Build on the cheap!!

gupott

gupott

gupott

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I was looking at one final graphics card upgrade on my aging system - see this thread. However I have been convinced that actually its probably worth upgrading my mobo, cpu and ram instead which might be hindering my cards performance. So i was thinking about retaining some bits and pieces, selling some and buying some bits and pieces. Here's what I am thinking

Part to keep

GPU - XFX 6950 1GB
PSU Corsair 750w
HDD - 2xsata HDD's (1 tb 1 500gb)
Case - old li lian case
Monitor - HPLP2475w (will be gaming on one monitor at 1900x1200)
mouse - old faithful logitech
keyboard - MS Sidewinder
Sound card - Creative SB X-FI Fatal1ty Pro sound card
DVD drive - Creative

Sell or at least remove

CPU - Intel Q9300
Cooler - Noctua NH U12p
Mobo - Asus P5K Premium
Ram - 4GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2 Dominator Ram
I could sell the sound card and use new mobo onboard sound??

Buy

CPU - I5 - 3570k (Ivy) - £179.99
Mobo - Gigabyte Z77-B3H - £79.99
RAM - Patriot Viper 2x4gb 1600mhz - £35.99
CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 - £26.99

Price for new bits £322.96

What do you think? Should I do anything different? What about getting an SSD? Should I sell my old sound card? Should I go the whole hog and sell the 6950 as well, if so, what else should I get?

Thanks Guys - much appreciated.
 
That looks good..

I would personally go for this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £426.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



The motherboard you picked is one of the greatest budget Z77 boards, the one is my spec is a step up and offers x8/x8 Xfire, I would keep your 6950, grab another and go Xfire on that bad boy.

An SSD would be well worth while, Worth the £.

The 612s is a lot better than the 212, for not much more. Just make sure itll fit in your case.

On board sound is great now-a-day's.. Could use one if going Xfire anyway, take up too much room. :)

EDIT: Just noticed your cooler, why are you getting rid? Thats a great cooler, id keep it and save yourself some £.
 
Thanks Doomedspeed, that is a great post, really helpful.

I have built about 4 or 5 pc's over the years, I get quite into the tech, buy the stuff, build it and then forget it, so I am well out of date at the moment. So I have a few questions/comments, please excuse my ignorance if I ask a stupid question/s

1) Happy to upgrade mobo but on the sli front would it not be worth selling the 6950 and getting a better single card? Its only a 1gb card, do I loose that as an issue if I add a second? No experience of sli, so slightly nervous of it.

2) Like the idea of an SSD, I need to get my head around how I use one.

3) On the cooler front, happy to keep mine, I just thought there might be an issue fitting to newer boards. Would that be an issue?

4) Sound card - the only reason I ended getting a discrete solution was because my overclock on my current board was messing with the sound. Happy to sell it on.

5) Can't believe the ram is so cheap!! I paid a ton for Corsair back in '08! Is the viper stuff any good, is it fast enough and is 8gb enough?
 
Your sound card as long as it is PCI-e should still fit even if you go crossfire.

There is a PCI-e x1 slot above the top PCI-e x16 slot. As long as the cooler doesn't overhang (which it shouldn't do) it will fit in there.

I have a similar arrangement on my motherboard but with a different cooler.
 
Doomedspeed said:
That looks good..

I would personally go for this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £85.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £35.99
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £32.99
Total : £426.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



The motherboard you picked is one of the greatest budget Z77 boards, the one is my spec is a step up and offers x8/x8 Xfire, I would keep your 6950, grab another and go Xfire on that bad boy.
Click to expand...

Sure you did`nt mean this board?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-390-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2261
 
My wife will literally and I do mean literally kill me. Go on then, lets talk graphics cards.

Okay, so if I sell my 6950, I don't necessarily need the more expensive board as I could just use a single GPU, right? So perhaps I could go back to Z77-D3H, are there any other reasons to stick with the more expensive board?

So, if I am getting a new GPU, I had a look at the 7950's, this looked good, but seems expensive.

What about the 660ti's, this one is the same price. Any thoughts?

I guess I could keep the 6950 for now, too keep the price down. Is there anything imminent of the horizon to think about??
 
I would just stick with upgrading mobo,Cpu, etc and see how things go. Then, if you still feel your Gpu is still lacking in performance, then look at upgrading.
The Z77X wont offer anything more than sli/xfire over the other board.
 
Thanks Idleman,

I have the stuff already in my basket although it has gone up since the 22nd remarkably. The only question mark is with my current cpu cooler which i was going to carry over the Noctua NH U12p to the new build. It still looks like it will fit but I wasn't sure. I have some arctic silver 3 paste around here somewhere, is it worth buying something more recent?
 
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