Another upgrade thread!

hymerman

hymerman

hymerman

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Joined
10 Jan 2005
Posts
54
Hi all,

Short version: CPU, cooler, motherboard and some RAM (preferably 8GB), best price/performance combo in the £250-£400 range.

Long version:

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU to something a bit beefier; the Q6600 I got a few years ago was great at the time but recently I've been given a 12-core beast at work and have really started to notice the difference. Since I'll be changing sockets, I'll also be needing a new motherboard and RAM.

It'll be used for gaming, but also lots of compiling software, rendering, 3D modeling and photoshopping, and plenty of general performance-intensive stuff. So what I'm saying is, I'll definitely benefit from more cores, and will want space for lots of RAM.

I'd like SATA 6Gb/s for an SSD, and I'd like at least a couple of USB3.0 ports as I'm sure I'll get a USB3.0 drive at some point in the next few years.

I bought a GTX460 earlier this year which I'm happy with so I don't need a new GPU, and really couldn't care less about on-board graphics.

Also, I'm not that into overclocking, if that changes anything!

I've done a bit of initial research which has led me to believe a P67 mobo, 2500/2500k and 8GB RAM would be best for me, though I'm unsure as to whether jumping to the 2600/2600k would be worth it, or if there's anything I've missed that would make the Z68 a better mobo choice. I'm tempted to get the 2600k but I hear Ivy Bridge is out next year, do you think it'd be worth getting a 2500k now then waiting for an Ivy Bridge-based CPU to get cheap enough for another upgrade, a year or whatever down the line? Also I've been out of the PC hardware loop for a few years so all this is based on reading a bunch of articles in the last couple of hours; have I missed anything or chosen any duds? Here's what I have in my basket at the moment:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £79.99
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £42.98
Shipping : £9.50
Total : £296.36

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention! I'll be needing a CPU cooler, I don't overclock but I like things to be nice and quiet (quieter than stock coolers normally are), but there are loads of choices from companies that weren't around last time I went shopping, and I don't believe the 'noise level' numbers they give. I'd trust the opinions of you guys though :) What's good?
 
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Also, sounds like from what you do you may benefit from an i7, so might be worth it if you can afford it, as everything else can stay the same.
 
if you're buying it by tuesday night 1st november (its a this week only offer which ends wednesday morning) may as well go for the retail i2500k as its only £8 more(even if you're not going to be using the included cooler)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN

cooler http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-093-TR

mb http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-191-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 future proofed with pcie 3.0 compatibility

ram http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517 or the corsair you've chosen

the i2600k is £70 more, depends on if you think its worth it(if any of the programs you use support hyperthreading).

what's your current psu?
 
Haha, the Gelid Tranquilo is actually exactly what I had in mind when I said "companies that weren't around last time I went shopping"! It caught my eye, but only because it has 'tranquil' in its name - are they decent coolers? The Thermalright cooler looks pretty great for noise, fowler, would it also be suitable for a 2600k? And would it be much quieter than the Gelid Tranquilo?

beejjacobs; what benefit does Z68 give over P67? I *think* P67 gives me everything I want, but I could be missing something. Apart from that, your basket looks pretty similar to mine so I'm happy :)

fowler; thanks for pointing out PCIe 3.0, I didn't actually know anything about that. Would I be right in saying I'd only need it if I later upgraded to Ivy Bridge and a PCIe 3.0 GPU? If so, I might be better off saving £40 on the motherboard now and just getting a new one should I do that in a year or two's time.

Both of you have suggested going for the 2600k instead of the 2500k, I'll definitely be able to make use of the extra performance, I just can't decide if it's worth another £70 :) I saw some benchmarks that showed it was a fair bit better in all the tasks I'd want to use it for. I guess Ivy Bridge will drop the current Sandy Bridge prices quite a bit though, so perhaps I'm best off getting a 2500k now (which would still be awesome), then in a year or two's time getting an Ivy Bridge CPU? I'm just trying to figure out the best way to ride the price/performance wave :)

Oh, my current PSU is a 650W Antec one, I can't remember the model offhand and don't want to rattle the case about since the gf is asleep :) I think it's probably overkill so I don't think I'll be needing to upgrade that.
 
To be honest I recommend the gelid because that's what I've seen people recommend on the forums, and its a good price. Will be fine for a 2600k too, and they will overclock well if you ever chose too.

Z68 lets you use the onboard GPU amongst other things, I know you'll have a gtx460 but if it ever fails youve got that to fall back on rather than £400 of useless PC :P That said, saving the £10 wont do any harm to performance at all.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19129392

I'd say on your budget PCIe 3.0 is overkill and not worth the extra money, better spent elsewhere.

I've heard Intel rarely drop the price of CPUs when new ones come out, just phase them out. So I wouldn't expect them to go down (in fact I think they're set to increase due to supply, as Intel are working on newer ones). But that's up to you!
 
well if you don't want/need the pcie3.0 compatibility then

either the mb suggested by beejjacobs or couple of other options

for single card(i.e. you're not plannig on going sli/xfire in the future http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 well it says xfire ready but the 2nd x16 pcie is actually x4 so you have x16/x4 which effects the performance of the 2nd card(same with the asus suggested)

for xfire/sli http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 this will give x8/x8 in xfire/sli and not much difference in performance compared to x16/x16(mbs that support x16/x16 are quite a bit more expensive).
 
Ok, the Gelid it is, and I think I'll go with the Asus Z68 as I like the look of the "EFI Bios" (In quotes because as far as I knew, EFI and Bios were different things...). I don't really need the features of the Z68 but it looks like it dropped by £10 overnight so I might as well!

I'm still torn between the 2500k and 2600k... realistically it'll be a while before I upgrade again though, so perhaps I should just shell out on the 2600k and be done with it. I'll let my finger decide when I come to buy...

Thanks for your help, guys!
 
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