Rebuild/Upgrade

Boris534 · 1 Sep 2012 at 19:54

Hi all,

Im looking at rebuilding/upgrading my current computer, and am looking for advice on what kind of upgrades I should make so that I can keep up with new games that will be coming out in the next couple of years. I have a budget of around £400 but this can change if required. However I would obviously like to spend the least amount of money but have the best performance.

Thoughts and ideas would be appreciated

Current Spec
Sapphire Pure CrossFire X 790GX
PowerCooler Radeon HD 4890 1024MB PCI-E Dual-DVI/TVO
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (with stock cooler)
2Gb of generic stock ram (4 x 512Mb DDR2)
OCZ ModXstream-Pro 600W PSU
Generic DVD drive
320GB HDD
250GB HDD x 2
2TB HDD (with a second available to use a RAID1 back up with the other)
and a 120GB SSD on its way.

Games I play and will want to be playing:
Fall Out 3
Fall Out New Vegas
Company of Heros
Company of Heros 2
Boarderlands 2
FarCry 3
Crysis 3

Trusty · 1 Sep 2012 at 20:00

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366/1156/1155/775/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £32.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £27.95
Total : £499.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Trusty · 1 Sep 2012 at 20:01

I took into account the selling of your old equipment...

Idleman · 1 Sep 2012 at 20:16

Hello and welcome to the forum.
This would possibly be your best upgrade, although over budget. You could go for a non "K" version, if you don`t` want to OC, this would bring the price down.
Do you have an aftermarket cooler.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £161.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £27.95
Total : £466.31 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Boris534 · 2 Sep 2012 at 14:28

Cheer guys for the responses, unfortunately I do not have a aftermarket cooler, however I have seen a couple of Corsair H60 Water Cooling Kit for sale around £20 on ebay, are they any good?

Regardless of a budget as I can save more if required, what is performance/cost difference between 7850 and say the 7950?

Trusty · 2 Sep 2012 at 15:45

I prefer air coolers personally, theres no difference between the H60's and a decent air cooler.

7950 v 7850
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=549

If you can save a bit of money up then go for the 7950, cracking cards for the money. They really do have Nvidia sewn up in the that price range.

Boris534 · 2 Sep 2012 at 22:10

Fair enough, ok so im pretty much sold on the i5 3590k, i will probably look into overclocking at some point in the near future. And the 7950 will be more future proof then than the 7850, so i think i will save for that (7950).

No mention of a PSU so i assume that what I have is still ok, which is good on the money front.
Motherboards, both have recommended the Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard, is there any reason why this one was chosen? Apart from reasonable price? I generally have no idea about the performance effects a motherboard will have to be honest.

Cheers in advance

stulid · 2 Sep 2012 at 22:12

Generally a solid board with good reviews,

Kitguru.
Hexus.
eteknix.
Madshrimps.
Windwithme.
tbreak.