£500 upgrade help thx

freeroller · 29 Aug 2013 at 14:14

Hello , im looking to upgrade my pc and would love your guys help again as im not sure were to start, this is what i already have;

HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics
XFX 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge)
kingston 8gb ddr3 memory
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB
Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case

Have around £500 thankyou guys.

Gav_881 · 29 Aug 2013 at 14:54

I would suggest an SSD and a haswell i5 chip and mobo, dont worry about the PSU being "haswell compatible" as this is just a low power setting you can turn off in bios.

I would then either drop another 6950 in or flog that and your old bits and get the best card you can for your remaining cash.

Obviously if your going for a K version processor save £30-50 for an aftermarket cooler. would link some options but i'm at work, sure others will chip in though

SouthEastBlue · 29 Aug 2013 at 16:17

Yeah an SSD (Samsung 840 Evo 128GB £85) is an awesome upgrade, so quick to boot up compared to a regular HDD. I too upgraded my CPU recently from an i3 2100 to i5 2500k which made a nice difference, but since your H67 motherboard doesn't overclock as far as I know then it's probably worth going for something newer (Intel Core i5-4670K + Z87 motherboard at about £300). Graphics card isn't too bad, but one of those £175 7950's would probably be a nice upgrade, especially when overclocked.

Probably a bit over budget with all that lot (nearer £550 than £500) but it would make a nice overall difference to system boot speed, program responsiveness (if on the SSD) and gaming performance will be nicely improved.

You could look second hand and get some more performance for your money, but depends if you feel better having warranty/latest items etc.

freeroller · 29 Aug 2013 at 17:32

thanks for the replies, i dont really mind about overclocking never done it before, so would you say an i5 with the motherboard i currently have and the SSD

SouthEastBlue · 29 Aug 2013 at 19:47

If you would like the overclocking option then this is the cheapest Haswell i5 combo, with the Samsung 840 Evo SSD and cheapest 7950 (good upgrade from a 6950).

If you don't care about overclocking then you could grab the regular i5 4670 CPU, and a cheaper 1150 motherboard to go with it which would shave a good chunk off of the price. Use your existing ram and other bits etc.

EDIT: Make sure any graphics cards fit in your case before you buy it!

mp260767 · 31 Aug 2013 at 11:31

i'd go with the 4670K retail rather than oem for the sake of £6.

are you using the standard intel cooler at the mo ?, if so i'd consider a better air cooler if you go with the "K" processor so you can have the ability to keep it cool if you take the next step and overclock it.

also, i'd stick with your current gfx card for the time being, new amd release is due soon.