How much to upgrade?

willhub · 11 Jun 2011 at 00:04

I'm planning to overclock.

I've got a good GPU (5870) and hoping the PSU will be ok (HX520W Corsair).

So all I'm really needing is an i7, mobo and ram, and wondering how much at the cheapest I can realistically be looking for this?

Don't know what sort of i7 I should look for but I'd like to get one that can hit 4GHz and I'm guessing I'd need 6gb of ram too.

Any help would be good.

Cheers.

Reaper 392 · 11 Jun 2011 at 00:08

what are you using the PC for? if its gaming, then i would say i5 2500k, p67 mobo and 4GB RAM.

for video editing, or any other CPU intensive stuff i would say i7 2600k, Z68 mobo and 8 or 16 GB RAM

Lelouch · 11 Jun 2011 at 00:24

Well if you decide to go the i5 2500K route with 4Gb of RAM your looking to spend around £330. With 8Gb of RAM it's £370.

If you're set on the i7 with the 2600K with 8Gb of RAM it's around £470.

Depends what you need it for but it's mainly for gaming I'd recommend the i5 build.

willhub · 11 Jun 2011 at 06:54

I might have to go the second hand route by the looks of it.

hybrid572 · 11 Jun 2011 at 08:27

Second hand, an X58 i7 or i5 760 won't push you more than £200 or so (incl board and RAM), so that's worth a look.

willhub · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:24

Will and i5/i7 overclocked be ok on a Corsair HX520w?

sk82jack · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:32

willhub said:
Will and i5/i7 overclocked be ok on a Corsair HX520w?

Should be fine with a single 5870 as it's a very good quality seasonic based unit, nice and efficient even at full load too

5870 Review

Our test system is a power hungry Core i7 965 / X58 based and overclocked to 3.75 GHz. Next to that we have energy saving functions disabled for this motherboard and processor (to ensure consistent benchmark results).

Our ASUS motherboard also allows adding power phases for stability, which we enabled as well. I'd say on average we are using roughly 50 to 100 Watts more than a standard PC due to these settings and then add the CPU overclock, water-cooling, additional cold cathode lights etc.

Keep that in mind. Our normal system power consumption is much higher than your average system.

System in IDLE = 169 Watts
System with GPU in FULL Stress = 358 Watts

willhub · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:35

I'm just thinking.

For gaming would I not be best off going better PSU and crossfire 5870?

Would be cheaper and it looks like the jump from my quad to i7 is not that massive and probably not noticable no?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/51?vs=142

stulid · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:40

Sounds like a plan, the motherboard in your sig is up to it too.

Someone is selling a 5870 for £70, but I think it causes issues at its full clock speed.

erazor51 · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:51

i7 2600k with 8gb ram would be the way to go if you have the cash or if can wait till aug/sept for BD to come out, the prices for i7's might go down.

willhub · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:51

BD?

What are 6 core AMD's like?

stulid · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:55

AMD Bulldozer, which looks like its been delayed again, The 6core phenom chips cant compete against the Sandybridge either.

sk82jack · 19 Jun 2011 at 21:57

erazor51 said:
i7 2600k with 8gb ram would be the way to go if you have the cash or if can wait till aug/sept for BD to come out, the prices for i7's might go down.

Not for gaming it's not...

willhub · 19 Jun 2011 at 22:04

From reading around it seems at the moment there may be no point even doing anything unless I want to go crossfire, perhaps 4gb extra ddr2 ram on the cheap and a 1TB hdd.

Might just have to keep waiting for some good buys.