Budget Build Advice please

Tanveryen

Tanveryen

Tanveryen

Associate
Joined
19 Sep 2011
Posts
22
Hi all,

I'm hoping you can help me again as my last build was in 2006!!

My current set up is an:-
Antec P180
Xclio X14 750w Modular
E6600
Asus P5B Deluxe
6gb DDR2 800
8800GTS.
Win 7 Ultimate 64bit

When I built it, it was built to last, and has done well for 5 years.

I am now looking to upgrade as it is has started to freeze playing games online and hitting 100% CPU all the time, plus I've had a good 5 years out of it.

I am not after something to play the latest games at max FPS. I only really play Mmorpg, specifically Everquest which is 10 years old, most other gaming is (sorry) handled by my 360 or PS3, getting old and just like things that work now.

I also would like use my machine for recording and editing music, touching up the odd photo and ripping my Bluray collection to stream over the network.

I believe it is better to start again with a fresh build rather than try to recyle (apart from the case and OS) as any of the parts could be letting it down.

As a budget build I have been looking at:-

2500k - £155
Coolermaster Hyper 212 - £22
P8Z68-V LX Motherboard - £84
8gb Mushkin Blackline 9-9-9-24 - £42
600w PSU (decent brand) - £70
1TB HDD (all mine are as old as the machine) - £45
60gb SSD OCZ Solid 3 Sata lll - £70
Radeon HD 6790 - £110
Bluray 10x - £40

All in all this is coming in around £650

I was hoping to squeeze that down to £550

Firstly if I am only going to do a modest OC to say 4.5 is the stuff listed going to be overkill, can I make a saving anywhere.

Secondly, given the light use I give my PC, would an AMD x4 965 BE / 1100T BE suit my needs at a reduced cost?

Most importantly I need to know that all these parts (or those you may recommend) are all compatible and will OC easily.

Many thanks for any help you can give this returning OC / newby!
 
First of all, get rid of that 5790 and get a 6850. Around the same price but more powerful! Plus the 6790 will be more of a bottleneck towards the CPU! 6970 v 6850: http://bit.ly/qJnKXH

Secondly, downgrade to a 500W PSU, as you will not be using all the 600W, well far from it, when even under load. So it's just a waste of energy, heat and money on your electrical bill. (Npower cheapest btw)

Thirdly, go down to 4gb memory, using 8gb is a bit of a waste, 99% of programs don't use, even games, more than 3gb, even nowadays. Save money and get 4gb.

Finally, do you really need an SSD drive. I will admit, they are amazingly fast, but getting into a game, or loading windows a few seconds faster; is it worth the money?

If you were to go AMD, I'd get the 1100T BE. It overclocks well and will last a good few years. What I am getting soon xD.
]
Hope this helps.

Also may I add. BENCHMARK!!!!! 100th POST... (lolz sorry)

Thanks
 
Jony27 said:
well as Cinder said get rid of the 6790, and get 6850 or 6870.
you said you wanted to squeeze it down to £550, a good place to start is the SSD, then the bluray drive, that should automatically go down by ~£100.

stay with intel, i5 2500k=best gaming chip out atm.

heres a better board with CF/SLI 8x 8x and the 3 Z68 features
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990
Click to expand...

I agree with Jony27. The 6850 is a great card and will last you a while and give you great framerates for well over a year. If you could stretch to the 6870. GET IT! lolz.

To the SSD, no need, get rid of it and get the board Jony27 stated.
 
Thanks for all your feedback, I have dropped the SSD for now as I am sure to be blown away by the increased performance the new system gives. I can save that to be blown away another day!

I will need a Bluray as that is a prime requirement, but that doesn't really need your expertise as it wont effect overall performance, I'll just go with the fastest reading one I can afford.

I have come up with the following 2 builds on your advice, and with only £30 between AMD v Intel seems like a no brainer. Please let me know if it isn't!

As stated before SLI is not a requirement and I have bumped the GPU up a couple of notches anyway, so if the mobo can be slimmed down to give good overclocking potential, without all the whistles and bells let me know.

Have kept the 8gb ram as its on offer at £40 and for the minor saving getting 4gb will give I'd rather have as much as I could use now and for the foreseeable future.

Let me know if this will all go together and overclock well please!

OCZ Modxstream Pro 500w Silent **** £47.92 PSU
ZX68XP-UD3 OCUK £99.98 Mobo
8GB Mushkin Blackline DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 **** £41.99 RAM
Intel i5-2500k **** £155.99 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro - Rev2 Amazon £14.83 Cooler
Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB ST2000D Scan £57.58 HDD
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 OCuK £127.99 GPU

£546.28


OCZ Modxstream Pro 500w Silent **** £47.92 PSU
Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X OCuK £99.98 Mobo
8GB Mushkin Blackline DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 **** £41.99 RAM
Phenom ll x 6 1090T BE **** £125.99 CPU
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro - Rev2 Amazon £14.83 Cooler
Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB ST2000D Scan £57.58 HDD
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 6870 OCuK £127.99 GPU

£516.28

Many thanks,

Tim.
 
The arctic freezer pro 7 rev 2 is a great cooler, but for the i5 2500k i wouldnt bother. I have that cooler for my athlon quad and it does the job, but for the i5, especially with the overclocking in it, get something a bit better.

Get the Gelid Tranquillo. This is an excellent cooler and goes well with the i5 and the price: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

One other little mistake. The HDD you have is the SATA2 version. Get SATA3 as they are faster at read/write speeds, so will give a lot better performance, especially if you go for the i5 rig.

Apaprt from that, you will have a great rig. My advice, for the price, and extra £30. GET THE i5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lolz.

Lot better than the X6 and for £30 more, you will not be able to complain at all xD
 
CinderzFTW said:
The arctic freezer pro 7 rev 2 is a great cooler, but for the i5 2500k i wouldnt bother. I have that cooler for my athlon quad and it does the job, but for the i5, especially with the overclocking in it, get something a bit better.

Get the Gelid Tranquillo. This is an excellent cooler and goes well with the i5 and the price: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

One other little mistake. The HDD you have is the SATA2 version. Get SATA3 as they are faster at read/write speeds, so will give a lot better performance, especially if you go for the i5 rig.

Apaprt from that, you will have a great rig. My advice, for the price, and extra £30. GET THE i5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lolz.

Lot better than the X6 and for £30 more, you will not be able to complain at all xD
Click to expand...

Both are good coolers, but as long as there is a good airflow through-out the case, the Arctic Freezer will be ok at cooling the I5 (They are good clockers and dont give out too much heat anyway)
 
Last edited:
CinderzFTW said:
One other little mistake. The HDD you have is the SATA2 version. Get SATA3 as they are faster at read/write speeds, so will give a lot better performance, especially if you go for the i5 rig.
Click to expand...

With a mechanical HDD you will never get the disk mechanism up to that 6 GB/s max burst speed of the port, so the speed of the spinning disk (and its heads) will be the limit. Even a 3 GB/s isn't fully saturated by a mechanical disk.

Just get the cheapest whether its SATA 3GB/s or 6GB/s
 
Last edited:
@ stulid. On average the sata3 6gb/s are faster than the sata3. Only reason I said to get one. And they are about the same price anyways as the older SATA2 drives
 
Ok gents, thanks for your advice. I have finally pushed the button on the following system, went a little over budget, but hey!

Intel I5-2500k SB
Gigabyte Z68XZ-UD3
Arctic Freezer Pro Rev2
8gb G.Skill RipjawX 1600mhz
2TB Western Digital WD20EARX Caviar Green
OCuk ATI 6870
XFX Pro 550w Core Edition PSU
Samsung SH-B123L Bluray
Thermal Compound

Total Price:- £644.86

thanks again, will put together over the weekend and fingers crossed I can overclock it on my own!

Cheers.
 
Tanveryen said:
Ok gents, thanks for your advice. I have finally pushed the button on the following system, went a little over budget, but hey!

Intel I5-2500k SB
Gigabyte Z68XZ-UD3
Arctic Freezer Pro Rev2
8gb G.Skill RipjawX 1600mhz
2TB Western Digital WD20EARX Caviar Green
OCuk ATI 6870
XFX Pro 550w Core Edition PSU
Samsung SH-B123L Bluray
Thermal Compound

Total Price:- £644.86

thanks again, will put together over the weekend and fingers crossed I can overclock it on my own!

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Good rig dude. Nice taking my advice and going for the 6870. Much better and faster than the 5790. Enjoy the rig and btw, I wouldn't mind seeing some pics once it's done.

Enjoy xD
 
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