It's upgrade time \o/

iCeh · 14 Mar 2011 at 15:19

I'm about to upgrade my E8500, ATI3850, 2GB RAM.

I use my PC for gaming, but not really a fan of overclocking. Would anyone mind having a look at the purchase I'm going to make? Just making sure they're all compatible, and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

(I'm on Windows 7 32bit)

Asus GeForce 480

i5 2500 retail

Asus P8H67M-EVO Motherboard

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

Am I making a huge mistake not going for the 2500K? I think I'd be happy with just the turbo mode of the 2500, and the K verison will end up costing me extra.

Appreciate any advice.

Oh yea, I also want SLI capability. Maybe one day I'll get another 480.

iCeh · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:02

Cheers guys, didn't notice that about the Motherboard! I've gone for the P67 and HDD that you've recommended Cookeh. Thanks for pointing that out, I've always had bad luck with HD's.

I game at 1920x1080, which is one of the reasons I went towards the 480 tbh (plus read some nice reviews on it... except the heating problems.)

About the RAM; I've read that most 1155's should be running with v1.50, and the RAM you specced is 1.55-1.65 - do you think I should get this instead for the lower voltage? Or doesn't it matter?

Argh! Can't decide if I should just go the extra mile and get the 2500k.

Ahhh, I'll go for the 2500k. Plus I get Shogun 2, quite liked the total war games.

iCeh · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:45

Brilliant stuff Cookeh, thanks for your help mate.

Will probably be picking it up tomorrow.

Thanks again.

iCeh · 14 Mar 2011 at 22:13

cmndr_andi said:
Personally I would strongly suggest going with the 2500K. Even if you don't plan to overclock right now - you always have the option in the future when you need more speed. With a good £30 air cooler you can expect to get this CPU up to ~4.5GHz. Also, due to the overclocking ability - the resale value of the 2500K will be substantially higher than the 2500.

Yea, I've decided to go with what he has shown. Guess in the near future I can get a decent cooler and another 480 for a cheap upgrade like you say.

iCeh · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:10

Need some advice; I installed this today but the monitor will not power up, I've changed to my old card and it works just fine - reckon the card is dead? The fan is spinning, and I've plugged all the required power cables in the card.

PSU is OCZ 700w btw.