Considering upgrade, input on specs appreciated

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 11:30

hi,

I was looking to replace my old Q6600 Asus workstation, it's served me well but I think it's time to replace it!

I was considering the following setup and would appreciate your input.

Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Intel Core i7 960 3.20Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail

Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C10 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMZ12GX3M3A2000C10)

Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard

Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003)

I have a corsair 620w PSU which I assume will still do the job!

Is it worth getting the i7 960? or with the 950 do?

I do plan to OC and currently run my Q6600 2.4ghz @ 3.39ghz and DDR2 @ 1200mhz.

I also have a GT260OCX which again served me well, but is getting tired, is the 580 a decent upgrade?

Your thoughts and input is much appreciated.

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 11:36

Not sure where you are looking but the Nehalem, is definately cheaper than the sandybridge here on OCUK!

Also isn't socket 1366 better than 1155/6 ?

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 11:49

sorry I'm a little confused, you have shown an i5, that's a dual core isn't it, i want a quad core i7.

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 12:13

I have a 100% copper zalman cooler!

My bad, did a bit of research, but although it might be 4 cores it can only handle 4 threads!

Also the AsRock Mobo only support dual channel DDR3 not Tri channel.

Why is everyone wanting me to downgrade all the specs? I assume there is a reason other than money , as I never said I was looking for a budget machine!

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 12:29

Thanks, really appreciate the explanation. It's been a while since i built my last machine and so am glad to be pointed in the right direction.

Why is 1366 a dead end? what's the purpose of it if it isn't the next generation over the 1155?

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 12:54

Excellent, thanks for the great info, yes it is lga775, but i might get a new one anyway.

The guy at work always buys my old rig, it still kicks ass over anything he has previous (currently my old P4 2.8ghz with GT8800 VGA) - he doesn't play games!

Is there any particular reason you would go for the ASRock vs ASUS ?..

I have put together a new spec based on your recommendations.... any further thoughts..

Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
(£299.99) £359.99
(£299.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.94
(£116.62) £139.94
(£116.62)
Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD7502AAEX) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-17000CL9D-4GBXL) £54.98
(£45.82) £109.96
(£91.64)

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 13:20

Well the 750GB is @ £15.00 cheaper than 1TB plus i noticed these are 7200rpm not 5900rpm! and to be honest i just bought a WD USB3.0 2TB external drive which is great and there is no point in having a system drive too big, otherwise I wouldn't be able to back it up!

It seems from Tom's that the ASUS is 1% better at gaming than the ASRock.

Is it really not worth getting faster ram when OC'ing?

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 13:26

I could get this spec else wher for slightly less money...

Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 251596 245 in stock £162.48 £135.40 £162.48 £135.40
PNY GTX 580 1536MB GDDR5 DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card 246956 161 in stock £353.04 £294.20 £353.04 £294.20
Asus P8Z68-V Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 268480 22 in stock £132.84 £110.70 £132.84 £110.70
Hitachi 1.5TB 3.5" SATA-III Deskstar Hard Drive - 7200RPM 64MB Cache - 7K3000 247270 8 in stock £64.95 £54.12 £64.95 £54.12
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V 264750 15 in stock £55.82 £46.51 £55.82 £46.51

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:14

Thanks, well it's for the OS and game installations.

I think, I've got it set what i'm going for... so one last question...

How much do you think I should charge for my old components...

Processor : Intel Q6600
Mainboard : Asus P5Q-WS
VGA : BFG GT260 OCX Maxcore
RAM : 4GB OCZ Reaper PC2-9200 (1150mhz)
HD Controller : Adaptec u320 SCSI (in PCI-X 64bit 133mhz slot)
HD Drives : 1 x 36gb 15k Cheetah & 1 x 146gb 15k Cheetah
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate & Vista x64 Ultimate dual boot.

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 14:20

oh , ok sorry! i'll pop over there , didnt' realise.

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 16:30

I've revamped my spec. i though i might as well just go for a smaller HD but SSD to really get the performance boost.

Plus i was debating over 2 x 560 SLi or 1 x 580.

I think, I'll speak with the missus tonight and see if I can break my piggy bank

Here is my final spec, so please shout now if something looks bad!

Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "GOOD Edition" 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £359.99
(£299.99) £359.99
(£299.99)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99
(£137.49) £164.99
(£137.49)
Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £139.94
(£116.62) £139.94
(£116.62)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Samsung SE-S084F/RSBS 8x Slimline External USB DVD±RW - Black £26.99
(£22.49) £26.99
(£22.49)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1155/ 1156 / 1366) £19.99
(£16.66) £19.99
(£16.66)

Don't worry the external USB drive is for my alienware i5 which has no optical drive currently!

1dmf · 7 Jul 2011 at 21:08

yes it's a corsair HX 620w SLi PSU.

But I think I might wait a bit, then I could probably afford to SLi 580, if Kepler doesn't give the ground breaking performance it promises.

I was thinking to tide me over I could Sli another 260 OCX , only my PCIe x16 has a USB 3.0 card in it!

right pain having PCIe x1 slots you can't use due to the size of the GFX card!

1dmf · 8 Jul 2011 at 11:45

I'm a little confused, how come that graph shows it pitted against a HD 5970 which doesn't seem to exist when you look at the normal eTailors?

I then assume that the 6xxx ATi's are better than the 5xxx, and you can get 6xxx starting from as little as £35.00

So how can an ATI that's better than the GTX580 cost a 10th the price.

1dmf · 8 Jul 2011 at 13:26

hmm, that's comparing a 6xxx , is the lower the number the better with ATI graphics cards?

1dmf · 8 Jul 2011 at 13:34

yet 480's are the same price as 580's?

yet i could get 2 x 470's for the price of one 480/580

-------------------------------------------------------------
or is 2 x 5xxx cross fire ATI's better, I stopped using ATI many years ago due to too many problems and game incompatabilities, most games I play seem to love NVidia and have an NVidia splash screen at the start of the game, so is it best to just stick with NVidia?

1dmf · 8 Jul 2011 at 13:53

replacing my PSU is no biggie, I was only going to keep it if it did the job, it was over £100 when I bougt it, but the guy buying my old rig will need a new PSU for his case, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

I'm just trying to understand the best solution for the least cost and if ATI is worth considering again.

It's all bit confusing with the different model numbers and the higher the number doesn't always mean better!

It seems you could get 2 x older cards for less money than a single new card and still beat it on performance, especiall if you go ATI as they older models seem considerbly less money than NVidia, but then is that AMD trying to buy it's market share back, or because the ATI's are pony compared to the NVidia's?

1dmf · 8 Jul 2011 at 14:48

There seems to be a confliction in OC's listing and the review as to how many streams there are?

It's still also cheaper to get 2 x 6870 OC HAWK's than one of these X2's.

If i got 2 x 6870 X2's is that the same as XFiring 4 GFX cards?

1dmf · 11 Jul 2011 at 09:56

Thanks for all the input, after getting abuse in the GFX forum and looking at the confusing models out there at the moment, coupled with next gen on the horizon, I am not going to upgrade now until next year.

I can always lower my current OC and drop the settings on my GT260 OCX , I'm not a hardcore enough gamer to worry about a few less frame rates or the odd stutter, not if i could be throwing money away upgrading now.

I like the idea of 2 x 6879 X2's, but I dont like the idea of ATI, I constantly see peeple moaning about driver issues and game compatabilities with ATI, so perhaps NVidia might bring out a 2 in 1 card, and i could SLi those ;-)

Plus if quad channel memory is coming with the new socket 2011, and as i don't want to over charge my mate for my second hand components, if I leave it 6 months+ my bits will be more in the price bracket he likes to pay, without me crying about how much money i originally spent on them.

So thanks to all who took the time to reply to my threads as i appreciate the input and advice.

take care and happy gaming!