Pc upgrade recommendations

hoskind1

hoskind1

hoskind1

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Joined
23 Oct 2011
Posts
11
Hi guys

It's upgrade time with some compensation money

My budget is £625 and current rig is as follows

Silverstone Midi Case
AMD Athlon x4 640
2Gb DDR2 533
Gigabyte MA770-US3 Or UD3 can't remember xP
Nvidea 8800GTX 768MB
800W PSU
1x 1Tb 1x 500Gb 1x 320Gb

So i'm thinking about getting
Asus M5A97 PRO Board (£81.45)
RipJaws X 2x4GB 1600 DDR3 (£43.73)
AMD Bulldozer FX-6 6100 (£139)
OR
AMD Phenom x6 1090T (£133.98)
Corsair SSD 120Gb Force 3 (£129)
XFX 6870 1Gb (£148)

Now does anyone think these are pretty good parts? I just want a speedy machine that i can play games on fairly high settings and be futureproof for a couple years before having to upgrade again

I also would like to get the coolermaster HAF X Full case as i love it and have built a customer's machine in work with this case and its gorgeous!

Cheers
 
I have one of the HAF cases. Practically very useful, and huge when it comes to space. But taking up nearly a quarter of your budget?

Also you have to remember about your Hard Drives and Optical drives. The standard is now SATA connections (not IDE), but most "old" components will be IDE connections. So double check your components, as they may not be compatible with your new system.

As for a new system, I would stay away from the AMD current Bulldozer processors. For what you pay for, they are miles behind an i5 2500k and in some cases, behind their older own older processors.

This below doesn't include the case, assumes you have an OS, and assumes that you don't need any new HD/optical drives (assumes that your existing ones are compatible)


YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £205.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI Z68A-G45-B3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £37.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
Total : £571.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
Ha thanks for the resonse's i honestly didn't think i would receieve so many replys quickly so thanks guys!

RE the case - i have a silverstone case atm that is okay i was just looking for something that would future proof me - but you guys have convinced me i dont really need it.

All my hard drive's are sata so no problem there - my DVD drive's are ide (2x) but i have a raid card somewhere around here so if the board doesn't have it then im covered.

RE the intel side of thing's - the only reason i've not shown any info is im going to be gaming but not everyday - is the price increase for intel really worth for what i want? - i want something that is going to be able to render and play films etc high quality but if you guys say i5 is better then i suppose i had better start looking at other boards etc. Im not going to want to crossfire or SLI

Regarding the links there was no SSD and this is a must for my new build i've seen the SSD corsair force 3 on special with 500mbps read and write for £130 which i thought is a steal.

Is the 6970 that much better than the 6870? I built a cust's build the other day with a 6870 and was fairly happy with the results that came out. But again if you guys say its worth spending the extra then im happy to do so.

Heatsink wise i was going to get a freezer 13 pro as i have seen amazing results with this heatsink.

Motherboard wise are MSI good? I've had a previous MSI and it was really bad so i've kinda stuck my guns to gigabyte and asus but once more if you guys say it's good then i trust you.

Cheers
 
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A 6970 is much better than a 6870 (and much more future proof). Most current generation games will be ok on high/very high settings, but you may not be able to Ultra max everything at high resolutions with a 6870.

For the price, the 6870 is a good solid card. But if your budget is what it is, then I would consider a 6950 (which often can be unlocked to a 6970 with a bios flash).

MSI Mobos? I chose that one for a similar request the other day (was still save in the basket from that recommendation that I made). It has the SLI/Crossfire capability. My personal experience has been with Gigabyte, but you will find good/bad about all boards. If you are not worried about this, then I could recommend a different board, one I do have personal experience with.

Regards to processors, there is no other real current gen option. Bang for buck, the i5 2500k is superb, easy to overclock, and while more expensive than previous generation AMD's, it is cheaper than most higher end Bulldozers. It is a no brainer, if affordable, the i5 2500k is the way to go.

The Freezer Pro 13 is a great cooler, and for the price, well worth it. (Don't think it is available on OcUk at the moment, but you can find it elsewhere I am sure).

Both ASUS and Gigabyte have some good budget Z68 boards at the moment. If you are not bothered about future crossfire/SLI, then they are good options.

Gigabyte - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI
ASUS - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-483-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

That will save you £20-30 or so.

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 & Deus Ex PC Games £205.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £78.98
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) £37.99
Total : £609.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



EDIT: Gigabyte mobo reviews here - http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...herboards/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-1026263/review and here - http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/ described as "bargain mobo of the year".
 
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Right I've decided for the following

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard

Corsair Force Series 3 V2 120GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

8GB G.Skill RipJawsX (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel Kit

i needed to go for the 6870 only because my main LCD has just developed a huge red line down it so another thing to pay out for!

I work in a computershop so i get trade price too which is cool =]

many thanks guys
 
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