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CPU Upgrade?

JJXS

JJXS

JJXS

Associate
Joined
28 Sep 2012
Posts
21
Dear All,

Although I work in the IT industry, I'm a bit of a clutz when it comes to personal PC's, so I'm hoping someone would be kind enough to offer some advice. I put together my current set up around 2 years ago and it's starting to creak a little with the latest games. My set up is as follows:

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz 46 °C
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68XP-UD3P (Socket 1155) 30 °C
Graphics
DELL U2212HM (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Gigabyte)
1024MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Gigabyte) 30 °C
Hard Drives
932GB Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 ATA Device (SATA) 29 °C
466GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device (SATA) 30 °C
466GB Seagate ST3500320AS ATA Device (SATA) 31 °C
112GB OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device (SSD) 30 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW GGC-H20L ATA Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

I'm quite happy with the general performance of the system (although I'm not sure the RAM is the best speed I could use) but as mentioned, it's starting to creak. My main use of the PC is for casual gaming and photo editing. I'm pretty much thinking the GC is a little low on performance and may need replacing, hence this post, and having been very pleased with NVIDIA offerings over the years, I would like to replace with the same.

As mentioned, I'm a casual gamer so I don't want to go silly on the price of a replacement, but I would like to to future proof for the next couple of years if possible.

Hopefully this post doesn't infringe any rules and will be well received.

JJXS
 
Are you using the stock cooler as the temp seems abit high, i would get a good after market cooler an Oc the cpu to at least 4.4 there great little clockers.
 
Thanks for the responses. I have three fans in the case and did replace the stock fan for (I think I remember rightly) an Artic 7. But, just opened the case and checked and the CPU fan isn't running, checked the connections and the like and all seems fine.

So, guess it will be buying a new one....Are they easy to fit?

And as for over clocking, I guess use the in built utility that comes with the MB?
 
Would 1600mhz be supported by my board though? I've had a look at the cal, but its a bit beyond me. I'll keep searching
 
Cool, thats great, thanks for that. Just spent 20 mins searching and getting confused. Is there much difference between Patriot and GSkill? It's just I have Gskill installed and had no problem.

May as well order some new RAM tonight and a new fan, not sure if I'll be able to fit the fan, but will give it a go.
 
Perfect, thanks for the advice.

Just one more question, will I need to re-apply thermal compound with a new CPU fan?
 
Yes, always make sure you clean the CPU from the old thermal and apply again when your going to put the new cooler in.

Best thing to do is to search for tutorials on YouTube to guide you :)
 
What are the timings on RAM, does this make too much of a difference? Just trying to get a similar from GSKILL
 
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