Small upgrade / Refresh advice required please.

dandubi · 28 Oct 2014 at 10:36

Hi All,

My Dad's PC is currently starting to fall over with BSOD, CPU errors during POST etc. and so I have decided to treat him to a little upgrade. I have my old i5 4570 CPU & 16GB of RAM kicking around still so was looking to buy him a new motherboard, PSU & CPU cooler.

Motherboard Budget: £100 +/- 10-20%
CPU Cooler Budget £35 +/- 10-20%

The old system:
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR2 800Mhz stuff
GPU: EVGA SC GTX 570
HDD: 120GB SSD + 2 x 500GB HDD
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream2 600w Silent ATX2 Power Supply 80PLUS (purchased 2011)
CASE: NZXT Phantom Full Tower

I have looked at PSU's and like the look of the offers on the Superflower and also the EVGA's 10 year warranty PSU's. I know the 850w is probably going to be slightly overkill for his system but the 10 year peace of mind is tempting and also any future graphics card upgrades should be covered.

EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 650W Fully Modular

I am not too sure on the motherboard as there seems to be loads of options for this CPU Socket. The processor is only a 4570 and he won't be overclocking the thing unless the motherboard has some auto overclock feature etc. The PC is mainly used for playing MMORPG's, small amount of photo editing and office work.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

stulid · 28 Oct 2014 at 10:51

Not to many socket1155 boards in stock, this one is hiding in the clearance section - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-660-AS&groupid=595&catid=689

dandubi · 28 Oct 2014 at 11:03

stulid said:
Not to many socket1155 boards in stock, this one is hiding in the clearance section - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-660-AS&groupid=595&catid=689

Sorry stulid. My apologies it's a 4570, I have no idea why I put 3470.

stulid · 28 Oct 2014 at 11:12

Grab the cheapest Z97 then.

Overclocking going to be limited by the CPU but at least the board should last if the rumours about Broadwell working on Z97 are to be believed.

dandubi · 28 Oct 2014 at 22:35

I think after looking I am going to go for either the MSI gaming 5 or the Gigabyte Gaming 5 as these seem to be around my budget and seem to pick up good reviews and possibly come in handy in the future if a K CPU is added and small over clock can be achieved.

Can anyone recommend a good CPU cooler for my budget of around £35 mark which keeps a good temp but also low noise during general use?

stulid · 28 Oct 2014 at 22:40

What RAM do you have? how many sticks?

What case is it going into?

dandubi · 28 Oct 2014 at 23:00

It is going into a NZXT Phantom Full tower case and there are 4 x 4GB sticks of standard size Dimms

stulid · 28 Oct 2014 at 23:00

YOUR BASKET
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
1 x Alpenföhn Brocken ECO CPU Cooler - 120 mm £24.95
1 x Raijintek Themis Black Heatpipe CPU Cooler PWM - 120mm £19.99
Total : £84.53 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Fleshwerk · 28 Oct 2014 at 23:02

dandubi said:
I think after looking I am going to go for either the MSI gaming 5 or the Gigabyte Gaming 5 as these seem to be around my budget and seem to pick up good reviews and possibly come in handy in the future if a K CPU is added and small over clock can be achieved.

Can anyone recommend a good CPU cooler for my budget of around £35 mark which keeps a good temp but also low noise during general use?

Go for the gigabyte mobo