Any worthwhile budget upgrades?

spd1975

spd1975

spd1975

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Hi,

Upgraded ~2 years ago from an overclocked Intel E6300 Core Duo to an overclocked bundle from OCUK:

£170.20 x 1 - Argon Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz Overclocked Bundle - MSI

It was a decent increase in performance at a good price point.

I'm thinking of doing the same thing again but for similar money is there a worthwhile upgrade bundle 2 years on?

Thanks
 
Depends on your usage. Your chip is dual core. Most gaming chips now are quad core and more and more software is being written to fully take advantage of multi-core cpus.

Bremen pretty much summed it up. Windows 7 is a good upgrade too if you dont have it (not sure how windows 8 fairs, windows 7 does everything I need it to and does it well)
 
Sadly your system is from the last generation before Intel limited overclocking to the higher end chips, as a result the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge i3's that have followed cannot be overclocked (much) and so are incapable of matching the performance of your system. If you were going for a new bundle then for a noticeable upgrade you would need at least a quad core i5 and for that the CPU alone would cost about as much as your i3 bundle did.

My advice would be to either do as Bremen says and invest in an SSD or if you have one a new GPU (as a 4GHz 1st gen i3 is still fairly decent, hence it beating new chips that retail at £100+)

Or, as you already have a LGA1156 board/ram/cooler, go second hand and grab a 700 series i5 (quad core) or 800 series i7 (quad core + HT) and overclock them. You should be able to achieve clocks that will rival the stock performance of the latest i5/i7 and at a substantially lower price point. Now is not the time to be changing motherboard as a new socket is about to land.
 
Thanks all, appreciate the replies.

I didn't realise that we are in an era of limited overclocking on the lower end Intel CPUs, so that makes things a lot clearer now.

Looked up the spec of the bundle I current have:

- CPU: Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz
- Motherboard: MSI H55M-ED55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel
- Cooler: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev2 CPU cooler

I added the following GPU/OS:

- GPU: 768MB MSI GTX 460 Cyclone
- OS: Windows 7 64-bit

The machine is used primarily for gaming, programming (Visual Studio), surfing.

It sounds as if the best moves are to go for an SSD and trawl around for a second hand Intel i5/i7 that will fit my motherboard?
 
Best bet is to get yourself an SSD and a future proof GPU, would not bother upgrading the RAM unless you get a full 1600mhz kit(mobo might not support it), since 1600 seems to be the minimum people reccomend for budget. Never used 1333 RAM before so no idea how it compares to 1600.

Or do has ubersonic said, this means you can carry over your RAM, GPU and SSD to a new motherboard + new CPU in say a years time.

Never new the old gen chips clocked better than new gen, this due to the whole "lets save energy" thing?
 
A second hand i5 750 or 760 could be had for around £60-70 and should clock to around 4Ghz easily enough. Add in a newer gpu and 8Gb of faster ram and you should be set for the next couple of years.
 
Apologies for resurrecting this thread.

I'm possibly now in a position to upgrade my current system, details in previous post above.

I am thinking of moving to a socket 1150 motherboard with an Intel Core i5-4670K CPU.

However, would my RAM, GPU, etc. be compatible as budget would be tight? (I am guessing I could upgrade these later)

An additional consideration is that I have acquired a second matching GPU and was was wondering if I could run this in SLI on 1150?

Thanks
 
The ram would work although it's slow and there's not enough of it. Personally i would upgrade to a decent 8GB kit of fast ram. Haswell/Z87 makes ram overclocking so easy.

Provided you get a board that's SLI capable both cards will be fine although i would sell them both and get a single powerful card.

What psu do you have?

A decent Z87 board and 4670k from here is going to set you back over £300 though. It can be done cheaper if you are patient and don't mind taking a chance on ebay. I got my Asus Z87-A from a chap on ebay just under two weeks ago for £65 delivered and that was brand new and still sealed. He originally had it up for £100 when i added it to my watch list and then dropped it to £60 with a fiver for delivery. I asked him a couple of questions and then snapped it up. I got a retail 4670k from elsewhere for a very good price as well. Including delivery i paid just under £240 for the board and cpu both brand new and sealed.
 
Thanks for the reply and advice.

I agree with the need to upgrade GPU and RAM also but due to budgetary constraints I am deciding whether this is a go/no go based on moving to the 1150 platform with as much of my current setup as I can.

PSU is a 450W so I am a little concerned that may not be enough power but it runs my current overclocked setup ok so may be worth a try.

Does the Z87-A support SLI?

Thanks
 
What make and model 450w psu though. If it's a cheapy it won't get anywhere near 450w. You are going to need a better one for SLI anyway.

The Asus Z87-A does SLI and Crossfire. It's a very good board although if you are paying full price the Gigabyte Z87X-D3H looks far nicer. The MSI Z87-G45 Gaming is a decent board too.

I really would change the ram. 4Gb of 1333mhz ram is going to hold your system back. 8GB of 2133/2400mhz ram would be beneficial to a 4670k and Z87 board.
 
Thanks for the advice, appreciated. Back to the drawing board I think. Seen a Z87-A on ebay for £95 inc delivery (new but not sealed). I've seen the 4670k for just under £170. However, new RAM and PSU will push this right up so might sit tight for now.
 
Thinking differently would a GPU upgrade be worthwhile? I can't SLI the two GTX460s I have with the motherboard I have but could the board support a GPU upgrade? At least keep things going for now until funds are available for the big upgrade.
 
A GPU upgrade should give you some extra performance and there are some good deals to be had on 7950s and 7850s.

However your CPU will bottleneck the card so you won't get maximum performance.

Also depending on when you are planning to buy the rest of the parts it may be worth getting hold of some memory fairly soon, as prices are about to start to increase due a fire at a fabrication plant in China.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18542838

For the price this stuff is s good buy.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-050-TG
 
Thanks. My issue is that budget won't allow to stretch to a full new setup. I am toying with a) either upgrading to a socket 1150 board and chip and moving over my GPU and RAM or b) upgrading the GPU on my current system.

I think option a) will come in around £260 whereas option b) could be sub £200.

Upgrading motherboard, cpu, gpu and mem would cost ~£500 I think.
 
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