Long awaited upgrade.

fergusonj1980

fergusonj1980

fergusonj1980

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Joined
22 Apr 2010
Posts
5
Location
Clackmannan, Scotland
I am starting to look at upgrades for my pc as it has been slowly reaching its end of life.

I am not sure if I should go the Intel or AMD route as it has been around 5 years since I upgraded my pc.

I have a budget of around £400.

Current spec:
Code: 
Operating System: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700  @ 2.66GHz - Kentsfield 65nm Technology
RAM: 4GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P35-DS3P (Socket 775)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner)
Hard Drives: 313GB OperatingSystem (RAID)
- 977GB Hitachi Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 (SATA)
- 1954GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD204UI (SATA)
- 977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ (SATA)
Optical Drives: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203D ATA Device
Audio: AMD High Definition Audio Device

The parts I am wanting to upgrade are:
CPU, RAM, Motherboard.

The graphics card is still working perfect on all the games I play.

Any suggestions are welcome
 
What PSU do you have?

This is pretty much as good as you can get when just upgrading those things:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
Total : £358.96 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I included this motherboard because it allows you to use Crossfire or SLI in the future but if you don't want this you could get a Gigabyte Z77-D3H instead and save £30.
You could use the spare money to get an SSD which will decrease loading and boot times, or just save up till your next graphics update.
 
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You might want to go for the Retail version of the processor. For an extra £10 you get 2 more years of warranty and a nice box with a stock cooler in it.
 
I personally would stick with OEM as I think that CPUs rarely break and the stock fan is useless if you want to overclock, but its personal preference.
I would also now recommend the: Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 as it is £8 cheaper and from a review I looked at seems to cool more and be quieter.
 
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