Potential New Build, few questions and recommendations needed

Toker · 2 Jun 2011 at 14:20

Hi all, haven't posted in here for a while. The time has finally come to upgrade my Q6600 set up, it is for general use...work, surfing, gaming, multimedia. It's unlikely I will bother overclocking this time round, I'm going for decent performance and it has to be quiet. Was thinking the following:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £172.99

Lian Li PC-B25FB Aluminium Midi Tower Case - Black £104.99

Lian Li C-02B 5.25" Aluminium DVD/CD Drive Bezel £6.12

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99

Now here is where I need recommendations:

1) Which motherboard would you recommend in the £140-£150 range? There is the Asus on this week only, but there is also the Gigabyte and Asrock...

2) Which graphics card would you recommend around the £200 mark, would spend a little more if it's for significant benefits...

3) Which PSU and CPU cooler would you recommend, noise being my main concern in this area...

Emmm I think that covers everything, I already have an Asus Xonar DX that is still doing it's job nicely so don't think I'll bother upgrading the sound card.

Cheers for any input!

sk82jack · 2 Jun 2011 at 14:31

MSI P67A-GD65 ~£140

MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin Frozr III ~£200

(While stocks last) Antec High Current Gamer 620w ~£50

(This week) Akasa Venom ~£33

Toker · 2 Jun 2011 at 23:59

Cheers for the reply, I do already have a Corsair TX650W power supply, would I see much benefit in power/noise getting the Antec over that?

sk82jack · 3 Jun 2011 at 00:34

Is that a V2 or the original one?

stulid · 3 Jun 2011 at 00:40

sk82jack said:
Is that a V2 or the original one?

It does not matter which version it is does it!

Both good psu's

Toker · 3 Jun 2011 at 09:47

It must be an original, I just checked my receipts and I bought it way back in 2008! Guess it could do with being replaced since it's getting old

Toker · 3 Jun 2011 at 10:25

OK so can anyone comment on this final spec? I thought it would make sense to go for Z68 rather than P67, no point going for the older one really...

MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE DIRT3 Game
£199.99
(£166.66)

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G)
£172.99
(£144.16)

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
£155.99
(£129.99)

Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
£150.00
(£125.00)

Lian Li PC-B25FB Aluminium Midi Tower Case - Black
£104.99
(£87.49)

Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9)

£65.99
(£54.99)

Antec High Current Gamer 620W Power Supply

£49.99
(£41.66)

Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3)
£33.98
(£28.32)

Total :

£933.92

sk82jack · 3 Jun 2011 at 11:47

Apparently the OCZ Agility 3 have had quite a high failure rate, so how about a Corsair Force 3, just as good speeds, just a little more expensive.

A 560Ti could help refund the cost of the SSD a bit performing at a similar level to a 6950.

You can compare 560 Ti vs HD 6950 here but it's not working for me at the moment :confused:

Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GB3-BK) £194.99

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99