Another upgrade thread!

[hymerman]

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?

 

[hymerman]

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.

 

[hymerman]

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!