New Innards

Cold Fusion · 26 Jun 2015 at 11:23

I'm thinking of upgrading the Innards of my PC (see sig) which is getting dated now, ready for some Gaming Goodness (Star Citizen).

I am looking to replace the CPU, Mobo, RAM and GPU. In addition I am also considering an SSD.

My budget is flexible but I am looking to spend around the £700 mark. I have no particular brand loyalty, and don't do any overclocking wide (I know boring right).

Generally look for decent future proofing / value for money.

Tech wise there might be some upcoming products that might change what i eventually end up getting (AMD Fury / Fury Nano / Intel Skylake) but would like to know based on what is available now what my budget might stretch too.

pandem0nium · 26 Jun 2015 at 12:22

No need to change the ram. Here's my suggestion:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 980 "Herculez X3 Ultra" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (N98V-1SDN-M5DNX) £379.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Asus H81-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £49.99
Total : £705.56 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

Cold Fusion · 2 Oct 2015 at 11:36

As per my post above I still have not fully decided what to upgrade to and currently have two options in mind set out below.

My PC is mostly for gaming and want something that will be able to handle Star Citizen and DirectX12 reasonably well.

1. Cheaper Re-use memory option

MSI Radeon R9 390 Gaming Edition 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £269.99

Asus Z97-K - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **14 Saving - £261.58

Crucial BX100 500GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) - £121.99

Total: 653.56

OR

2. Skylake slightly more future proofed option

Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI - Intel Core i5 6600K Bundle **20 Saving** - £293.98

MSI Radeon R9 390 Gaming Edition 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £269.99

Crucial BX100 500GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT500BX100SSD1) - £121.99

Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C16 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD4UZ124001604G-2CI) - Blue Light - £49.99

Alpenfhn Panorama CPU Cooler - £19.99

Total: £765.59

Essentially the question is option 2 worth the extra £110?

pastymuncher · 2 Oct 2015 at 12:58

Option 1 would be my choice. Skylake brings very little to the table. You should still get a decent overclock with the Asus Z97-K as the cpu is the limiting factor not the motherboard.