It's been a while, I need some advice.

SnowTuco

SnowTuco

SnowTuco

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Joined
23 Oct 2007
Posts
15
Hi

Long time lurker, could do with a little advice.

My graphics card has just gone pop, so I'm using that as an excuse for a long overdue upgrade.

Current setup is

(What I'm planing on replacing)
E6750 processor overclocked to 3.5ghz
Radon HD 4890, now dead.
4gb Giel ram
Asus p5k motherboard
Titan Fenrir heat sink.

(What I think I can keep)
3 1tb drives
128gb SSD
Antec P182 case
Antec Truepower 750w
Monitor/keyboard/mouse.

So I think I need a new CPU, motherboard, ram, heatsink and graphics card, and possibly a new monitor for a dual monitor setup to go with my existing 22". My budget is reasonably unlimited but i'm not looking to spend a silly amount trying to build the ultimate machine but rather a good setup which should last me a while before I need to to a big overhaul again.

I will mainly use it for gaming, browsing, office apps.

From reading these forums it looks like the processor I should probably go for is the i5-3570k and overclocking it. Where I am reallly struggling is should I be going for a Hd7970 or GTX 670, that sort of thing. Which Motherboard? Which Ram I should go for.

Thank you.
 
A i5 3570k, along with 8GB 1600MHz good quality RAM and a Z77 chipset motherboard will be the way to go. As for the graphics card, the 670 would be a better option over the 7970.
 
Budget? :P 7970 for £300 is a bargain imo, the VTX3D one. Go for Samsung Green 1600MHz, fantastic ram. A dead GPU is no excuse to buy another monitor! :p 3570K are easy to overclock.

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http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-GW&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294 Maybe a better choice for GPU.

Don't know how to link baskets.
 
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Sorted.

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Ram and mobo should look great together too, can double it up if you feel you need more (unlikely though unless you like having multiple games open) You'd also probably want to keep your current heatsink. If not, then this one works a treat, it might be cheap but I have my 2500k running at 4.4ghz on it smoothly.
 
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I will need a new cooler I don't think the Fenrir will fit and I don't have the bits it came with.

Valid point about no excuse to buy another monitor but seeing as the broken gpu has forced me to go shopping I may as well have look. :-)
 
2 screens is nice anyway, makes a lot sense, nice to be able do some windows stuff while gaming^^
i think u should have a budget tho or u can spend crazy amounts on a gpu right now
 
Hehe, I would get a 3570k with a good motherboard, I've heard great things about that D3H. A good cpu cooler like the K2 or possibly a Noctua D-14 or Phanteks. The 7970 seems like better value for money to me. Ram wise many of us on the forums really love the Samsung green ram. I do think it's worth spending slightly more on a graphics card to get a better factory fitted cooler, the VTX3D 7970 is a fast card, but the cooler isn't the quietest, but it isn't really loud actually either.

Rather than dual monitor's I'd be more focused on getting a good 120Hz monitor if you are a gamer.
 
BrianB said:
Hehe, I would get a 3570k with a good motherboard, I've heard great things about that D3H. A good cpu cooler like the K2 or possibly a Noctua D-14 or Phanteks. The 7970 seems like better value for money to me. Ram wise many of us on the forums really love the Samsung green ram. I do think it's worth spending slightly more on a graphics card to get a better factory fitted cooler, the VTX3D 7970 is a fast card, but the cooler isn't the quietest, but it isn't really loud actually either.

Rather than dual monitor's I'd be more focused on getting a good 120Hz monitor if you are a gamer.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, what's so great about that RAM? The latency looks terrible, size won't matter for 90% of desktops, is it just their overclocking ability and power usage?
 
Terrible specs yes, but mine run 8-10-10-21 at 2000Mhz, or 8-8-8-20 at 1600MHz.

It's mostly the 30nm, power usage and overclocking ability yes. The black mamba you linked looks good, but is out of stock. Not saying it's a must buy, but it's certainly ram worth considering. Lot's of people run it at 2400MHz with good timings.
 
Cheers for the advice, information on the ram for example is exactly what I'm after.

Budget wise I'm in a fairly fortunate position but really can't bring myself to spend more than £350 on a graphics card.

As I'm basing my spec around 3570k is there much point in spending much more than £100 on a motherboard?
 
If you just want to OC and don't mind a blue PCB just get the D3H it's a really good price. £350 is plenty, can get a 7970/670 with a decent quieter cooler on it no problem. The only reason to spend more than £100 on the motherboard is for extreme overclocking and extra sata3/usb3 ports/better onboard sounds/thunderbolt etc. I got the UP4TH but I would have been happy with a D3H for what I use it for. There are other boards around the price range, the MSI ones look nice but I don't know much about them. Good luck anyway. :D
 
Thank you all for the advice, this is what is currently in my basket, will probably press the button tomorrow morning for a Wednesday delivery.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £349.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £59.99
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £47.99
Total : £722.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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