Need some advice on updrade - planning on ordering in the next hour or so

401baron

401baron

401baron

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27 Nov 2011
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9
Hi

I'm looking to do do a much needed update to my pc but I haven't kept up on hardware for quite a while and I'm not sure about what I have picked out/chosen to delay buying and could do with some advice. Either way I'll have to settle for a partial upgrade for now and finish it off later when my bank balance has recovered...

The reason I want to upgrade, or at least what prompted me into action, is much the same as last time I did a big update... I got a new game (batman arkham city) and for the first time in years, my pc can only just about handle it on lowest settings and I'm not having that! (bioshock / dx10 was to blame last time). I could probably get it running better with some tricks or something, but I'm already on a mission to buy now. I guess most of my pc is 4 years old now, so I guess I got my moneys worth seeing as it still runs a most games with pretty high settings.
I also have a small home studio setup and do a fair bit of multitrack recording w/plugins that eat up resources etc. and due to my sound card, firewire is a must

My HDD's suck now too, but I can't be bothered dealing with sorting out all my data, so I'll sort that out later. thinking of getting a smaller SSD for caching (not right now though).
I definitely need a graphics card, but it's that or pretty much everything else and I'm not sure which is going to make the more noticeable difference.

motherboard wise, I was sold on the Asus maximus IV Gene-Z till i realised it didn't have firewire and even though I don't think I'll like be running sli, I will get a new graphics card some time and then probably bump my current one down to dedicated physx meaning I wouldn't have space for a firewire card

I'll probably do a bit of light overclocking, but not likely to get too deep into it. Might partial watercool later.

Musts:
i7 CPU - pretty set on the 2700k but open to suggestion. Does this come with stock heatsink/fan? will consider better later, but I got lots of case fans, so not fussed as long as I have something.
8GB RAM minimum - I could live with 1600mhz if it's considerably less and great performance
On board sound - I don't like it, but I have to run that into my pro card so I can dedicate pro card to audio software (without windows messing with it) and use same speakers.
space for 2 large pci e graphics cards, might be a while before i buy another card so gen3 mb

Currently in my basket:
Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £249.95
Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.98
G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL) £104.99
Total with delivery: £536.32 - way more than I should be spending...

Currently running:
Coolermaster Stacker 830 Nvidia case - Air cooled with 7 120mm fans (some generic ones)
Enermax Infiniti 720W
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz 62 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology
RAM:
6GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 432MHz (5-5-5-18)
-4GB OCZ Reaper 1066mhz DDR2 (2x2GB)
-2GB DDR2 (2x1GB) of something else 1/2 decent I got given for free, can't remember brand
Motherboard:
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5K (LGA775) 48 °C
Graphics:
SAMSUNG 40" Samsung LE Series 7 TV (1920x1080@60Hz) - my monitor is broke and everything looks too awesome on this ('cept for the tearing) to bother doing anything about it...
768MB GeForce 8800 GTX (XFX Pine Group) 63 °C
256MB GeForce 8400 GS (Undefined) 47 °C - for physx, since I got it free
SLI Disabled
Hard Drives:
313GB FUJITSU MAXTOR STM3320620AS ATA Device (SATA) 37 °C
245GB Maxtor Maxtor 6L250S0 ATA Device (SATA) 35 °C
977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103UJ ATA Device (SATA) 29 °C
Optical Drives:
SONY DVD RW AW-G170A SCSI CdRom Device
Audio:
High Definition Audio Device (for general sound)
Presonus Firebox (firewire pro sound card)

Redundant parts I would be using if I could:
BFG Ageia Physx card (f*ck you nvidia for buying and no longer supporting it in newer drivers)
2nd 768MB GeForce 8800 GTX (XFX) - got for free, as it had coffee spilt on it (how you do let that happen to what was still a very nice card back then I don't know). bsod's me when using it, not sure if faulty or if it's because it's a bit loose in slot, or because I'm one 6pin power cable short and having to use an adapter, oh and I'm missing the bridge too.. can't sli on this mb anyway (sli patch didn't work/same bsod). I'll try it again on new board with the other bits sorted.

Don't know if anyone will manage to respond before I'll have to order, but I'll appreciate any responses anyway.

Thanks

p.s. 1st post, so apologies if it's in the wrong area or I've done something else wrong
 
wow, that was quick.

Well my basket is £536, which I've convinced myself I can manage... I can go a little higher, but trying not to if poss.

Thanks
 
I'd drop the i7-2700K down to the i5-2500K and get yourself a new graphics card.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.98
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £149.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £34.99 (£69.98)
Total : £581.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Too much? If so you could swap the card for something a little less powerful
 
If you cant afford it all at once have a look at the finance over 12 months. You pay something upfront, and a small fee. But as long as its paid back on 12 months or before you pay no extra.
 
the problem with the cpu you've chosen is oem. that means it comes WITHOUT a cpu cooler so you'll have to buy one seperately.

ram: faster than 1600mhz is pointless, save your money. if you're going air cooling need to consider the fins on the ram will interfer with the cooler. if you're buying tonight go for the kingston hyperx genesis grey 8gb(2 kits if you want 16gb) @ £35.
 
Thanks guys, still processing it all but you've given me a few things to consider.

I think that's pushing the budget a bit too much adding in the gpu at the mo and I was definitely looking for the i7 with the hyper threading. I don't think the i5 has it, or have i got that wrong?
I was thinking of getting the gpu later and then hopefully i can splash out a bit more on it and get something pretty nice.

I think I'll have to have another look at the retail cpu, cooler and ram and see what I come up with. if I save on the ram then I'm sure I can buy a cooler.

thanks
 
You've got it right, the i5 hasn't got hyperthreading.

If you don't want a graphics card then maybe get a cooler for the CPU? run it cooler and quieter than the stock one.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £249.95
1 x Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.98
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £34.99 (£69.98)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £527.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
They are both solid choices, the only annoyance with the GSKill's as that their heatsinks are taller than the kingstons and can get in the way of the CPU coolers fans.
 
looking at the spacing on the motherboard, that does look like it could be a problem with this setup. I may just go for the kingstons after all in that case.

thanks
 
I've gone with this basket in the end and am now eagerly awaiting its arrival on tuesday... it's gonna be a long monday, that's for sure.

thanks R088ieS86 and everyone else for your advice. I feel a lot more sure about what I've got coming now, though some of the other options were quite tempting.

now to plan for the rest of the upgrade; plenty of time to think about it whilst i save up though. that suggestion of putting things on finance is bouncing around in my head now haha.

R088ieS86 said:
You've got it right, the i5 hasn't got hyperthreading.

If you don't want a graphics card then maybe get a cooler for the CPU? run it cooler and quieter than the stock one.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £249.95
1 x Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £169.98
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £34.99 (£69.98)
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £527.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...
 
yeah, I'll have to keep an eye on the graphics cards too now. I dunno about getting a new model, but they should drop the price down on some of the others at least and maybe I can get one sooner :D
 
Dont expect anything from nvidia till middle of next year at the earliest, and ATI Q1 2012.

The only thing coming from ATI this year are the low end £30-60 cards renamed into 7*** series cards.
 
I definitely can't wait till the middle of next year, but I'm sure I'll find something good before then (a better paying job would also do the trick haha).
might even pick up a cheap one or even two if they'll be better than what I've got for little cost. Just to keep me going though; I want something beastly in the end, of course.

I've read that you can overclock the crap out of these, so yeah, that will be fun. I wouldn't be thinking of doing anything beyond my current(to be) cooling for a while, but if I get really into it I think that'll be the time to start introducing some water cooling.
 
Very easy to overclock, just a case of increasing the CPU multiplier and maybe adding some Vcore when you start going Upto and beyond 4.5ghz.

So so simple!!
 
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