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- Joined
- 24 Dec 2007
- Posts
- 736
Hi guys, I'm a long time reader of this forum and have seen its members help a lot of people out with some advice. I've finally decided to ask for some major advice myself as I have a few questions about some upgrades I would like to do and whether all of them are necessary.
First I'll give the information on my current build, which is about a year and a half old. I bought it last christmas I believe so in computer life terms I suppose its relatively old. Surprisingly it still runs basically all games on max so things like the graphics card, memory etc I don't think need upgrading, at least I dont plan on it in order to keep my budget down. Anyway, to business:
Antec 902 Case
Intel i7 920 - 2.9GHz
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
6GB DDR3 Corsair Ram (not sure what speed, CPU-Z names its bandwidth as PC3-10700H 667Mhz if thats any indication)
1GB 5870
850W Power Supply
250GB Apex SSD (got it free)
Sorry about the vagueness of some of this, I no longer have a copy of my order so can't be sure of the specifics, hopefully it won't matter to much.
I also have two 1TB storage drives, which brings me to the main thing I wish to upgrade: my case. Originally when I ordered this computer from OCuk it was supposed to come with an Antec 1200 case so I would have lots of room for upgrades/ learning how to mess around with components etc. Unforunately it came with a 902 case - twice - which resulted in the free SSD which turned out quite well. But, the case is just too small, like REALLY small in my opinion, especially with a 5870 and 3 hard drives in it, so I desperately desperately want to upgrade. I've been looking around and so far I've been liking the look of:
650D http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-036-CS&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
HAF X http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-233-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat= (comes with a power supply less than mine although I'd be tempted to just use the one "optimised" for that case)
ATCS 840 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-159-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat= (bit expensive and never in stock)
Basically I'd like to know which would be best for my needs. I do not plan on watercooling in the slightest so it needs to have excellent air cooling, it needs to have lots of room to work in and secondly but just as important for me personally, I'd love it to have side mounted hot swappable hard drives so I can easily install/uninstall drives when I upgrade them. Oh, and good options for cable management would be fantastic.
Next on the list is my processor. Personally I'm not sure whether I need to upgrade at all here, and I'm a bit hesitant to install a new processor myself as it would require a lot of work removing the fenrir CPU cooler I have and I'm just not confident with that yet (tbh I would probably pay someone else to do the transfer of everything into the new case so it's still an option).
I think when I bought the computer it was supposed to be OC'ed to 3.2Ghz or 3.4Ghz but CUP-z says 2.9ish and that seems to fluctuate so I don't know. If I were to upgrade I'd probably go for:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-374-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2020
Although maybe the regular version although for the sake of a few quid it might be worth the guarantee. Is a CPU upgrade necessary here? I'd like to know what you guys think.
Motherboard and ram I think are both fine, although if you guys think a different motherboard is necessary if the processor could be upgraded then I'd love some input.
Also, I'm happy with my graphics card at the moment and I can easily upgrade that in the future if it starts to struggle.
So yeah, after that huge wall of text it'll be great to hear some feedback from you guys. Basically I'd like to keep the build below £500 at the most, and thats on the high side unless I replace that Apex which I don't fancy doing unless it starts acting up. I think £300-£400 is my ideal budget. The case is the main thing here I think as from that I can upgrade most things myself, memory, graphics HDDs etc so long as I have a good base.
Thanks so much in advance,
Munimentum.
First I'll give the information on my current build, which is about a year and a half old. I bought it last christmas I believe so in computer life terms I suppose its relatively old. Surprisingly it still runs basically all games on max so things like the graphics card, memory etc I don't think need upgrading, at least I dont plan on it in order to keep my budget down. Anyway, to business:
Antec 902 Case
Intel i7 920 - 2.9GHz
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
6GB DDR3 Corsair Ram (not sure what speed, CPU-Z names its bandwidth as PC3-10700H 667Mhz if thats any indication)
1GB 5870
850W Power Supply
250GB Apex SSD (got it free)
Sorry about the vagueness of some of this, I no longer have a copy of my order so can't be sure of the specifics, hopefully it won't matter to much.
I also have two 1TB storage drives, which brings me to the main thing I wish to upgrade: my case. Originally when I ordered this computer from OCuk it was supposed to come with an Antec 1200 case so I would have lots of room for upgrades/ learning how to mess around with components etc. Unforunately it came with a 902 case - twice - which resulted in the free SSD which turned out quite well. But, the case is just too small, like REALLY small in my opinion, especially with a 5870 and 3 hard drives in it, so I desperately desperately want to upgrade. I've been looking around and so far I've been liking the look of:
650D http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-036-CS&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=
HAF X http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-233-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat= (comes with a power supply less than mine although I'd be tempted to just use the one "optimised" for that case)
ATCS 840 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-159-CM&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat= (bit expensive and never in stock)
Basically I'd like to know which would be best for my needs. I do not plan on watercooling in the slightest so it needs to have excellent air cooling, it needs to have lots of room to work in and secondly but just as important for me personally, I'd love it to have side mounted hot swappable hard drives so I can easily install/uninstall drives when I upgrade them. Oh, and good options for cable management would be fantastic.
Next on the list is my processor. Personally I'm not sure whether I need to upgrade at all here, and I'm a bit hesitant to install a new processor myself as it would require a lot of work removing the fenrir CPU cooler I have and I'm just not confident with that yet (tbh I would probably pay someone else to do the transfer of everything into the new case so it's still an option).
I think when I bought the computer it was supposed to be OC'ed to 3.2Ghz or 3.4Ghz but CUP-z says 2.9ish and that seems to fluctuate so I don't know. If I were to upgrade I'd probably go for:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-374-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2020
Although maybe the regular version although for the sake of a few quid it might be worth the guarantee. Is a CPU upgrade necessary here? I'd like to know what you guys think.
Motherboard and ram I think are both fine, although if you guys think a different motherboard is necessary if the processor could be upgraded then I'd love some input.
Also, I'm happy with my graphics card at the moment and I can easily upgrade that in the future if it starts to struggle.
So yeah, after that huge wall of text it'll be great to hear some feedback from you guys. Basically I'd like to keep the build below £500 at the most, and thats on the high side unless I replace that Apex which I don't fancy doing unless it starts acting up. I think £300-£400 is my ideal budget. The case is the main thing here I think as from that I can upgrade most things myself, memory, graphics HDDs etc so long as I have a good base.
Thanks so much in advance,
Munimentum.
