Best upgrade for £350?

HaggisUK · 21 Oct 2011 at 11:23

I'm wondering what my best upgrade would be for £350, cash is a bit tight atm so can't go over that. I'd originally wanted a new GPU as BF3 seems to be limited by Vram and 1GB doesn't really cut it in that game, but i guess it would be more sensible to upgrade the base of the system first and look at a new GPU in a couple of months when AMD's 7000's series hits and Xmas is over with.

Current system:

E6850 C2D OC'd @ 3.7
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Rev 2.0
4GB DDR2 G.Skill
Corsair HX-520
MSI GTX460 1GB Cyclone

I don't care whether it is AMD or Intel.

Edit - I may need a new case as the one i currently have was a cheap and nasty 4 years ago and keeps things cooler if the side is off, so crappy airflow.

mp260767 · 21 Oct 2011 at 11:33

slightly over budget, but does include a case, maybe save a bit extra for 3rd party cpu cooler, maybe 8gb instead of 4gb and a better case if you don't like the bit fenix or the zalman z9.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99 (£154.16)

Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
(£74.99)

BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Case - Black £49.99 (£41.66)

Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £26.99 (£22.49)

Sub Total : £293.30
Shipping : £11.75
VAT : £61.01
Total : £366.06

HaggisUK · 21 Oct 2011 at 11:51

Thanks mp, I hadn't expected an i5 to be in budget so thats a nice surprise. Would that board be decent for a moderate overclock on it, say 4 - 4.5ghz? The look of the case doesn't both me, my current one is an ugly old Akasa thats a bit beaten up anyway.

My plan was to order it next week so it would be here in time for BF3 but i wouldn't mind waiting an extra week to switch to 8GB and better CPU cooler.

Marine-RX179 · 21 Oct 2011 at 11:58

Your weakest link right now is the CPU...Upgrade that to the SandyBridge uplatform first.

As for 1GB VRAM being "not enough"...ignore what other people say for now and wait for the finished product and try it for yourself, to see if the 1GB VRAM really is not enough for you. I recall people that have 1GB cards that have tried the beta saying that performance wise VRAM is not an issue, as long as you are prepared to lower the AA level to 2X.

lee20010 · 21 Oct 2011 at 11:59

To be honest you could get an i5, my mobo and ram for about £310

lee20010 · 21 Oct 2011 at 12:02

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
(£154.16) £184.99
(£154.16)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Sub Total : £294.13
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 : £60.73
Total : £364.36

Probably best you can do on that budget

evilpenguin · 21 Oct 2011 at 12:03

ddr2 is not the biggest issue, an extra 4 gb might help. but you could get a 570, this will run ANY new game

lee20010 · 21 Oct 2011 at 12:08

evilpenguin said:
ddr2 is not the biggest issue, an extra 4 gb might help. but you could get a 570, this will run ANY new game

His cpu would bottleneck that 570 surely?

Doomedspeed · 21 Oct 2011 at 12:51

lee20010 said:
His cpu would bottleneck that 570 surely?

That was my thought too..

The GTX 460 he has will run modern game on decent settings for a few more years anyway.

I'd say upgrade to sandybridge.