Advice on best upgrade path to take

Davey_Pitch

Davey_Pitch

Davey_Pitch

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
17,944
Location
Liverpool, UK
Hi all. Got around £600 to spend and considering upgrading my PC a bit. These are the specs of my current rig...

Core 2 Duo E6750
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R motherboard
4GB DDR2
ATI Radeon 5770
700W EZCool PSU

If I decide to upgrade this fairly old beast, I'll definitely be getting a new case (CM 690 II) and PSU (Corsair TX 650W), as well as a new HDD as I've ran out of storage space as things stand. New speakers are also needed as my cheap ones are definitely not up to snuff.

What I can't decide is where I'll see the most improvements when it comes to games. Do I keep the CPU and mobo and upgrade the graphics to something like a flashable 6950, or should I keep the 5770 and get something like an i5 760, compatible motherboard, and 4GB of DDR3 ram? I'm not a huge PC gamer (more of an console man myself), so don't need bleeding edge, but would definitely like something with a bit more oomph as my CPU and mobo are over 3 years old. If it helps, the PC is also used for occassional video work (generally converting HD movies into other formats), and general MS Office style work, along with some Dreamweaver and Photoshop stuff.

So, ideas and opinions would be greatly appreciated, as I keep changing my mind and can't decide which way to go :D
 
Hi,

The i5 760 is a great processor, but it's end of life, and the next generation has been released (Sandybridge) on a difference motherboard socket. The replacement is the i5 2500K which is a good 20% faster. Will cost you slightly more to get Sandybridge, but still managable on a £600 budget.

Wouldn't upgrade the 5770 if you're not a big gamer. The CPU/Mobo/Ram upgrade would be well worth it.
 
i5 2500k and mobo can be had for ~£350 give or take £20 depending what mobo you go for.
Graphics card I wouldn't bother upgrading.
Ram will have to be upgraded anyway to fit the board but you can get a nice 4gb of ram for £40 now so that's only £390 and gives you £110 for case + HDD (Thought about SSD?)
 
I am currently in the process of upgrading too, and I think you would see the largest performance gain from an SSD and a 1155 (sandybridge) mobo, cpu and ram.
 
Tomcat825 said:
i5 2500k and mobo can be had for ~£350 give or take £20 depending what mobo you go for.
Graphics card I wouldn't bother upgrading.
Ram will have to be upgraded anyway to fit the board but you can get a nice 4gb of ram for £40 now so that's only £390 and gives you £110 for case + HDD (Thought about SSD?)
Click to expand...
The cost is the reason I'm kinda discounting Sandybridge. If I upgrade, I definitely need a new case, PSU, HDD and speakers. Them alone will cost me in the region of £250 or so, which only leaves me £350 for the processor, motherboard, ram, and cooler, which isn't really enough for a decent SB setup. I really don't want to go over the £600 as I'm saving up for a holiday to New York later this year.
 
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £163.19
(£135.99) £163.19
(£135.99)
Asus P8P67 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £124.99
(£104.16) £124.99
(£104.16)
OCZ Special OPS 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3SOE1600LV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.39
(£16.16) £19.39
(£16.16)
Sub Total : £277.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £57.49
Total : £344.96
 
I just twigged, I already have the Noctua NH-U12, but I bought it a few years ago. Can I get the required mount so it would work with the i5 processor, or will it just fit as it is? It's been years since I fitted it and can't remember :o
 
new cpu, mobo and ram is needed with the things you already wanto to replace seems you will be building an entire new system only thing to keep is the gpu.
 
Yeah, it pretty much would be a completely new system. The only thing I've upgraded in the last 3 years has been the GPU, everything else is the same as it was when I built the computer.

Considering the main type of games I play on the computer are games like Football Manager, Civ 5, and the Total War games, should I expect to see a big performance jump going to one of the i5 processors?
 
I've just upgrade from a q6600 and 4890 to my sandy system, and honestly, the biggest jump for me was my SSD (which I installed prior to sandy). Level load times (in BC2, for example) are almost non-existent, and general perceived speed is up.

The i5 is noticeably faster, for sure, just not as great a speed difference (for gaming) as the SSD.

That said, YMMV, especially in Civ, which I believe is more CPU intensive.
 
I've thought about SSD, but my reasons against it are currently twofold - I need more storage space than SSD can offer on its own, and I still feel the decent sized drives are overly expensive. No doubt they're lightning fast and I'd love it, but I still see it as something that's 6-12 months away for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom