could i have some advice on a spec please

face256

face256

face256

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Hey guys, just following up a thread i made about a graphics upgrade which sorta turned into an everything upgrade: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18287810

I just want to clarify the uses of this machine because i only want stuff that i actually need and not go over board. My monitor is 30 inch so everything i run will be at 2500x1600 res. I use photoshop a lot for art n stuff and also need to be able to run my wacom tablet which acts as another monitor. I do run games n stuff but not as much as id like to unfortunately so its just casual play. Mainly stuff like wow, sc2 but i'll prob check out some of the newer FPS games.

I'm trying to keep as much of my old parts as i can but please let me know if they also need changing, especially since they're all about 3 years old and i dunno if they'll be compatible.

New stuff:
CPU: Intel i5. I have no idea which i5 i should go for, tbh i cant make sense of the different models. Would really appreciate if someone could suggest one.
the ones ive seen are about £145/160

GPU: eVGA GTX 570 Core: 732MHz, Memory: 1280MB 3800MHz GDDR5, Stream Processors: 480, Shader Clock: 1464MHz.
In the above thread the gtx480 and gtx570 were recommended. I've been researching them a bit and it seems they both give the same performance but the 570 runs cooler. Since im pretty sure my last card died because of overheating (my apartment is pretty hot most of the time) i think i'll go with the 570. I choose eVGA cuz of HDMI/displayport compatibility/price/warranty.
- £237

memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz. - £60

Hard drive: OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD. I've never used an SSD before, this seemed like a good choice. - £170

OS: Windows 7 64 bit (i dont know if i need 64bit or 32, prices seem the same) - £70

Old stuff:

Mobo: P5Q-PRO

memory: 4gb

case: HAF-932

PSU: corsair 750w

Total price seems to be around £690. its a bit steep so id be happy to downsize anything thats not really needed.

Sorry for the long post!
 
I was hoping to keep my original P5Q-PRO. Though i should say i know absolutely nothing about mobos (and pretty much everything else) so i dunno if I can keep it. If i cant, then i have no idea which to get.
 
OK here is My Effort,

I have ditched the SSD as you really wont notice any in game performance gain and all you will get is slightly shorter load times SSD is not good value for performance at the moment,

The mobo i have included is more expensive than the other MSI offerings but a bloody good board and comes with a cooler that will allow you to press the magic button on the board that will automatically overclock the CPU to 4.2 for you with no effort :D making it free horse power

The Graphics card i chose just to keep costs down but feel free to adjust that to your needs/ taste.

Ram unless your doing anything major TBH 4gb of that Ram is more than enough.

Your Power supply is fine and will cope for years to come.

the i5 2500k is basically "unlocked" so it can be overclocked, but that mobo has OCGenie so you just press a button it really is that simple :D

MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £178.99
(£149.16) £178.99
(£149.16)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** with FREE Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler £139.99
(£116.66) £139.99
(£116.66)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £30.98
(£25.82) £30.98
(£25.82)
Sub Total : £426.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £87.33
Total : £523.96
 
heres my spec. im not sure where your getting the 570's from at for £237, but i would definitly go with them, seeing that the cheapest OcUK 570 is £250


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £249.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £183.98
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £161.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £130.00
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £59.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £50.99
Total : £848.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).

changed SSD to crucial M4 - OCZ 3 series have been having lots of problems
the processor comes with a cooler, but i included the best custom cooler you can get. if you already have a custom cooler that fits socket 1155 or 1156 then remove this from my basket. you could also change the cooler for a ~£20-25 one if you wished, but i would recommend no lower than that

what type of hard drive and DVD drive do you have in your PC. if they are IDE drives (massive ribbon cable going from drive to motherboard) you will either need a replacement drive, or an IDE card (under £10) because there are no IDE sockets on motherboards that support the i5 2500k processor
 
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even for a lot of photoshop tasks 4gb is still enough depends what our doing, But Ram is so cheap 8gb wont hurt that was what i did any way but you need to set a max budget for us and we can then get you the best "bang for buck"
 
wow thanks a lot for your efforts guys much appreciated :). Randall gotta say that total cost looks really nice :D thing is though, I was given the impression from the last thread i made that 4GB memory was a bottleneck for the type of card i would need to run at 2500x1600 res so dunno there. Also people were suggesting i needed a card with over 1GB ram so further confusion there. But hey if this is all i need i'll be more than happy to go for it.

That mobo seems really cool, i'll definitely go for it.

About the SSD. I was mainly looking at this from a multitasking kinda view rather than gaming. Ive heard the difference in load times is very noticable. I have a lot of applications running and right now they all take ages to load, especially in start up. This article made a really convincing case to having one so i dunno really: http://www.anandtech.com/print/2738.

Reaper, how significant are these OCZ SSD problems? I only ask since the crucial M4 seems to have slower read/write speeds and is more expensive.

tbh the main reason i chose the eVGA 570 brand is so i can use display port. im kinda curious to see what its like :)

Both my DVD player and current hard drive use SATA cables so im assuming they should be ok.
 
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face256 said:
wow thanks a lot for your efforts guys much appreciated :). Randall gotta say that total cost looks really nice :D thing is though, I was given the impression from the last thread i made that 4GB memory was a bottleneck for the type of card i would need to run at 2500x1600 res so dunno there. Also people were suggesting i needed a card with over 1GB ram so further confusion there. But hey if this is all i need i'll be more than happy to go for it.

That mobo seems really cool, i'll definitely go for it.

About the SSD. I was mainly looking at this from a multitasking kinda view rather than gaming. Ive heard the difference in load times is very noticable. I have a lot of applications running and right now they all take ages to load, especially in start up. This article made a really convincing case to having one so i dunno really: http://www.anandtech.com/print/2738.

Reaper, how significant are these OCZ SSD problems? I only ask since the crucial M4 seems to have slower read/write speeds and is more expensive.

Heres the 570: *link removed*
tbh the main reason i went for this brand is so i can use display port. im kinda curious to see what its like :)

Both my DVD player and current hard drive use SATA cables so im assuming they should be ok.
Click to expand...

you might want to remove the competitor link. its not allowed on these forums.

for the RAM, 4GB is great for gaming, but if you are doing large photoshop work you could need more than 4GB. as you said since its so cheap its worth going for 8GB

with a 2560x1600 res, you are definitly going to want as much graphics power as you can get if you plan on gaming with graphics on a high setting. here is a comparison of the 560Ti and the 570: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=306
the 560Ti will be just fine, but you will have to lower a lot of graphics settings

i was very surprised at how big the real world difference in SSD speeds are between the OCZ and the crucial M4. i had to go with the 256GB versions because the 128GB version of the M4 wasnt available:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/355?vs=352
the problems are affecting a small number of the 3 series drives, but the problem is a BSOD and/or a completely unbootable computer. as you can imagine OCZ are working to fix this

you will be fine with your current HDD and DVD drives. i just wanted to make sure it wouldall work together.
 
I should point out that in photoshop i work with some crazy ass dimensions like 3000X3000 pixels, sometimes more and if theres a lot of layers it can get pretty slow. But the slowness is only when i give it a major command like flipping the canvas or applying a filter, this is where you really notice the difference in load time. the actual real time brush strokes/layer movements are fine. I dunno if this is a CPU, GPU or memory issue.
 
OK if you that into photo shop defo go for the 8gb ram, if you go for that MOBO and CPU (GD65 / 2500K) you really cant get any more performance without spending a lot more (i7)
good luck with your build :D its always nice when new tech arrives.
 
Cheers :) sorry about the link, removed it. Reaper just one thing, I'm a bit confused about the SSD situation. it is worth getting one right? Also that comparison seems to show the OCZ as very dominant over the M4. Do you think its worth the risk taking the OCZ in light of these problems?
 
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