i3-2120 to haswell upgrade

Jasseh · 6 Jul 2013 at 17:04

I'm planning to upgrade from my i3-2120 build to Haswell, hopefully by the end of August, and would like some opinions/advice please.

My current build is:

I have been gradually upgrading it since I built it with a £300 budget (although I overspent by £130) last year.

After upgrading to Haswell I won't be upgrading anything else for a while (at least a year if I can avoid it). My current plans for the Haswell upgrade are:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £187.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black £116.99
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (4g) £6.98
Total : £455.95 (includes shipping : £10.00).

The rest of the parts will be moved from my current build

I have a H100i ready to use with the new CPU, staying in the box for now as I don't think it is worth putting on my i3-2120.

Is that board a good choice? Is there a better board you would choose around the same price? (If so, why is it better?)
Also, is there anything else I should consider upgrading before I leave it alone? (Hopefully not)

I'm not likely to ever need SLI/Crossfire, I do intend to try overclock the CPU to around 4.5 (if I can).

snips86x · 6 Jul 2013 at 17:18

I would recommend this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £194.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £91.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K) £64
Total : £493.76 (includes shipping : £9.00).

This should give you a good few years and will allow xFire/SLI at x8/x8 but you have the option there if you need it.

ubersonic · 6 Jul 2013 at 18:43

He already has ram and an ssd

snips86x · 6 Jul 2013 at 18:45

ubersonic said:
He already has ram and an ssd

Oh yeah, missed the SSD.

Would recommend overclocking the RAM or selling it and getting something quicker.

Jasseh · 6 Jul 2013 at 19:43

snips86x said:
Oh yeah, missed the SSD.

Would recommend overclocking the RAM or selling it and getting something quicker.

When I upgraded to 16GB I had no use for any faster than 1600 (it is only running at 1333 because of the i3-2120) so went for the Geil Black Dragon kit, any idea how well it overclocks? (Not sure I'd be able to sell it for enough to justify switching.)

I've only had the Samsung SSD a week now, replaced a 60GB OCZ (this one seems much better already

)

That motherboard should be fine then?