New build/upgrade spec, expertise needed!

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
Frimley, Surrey or 38,000ft
Hey folks,

My current machine is just over 6 years old and so I'm looking to replace it. It is based on a c2d E8500 with 4gb DDR2 ram, originally with a Radeon 4870 which died a very colourful death to be replaced by a Radeon 7850.

I've been out of the loops for 6 years so have lost track of what's good, but I assume there is much quicker stuff out now! Firstly I'm wondering if any of my current system is worth keeping, or even worth anything at all!

I'm then looking to buy something new, ideally pretty quick. I don't play as many games as I used too as I've an xbox one but it would nice to have the option. I'd just like to have great windows performance, as well as powerful enough to do the odd bit of video editing.

Any advice would be welcome!
 
Hi,

So what is the budget and what parts do you need?

Do you need a whole base unit, OS, monitor, keyboard + mouse etc.
 
Yea sorry that would be useful info! Between £1-1.5k. As I said everything is 6 years old so I would guess I probably need everything.
 
Thanks for the specs guys, appreciate it. It's impressive what is available now! How much faster can I expect it to be? Obviously the gfx will be much improved, better res, fps etc. but on a day to day basis?

I'm not a fan of all these gamer keyboards/mice. I've used the same intellimouse explorer for as long as I can remember and I've never found any other mouse as comfortable!

Also is win 8 really worth it? The pics I've seen make it look awful!
 
Thanks for the specs guys, appreciate it. It's impressive what is available now! How much faster can I expect it to be? Obviously the gfx will be much improved, better res, fps etc. but on a day to day basis?

depends on what you do

I'm not a fan of all these gamer keyboards/mice. I've used the same intellimouse explorer for as long as I can remember and I've never found any other mouse as comfortable!

the intellimouse was one of the best office/gaming mice ever lol

Also is win 8 really worth it? The pics I've seen make it look awful!

get win 8. win 7 is outdated lol
 
Thanks for the specs guys, appreciate it. It's impressive what is available now! How much faster can I expect it to be? Obviously the gfx will be much improved, better res, fps etc. but on a day to day basis?

I'm not a fan of all these gamer keyboards/mice. I've used the same intellimouse explorer for as long as I can remember and I've never found any other mouse as comfortable!

Also is win 8 really worth it? The pics I've seen make it look awful!


It's going to be a night and day difference coming from your older system, the SSD alone is going to be a shock if you've never used one before.

Win8.1 takes a while to get use to but it is rapid and smooth in operation, I use to be a Win7 fanboy and hated Win8, but after using it and the last service pack, it is now lovely.

You dont have to use that "tile" interface at all and instead just use the standard looking desktop.
 
Well that's good to hear. Is anything in my old system worth keeping? Is it even worth anything to sell it? I've been thinking about making a htpc separate from my micro server so I suppose some of it could be used for that?
 
Look to pull the trigger on a new system in the next week or so and am trying to fine tune exactly what I want.

Some of the products mentioned before aren't available anymore so any recommended replacements would be great!

A few questions to fine tune the spec as well. Both the specs above include watercooling, is that needed? I won't be overclocked and so assume the CPU stock cooler would do the job? The watercooling seems to limit the type of case I could get?

For now I think I will stick with my current keyboard and mouse, as well as my current DVD-RW/BR/HD-ROM drive as it does everything I need it to do!

I currently have 3 WD Green drives in my N40L. I'm going to be updating them to WD Reds (mainly due to needing more space!) Will there be any issues running one of them in my new system? (still having the SSD as the main windows/programs drive of course) or is it better to just get a brand new drive?

Last question is regarding the monitor. There seems to be lots of options to choose from, 144hz, IPS, 4k, etc etc Are there any big differences between the options?

Sorry for all the noob questions! Thanks again for the help.
 
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