help me upgrade!

Musty Pie · 23 Aug 2011 at 13:57

help me upgrade!

as with most on the hardware forums I have fallen a little out of the loop when it comes to PC hardware.

My current set up is as follows:

E8600 3.3ghz Dual core (never clocked)
4GB Corshair Dominator 1066 Memory
XFX GTX280 XT Edition
Asus Striker 2 Formula motherboard
Noctua Cooler
Antec 900
850W Coolermaster Real Power M850
2x 500GB Caviar blacks in Raid 0

This has only realy just started to show its age and due to a small issue with a ankle break ruining a holiday for me a small upgrade is now financially viable.

Now I am right in thinking the main things i need to replace are as follows:

Mobo
Ram
CPU
GFX card

A new case. and HDD's (SSD maybe) and CPU cooler etc can all be had in the future if i wanted to change them.

I could have up to £600 pounds to put into something new so what would you suggest?

I know AMD and ATI are best bang for buck, but I have always been fond of Intel and Nvidias reliability.

I must mention that I have never had a single issue with my hardware as above in terms of failure so ideally would like something as reliable.

Ive never gotten into overclocking through fear of breaking something, if this makes a difference to specs?

so OCUK forums suggest away?

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 14:05

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Dirt3 PC Game £205.99
(£171.66) £205.99
(£171.66)
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
Sub Total : £494.12
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 : £100.82
Total : £604.94

You get free delivery so its under £600.

The graphic card is due in a few days.

Your PSU will easily cope with two of these cards in Crossfire and the motherboard does Crossfire and SLI too.

Musty Pie · 23 Aug 2011 at 14:08

interesting spec, I would not need the cooler, I would just get the right brackets for mine for the new socket.

Would it not be worth going I7 then? reason for i5?

sorry silly questions i know

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 14:10

For mainly gaming, a i5 2500K is where its at - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Save the money over a i7 2600K and use it towards a better gpu.

Musty Pie · 23 Aug 2011 at 14:18

stulid said:
For mainly gaming, a i5 2500K is where its at - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Save the money over a i7 2600K and use it towards a better gpu.

Fair enough! seems to make sense

Any other options on the memory? this would be my first ATI card over Nvidia but i guess it would run BF3 with no issues?

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 14:21

Musty Pie said:
Any other options on the memory?

Not really, its 8Gb for under £50, its also low in height so has more chance of fitting under big heatsinks unlike Corsair vengeance.

Memory timings make little difference to sandybridge performance, all the ram guides suggest 1600mhz with normal timings is the sweat spot.

this would be my first ATI card over Nvidia but i guess it would run BF3 with no issues?

I certainly would hope so for this spec.

Musty Pie · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:36

Ok thanks mate I have been looking this afternoon and have come up with the following:

Little tweak on the original spec:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Dirt3 PC Game [R6950TWINFROZRIIIPE/OC]

Asus P8P67 PRO Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION **

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) [CMX8GX3M2A1600C9]

I dont need a CPU cooler as noctua say on the site they will send the new mounting kit with a proof of purcahse of my original cooler.

Case i can stick with my antec 900 (providing it all fits in)

And everything else should be ok.

Any issue with the above or would you change anything?

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:40

Theres no issues with the above, and it fits in the case ok.

Is the i5 2500K a Retail or OEM chip? Retail has 3year warranty/box and stock heatsink, OEM is just a chip.

And the price of that ASUS board is only £15 less than a Z68 Gen3 board so you get PCI-E3.0 when you put a ivybridge cpu in it.

Musty Pie · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:42

so your saying the MSI one is better and more future proof.

I have just always been a fan of the asus motherboards, that is the retail one, i guess I can save a few quid with an OEM, but again im a bit funny about having full boxed items, helps with re-sale.

stulid · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:47

Then if you want ASUS? you can have this Z68 board - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-458-AS

Ivybridge will still go in with a BIOS update, you just dont get PCI-E3.0 that the next bunch of future graphics cards are suppose to have, but they will still work and be backwards compatible just like most things are.