£350 motherboard/CPU upgrade, am I an idiot?

EvilDreams

EvilDreams

EvilDreams

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Hi,

I am looking at replacing my ancient Q6600 and I have approximately £350 to spend.

I can go a bit over if necessary for decent deals but what I want is something that I can run stock but doesn't have any cheapo parts so if I want to OC later I can get a decent cooling setup and just go for it.

Since I am on a budget I am probably looking at AMD. I also don't game that much and I encode a few videos here and there, photoshop, etc. so I like the 8 core idea.

I can add more RAM later on so I'd rather get something that can take a bit of an OC rather than opt for cheapo stuff.

Also I am somewhat out of the loop, so things like dual channel RAM confuse me and I am open to suggestions on RAM in general.

Here is what I am looking at so far:

2vwfcll.jpg


Feel free to tell me I am an idiot/there's something better for the money etc. The Freezer 7 is ancient but I am an Arctic Cooling fan and I know from experience it should be quiet and cool decently. I don't want a cooler that sounds like a hairdryer but suggestions are welcome.

Also, I have a BeQuiet 730w PSU. Will it handle this new stuff OK? Since it's more modern I presume it will use less power than the Q6600. How about with SLI in a future upgrade?

TIA
 
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Change the CPU to the 8320, much better value. Motherboard is fine, cooler is ok but the RAM modules you've picked may not fit under that cooler.
 
Something like this maybe?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
Total : £342.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



EDIT:
If you can go a little over, this would give you the option for SLI/xFire without the need to upgrade your board and assuming your PSU could take it. You'd get a better/more stable overclock on this too!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
Total : £375.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



and this ones it's back in stock.
 
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I upgraded my Q6600, ip35 pro motherboard and 6gb of ram to the new spec in my sig for just under £350.
That included CPU, Motherboard and 16gb of ram and a freezer pro cooler which I have since upgraded to a H55... All second hand.

Just a thought.

EDIT: well Snips has even that beat!
 
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ExRayTed said:
Change the CPU to the 8320, much better value. Motherboard is fine, cooler is ok but the RAM modules you've picked may not fit under that cooler.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it's interesting that you bring that up about the cooler. Do you say this from experience and what cooler in the same price range would you suggest as a replacement that will fit (and is nice and quiet)?

With regards to the 8320, I have definitely considered that but I see the 8350 as getting a sort of "stock overclock" rather than buying a OC'ed bundle...also the OC'ed bundle on the site at my price level uses cheapo RAM and an asrock board which I'd rather not be stuck with.

Thanks for the advice.
 
ExRayTed said:
Change the CPU to the 8320, much better value. Motherboard is fine, cooler is ok but the RAM modules you've picked may not fit under that cooler.
Click to expand...

UKDTweak said:
I upgraded my Q6600, ip35 prom motherboard and 6gb of ram to the new spec in my sig for just under £350.
That included CPU, Motherboard and 16gb of ram and a freezer pro cooler which I have since upgraded to a H55... All second hand.

Just a thought.

EDIT: well Snips has even that beat!
Click to expand...

It's a great little bundle giving you scope to upgrade to a better board later for better Overclock support or even SLi/xFire.
 
I'm definitely changing the RAM to snips' suggestion, but I'd like to have SLI as an option so I'd like to get an XFire/SLI motherboard right off the bat rather than step up later and spend more money in the long run.

As for the AMD/Intel thing, any 8350-based suggestions? I don't mind staying Intel for a good deal (like Snips' first suggestion) but what good AMD builds are going at that price?
 
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I dont think there is any real benifit of fast RAM on the AMD chips, but here goes:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x MSI 990FXA-GD65 AMD 990 FX (AMD AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £94.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
Total : £312.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Martini1991 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-249-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2574

That has Xfire and SLI Support AFAIK.
Click to expand...

Good spot! Not sure why, but I seem to default to the GB boards :(
 
Thanks snips,

I'm currently considering this:

2ah85de.jpg



....but switching to the MSI mobo you suggested would bring it back closer to budget so I will add that to the considerations.

edit: I would also go for a Gigabyte board as I have been using them exclusively for 10 years with no issues. I would like to get the Asus I chose initially because I heard it's good for an OC but you guys know better than me.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
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I wouldn't bother with the FX9's, if you're going AMD, go for the FX83's.
That cooler probably wouldn't handle that CPU very well either lol.

At 370 it's undeniably better to go for a 4670K and Z87 board for gaming.
 
No.. Just no..

The 9370 are useless a massive waste of money for the price of the 8320.

That cooler won't contain the 9370 anyway, you need to spend more on a much better cooler..

I'd much rather go with snips build and spend £50-£60 on a good cooler..

What case do you have?

EDIT:

Martini1991 said:
At 370 it's undeniably better to go for a 4670K and Z87 board.
Click to expand...

Very fair point.. Much better £/performance.
 
You'd only need the Asus 990FX Pro 2 if you're intending Crossfire/SLI. The 970 EVO R2.0 is about £85. You'll still be able to overclock well, people have recently been posting 4.8GHz on this board.

I'd get good quality 1600MHz or 1866MHz C9 RAM rather than 2400MHz.
 
Thanks teppic. I'd like to keep my options open with regards to OCing/SLI etc. hence the board choice. If I chose a less expensive board now and then decided I wanted to Xfire/SLI later I'd kick myself.

With regards to your comments about choosing lower speed RAM, could you put this choice into layman's terms for me? Let's say I want to OC the 8350 at some point in the future....would what you said still apply? It has been many years since I even attempted an overclock so I don't really know the lingo these days. What I don't want to do is save a few quid now and then have to spend twice to get better stuff for an OC later.

Having said that....I may never bother.
 
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EvilDreams said:
Thanks teppic. I'd like to keep my options open with regards to OCing/SLI etc. hence the board choice. If I chose a less expensive board now and then decided I wanted to Xfire/SLI later I'd kick myself.

With regards to your comments about choosing lower speed RAM, could you put this choice into layman's terms for me? Let's say I want to OC the 8350 at some point in the future....would what you said still apply? It has been many years since I even attempted an overclock so I don't really know the lingo these days. What I don't want to do is save a few quid now and then have to spend twice to get better stuff for an OC later.

Having said that....I may never bother.
Click to expand...

Overclocking the CPU doesn't need faster memory. Faster memory has none or next to no performance gains in the vast majority of cases, and the CPU will overclock better at 1600-1866MHz.

Fair enough with the 990FX board if you might go SLI/Crossfire, it'll run the cards at 16x16x.

You'd get enormous improvements with overclocking, especially in encoding, etc.
 
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