best base kit for £300

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
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Location
Stoke area
Hey,

Xmas coming up and my aging PC is really starting to struggle.

AMD 4400+ X2 64
2gb RAM
Asus a8n-SLI deluxe mobo
2 x 8800 GTs


Now, it's been good to me for the last 6-7ish years and cost a fair whack back then to build, still plays games like Dishonored etc but with some games + photo editing in PS I think it's time for an upgrade.

So, mobo, cpu, ram + cooler if needed, budget is around £300 then I can add new gfx cards, SSD at later dates. Any suggestions?
 
LukieBoy007 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Total : £304.97 (includes shipping : FREE).



If you could stretch an extra £30 or so, you could fit it a decent cooler now if you wanted to.
Click to expand...

Motherboard supports SLI in x16 x4 but not x8 x8, which is better....

So..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Avexir MPower Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CM) £29.99
Total : £339.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
thanks for the suggestions.

Tbh when I upgrade it'll probably be to a single top graphics card so SLI won't be that important and the extra £30 is a cooler. Will be looking in to the both of them however and seeing which is best :)
 
nice one, current case is a old Cooler Master Centurion.

Sli isn't a big deal, I can't say I've noticed an increase when using it with these 2 cards anyway, they were just on offer and I wanted to play :p
 
In a position to order this now:
LukieBoy007 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Total : £304.97 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...


Quick daft question, cpu come with a stock heatsink? last one I purchased didn't. Don't want to be stuck hanging around.

I might actually overclock this as well so i'm kind of leaning towards water cooling. Is it simple enough to by a basic £50 kit and go from there? or maybe something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-TL&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262

I know nothing next to nothing about cooling systems.
 
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I'd get a basic air cooler. Something like the Matterhorn Pure will give you plenty of headroom for 25% overclock without breaking the bank.

The water cooling unit you linked doesn't have a fan, although theoretically if your case already has a 120mm fan at the back, it should be a simple matter of slapping that fan on the radiator (would not be great, as those fans are usually poor and not very good static pressure). Although again, I'd keep it simple and just get a air cooler.

The kit (3570K, XMS3, Z77-D3H) is a solid choice. I would also stay away from SLI / Crossfire, unless you really mean it (triple display gaming, benchmarking, ect...).
 
thanks, yeah I've got at least 2 akasa fans currently running on the cooler I have and are great so I am tempted.

yes, have no intention of running SLI in the new one, I'll keep 1 8800gt in this one and turn it into a spare pc and run another 8800gt on the new setup and save up to buy a new one along with SSD, a few 3tb harddrive and a decent sound card
 
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