£300 Upgrade

uksoldierboy · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:09

Hiya all,
Recently got myself a Gigabyte 7970 ghz edition which is great, Its very quick but....
my problem now is the rest of my rig i think is holding me back (see sig)
I have a budget of £300 to spend on upgrading it, also have 8gb of Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz so i can reuse that.
The only other thing that worries me is that i did want to reuse my Arctic Freezer 13 pro but i feel it may not be up to the job of cooling I5 etc if i move to intel, which at the moment, is the plan.
So you have £300 to spend on getting me the best performance possible.
Thanks to all those that help.
Only play games like BF3, hitman, Farcry3 etc.

snips86x · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:12

I'm in the same boat and this is what I would do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £304.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

You could wait for the next gen Intel chips?

On the Cooler front, I'd push a little more cash and get one of these:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £61.99
1 x Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans (Socket LGA2011) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £57.98
1 x Prolimatech Blue Megahalems CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £52.99
Total : £314.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

[WU-TANG]GZA · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:13

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
Total : £304.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

uksoldierboy · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:14

Cheers snips, that looks good

,
What the Mobo like though, i'll dig around of some review.

uksoldierboy · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:16

[WU-TANG]GZA;23682385 said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
Total : £304.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Looks good too TANG, only problem is i'm gonna need a cooler too

snips86x · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:18

uksoldierboy said:
Cheers snips, that looks good ,
What the Mobo like though, i'll dig around of some review.

The mobo is a great budget board which has been given great reviews & an award.

http://www.kitguru.net/components/motherboard/zardon/gigabyte-ga-z77-d3h-motherboard-packs-a-punch-at-80/21/

uksoldierboy · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:19

snips86x said:
I'm in the same boat and this is what I would do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £304.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

You could wait for the next gen Intel chips?

On the Cooler front, I'd push a little more cash and get one of these:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £61.99
1 x Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler with PWM Fans (Socket LGA2011) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £57.98
1 x Prolimatech Blue Megahalems CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £52.99
Total : £314.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

What would be the best cooler? looking to overclock as much as i can

lee32uk · 2 Feb 2013 at 19:25

uksoldierboy said:
What would be the best cooler? looking to overclock as much as i can

Out of them I would say the Phanteks or Silver Arrow. Just make sure it will fit in your case before you buy it.

[WU-TANG]GZA · 3 Feb 2013 at 13:13

uksoldierboy said:
Looks good too TANG, only problem is i'm gonna need a cooler too

Was going on the basis that your current CPU cooler will still do a job. Just not as good as the coolers above.

If it was me, I'd get the better mobo and upgrade the cooler when you have another £30-£60. Just don't overclock the i5 too much with the Arctic Freezer (it doesn't need to be overclocked to the max straight away, it won't bottleneck you).

snips86x · 3 Feb 2013 at 13:22

[WU-TANG]GZA;23685384 said:
Was going on the basis that your current CPU cooler will still do a job. Just not as good as the coolers above.

If it was me, I'd get the better mobo and upgrade the cooler when you have another £30-£60. Just don't overclock the i5 too much with the Arctic Freezer (it doesn't need to be overclocked to the max straight away, it won't bottleneck you).

I prefer that board too, that would definitely be my route!

uksoldierboy · 3 Feb 2013 at 16:50

[WU-TANG]GZA;23685384 said:
Was going on the basis that your current CPU cooler will still do a job. Just not as good as the coolers above.

If it was me, I'd get the better mobo and upgrade the cooler when you have another £30-£60. Just don't overclock the i5 too much with the Arctic Freezer (it doesn't need to be overclocked to the max straight away, it won't bottleneck you).

Cheers Tang,
i should be able to reuse the arctic as i still have the different brackets etc that it came with, i don't think its a bad cooler really, the only problem with it is it's orientation.
The fan faces downwards towards the GPU, which is obviously a problem with the heat rising from it. Is it possible to position the fan a different way?

snips86x said:
I prefer that board too, that would definitely be my route!

Sounds like a plan then

can't wait till friday now to get this lovely bundle ordered! should see i a nice improvement i hope switching.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 3 Feb 2013 at 16:55

The OP has a decent AM3+ motherboard - perhaps an overclocked FX8320 or FX8350 might do OK too??

snips86x · 3 Feb 2013 at 16:58

uksoldierboy said:
Cheers Tang,
i should be able to reuse the arctic as i still have the different brackets etc that it came with, i don't think its a bad cooler really, the only problem with it is it's orientation.
The fan faces downwards towards the GPU, which is obviously a problem with the heat rising from it. Is it possible to position the fan a different way?

Same here! Do you have a case with a top exhaust?

That should do a pretty good job of removing the hot air from the cooler.

dave_beast · 3 Feb 2013 at 16:58

snips86x said:
I'm in the same boat and this is what I would do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £304.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

This, but change out the cooler for the CM Hyper 212 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-CM&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2341

This cooled my i7-2600k up to 5.6ghz on benchmarking when I used to air cool my cpu, beast of a cooler.

uksoldierboy · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:09

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The OP has a decent AM3+ motherboard - perhaps an overclocked FX8320 or FX8350 might do OK too??

I had thought about this too, but it seems everyone i've spoken to about it mentions that for gaming, which is the sole purpose of my rig, the I5 3750k wipes the floor with it.
It's a shame as would have saved me quite a bit of cash.

snips86x said:
Same here! Do you have a case with a top exhaust?

That should do a pretty good job of removing the hot air from the cooler.

I'm using a CM STORM ENFORCER, Cooling setup at the moment is 200mm intake at the front, Bitfelix Spectre pro 200mm on top as intake also and a bitfelix spectre pro 120mm at the back exhausting.

dave_beast said:
This, but change out the cooler for the CM Hyper 212 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-035-CM&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2341

This cooled my i7-2600k up to 5.6ghz on benchmarking when I used to air cool my cpu, beast of a cooler.

Sounds good, i'll look at some reviews.

linwelin · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:11

uksoldierboy said:
Looks good too TANG, only problem is i'm gonna need a cooler too

if you're not planning on overclocking don't bother with a cooler, the standard cooler is good, and quiet.

uksoldierboy · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:12

linwelin said:
if you're not planning on overclocking don't bother with a cooler, the standard cooler is good, and quiet.

I do plan on overclocking so think i'll be needing a cooler

snips86x · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:12

uksoldierboy said:
*snip
I'm using a CM STORM ENFORCER, Cooling setup at the moment is 200mm intake at the front, Bitfelix Spectre pro 200mm on top as intake also and a bitfelix spectre pro 120mm at the back exhausting.
.

Change the top as an exhaust instead of an intake, you'd be surprised the difference it makes. I was impressed with the case & CPU temp when I changed mine in my 600T.

I got a ambient temp reduction of 3deg and almost 5 on the CPU.

uksoldierboy · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:17

Rgr that i'll change it over first thing tomorrow, thanks snips

harshuk · 3 Feb 2013 at 17:21

I think the coolermaster 212 evo cpu cooler would be good for you as im sure it will allow you to use your corsair vengeance in slots 1 and 3 which would allow for additional ram to be added in future.