How wrong have i got it?

pazgaz

pazgaz

pazgaz

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2 Feb 2012
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chesterfield
Ok ive just ordered a few components from OCUK and like usual im thinking have i just got that totaly wrong?

Im wanting to update as my current rig is struggling with BF3. My first plan was to just buy one of the FX4100 Bundles @ around £250 but after a little research i have yet to read anything great about the cheaper FX range.

So what I have done is buy the following components (from oc):

Asus M5A97 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard

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

Asus Axe Square Limited Edition Gold CPU Cooler

These have cost me £150 and i plan to use them with my existing GPU (HD6850) and CPU (X2 545). I thought I might get some fun out of overclocking and possibly unlocking cores on my existing CPU as my current mobo never let me (Its an old foxcom which has got a parralel printer port that kind of dates it) If this does not give me much of an improvement i then plan to invest my spare £100 in a X4 965BE.

So the Question im posing is what would you have done with my £250 budget.

P.S. this is my first post so go easy on me and yes i did choose that cooler just because it looks good.
 
I would have gone Sandybridge.

But a i3 2100 cant be overclocked,


Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £94.99
(£79.16) £94.99
(£79.16)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Sub Total : £183.30
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 : £38.56
Total : £231.36

But the motherboard will take a Ivybridge CPU in the future etc so you could overclock a "K" CPU later on.
 
pazgaz said:
Ok ive just ordered a few components from OCUK and like usual im thinking have i just got that totaly wrong?

Im wanting to update as my current rig is struggling with BF3. My first plan was to just buy one of the FX4100 Bundles @ around £250 but after a little research i have yet to read anything great about the cheaper FX range.

So what I have done is buy the following components (from oc):

Asus M5A97 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard

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

Asus Axe Square Limited Edition Gold CPU Cooler

These have cost me £150 and i plan to use them with my existing GPU (HD6850) and CPU (X2 545). I thought I might get some fun out of overclocking and possibly unlocking cores on my existing CPU as my current mobo never let me (Its an old foxcom which has got a parralel printer port that kind of dates it) If this does not give me much of an improvement i then plan to invest my spare £100 in a X4 965BE.

So the Question im posing is what would you have done with my £250 budget.

P.S. this is my first post so go easy on me and yes i did choose that cooler just because it looks good.
Click to expand...

When did you order? Call OcUK and cancel. Get Stulid's instead. That's what I'd do anyway.
 
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I ordered it 1am this morning (payday) order has been dispatched. Am i fairly limited with the stuff ive ordered? Ive just always been an AMD man.
 
Defo would have gone with Intel and what has been suggested above. If it's already been dispatched I would seriously consider sending it back using the DSR. OK it may cost you a bit more terms of postage but in the long run it'll be well worth it.
 
yep its sad for me to say but buying an AMD rig now is pointless. It will be Ok and faster than what you have got but wouldn't you rather have the best bang for buck at your price range.
Intel are stomping AMD at every price point, their 2 steps ahead at the moment and unless the bulldozer architecture has some major tweaking seem to stay like that for the next 2-5 years.
 
Or return the lot and just grab a 960T and a decent cooler. If the main purpose of your upgrade is to improve gaming performance your not going get anything out of it if your CPU doesn't unlock other than perhaps a bit of overclocking.
 
pazgaz said:
I ordered it 1am this morning (payday) order has been dispatched. Am i fairly limited with the stuff ive ordered? Ive just always been an AMD man.
Click to expand...

If you are on hand for the delivery, you can refuse the order, so it goes straight back to OcUK, and you get a refund. You may or may not incur delivery charge by OcUK (not the courier), which would be, £10? Look up the term and conditions. I did that some time ago with a graphics card.

You can also sell your old kit as well for a few bobs.
 
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shadow_boxer said:
Or return the lot and just grab a 960T and a decent cooler. If the main purpose of your upgrade is to improve gaming performance your not going get anything out of it if your CPU doesn't unlock other than perhaps a bit of overclocking.
Click to expand...

a SB i3 still outperforms an overclocked 955. But the motherboard will give you an option to get an unlocked quad-core later on.
 
Ok so im goin to try my hardest not to open any boxes and attempt return. Is it worth keeping the ram?
 
pazgaz said:
Ok so im goin to try my hardest not to open any boxes and attempt return. Is it worth keeping the ram?
Click to expand...

return the whole thing. As I said, if you are there for the delivery, you can tell the courier you want to refuse the parcel and return it to OcUK. Then you don't have to mess around with arranging a pick up and paying for it.
 
you dont need a bundle, but yes saving the 2500k is one of the best thing you could ever do, BF3 is CPU intensive and you can clock that cpu to 4.3ghz very easily
 
Ok so if I go 2500k not in a bundle what would you suggest. Also going this route will probably mean I need new psu as I have only 450w. And putting my budget at 350 really is the limit as im supposed to be saving for a wedding and im doing this on the sly
 
A 2500K probably uses less power than your dual core.

You can get away with a i3 tbh. Then save for a 2500K and a cooler. That will bring you to £250 (or £350 with a 2500K and cooler).

You can get a 2500K retail and no CPU cooler to get back to £350. Then get a cooler later and overclock.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £169.99
Asus P8Z68-V GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £121.98
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £39.98
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
Total : £369.35
 
If you can afford a i5 2500K go for it. It is such a powerful and overclockable CPU that you not only get amazing performance now but you will also be able to keep it for ages before you need to upgrade again. An i3 is a good value option and powers pretty much everything right now - but it can't be overclocked and is only a dual core, so an i3 dual core system would need to be upgraded again much sooner than an i5 2500K quad core one.

You mention a new PSU, may I ask what current make and model number PSU you are using? If it is a good quality one then I see no reason to upgrade yet - a HD 6850 + i5 2500K system will happily run on a quality 400W PSU (like the corsair CX 400W) so a decent quality 450W will be fine.

Just to give you an idea on how much more power your system will use with an i5 installed, the Athlon II X2 545 AM3 uses 80W at peak load - the i5 2500K uses 95W. So the increase in power consumption at maximum load will only be ~15W.

As for what non-bundle stuff to go for, the Geild Tranqillo is a really good value CPU cooler and I would personally go with the oem cpu and save yourself £10 over the retail version (if you feel you would rather have the 2 extra years of warranty - go with the retail version). for memory you really just want 8gb (2x4gb) of low-profile ddr3 - the kingston kit mentioned by olivier is a good bet. if you want to spend £8 less, then this crucial kit with slightly looser timings is perfectly fine.

as for the motherboard, z68 is pretty much the only choice for an enthusiast s1155 system these days (p67 is being phased out and prices aren't great). personally i really quite like the msi boards, so this one would be my choice, but the equivalent boards from asus, asrock and gigabyte are all good choices too. if you want tio really keep costs down then this £85 board from gigabyte gets some good reviews.
 
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Should I just keep the ram and cooler I bought (was only 14 quid) send the mobo back and buy the 2500k and z68
 
I would personally suggest sending the ASUS cooler back along with the other stuff - it is a cheap, relatively poor performing CPU cooler and you will now be coupling it with a high-end, very overclockable CPU. Therefore if you do try to overclock then you will be limited by the cooler.

The XMS3 RAM is good stuff and should work fine with the sandy bridge system, so it makes sense to keep that. Though if it cost more for you to buy than the RAM mentioned above, then I would send it back along with the other stuff and buy the cheaper stuff.
 
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