Downgrading system - best route?

squarehead94

squarehead94

squarehead94

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25 Nov 2011
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Cumbria, United Kingdom
Hey all, due to lack of use, lack of time, and lack of funds right now, ive been offered £1,000 for my rig, Ill update my sig in a sec so you can see it, its a 3930k setup, I have never used it anywhere near its potential so its best to sell up rather than see it dust and depreciate more. Ill miss it but, I will be getting a decent setup in replacement.

So ive been offered 2 rigs.

1st is a 2500k with a h61 board (would sell this and get a z68) with 8gb ram, a gtx 480 1.5gb and a 1tb hard drive. comes in a bog standard case but im looking at a nzxt switch with a 1000w modular psu for 100 from a friend. (total price: 400, or i can keep it in its crappy case and 650w ocz zs psu for 300)

second is an i7 920, with 24gb ram, a gigabyte x58 board, silverstone tj09 case, comes without a psu, nor a gpu, but i can pick up a 560ti from a buddy making the total 330, and a psu is around 60 so it brings it in to around 390.

If you fancy speccing me, I have a budget of around £300, no case or monitor or keyboard/mouse needed, nor an SSD, ill be keeping one of mine from my rig. So ill be needing GPU, CPU, board, RAM, optical drive. preferably the less the better. or do you reckon id be best buying one of the above setups for "bang for your buck".
thanks guys, im gutted, but I need the money, and £700 spare in my pocket is a big help at the moment.
 
You won't get better for the money than those two. I would personally get the £300 (2500k + 480).

Should be more than enough for gaming. No real need to OC.. £700 is a cool profit. :)
 
its not profit lol, its loss, but thankfully not too much lost, i really scoured the market for the bits for the rig, spent about 1150 on it, which tbh im pretty happy with still getting 1k back, better than waiting till next year and selling it for 500.
Ill miss it loads, but needs must, and i may sell the 480 and save a tad for a 670, less power hungry, and less noisy id imagine.
 
Have you taken the 2500k h61 to z68 motherboard cost into account?

Personally.. from those two, I'd go with the i5 2500k everytime.
 
Yeah bud, i wont be overclocking yet, ill just do it next payday id say, and get a decent case too, maybe something uber quiet rather than massive and flashy.
Can pick up brand new z68's for 50 sheets (one on sale on here in fact!) and they regularly sell for around this mark anyway, seen some p67s go for as little as 35 quid too, so take into account selling the h61, the cost difference is minor. its the case thatll make a difference i reckon.
 
well spotted chap! its no doubt the famous z68ap gigabyte board! i always linkey'd it in my build specs, theyve had them for months haha!
Id probably spend 15 more for brand new, ive had 1 die on me and its missing the backplate usually, but thanks for that though!
 
i am quite confused as to why your downgrading, back 2 generations to a 2500k. I understand you say your not using the system to it's full potential but it isn't costing you anything more than running a slightly lesser system(well maybe a few quid on electricity) what happens if you do decide to start doing video rendering or 3d modelling in your free time then you'll be thinking damn i wish i'd kept my system. Sorry i just thought this needed to be said but you did say you needed the funds which is fair enough,

if you are downgrading get the 2500k and then sell the g-card and buy a 78xx/79xx or 660 if you want to game in the future mobo wise you could get a cheap z77, it has better features than that of a z68
 
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I need money at the moment mate, ive used most of my savings, working 2 jobs, and still struggling to cover car insurance, rent and bills. i know the actual running costs will be the same, but i wont be bottlenecked by a 2500k/gtx 480 (or if i can swap that with my dad for my old 670, win win) and believe me mate, id be lucky to start getting free time let alone time to video edit haha. once i get my 1 year ncb in november my insurance goes down to 90 quid a month (vs 250 currently) ill be working less hours, but honestly all i do is play some games, watch some movies, surf and stuff, but i still want the best bang for buck and play any game on high. so a good computer and 3 months insurance covered now will do me :) plus i get to keep my awesome monitor, so i wont really notice a difference i dont think, other than E-peen.
 
I would go with the i5 2500k build as well, the GTX 480 is still pretty powerful (although will run fairly hot on stock cooling) and for £300 all in it's a great price.
 
squarehead94 said:
I need money at the moment mate, ive used most of my savings, working 2 jobs, and still struggling to cover car insurance, rent and bills. i know the actual running costs will be the same, but i wont be bottlenecked by a 2500k/gtx 480 (or if i can swap that with my dad for my old 670, win win) and believe me mate, id be lucky to start getting free time let alone time to video edit haha. once i get my 1 year ncb in november my insurance goes down to 90 quid a month (vs 250 currently) ill be working less hours, but honestly all i do is play some games, watch some movies, surf and stuff, but i still want the best bang for buck and play any game on high. so a good computer and 3 months insurance covered now will do me :) plus i get to keep my awesome monitor, so i wont really notice a difference i dont think, other than E-peen.
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fair enough, cant say im looking forward to car insurance myself learning to drive is fun but then when you have to pay for a car and also car insurance.....not going to be fun

2500k would do you good if you can get your hands on a 670 then you'll be fine for 2-3 years, if you could overclock the 2500k get a bit more juice out of it
 
Good lord, 250 per month for insurance, are you driving a jet :D

My vote would be the 2500k, still a really good cpu and will handle games fine.
 
The i7 920 is a phenomenally good, but old, processor. I'm using one for fairly heavy number crunching still. Silverstone cases are nice too. I'd go for that one. 24gb of ram would be good for me but may be irrelevant for your purposes.

What are the power supplies? They vary in price from about £10 to a few hundred (new) and the quality varies considerably as a result.
 
Haha i wish it was a jet its only a civic sport 1.6, but at the same price to insure as a micra and a fiesta i know what id rather drive lol!
Thinking of swapping the beefy 480 1.5gb for a buddies 7870ghz edish less power draw and quiter so... he has the room and a 800d to watercool and overclock the 480 so its a win win just hope he pulls through on the deal!
 
LOL no wonder honda civic. but people forget its not just the car its the tax and petrol i know youd rather drive a civic but the road tax and petrol on the lower ones could have saved you a bundle.
 
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scotsdragon said:
LOL no wonder honda civic. but people forget its not just the car its the tax and petrol i know youd rather drive a civic but the road tax and petrol on the lower ones could have saved you a bundle.
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Actually, the civic is my second car. its in a fair low tax bracket (£95 for 6 months, £170 for 12) and it gets 33mpg. I usually get around 320 miles to a tank, at £50 (or £60 if i use 97ron super unleaded, which gets me a bit more but the car seems to like it more.)

And, the civic 1.6 is in a low insurance group, even though it is the same chassis and is the same bar engine brakes and suspension, and interior, which ive changed to type r recaro leathers anyway.
If i had kept my fiesta mk6 (first car) is be paying 234 a month, the civic is £250, and they get about the same in fuel suprisingly. think i may have got 360 to a tank in my fiesta, so a little bit better, but not massively, so im paying maybe 30 quid a month more to drive a 1.6 honda civic than my old 1.25 fiesta.
 
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