Hmmm... Choices! Choices!

Farhad

Farhad

Farhad

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Joined
21 Jan 2011
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6
It's time to upgrade, as it's been 7 years since the last upgrade, and I think the time is right.

I know this sort of thing has been asked a million times, so please bare the burden of making suggestions.


Here's what the deal is:

I have £800 to spend.

My needs are for gaming and media (HiDef movies) (I don't need super ultra resolutions, simply what my monitor is capable of, which is widescreen 1920*1080)

What's caught my eye:

"Radon Allosaur" Intel Core i5 2500K bundle 3.30GHz @ 4.40GHz Overclocked Bundle - Asus - £459.98 Inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-063-OE
(The bundle comes with 4GB of RAM, and I may decide to upgrade that to 8GB)

Corsair TX 750W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXUK) - £93.98 Inc VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-011-CS

Total so far: £565.97

In terms of monitor and soundcard etc, I'm fine.

Ok so here's the thing; I have 2 dvd writers in my current setup, and am wondering if I have to buy separate cables for converting IDE connectors to SATA. (Will I need new DVD drives all together??)

My hard drives are SATA. Need an upgrade there?

Please help me out regarding the case, GFX card, maybe hard drives and DVD drives.
(Shall I wait for the upcoming 560 cards??)


Regards
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome to forums

You could use your existing IDE DVD drives, mobo's still come with IDE connectors, though SATA drives can be picked up for less than £20 so IMO you may as well get a shiny new one(the Pioneer retail one would be my pick)

Case wise the Coolermaster HAF series are v good, the 912 being nice compact (ish) and the HAF X being big and roomy, others in between, choose what suits you best

Gfx card, the 6950 is great deal atm, good price, v good performance, and it can be flashed to a 6970 (see the GFX card sub forum for details on this)

Thats prob you up to your budget there with good gfx and decent case, though if you dont already have a copy of windows 7 home premium 64 bit you should also invest in this

Feel free to ask any more questions/confirm any points
 
Welcome to the forums :)

Regarding the cases, 95th's choices are both solid options. A case is pretty much an aesthetic choice as long as it fits your bits and bobs in, so go for one that you like and are willing to spend the money on. Check with us first if you're getting a big graphics card like the 6950, as some cases find the bigger cards a bit of a squeeze.

The 6950 is a fantastic card, particularly for as long as it can be flashed to a 6970, but I would personally argue it's overkill for 1920x1080 at ~£240. The 5850, 6850 and GTX 460 are all solid graphics cards that will go to high/max settings on nearly all current games at your resolution, and may all be had for less than £150. The 560 is probably going to sit somewhere between my choices and the 6950 price and performance wise, so think about it if you wish, but I'd argue that even the 560 is likely overkill. Spend the extra if you must have your super AA and so on.

If you want a hard drive, get the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, but you probably won't need an upgrade. 95th is spot on again with the DVD drives, and as he says, you absolutely must have windows 7 64bit nowadays.
 
Thank you for the replies.

It's always fun doing a bit of researching.

So far I have swayed my decision a little towards future upgradeablity, if there's such a word. After all, my last PC lasted 7 years...( Athlon 64 3500+, 1Gb DDR2 3200, 6800GT, WinXP) - funny how that setup cost me an arm and a leg at the time...

So here's where I am so far.

I can opt for settling with what seems like a good spec including 95's comments, or for a little extra, I can go for this badboy:

Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.60GHz DDR3 Sandybridge System -
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-176-OE

The stock specs for that system is exactly right for me, but with a little extra (~£150) I could include a 6950.

Sounds good methinks no?
 
I think that "Titan Spinosaur" Sandybridge System I linked to has everything I will need. I'll throw in an ATI 6950 and see if it can be flashed to a 6970, now that I've read the forum and know about it.
 
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