Something is broken so time to upgrade

Badyk · 10 Nov 2014 at 20:51

Hi Folks,

My trusty old workhorse has decided to start throwing shoes and it's time she was put out to pasture.

My current system config is:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (Clocked @ 4.3GHz)
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
ASUS R9 280X DirectCU II 3GB GDDR5

Drives, case and what-not are unimportant.

I was considering an upgrade anyway and figure that a new CPU/Mobo/RAM & maybe PSU would eliminate the likely candidates.

I'm well out the loop on the latest consumer tech so hopefully you guys can make some suggestions. I'm aware that Haswell is the latest Intel SKU range but am unsure on the likes of Devil's Canyon, Broadwell etc.

As far as budget goes, I'm fairly flexible. This looks decent:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
Total : £262.18 (includes shipping : £8.00)

...and would leave me enough cash to beard-scratch over a GTX970.

System will be used primarily for gaming and a bit of Lightroom.

Thanks in advance.

stulid · 10 Nov 2014 at 20:53

That is a decent bundle.

Devils Canyon is Haswell with some tweaks, Z97 is suppose to also support Broadwell (rumours only)

But its a shame you cant borrow some parts to work out what is wrong with yours.

What PSU do you currently have?

Maybe if its good enough add a 2nd GFX card - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BG-740-AS

Do you have an SSD?

Badyk · 10 Nov 2014 at 21:11

Hey dude, thanks for the reply.

I could borrow bits from work to try and troubleshoot further but this is more of a good excuse than anything because I was considering an upgrade anyway

PSU is a Corsair 650W HX Modular PSU which I think would preclude me from adding a 2nd GFX card (that is a great price though!!!) and I have a Crucial M4 128GB SSD at the moment on the SSD front.

Thanks.

stulid · 10 Nov 2014 at 21:12

It would run but you will be close to its limit, ideally its 750w+ needed.

What is your PC doing thats acting funny?

Badyk · 10 Nov 2014 at 21:40

Spontaneously rebooted this evening and went into a no-post loop. After 4-5 cycles, the mobo reported that the overclock settings were causing a problem and it reset the defaults.

I rebooted after this and it was stable but I could reproduce the problem by running Linpack or otherwise putting the system under load. Temps look ok before it bails out.

My hunch is CPU or mobo but I don't have spares to troubleshoot further.