Up to £500 to spend on upgrades - thanks Santa

duncb

duncb

duncb

Associate
Joined
25 Oct 2011
Posts
11
Hi folks and Happy Christmas to you

Following a nice Christmas bonus I have about 400-500 pounds to spend on my computer so looking for some help on upgrading.

Current spec is:
SST SUGO SG06BB-450w SFF Mini Case
Intel Core i3 2100 s1155
Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 Memory
250GB WD SATA2 RE3
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6670 1024MB
Samsung SN-208BB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVDąRW SATA Drive

I used to play a little Call of Duty but increasingly I'm playing with photos and videos more than games!

I would like to change the case from the Sugo and really like the BitFenix Prodigy, plus more storage is a must although I have a 2tb NAS the PC is always out of space.

So I was thinking of a Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98

The new case:
BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99

Something like a Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 2 520w '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £80.99

A CD drive which will fit the case:
OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99

Is the above PSU and HD ok? That would leave me about £250 so what would that be best spent on out of...
More Ram?
New Processor?
Grahics Card?
SSD?

So many choices! Thank you for any help you can offer
Duncan
 
Well you have an ITX mobo so the prodigy is a nice choice, it a great case. I have one for my server and its simple and beautiful.

Also a good choice on the HDD i would say.

I would personally look for a corsair/XFX/seasonic PSU for reliability. Personally i would wait for Corsairs modular builder series to be in stock as i expect them to be amazing bang for buck. CORSAIR BUILDER SERIES 500W

If you feel you need more RAM then now is a decent time to buy. You can get 8GB for pennies almost. Kingston Hyper X Grey 8GB 2x4GB Kit

I would like to recommend a 2500k and a small customer cooler like freezer pro 7 but i dont think you can OC on the h67 chipset. Here is a basket of what i might buy:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £131.99
1 x Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 2.5" 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3A-B) £81.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £452.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Upgrade to i7 and more RAM would be good for Video editing. You'd be better getting a new mobo too though but I can't fit it in the budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £69.95
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £506.40 (includes shipping : £11.25).



A good mobo:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
Total : £107.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

 
R-evans said:
Upgrade to i7 and more RAM would be good for Video editing. You'd be better getting a new mobo too though but I can't fit it in the budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £69.95
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £506.40 (includes shipping : £11.25).



A good mobo:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
Total : £107.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

Click to expand...

That chip wont fit in his board its for sandybridge extreme

EDIT- you should be able to pick up a i5 2500K for not much over a hundred quid. that would be a great upgrade as its a fantastic bang for buck chip for that platform
 
Last edited:
 
Roverno said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £131.99
1 x Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 2.5" 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3A-B) £81.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £72.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £64.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £452.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...
This, but with a 2GB version of the 7850. You could have course get an i5 or i7, but the i3 is suitable for the time being. It also depends on how much you would get for it.
 
LukieBoy007 said:
This, but with a 2GB version of the 7850. You could have course get an i5 or i7, but the i3 is suitable for the time being. It also depends on how much you would get for it.
Click to expand...

But as he said he works with videos/photos more than games, surely an i7 is far more benificial than a GPU?
 
Many thanks all swift replies!

After doing a bit of reading about photo work I've gone for the i7 for now and leaving a new Graphics Card for a later date (maybe with that new MB mentioned).

Happy New Year to you all and thank you :-)
 
duncb said:
Many thanks all swift replies!

After doing a bit of reading about photo work I've gone for the i7 for now and leaving a new Graphics Card for a later date (maybe with that new MB mentioned).

Happy New Year to you all and thank you :-)
Click to expand...

Glad your happy

Happy new year to you mate :)
 
I think so R-evans. I did some surfing and for Photo and Video work the i7 comes out well reviewed. I have a small SSD in my laptop so also thinking about swapping that back to the hard disk it came with and using it as a drive for the OS. In the end I spent just over £530 - I'm pretty sure this forum is just part of Overclockers plan to separate me from my money :-)
 
Yeah for video editing/encoding the i7 will be beneficial. The main reason to not go for an i7 over an i5 is for people using their machines primarily for gaming, as the hyperthreading provides no use to gaming performance. But for video and photo work, the i7 will prove it's worth. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom