OC bundle vs separate

luigi_t8

luigi_t8

luigi_t8

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15 May 2011
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i want to build a new system and overclock it. i've looked at bundles on ocuk that come overclocked which saves me a job however if i buy exactly the same components separately it works out cheaper so with the money saved i can get a better cooler and overclock faster. I should also say that i've never overclocked before. what are your opinions on this and is it hard to overclock?

LT
 
after reading around a bit more i've decided to go separate as it's better value and have a go at overclocking myself. I'm planning on getting the i5 2500K cpu and an MSI P67A-G45 motherboard. has anyone got experience overclocking on this board and does anyone know whether a silver arrow cooler will fit on it? also planning to overclock a GTX 560Ti twin frozr II GPU.

thanks, LT
 
With sandybridge - no. The boards in the bundles all have auto-oc features that should give you between 4.3-4.6ghz anyhow. For most clocks of 4.6 and below its usually just a case of raising the multiplier. Only when you get higher do you really need to be worried about other settings.

The bundles (IMO) are aimed at people who either don't have the confidence to build/clock the system or want the assurance that should something go wrong there fully covered by OCUK.

Edit: Silver arrow should fit fine provided your not using high heatsink memory.
 
ok so are there really any advantages to the more expensive boards like GD53 or P8P67 PRO? i may be looking at going SLI in a few years by the way.
 
Just different boards/chipsets have different features, though you will want to stick to either a P67 or Z68 chipset for overclocking. Popular choices are the ASrock extreme4 Z68, and the Asus P8Z68 boards. If its a price issue the G45 looks fine for £82, comes with SLI support too.

Look around the net for some reviews, they'll often compare them to there closest rival, give you an idea on the flaws and perks of the board.
 
First off you need to set a budget, and the main uses for the system. Also if you have any parts that you can reuse in the new system and if you need to include OS or any perpherals. Then people can suggest some builds to match your specs.

If I was building one for myself now I'd be looking at something like this on a budget of around £1000


YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS ATI Radeon HD 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Dirt3 & Deus Ex PC Games £209.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £129.98
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 750W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-750TXV2UK) £87.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £74.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £56.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £56.99
1 x Thermalright Silver Arrow CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA775/AM2/AM3) £54.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £18.98
Total : £1,035.36 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
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i've already got a pc so can use the monitor, mouse, keyboard, HDD and optical drive from it which saves a bit of money. Also as i am a student still i can get the OS from here: http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_64_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx

I priced together the rest of it for about £600 and i'm hoping this spec will overclock ok:

Intel i5 2500K sandybridge
MSI P67A-G45
Crucial Ballistix or Kingston HyperX Blu 12800 1600 Mhz
MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II
OCZ ZS series 650W PSU
NZXT Phantom full tower

tell me what you think as a system and also in terms of overclocking capabilities and stability

LT
 
If you plan to go SLI its been advised to stay away from the MSI TF cards, they seemingly dump hot air inside the case rather than push it out the back as a reference cooler would.

I would go with the 6950 IceQ dave suggested, as far as I know this is an unlockable card (pretty sure its this card) to 6970 specs.
 
ok but if i have good case cooling the TF should be better as it gives lower core temps than the reference. i probably wont go SLI before the 560 is outdated and needs replacing anyway. as for the 6950 i am working to a budget so don't want to spend more than i have to for a half decent gaming rig.
 
ThomBassmonkey said:
There's no garuantee that any can be unlocked now, the Sapphire Toxic is the one that people often talk about with the switchable BIOS but even that's not guaranteed.
Click to expand...

The toxic is probably what I was thinking of then :)

I knew one of the cards OCUK was selling was more or less a dead cert for 6970 unlocks.
 
luigi_t8 said:
i've already got a pc so can use the monitor, mouse, keyboard, HDD and optical drive from it which saves a bit of money. Also as i am a student still i can get the OS from here: http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Windows_7_Professional_64_bit_Upgrade_Edition-details.aspx

I priced together the rest of it for about £600 and i'm hoping this spec will overclock ok:

Intel i5 2500K sandybridge
MSI P67A-G45
Crucial Ballistix or Kingston HyperX Blu 12800 1600 Mhz
MSI N560GTX Ti Twin Frozr II
OCZ ZS series 650W PSU
NZXT Phantom full tower

tell me what you think as a system and also in terms of overclocking capabilities and stability

LT
Click to expand...

Unless you get a decent after market cooler you won't be able to overclock it very far with the stock cooler.
Also how old is the HDD you'll be reusing, that could be a serious bottleneck.
 
i'm planning on getting a silver arrow cooler to overclock with. as for the HDD its rather old but ive decided t get two new WD HDD's and put them in raid 0.

LT
 
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