upgrade ideas please?

Middenacht

Middenacht

Middenacht

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6 Oct 2010
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99
Hi chaps

Couple of years back you helped spec a sweet (at the time) gaming system. It was an Intel 2500k 3.3ghz based system. gtx 570 gfx, 8 gb ram (guessing ddr3), asus mobo bla bla.

At the time i bought all the software i needed (non oem) so i could transfer on to newer pc or mobos.

since building the rig I've upgraded from the gtx570 to a 670 and then a month ago to a gtx 980 4 gb. Additionally I've bought a second ssd for games to run from. I primarily game (bf4, skyrim etc) but only at 1920x1200 60 hz refresh.

I'm looking for new:
Motherboard
processor (Intel please) I do o/c current one to 4.3ghz and it's just not enough for vid editing I do.
ram
SSD for my OS only (already have but suspicious it's going wrong now)

My case (massive), psu (750w corsair), monitors, 980, hdds/ssds (aside from one above), and software are all Covered.

Many thanks for any help guys
 
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Instead of doing a full overhall, I'd recommend getting either one more kit of 2x4GB sticks to upgrade to 16GB AND a used 2600k, 2700k or 3770k
The 4 extra threads will do you well there, but if you don't want to do that then you could just go all out and a full X99 or Z97 setup

What's your budget? And how much video editing vs gaming do you do? (i.e 50/50, or 60/40 etc)
 
Hi,

Thanks for the response. Couple of things which are affecting my decision. I'm highly suspicious that either my ssd with my OS on it, my RAM or my Mobo are on their way out. I'm getting crashes 4-5 times per hour from which I can't even get to task manager. I just have to shut down the machine. Me test and prime 95 have revealed nothing. HD sentinel and a chkdsk tells me drives are fine.

I've been trying to resolve this issue for 2 weeks now and to be honest it's doing my head In. I can afford the new components so im going to crack a nut with a sledgehammer. Meantime tonight I'll be clean installing my OS to see if that makes a difference to the crashes.

I'm not a fan of used PC parts (snob?) I like shiny new and warranties.

Given that what's all this x99 and z97 stuff lol. I'm well out the loop. In answer to your question I'm 50/50 gaming and video editing.

Cheers
 
have you checked event viewer for any errors or issues that could point you in the right direction to the fault?

looking at your PC I would stick to what you have got, not too sure how they spec up for video editing as i don't do any of that

event viewer can give you info to why it crashed or what hardware could be causing a issue

have you done a mem test on the ram at all?
 
Hi

I've done memtest on ram, prime 95 on cup and ram, chkdsk on hdds, hard drive sentinel on hdds and I've checked the event viewer. The only thing in there is an error showing the kernel was shut down unexpectedly. This is caused by me turning off the power as the pc is totally frozen and I can't start task manager.

Anyhow advice about the upgrades would be greatly appreciated as I just want to buy the new parts which I suspect will not only solve my instability problem but go a bit faster too.

Cheers
 
Middenacht said:
Hi,

Thanks for the response. Couple of things which are affecting my decision. I'm highly suspicious that either my ssd with my OS on it, my RAM or my Mobo are on their way out. I'm getting crashes 4-5 times per hour from which I can't even get to task manager. I just have to shut down the machine. Me test and prime 95 have revealed nothing. HD sentinel and a chkdsk tells me drives are fine.

I've been trying to resolve this issue for 2 weeks now and to be honest it's doing my head In. I can afford the new components so im going to crack a nut with a sledgehammer. Meantime tonight I'll be clean installing my OS to see if that makes a difference to the crashes.

I'm not a fan of used PC parts (snob?) I like shiny new and warranties.

Given that what's all this x99 and z97 stuff lol. I'm well out the loop. In answer to your question I'm 50/50 gaming and video editing.

Cheers
Click to expand...

What SSD? Is it an OCZ vertex 2?
 
hey

Well, i followed your link and discovered that the firmware has been updated several more times since the update I think you were refering to to fix the stalling after 5000 hours.

anyhow i found an auto win7 updater on their site which couldnt have been easier to use. the update went fine and ive just booted back in.

ill do my usual testing (BF4) and report back

Even if this dosnt turn out to be the issue thanks for taking the time to help mate

cheers
 
Nope didnt fix it.

Ive crashed in the same way again after about 15 mins.

So, now being at my wits and and having put up with constant crashing and instability for 2 weeks I need to resolve this. Something is busted or breaking, i just dont know what. ive run every test any computer person can dram up and they all come back fine but the problem persists.

So how about the upgrade (or perhaps consider them replacement) options?

Cheers
 
It was overcklocked yes, to 4.3Ghz (rock stable for 2 years) but as soon as i started getting the crashed it went back to stock. Made no diff.

To be honest I have no budget as i am so looped out of current tech and prices.

Im happy (lol famous last words) to make the move to the next socket type if there is a reason to do so. I mean i just took a look at the chips that go into my motherboard and OCUK dont even sell them anymore...

You can probably tell from the fact i have a i5 2500k that i wanted a bang for buck chip which i could o/c easily (but i never thrashed the nuts off it).

So is there a modern equivalent of the 2500k that is good value but not a rip off, is unlocked like the K was? I guess i would then need a motherboard to suit it. I have a med to high range asus which i love (still all the crashes started)

Im looking to move to 16gb ram but i guess i only need ddr3.

The SSD only needs to run my OS so 128Gb or 256gb is plenty as I already have a 512Gb SSD to run the main games i play off of. The rest sit on a 2Tb HDD.

Last question: I have what was concidered at the time a nice cooler for the 2500k. presume i can reuse it after cleaning the thermal compound off?

Cheers for the help
 
Test your RAM and CPU with Prime 95.

Have you tried removing the other drives?

The next thing would be to replace your OS SSD. Prices are coming down nicely so there's no need to stint. If there's still a problem, you'll be using it in your new system so you won't be wasting your money.
 
I have mem tested the ram, prime 95 the cpu and ram, chkdsk the hdd, sentinel the hdd, flashed the sdd to latest firmare. Checked the event logs (nothing, cos the system just hard crashes so no report gets written aside from the kernel shutdown cased by me being forced to power down the pc)

I don't know what else to try.

In answer to the other question I would rather just get all the components in one hit and get on with it that reinstall and setup the os on a new sdd, find I'm still crashing then replace the motherboard and have to reinstall the is again.
 
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