Spec me an upgrade (please?)

Caseh

Caseh

Caseh

Soldato
Joined
10 Sep 2007
Posts
5,398
Location
Sheffield
Hi.

My current setup is as follows;

- AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 2.8GHz @ 3.5GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
- Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz TwinX Dual Channel (TW3X4G1333C9) [TW3X4G1333C9]
- HIS 6870 1GB Gfx card
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II x2 (in Raid 0)
- Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) [HD103SJ]
- Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
- OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler

All I use the computer for is gaming, and I have a budget of around £400. There is a little room for movement if it's worth it, but I will quite happily spend less if it's not needed.

Thanks in advance, Cas.
 
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £172.99
(£144.16) £172.99
(£144.16)
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
(£133.32) £159.98
(£133.32)
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £67.99
(£56.66) £67.99
(£56.66)
Sub Total : £334.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £68.73
Total : £412.37

i am more of an intel man myself :)
 
whats the reason for the upgrade, is it struggling with games you play ?
if its just an upgrade itch, then an SSD will do.
 
Ginger-Menace said:
what i put is for 8gig of ram, and a gen 3 z68 board which is ready for pci-e3 and intel's ivybridge,
Click to expand...

That bundle is still only £408 with 8GB, and there would be no chance of me moving to Ivybridge, this would be an upgrade to last me a couple of gens of tech.

Jony27 said:
whats the reason for the upgrade, is it struggling with games you play ?
if its just an upgrade itch, then an SSD will do.
Click to expand...

I don't necessarily struggle, but I like to play my MMO's (Not WoW, anymore :p) and I think the CPU seems to be holding me back a little, I can't get the kind of frame rate at the kind of quality I'd like. Which I'm assuming is my gfx card being held up by the CPU?
 
Jony27 said:
have your tried unlocking it to a quad core?
Click to expand...

I think it's struggling as it is, I've already had to knock it from 3.5ghz to 3.2ghz.

I have had it since a couple of weeks after it was released, so it's had some hammer now. I have absolutely no problem of getting new stuff, I just wanted advice on the best kit for my pitiful money :p
 
if you could wait, hopefully AMD releases Bulldozer in the next month or so.

if you cant, then i5 2500k is best gaming chip out at the moment.
 
Last edited:
[Cas];19878318 said:
Would that be better than something such as http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-063-OE ?

Thanks for your quick reply though!
Click to expand...

It's a good bundle, very good components overall, two issues :

- the A-50 is not PWM controlled, and AFAIK the Asus board prefers PWM fans. Can work with VC fans of course, at the expensive of running the fan at 12V continuous regardless of of CPU load (fan always at max speed). The A-50 fan can be set to be either low or high RPM with the use of a resistor.

- The 'unbundled' version costs £20 less (the price of overclocking I presume). With that, you can get a gen3 board, or a better CPU cooler.

- Overclocking on Sandybridge is relatively trivial.
 
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