Enforced upgrade

tophee

tophee

tophee

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Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
460
Location
Cambridge, or somewhere else in the world
After pluggin in a old spare hdd my PSU went pop. I'd hoped I'd been lucky, bought a new PSU, a new hdd and reinstalled Windows. It seems there was some damage to the motherboard, or some other component as Windows keeps crashing, going really slow or it doesn't even post, let alone boot.

So I need to get some new bits. What would people suggest?

My old system was based around a Q6600. A great little quad core - I'd had it running around 3.2Ghz for years. What I want is something that is future proof and possibly a bit more high end (ish).

I will be wanting 16GB ram. I'm doing a fair old bit of photoshopping and some virtualization. I am a little (or a lot) out of touh with current tech, I'mgetting a bit confused with the i5s and i7s and their different flavours. I like the idea of 8 threads of the i7s (but is it really necessary?) I'll be using my old case, my new PSU and hdd. I should be able reuse my old graphics card: an Nvidia 460 GTX.

Budget? £500ish

Thanks
 
hows this?
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
(£216.66) £259.99
(£216.66)
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £87.98
(£73.32) £87.98
(£73.32)
Sub Total : £381.64
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £78.23
Total : £469.37
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Grimly,
That looks like a good setup. Ill check out the specs and reply / ask any further questions
 
Heres some questions,

• What OS do you have?
• What case do you have?
• Are all your drives SATA?
• What PSU is it?
 
OS - duel boot Vista / Ubuntu own hdds
My case is the classic Akasa Eclipse
Oy yes SATA all the way (ACHI)
The new PSU is a Corair HX 750 M
 
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What PSU do you have?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - Retail £229.99
1 x Gigabyte X79-UD3 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £89.99
Total : £476.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Do you need a graphics card as well?
i7 processors are generally superior to i5 for applications such as photoshop, CAD, Maya etc. as they benefit from hyperthreading which i7 uses. In the long run it is worth having an i7 anyway - the price isn't too much more than i5 for what you get. Another variation of the i7 that has similar performance to the 3820 is the 2700k for a little bit more money - except that would require a 1155 socket MB. I think the i7 3820 is the best value i7, if you ask me, though. Also I chose Sandybridge for you instead of Ivybridge because people have reported problems and high temperatures using this. Sandybridge is still a great range.
 
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He mentions already having a gtx 460. I wouldn't rule out Ivy, excessive temps are only really occuring on high OC's if I'm reading through people's experiences rightly. A mild overclock on an Ivy will give him the performance of a decent sandy overclock and not cause any temp issues. From a fresh upgrade point of view, unless you're after benchmark numbers, I'd go for Ivy. Lower power usage and PCI 3 for the future with no negatives really. That's just my opinion though :-)
 
HI, Sorry for not getting back to you guys earlier. Been manic at work this morning. So is Sandybridge better than Ivybridge?
 
^^ Depends on your point of view... Sandybridge can get higher over clocks but Ivy is newer tech so 4.5GHz on Sandybridge is like 4.2/4.3GHz on Ivybridge. Also it depends on how much over clocking you want to do (if any) personally if I were in your shoes I would go with Ivy.

Stoner81.
 
Yup thinking I will go with the newer tech of Ivybridge, I just wanted to be sure.
 
Right, having just had a chance to go through everything in more detail: (boy its been crazy today, just to finish off a mad week) then had to have several stiff drinks and then have evening with wife.

So, re: windows Vista - I've an ultamate edition so 64bit all the way. I agree Win7 is better but I'm not paying for a new operating system when the majority of Windows use for is photoshop.

I'm getting very close to ordering. I think I will get the setup suggested by Grimley.
 
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