PC Upgrade (Just the main bits)

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 13:24

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my current gaming pc:

Antec P182
Athlon 64 X2 6400+
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Geforce 8800GTX (agp)
4gb Corsair DDR400
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
3x Maxtor 300gb SATA HDDs
Dell 2405 FPW
Zalman Reserator 1 V2 (cooling CPU & gfx card)

Not too shabby when I built it but it's showing its age now. I can re-use most of that but I definitely need a new mobo, cpu, gfx card and ram (and maybe new waterblocks for the reserator).

Can anyone give me an idea as to what to get? I've been out of the loop for a while so I don't know who's on top nowadays. I'd prefer an ATI gfx card, and I'm happy to do some bios flashing if it comes to it, but I have no preference on the rest.
My budget is about £350 (maybe £400 at a push) but I'd like to be able to save some of that cash for getting new parts for the watercooling.

Any ideas?

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 14:15

Thanks for the replies guys. Are the K series that much better?

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 14:21

Plec said:
Yes, in that they can easily be clocked to 4.5GHz (from 3.3GHz) so lots of extra speed for free (you would need the p67 or Z68 MB to clock).

And they really are very easy to clock - a few seconds in the BIOS and your usually sorted.

Additional: Although for a clock over 4GHz you would need a third party cooler.

Nice. I'm going to be re-using my reserator so once I've got a new waterblock for it (and probably a new pump because it's been struggling lately) I should be fine for cooling.

2500k it is

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 14:30

Reaper 392 said:
in that case ignore my spec. you'll want a P67 or Z68 motherboard so you can overclock

Thanks. What's the difference between the two?

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 14:42

Cairnsey said:
Really?

It's either the GT or the GTX, I can't remember off the top of my head but yeah. I'll have a look when I get home from work.

Edit: That's not a bad idea actually (selling the parts). It's a shame I've lost the original cooler from the gfx card.

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 15:35

olivier renault said:
You can get a GTX 460 OC / GTX 460 / 5830. If your budget is stretched.

Kinda scales with the prices, so whatever your budget allows.

Yeah the more I browse the more I feel the itch to stretch the budget. I might have to do some thinking and see if I can go a bit higher. After reading the 6950 flashing thread I've got my heart set on one of those now...

Curse you OCUK!!!

Edit: There's a finance option!! Nooooooo!!!!!!!

[Damien] · 12 Jul 2011 at 15:46

Plec said:
The jump from an 8800 to a overclocked 460 will be dramatic - especially coupled with the 2500K clocked to ~4.4GHz.

If money is tight i think you'll be more than impressed with a 460 sat in the above setup.

I don't doubt it

I do reckon I'm going to go with your setup tbh. I might get a higher spec card if my budget stretches that far (I'm terrible at sticking to budget) but it looks like a solid spec all round.

Thanks for the advice.