Partial new system!

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 00:58

Ok so my dad has decided he wants to upgrade his pc and he wants my parts. He said he's willing to pay for slight upgrades for my own pc in the process. There's 3 main things I'm looking for:

Motherboard - Budget: £150-£250 preferably
I'd really like a board that is good for overclocking and SLI/CrossfireX.

CPU - Budget: ~ £200
I have no idea about these "sandybridge" cpus. Are they better than i7? I'll be watercooling soon and plan to try some good overclocking, but when I was researching my i7 I didn't see anything about sandybridge...wasn't around then?

RAM - Budget: As cheap as possible
This is for my dad. I'm looking for some good 6GB triple channel RAM.

If anyone could give me some guidance on the latest products in these ranges that would be good for what I specified I'd be very grateful

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:17

Gaming, general use and benchmarking. No real video editing or anything. Can sandybridge not use triple channel ram?

The components you listed Surveyor, are they better than the ones I have in my sig? My dad is having those so I'm looking to actually upgrade. What's the actual difference between sandbridge i5/i7 and 1366 i5/i7? Also £139 for the mobo seems like a bit of a low end board. It'll eventually be placed with water cooling and 6970 xfire + 1000w psu.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:20

anuraj said:
Take a look for yourself
Sandybridge i5 2500k and intel core i7 comparison: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=100

That's perfect. Thank you.

Edit: They're running one at 3.3 and one at 3.0 which isn't really fair. How are the sandybridge at overclocking in comparison?

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:29

Looking at the build in my sig, if you had the option to get a new mobo/cpu/ram for the prices I mentioned above, would you just stick with the same or go for the Sandybridge? If it's defo worth going for sandybridge and losing the tri channel ram, I'll start doing some proper research into them. However if there's really not going to be a difference I may as well stick with what I know.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:38

Surveyor said:
I think you'll find that most people on this forum with your current setup wouldn't upgrade to Sandybridge as the £400 or so cost isn't worth it for the benefit.

Now if you were selling you old stuff for £250 it might be worth it as an upgrade for £150 but the main benefit you would see is in stuff like video encoding.

You're not going to see much benefit in gaming.

The upgrade is free. My dad is having my old stuff and buying me the new, so I can either get the same again or give him my 6gb RAM and get the sandybridge stuff. Worth it then?

sk82jack said:
There's some overclocking results further down the page in the link I gave before where people have reached a stable overclock @ 5.1GHz.

That's crazy. From a 3.3GHz stock?

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:45

sk82jack said:
Well a depends what it would cost you to get the same again? If the price difference is minimal it's worth it.

Okay. I'm going to price the two and see what the difference is. I'm impressed by those 5.1GHz ocs on the sandybridge. I'd be thrilled over 4.5.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 01:51

Surveyor said:
The same again would cost you more than Sandybridge so if it's going to happen get Sandybridge.

I think as a good son you should give your dad the Sandybridge setup as he's paying for it

You need to manage your expectations on overclocking.

The majority get to around 4.5GHz quite easily, a reasonable number get to around 4.8GHz and a minority get to 5GHz plus.

Yeah as I said above I'd be thrilled with anything over 4.5. My dad wouldn't have anything in his pc if it's better than mine. As far as he's concerned he'll never use his pc anywhere near the extent I do and he wouldn't spend money putting components into his that are better than mine. In fact, the idea that he's getting himself a good computer as well as upgrading mine is a big incentive on him doing it. I've tried to tell him that the parts I have currently are too good for anything he does, but he won't listen lol. And if anything, he's technically getting the more expensive parts that I paid for and I'm swapping them for cheaper parts that he's paying for.

Also, is there any reason this is so cheap? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-013-OP

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 02:00

Surveyor said:
I don't know how old your dad's system is but he could probably just buy himself a decent upgrade for £200.

I tried telling him but he won't have any of it. In his mind a pc won't be future-proof enough unless he spends enough money on it. For example on his current system he's used 40GB out of 500. I use that in a few days. I'm getting him an SSD as this is the biggest upgrade he'll appreciate and told him it's 120gb and on his current pc he's only used 40. Still, he wants a 1TB standard hdd as well.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 02:21

Surveyor said:
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor with FREE Operation Flashpoint Red River Game £169.99

MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 (socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £139.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £35.99

That's £346 plus a decent CPU cooler. The bundle you linked would be £406 (including RAM) plus a decent CPU cooler.

I already have a good cpu cooler that I'll be giving to my dad once I buy my watercooling. Just had a proper look at that board, that's an absolute steal for £140. Thank you very much for these.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 02:23

Surveyor said:
By the time he's paid for that lot, a 120GB SSD (why?) and a 1TB HDD (why?) he'll have spend £600.

He wants me to upgrade my pc and he has my old parts. I could tell him over and over that I can get him all he needs for cheaper, but it'll make no difference. The SSD I highly recommended to him, if he only updated a single component in his pc that would be what I recommend as I know what he wants, and that's what will give it to him. The 1TB I told him he doesn't need, the ssd is already 80GB more than he's used on his current pc but he wants it either way. Without sounding disrespectful I'm here for advice on computer parts...not my dads insanity

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 03:32

Will the fact that sandybridge is limited to 8x pci-e when using xfire have any effect on xfire eyefinity?

Nevermind. Just found out it's barely noticable.

Sida · 25 Apr 2011 at 04:16

Lol the ROG boards are way overpriced.

Oh I decided to go with the 3 products you linked Surveyor. I looked into them and I have no need for a 2600k and that motherboard just seems so good for the price. I'm also very keen on the spacing between the pci-e.

Btw, off topic, but I'm planning to run eyefinity and i have the Acer GD245HQ 3D monitor. I REALLY want two other 60hz monitors that fit the height of this well but I simply can't find any. Do you know of any? I don't think I can stand an eyefinity setup with monitors at different bezel heights. And before you ask, no I'm not making my dad buy me monitors lol. He does want another monitor for himself but I'm going to get him to buy a cheap one. I could swap this monitor with a cheap one he buys and then buy another 2 cheap ones myself to run eyefinity but giving my dad this 120hz 3d monitor is such a waste. He won't even know what it is. If acer did a 60hz version with the same stand and bezel that would be so absolutly perfect.