Home PC Upgrade Help

CorrectHorseBattery

CorrectHorseBattery

CorrectHorseBattery

Mobster
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2012
Posts
13,179
Hi All,

I'm fed up with our home PC: it often freezes when simply browsing the web! Therefore, I'd like to upgrade it to something future-proof and FAST!

Here's what we use it for: LIGHT (very light) video editing, occasional HD video watching (e.g. on YouTube), lots of word processing.

Here are the current specs:

AMD Phenom II X2 550 CPU
2GB 800MHz RAM (DDR2)
Gigabyte GA-M68M-S2P Motherboard
Samsung 840 Evo 128GB SSD (recently upgraded to this and we are very happy with it - plenty of space for us so NO hard drive is required
Sapphire AMD HD 5450 GPU (also recently upgraded to - supports our two VGA monitors, so pretty happy with this - is it worth upgrading?)
Optorite DVD-RW/CD-RW burner (works fine, if a bit old - please note: this burner DOES NOT have a SATA connection, so please bare that in mind)
Corsair CX430M Modular PSU (just upgraded last week - REALLY, REALLY happy with it, I DO NOT want to change this)
NZXT ATX/Micro-ATX case (again very happy with it - I'd like to keep this)

I don't have a budget as such, but obviously don't go EXTREME, EXTREME. Please can you try and use as little money as possible?

I'm thinking Intel over AMD at this point, but I am open to be persuaded!

Thank you!
 
Last edited:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £61.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £60.00
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £26.99
Total : £316.97 (includes shipping : FREE).



Mobo is B grade but that's an awesome mobo for the price. It's Xfire/SLi capable but the same price as the B grade Z77-D3H which isn't ;)

CPU is OEM so shorter warranty (CPU failure is rare to be fair) and no stock cooler. If you have a decent one on your 550 (did you try unlocking it out of interest?) then you can drop the 212 heatsink perhaps
 
AlecR said:
Nope, crappy AMD one.

I did try unlocking it, but this MB doesn't support it (other one did but it failed).
Click to expand...

Glum :( Although I suppose had it unlocked you would have had to buy a cooler ;)

The Ivy i5K still holds up well against it's replacement Haswell. I remember first using the Sandy i5K which is even older. OC'd @4.4Ghz it re-encoded (with Quicksync enabled in software) a good 2 hour movie on the fly from the DVD in 20mins!! I have a 555BE still running as a HTPC and even with CUDA from the GPU it can't encode anywhere near as fast as that.

Overclocking the i5K is much like the Phenom BE, you can simply just up the multiplier. Toy with voltages if you so wish.

Best of luck with the upgrade, I look forward to seeing what you decide on.
 
AlecR said:
I'll happily add a cooler if that will help?

I'd prefer watercooling if possible. Something like the H80i? I'd like it to be pretty quiet if possible.
Click to expand...

The retail 3570K isn't much more and includes the stock heatsink. I went with the OEM which lacks the stock heatsink so added a good value heatsink so you could overclock.

A refurb'd H80 is £40, if your case can take it the H100 is £45. If it can't take the H100, I wouldn't bother with a H80 I'd just get a good value air cooler
 
Thanks for the advice everyone.

I suspect I'll go Haswell just because it's newer, but I will bear in mind honosuseri's suggestion.

I'll keep you all updated with what's going on. It'll be a nice Christmas present for us all :).
 
Doomedspeed said:
Thisll do:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX) £61.99
1 x MSI B85M-P33 Intel B85 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £47.99
Total : £216.77 (includes shipping : £9.00).



The SSD will make it fast, and it'll be running off SATAIII not SATAII as you have it now..
Click to expand...

I think I'll go for this, plus a Corsair H80i and a Corsair 330R case.

Is that a good choice?
 
Last edited:
How's this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £71.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX) £61.99
Total : £449.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Any way I can save on that? I thought with the H80i, it was worth getting a CPU that could at least overclock well, with all this extra cooling potential...
 
AlecR said:
How's this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £71.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3B1K2/8GX) £61.99
Total : £449.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Any way I can save on that? I thought with the H80i, it was worth getting a CPU that could at least overclock well, with all this extra cooling potential...
Click to expand...

That is fine. Excellent CPU and will clock well.

Only thing i was going to suggest was this board : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-477-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2574
But out of stock now :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom