Prospective Upgrade Advice

Nikolai

Nikolai

Nikolai

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Joined
21 Apr 2012
Posts
82
Location
West Midlands
Hi All.

I am considering an upgrade in the near future. I am unsure as to how much my budget will be and how far away it will be. 2-6 months, I am guessing depending on how much cash I will be able to save up vs how much I will end up spending.

My current spec is:

Intel Core i5 2500 (stock cooler)
Asus P8H67 R3 H67
Corsair 8GB XMS3 1333Mhz
Seagate 1TB Barracuda
PowerColor HD 6870
OCZ Fatal1ty Series 550W
Bitfenix Merc Alpha
Windows 7 64 bit
LG IPS235V
Saitec Cyborg V.3 Mouse
Keyboard, some HP thing
Logitech 2.1 Speaker System

Over all it does what I need and does not feel to sluggish. I mostly use it to do some programming and some gaming.

I was mainly thinking of replacing my case with either a Corsair 650D or a Vengeance C70. Not yet decided which would be better or if there is another case I should be looking at. Sticking with air cooling and I like plain looking cases.

I think my PSU should keep just fine, though I was thinking I'll get some PSU extender cables though for better cable management, the cables on my current PSU feel a bit short reaching up to the CPU.

I certainly need a new keyboard and a decent mouse mat or gaming surface or what ever its called. I currently use a 50p mouse mat from Ikea ;)

Even though I am not overclocking I think an aftermarket cooler should not go amiss.

I think my graphics card should hold for the moment and same goes for my CPU.

I know an SSD would make an improvement though I am not sure on if I should get one.

I am understand advice is rather difficult to give with out a clear budget and no clear time frame, but any suggestions and advice would be most welcome.
 
I would wait for the new generation of stuff and ask again then. Especially if you're going to be saving for approx 6 months, that's when haswell the new icore series comes out.

Your current set up seems fine, but with regards to an aftermarket cooler, I wouldn't bother and put the saved money to upgrade something, such as the GPU. The stock one is fine in my opinion if you're not looking to overclock, someone might disagree, but every CPU I've had has worked fine on stock as they weren't overclocked.
 
Case+SSD+keyboard+mouse sounds good to me.

The speed upgrade from the SSD, plus the new look on the externals, will make it feel like a bigger upgrade than it is. The CPU+GPU should hold their own for a while yet, if gaming starts to slow down then your first big upgrade after the SSD+externals should be a new GPU: your CPU+motherboard+ram should be fine for a couple of years.
 
You have your thinking right..

You can do it pretty cheap, these would be my choice on a lowish budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Midi Tower - Black £149.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Logitech G105 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard (920-003655) £32.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK Mega-Mega Mat 3XL Elite Tactical Gaming Surface ** IN STOCK NOW ** £11.99
Total : £322.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).



I have an OCUK Medium Mat and i have to say it's really good.

Im pretty sure the 3XL is snowboard sized though. So i hope you have a big desk
 
Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

The case, should I just let it be until I get a full upgrade / new pc? Then again splitting the overall cost might be a more sensible option. Is there a better option then the 650D? I do like the look of it, and it has had some good reviews from the ones I've had a look at, bar the fan controller that melts or something?

Just how much better is a mechanical keyboard to a standard rubber dome one? Is it worth the extra £60 odd?

Doomedspeed, I thought my desk was big... then I checked the size of that gaming surface, and measured my desk. it will cover almost the entire desk, 1250x750 or so compared to the mat at 1200x600. I keep my case on the desk as there is currently no space on the floor to put it due to having drawers, will this make a difference if the mat goes under the case and screen?

The SSD, I remember when they came out there were sometimes problems with them getting corrupted and loosing information, as well as you are not able to defrag and some other things. Is this still a problem?

If I had my way I'd just get a full i7 monster for the giggles.

Thanks again for your help.
 
If you want a mechanical keyboard consider the bundle below with a mouse and some games. The merc case is very basic but you dont need to spend silly money to improve on it

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Krypton Mouse and Osmium Mechanical Keyboard - with 3 FREE RETAIL BOXED GAMES £157.99
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 128GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5P) £99.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £69.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £31.19
1 x Ozone Ground Level Medium Gaming Surface £8.99
Total : £382.20 (includes shipping : £11.75).



SSDs are much more reliable now. This example uses a good controller and with a firmware update will have improved speed aswell. You don't have the K CPU so adding an aftermarket heatsink is debatabubble as you can't overclock it (mobo prevents this too). I've added a decent value one which is designed to be quiet but honestly I would probably look to add a 1600mhz RAM kit for £30 rather than the cooler and sell off the 1333mhz kit you have
 
Last edited:
honosuseri said:
I had that X4 keyboard in my basket ready to post, then saw his reply about mechanical keyboards ;)
Click to expand...

I`ll believe you. :p

Just how much better is a mechanical keyboard to a standard rubber dome one? Is it worth the extra £60 odd?
Click to expand...

As I have never owned a mechanical board, I can`t say whether it is better or worth the extra cost. The only way to know for sure is get one, if you don`t like it, you have 14 days in which to return it.
 
Nikolai said:
Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

The case, should I just let it be until I get a full upgrade / new pc? Then again splitting the overall cost might be a more sensible option. Is there a better option then the 650D? I do like the look of it, and it has had some good reviews from the ones I've had a look at, bar the fan controller that melts or something?
Click to expand...

If you're looking for performance, the case isn't the best idea as it doesn't add anything. If your performance is okay for now, then a nice case is a good investment - it will last you for several upgrades and make them much more pleasant, while allowing you to spend your whole upgrade budget on performance without worrying if you need to upgrade for the extra cooling etc.
 
Honosuseri, that keyboard/mouse combo looks great and it comes with 3 games I do not yet have ;) Though since the X4 has been mentioned several times, the mechanical is not really needed? The X4 is a whole load cheaper then the mechanical.

As my current spec seems to be coping well enough for the moment, and it is not overclockable, when I built it, I think I did that to make the build cheaper, the budget was very tight at the time and just needed something to do the job.

So I think this upgrade may be a more cosmetic, some nice peripherals and maybe a good case. It makes sense not to worry to much about an aftermarket cooler until I do a proper CPU/Mobo upgrade, perhaps sometime after Haswell is released.

From the sounds of it the SSD will make a decent difference and does not appear to cost to much, I am sure by the time I do go about putting an order in the price may even come down slightly. The SSD is mainly for the OS, Visual Studio and perhaps Steam if it fits on there with my other HDD as a file storage and other software that does not need speed? I guess even Visual Studio does not really need to be on the SSD.

Will changing from 1333mhz to 1600mhz RAM really make a difference?

A bit of cosmetic plus a minor performance boost from a SSD and the RAM not to much cash in the greater scheme of things.

Thanks again, I do apologize for all the questions even if they do seem daft. Just trying to get a good idea what to aim for on the savings front.
 
I'm pretty sure Stulid put up a review of that mechanical keyboard and mouse bundle recently.....sorry i'm too lazy to look for it. I just put it out there as an option.

The merc beta case is very basic, granted you can buy a USB3 I/O panel to upgrade it but that's not really worth the hassle in my eyes. Case is personal preference, I'll leave that with you to decide

1600mhz is the sweet spot for the 1155 socket, that RAM is on offer at a brilliant price. Figure you could get some cash back if you flogged your 1333mhz kit. I figure that £30 would be better spent on the RAM than a cooler but if you find the stock heatsink loud or insufficient upgrade it buy all means, again I suggested a good value heatsink.

The SSD will make a massive difference to load times, avoid the sandforce controller as it's "flakier" than what I have suggested.

To be fair you never set a budget or said if this was all to be done in one hit. Hopefully we have given you some ideas and you'll figure out how best to proceed yourself. I look forward to seeing what you settle on :)
 
You guys have done a great job, and I know it is difficult to offer advice with out any budget to follow or any clear time frame.

I've found the review, http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18476231

I think I will leave the cooler alone as its not terrible and does what it needs to do for the moment.

As soon as I know my budget I will let you all know and do a check that what I stick in my basket is most up to date.

Then it'll just be a matter of putting in the order and finding a way to sell off what I take out.
 
As mentioned above, Corsair 200R Compact might be nice for you - simple looks and great features inside (4 x 2.5" slots, 2x USB 3.0 at front panel, 8 fan slots, place for up to 320mm long GPUs, a lot of space for cable management behind motherboard plate).

Be sure to check the heat sink in my signature, its great - at 30£ cost - its quite large 130x100x130 but still leave space for fans on side of the case. Very effective, running my i5 3570 at 4.0 GHZ, full load 46-55 C, plus its wide enough to cool RAM and motherboard as well.

As for SSD, I use mine only as OS drive, so don't need 128 GB. Its:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-075-OC&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=
brings me to Win 8 log-in page within 5 seconds.

Hope it helps a bit and give some more options :)
 
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