£550+ Upgrade

PMol

PMol

PMol

Associate
Joined
25 Jul 2011
Posts
166
Location
Horsham, West Sussex
I am just about ready to upgrade my PC. I have the following spec:

Intel Q6600 2.4GHz
8Gb Corsair DDR2 8500 (2 sets of matched pairs of 2Gb)
Titan Fenrir CPU Cooler
Asus P5K
HIS Radeon HD 4870
Vortexx Neo GPU Cooler
WD Velociraptor
Antec 900-2 Case
Jeantech Storm 700W PSU

I have a £550 initial budget, and once I have sold the old parts, I will use the money to finish the upgrade.

CPU - I want the Intel i5 3570k or 2500k, not sure which way to go on this one.
Motherboard - Absolutely no idea. Gigabyte seem popular but I like the look of the EVGA's.
RAM - I like the look of the Corsair Vengeance Black, but i'm open to suggestions
HDD - I need more space. Maybe a little SSD for Windows and a 1Tb for storage. Depends on budget.
Cooler - If the Titan Fenrir fits, I will keep it. I know some 1155 mobos have holes for a 775 cooler.

I will sell the following:

CPU
RAM
HDD
MoBo
CPU cooler* (if it doesnt fit the new mobo)

Then use the money to buy a graphics card. Not fussed which, I've owned and be happy with AMD and Nvidia.

Thanks.
 
Here you go. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
Total : £481.94 (includes shipping : FREE).



If you do decide to get a new cooler, I would get the Alpenföhn K2 for £60.

Also what would your budget be for a new graphics card? £310 can get you a GTX 670 or £170 can get you a ATI 7850 on the current weekly offers.
 
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Sparx said:
Here you go. :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
Total : £481.94 (includes shipping : FREE).



If you do decide to get a new cooler, I would get the Alpenföhn K2 for £60.

Also what would your budget be for a new graphics card? £310 can get you a GTX 670 or £170 can get you a ATI 7850 on the current weekly offers.
Click to expand...

That motherboard doesn't appear to have the 775 holes, so I would need to buy a new cooler. Any opinions on the liquid cooled units such as the H60/H80 by Corsair?

My budget would depend on what I get for the old parts that I sell. 200-300 pounds maybe?
 
So the CPU and Mobo is decided then. Everyone seems to be talking about the Gigabyte board.
Also, what's this GeIL RAM like? Better than the Corsair Vengeance? I assume I need the low profile to fit the CPU cooler!?
A friend of mine still insists that it's not worth going SSD yet. He says since my PC is on all the time, I wouldn't see any benefit from it. Is it worth the added expense for day to day use?
 
RAM - Go with the GeIL stuff, they make good RAM and performance wise you won't be able to tell the difference in most applications between it and the more expensive Vengeance RAM. Best to go with LP stuff to fit it under the cooler. See Gibbo's comments on it.

Gibbo said:
Hi there

GeIL RAM is amongst the best, the quality is pretty much un-rivalled, I'd rather have GeIL in my own PC than most other brands we sell to be honest. Superb memory! :)
Click to expand...

The SSD will speed up the loading times of anything that is on it, if you are going to be gaming a lot they they make the levels load much quicker. For example in BF3 the people with SSDs get into the multiplayer maps much quicker, and so get the advantage of getting a better pick of tanks, and such as well as a head start in running to the objectives.
 
PMol said:
That motherboard doesn't appear to have the 775 holes, so I would need to buy a new cooler. Any opinions on the liquid cooled units such as the H60/H80 by Corsair?
Click to expand...

The Retail CPU obviously comes with a heatsink you can use if nothing fits with your Fenrir.

If your Fenrir has a socket1156 bracket included? then it will fit a 1155.
 
Wouldn't bother with the enclosed water cooling units, I wish I never got my H50! Get the Alpenföhn K2.

Between the RAM there is nothing mind blowing or noticable. GeIL is a quality brand and the kit is good for the money.

SSD is up to you. I would say 90% of this forum would say it is worth getting. Regardless if your PC is kept on 24/7 - the general usage in Windows, loading applications, map/game loading times, etc will all improve. You will have a much more comfortable time using your PC. Just grab one and rub it in your friend's face when you see how nice they are, he does not have a clue. ;)
 
The case is up to your pick,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £159.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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Phusion said:
The case is up to your pick,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 Twin Frozr III OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards w/ Nexuiz & Dirt Showdown PC Games £159.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £57.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £704.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I don't think you read my original post. I don't need a dvd or a case. I'm just upgrading. :D
 
Couldn't wait for the cheque to clear so used my overdraft. The CPU cooler was out of stock so I got the Gelid GX7. I hope it's good enough. The reviews were pretty good.
 
One quick question. Will the onboard graphics be better than my 4870? I need to sell off all my old gear before I buy a new GPU.
 
The intel HD400 onbard graphics are actually not bad, was looking at guild wars 2 info the other night and it shows Average FPS on the chart as 40 ish :O
 
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