New PC build possible I5 combo?

jide

jide

jide

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17 Sep 2005
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After doing some research it seems going that bit extra for a i7 isn't really worth it for me

Current PC

E6850 3.3ghz
2gb of DDR 1333mhz Kingston ram
Asus p5kc
8800 GTS 640mb

I'm looking to upgrade to a new pc but I'm not sure of the parts

I'm looking for a budget of about £450-£600

I'm pretty sure I will get the i5 2500k unlocked (Stock Intel Cooler any good?)
But I'm not sure what video card is the bang for my buck and whether I could squeeze in a SSD.
It seems the 2x2GB Corsair 1600mhz pair is quite popular at the moment.
I wouldn't mind another Asus mobo but if there is something better for the I5 can anyone recommend me please.

If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it thanks.
 
intel stock cooler + 2500K does not compute :)

the whole point of getting the K is that it is unlocked and you can OC it with relative ease into the 4.4 ghz zone. But you are not going to do that with the intel stock cooler.

450-600 for a decent SB setup might not quite cut it.

CPU and Mobo alone will setyou back close to 300 quid
 
Well, I'm still a firm believer that the 2500K at stock is still extremely capable. You can budget the cooler for later when you want to overclock. For that, you still need a 2500K + P67.

Trying to sort out a £600 2500K...
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Motherboard Bundle - Intel Core i5 2500K & Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision** £267.98
1 x Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £107.99
1 x XFX Pro 650W Core Edition Power Supply £65.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £44.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £38.39
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £29.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £29.99
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.98
Total : £612.89 (includes shipping : £10.50).



£600 without shipping. Now that should be a solid system, missing the OS so I hope you have it sorted.

If it's too much, you can drop the A50 cooler, and buy it later when funds are available. If you already have a SATA optical drive, that's £15 saved.

If you do need the OS, dropping the optical, cooler, and taking a £30 case would fit in.
 
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I'm very new to this whole thing but I'm also looking at building a set-up for a similar price tag. I started a thread earlier and some of the guys here have helped me out loads and this is what I've come up with so far:

Case - Zalman Z9 £44.99

PSU - BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530w £42.98

Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K £179.99

Mobo - Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 £114.98

Graphics Card - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 £107.99

RAM - G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) £39.98

HD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB £37.99

CPU Cooler - Corsair A50 £29.99

Which has a total of £598.89 so its at the very top end of your budget, but then I'm not sure if your taking stuff from your old set-up, which is gonna shave the price a bit.

As I said, I'm new to all of this, but I thought I'd give an idea to work around
 
sk82jack said:
I'm very new to this whole thing but I'm also looking at building a set-up for a similar price tag. I started a thread earlier and some of the guys here have helped me out loads and this is what I've come up with so far:

Case - Zalman Z9 £44.99

PSU - BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530w £42.98

Processor - Intel Core i5-2500K £179.99

Mobo - Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 £114.98

Graphics Card - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 £107.99

RAM - G.Skill RipJawsX 4GB (2x2GB) £39.98

HD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB £37.99

CPU Cooler - Corsair A50 £29.99

Which has a total of £598.89 so its at the very top end of your budget, but then I'm not sure if your taking stuff from your old set-up, which is gonna shave the price a bit.

As I said, I'm new to all of this, but I thought I'd give an idea to work around
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a good build. Still have question marks about that PSU for such a system.

http://www.au-ja.de/review-be-quiet-pure-power-l7-1.phtml
 
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olivier renault said:
Well, I'm still a firm believer that the 2500K at stock is still extremely capable. You can budget the cooler for later when you want to overclock. For that, you still need a 2500K + P67.

Trying to sort out a £600 2500K...
Click to expand...

If you are going to run a 2500K at stock you may aswell throw some money in a fire. The whole point of the K series is that they are unlocked and be overclocked so easily.

If you run at stock get

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-362-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

and save some cash by getting a H67 rather than a P67 chipset motherboard
 
What I mean is that if your budget doesn't allow for a custom cooler right now, you always have the option to get one later, the 2500K is already powerful as it is. A H67 + 2400 would be a waste imo, as you have no room for improving later on.

The price difference between a 2500K bundle and a H67 + 2400 is around £25. It's worthwhile having the option to overclock and really get some performance later.

As a basis for a future upgrade, it is much better. That's why I also spec a good 650W as it gives more room for later on. The 2500K is top of the class, but not the HD5850.
 
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It is powerful enough, it has 420W on the 12V rails, 22A each. Probably the best bet for the price. What worries me is that it's not making claims about 'gaming' although it has the PCIE connectors and enough juice, and the power distribution looks OK. I would like to see a review from a trusted site first (jonnyguru), but the PSU seems adequate. However recommending a PSU is a bit dangerous if it's not delivering. A blow PSU can generate mayhem if it's not properly designed.

The XFX, Corsairs and Antecs are based around a Seasonic design, which is well proven and has some mileage so we can make a better guess at the quality of the unit. And also the pro reviews help. This one is a bit of an unknown entity so difficult to recommend, however the specs looks good. It seems to handle cross loads well, which means cranking up the CPU and GPU together. It has no sleeve on the connectors, which makes it look a bit messy, but if you gonna save some money, it's got to be on looks rather than the rest.

First rule of thumb, never skimp on a PSU :)
 
sk82jack said:
I don't really speak german. I shoved it into google translate but it was still hard to pick up the vibe of the article. Basically not powerful enough? Is there anything you would suggest around the same price tag or is it better off forking out a bit more to get the quality?
Click to expand...

Download google chrome and it offers to automatically translate pages for you ;)
 
I'm a bit of a Firefox guy myself, especially with v4 having just been released and the android version :D

I think I might pay a bit extra and get a XFX 650w core edition then, better safe than sorry I guess lol
 
sk82jack said:
I'm a bit of a Firefox guy myself, especially with v4 having just been released and the android version :D

I think I might pay a bit extra and get a XFX 650w core edition then, better safe than sorry I guess lol
Click to expand...

yes never skimp on PSU.

Buy Cheap = Buy Twice + buy anything lese that you fried from having a cheap PSU !!!
 
I forgot to mention that I have a cooler master silent ProM 700w. I've got more than enough HDD's and I have a cooler master cosmos as well.

After omitting a case, PSU and dvd optical drive. It runs down to 456 which seems like a good deal. Is the 5850 the best bang for buck?
 
at the price point. If you double it, it is the best deal at the price point :)

If you don't want to go crossfire / SLI, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti SOC (£220) is quick and has factory OC (and can go a little higher as well), the MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II (£200) is also a good card, and the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 480 "Special Edition" (£200) with another custom cooling solution.

hmmm decisions... I would personally favour a single card setup, but a 5850 crossfire is mighty (probably quite noisy though).

Dunno if the PSU supports 4 x 6 PCIE connectors (the XFX PSUs do, as well as the Antec TruePower New 750W).
 
Yeah I'm not a fan of noisy pcs.

I might be slightly interested in a SSD but I would want a decent size one I hear the OCZ stuff is really good. I think I will leave the video card for later. Does the OEM of the cpu come with artic silver or should i get some myself?

I think I'm good to go pretty much now.
 
That 530w psu will be totally fine with the setup that sk82jack posted, if you are on abudget then no need to spend more on a 650w psu that you don't even need.

People on these very forums have run i7's and gtx 480's on 520w psu's.
 
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