Looking to upgrade, not sure what to get

kn100

kn100

kn100

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2011
Posts
142
Hello all, I am looking to get mostly new components to replace my aging and failing parts

I already have hard disks/ssd and Corsair xms3 8gb of ram so these don't really need to be in the cost.

My budget is MAX £600 but I'm hoping to spend closer to £450-500
I am strongly considering the AMD Piledriver fx-8320 as the cpu but what Motherboard do I get to maximise overclocking potential?
And what GPU do I get? No preference between nVidia and AMD, Just best bang for the buck!
I was thinking of a 730w Corsair builder series PSU which should power my machine
Also what case? I want something large and UNOBTRUSIVE. I absolutely hate LED's/glowing unless it's done classy. Most cases look tacky as hell to me. A black box that is high quality is fine with me!




My current machine is loud as hell and rather old spec by todays standards
AMD Athlon x4 630 3Ghz processor
MSI Nvidia GTS 450 GPU
8GB Corsair xms3 ram
500w Coolermaster PSU
256gb OCZ Agility 3 SSD
ASRock 760GM-GS3 mobo
Crappy CIT Mars case
 
Last edited:
What do you use your pc for, gaming? Video editing? rendering?

The FX 8350 is good though the 3570k pips it (not by much though).

Would you consider Intel? As its a little better for the money?
 
What Coolermasteer Psu do you have, as your link is a bit vague to say the least. A 750w unit is all right if you are thinking of going sli/xfire in the future, otherwise your current Psu may be enough and would save you money. Also do you have an optical drive?
 
 
It doesn't have a specific model number as far as I can tell, all I know is it's coolermaster, and it says max combined load will not exceed 426w - which to me screams crap
I bought it on Amazon - it was around £35


I would consider Intel - the only reason I was gravitating towards AMD was simply because MOAR CORES!!1 and also (I'm not knowledgable here - more a guess than anything - more overclockability.) But if Intel will give me better performance even before overclocking, I would definitely consider Intel.

Honestly at the moment my pc is used for surfing the web and schoolwork. However, in about a months time I am going to have a lot of time and as such I am probably going to do be doing a lot of gaming. So eh
 
Last edited:
AMD FX-6300:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £442.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).



FX-8320

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £482.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



The 8350 is £50 more and for only .5ghz, you wont really notice the difference. It may overclock better, but the choice is yours!

EDIT - Updated Intel Build:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £527.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
Last edited:
 
 
Considering that the AMD CPU will be drawing more juice at stock speeds than the intel i5K overclocked and that the intel CPU is far better performance and runs cooler. then I would consider this perhaps........

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £155.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £76.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £46.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £584.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).



500/550W is ample for a single GPU setup. Case is a midi tower but is a nice case and a good price while on offer.
 
Okay I'm pretty much settled on CPU and GPU - But I'm a little concerned with Motherboard

I hope to be overclocking this machine in the future and I've heard that some motherboards are better at is than others. SO far I've had a Gigabyte and an Asus both using Z77 chipset linked - I am leaning towards the Gigabyte thanks to the UK RMA process but are there any 'better' motherboards out there for £20-30 more? I'm happy to save a little more since I'm intending this rig to last me at least the next 4 years with minimal changes (Off to University then!)
 
kn100 said:
Okay I'm pretty much settled on CPU and GPU - But I'm a little concerned with Motherboard

I hope to be overclocking this machine in the future and I've heard that some motherboards are better at is than others. SO far I've had a Gigabyte and an Asus both using Z77 chipset linked - I am leaning towards the Gigabyte thanks to the UK RMA process but are there any 'better' motherboards out there for £20-30 more? I'm happy to save a little more since I'm intending this rig to last me at least the next 4 years with minimal changes (Off to University then!)
Click to expand...

Agree, Gigabyte make some great boards and have the customer service to back you up also.

There are two boards to consider,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
Total : £214.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).




The more expensive board supports Crossfire and SLI at 8X/8X

The cheaper board supports Crossfire only and thats at 16X/4X, if a single GFX card is all that interests you then it will be fine to use.

A more detailed side by side comparison can be found here.


Reviews of the Z77-D3H below,

Kitguru.
Hexus.
eteknix.
Madshrimps.
Windwithme.
tbreak.
 
Processor: Intel i5 3570K
Mobo: Gigabyte Z77-D3H
GPU: Gigabyte 7850 OC edition 2GB
Case: Fractal Design core 3000
Cooler: Coolrrmaster Hyper 212
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast series TX750 V2

Components I already have and will be using

256gb OCZ Agility 3 SSD
500gb storage disk
2tb storage disk
2x 4gb Corsair XMS3 1333MHZ ram


So two questions, how does the above rig sound? And is that PSU the best value for money? I know that 750w is probably overrated and if so what would you guys recommend? Corsair PSU's respected around these parts?
 
Eh, this Corsair is only an extra £15 and I'm happy to spend that for the future proofing!

What's the warranty on that Seasonic? I know internally the Corsair stuff is quite nice, was reading a review on JohnnyGURU.com which rates it very well, internally all decent caps too!
Also 5 year warranty on the Corsair PSU
Just seems silly to get a much lower wattage psu for such a miniscule saving!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom