that can overclock a 3570k to around 4.5ghz i believe.

My motherboard i bought the gigabyte z77-d3h is 6 phased iirc and that does 4.5 or more i believe.

So based on 4+1 phase thing, it could be able to overclock ok. But for amd im not really sure but i cant see there being much diff for overclocking based on phased alone between the two types.

Ok, so overclock to 4GHz, and watch for instability?

 

[SkeeterUK]

Should be easy enough, read the guides im sure theres a few about or make a topic of ur own in the overclocking section of the forums. Generally tho u just up the multi and see how it goes in prime, if the temps and stability are ok then go a bit more when u get errors or bsod add a touch of vcore and try again untill ur happy with where u are and temps wise and volt wise. Unless its a bit more involved with amd.

As long as u can manage to make it so only ur cpu is overclocked and not ur ram or other things like pci stuff and all that, like with intels u dont adjust the BLCK or whatever it is only the multi, as the BLCK is for a lot of things not just the cpu afaik.

Also google "1075T overclock guide" it might show a few topics at various forums which may help.

 

[Fisher]

Should be easy enough, read the guides im sure theres a few about or make a topic of ur own in the overclocking section of the forums. Generally tho u just up the multi and see how it goes in prime, if the temps and stability are ok then go a bit more when u get errors or bsod add a touch of vcore and try again untill ur happy with where u are and temps wise and volt wise. Unless its a bit more involved with amd.

As long as u can manage to make it so only ur cpu is overclocked and not ur ram or other things like pci stuff and all that, like with intels u dont adjust the BLCK or whatever it is only the multi, as the BLCK is for a lot of things not just the cpu afaik.

Also google "1075T overclock guide" it might show a few topics at various forums which may help.

After reading up on it, I think I'm going to leave it alone. I don't want to meddle with something I'm not 100% sure about, at the risk of my system. So, I think I'll be looking at pre-overclocked CPUs, so that I don't have to touch it. Thanks anyway though.

 

[Fisher]

Ok, I've decided to go with pre-overclocked CPU bundles, to be safe. Note, I already have a heatsink. It's between:


(1). 3XS Smart - Intel Core i5 3570K - Overclocked to 4.5Ghz

4.5GHz overclock
Intel core i5 3570K, Ivy Bridge, 3.4GHz, Quad Core, 6MB cache (£147.17)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 CPU Cooler - Quiet Cooler (£15.98)
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H, Intel Z77 Chipset (£65.77)
4Gb Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600MHz (£19.40)

£334.30 inc VAT

(2). 3XS Radius - Intel Core i5 3570K - Overclocked to 4.5Ghz

The same, except:

Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced - Performance CPU cooler! (£34.14)
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, Intel Z77 Chipset (£85.77)
8Gb Corsair Vengeance LP, DDR3, 1600MHz (23.33)

£396.24 inc VAT

(3). 3XS Nanu - Intel Core i5 3570K - Overclocked to 4.5Ghz

The same as (2). except:

Asus Maximus V Gene-Z, Gen3, Intel Z77 Chipset ($124.77)

£440.64 inc VAT

(4). Elite Ares II Overclocked Motherboard Bundle

Intel 3570K o/c to 4.5GHz
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H Motherboard
16GB Corsair DDR3 Memory
3 Years Warranty

£469.99 inc VAT

(5).

Krypton Z77 665i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, MSI Z77A-G43 DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock

£389.98 inc VAT

(6).

THIS WEEK ONLY OFFER
"Krypton Z77 670i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Asus P8Z77-V LX DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
OcUK Extreme 10+ in stock

£407.96 inc VAT

(7).

"Krypton Z77 660i" Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Ivybridge Overclocked Bundle
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz @ 4.40GHz, Gigabyte Z77-D3H DDR3 Motherboard, Samsung Green 8GB 1600MHz C11, Prolimatech Megahalem CPU Cooler
Gigabyte 10+ in stock

£409.97 inc VAT



Could you please give me your opinion as to which would yield the best performance, and which is the best value for money?
(please don't take the RAM into account)

I'm not using this as a way to skimp out on research (trust me), but I'd value your opinions on the matter, so thank you for your time in advance.