Spec me for a cheap upgrade?

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 02:55

Ok, so I am looking for as cheap an upgrade as possible for my motherboard, CPU, memory and potentially a new HDD. I had a quick look and was thinking:
one of the Sandybridge i3 cpus, a Gigabyte GA-P61-USB3-B3 P61 mobo and some of the memory on offer at OcUK for a total of around £200 is the best option.
Are there any other better options for around this price? Is it worth getting a better board/ CPU for £50 more? etc

I really do not want to spend more than £250, I use my PC for a little bit of gaming, quite a bit of SolidWorks, and some web design stuff using photoshop!

I have been having problems with my registry getting corrupted and windows failing to boot, turned out one of my sticks of RAM was faulty. Rather than spending 30-40 quid on DDR2 RAM when my CPU is getting on for 5 years old it makes sense to upgrade a few things.

My current system is:

Intel C2D e6420
Asus P5N-T deluxe
1 GB RAM (down from 2)
ATi HD5750
Corsair 520W power supply

Thanks for any advice!!

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:01

A quick question is, are your HDD and DVD drives SATA? modern motherboards only have SATA ports and no IDE, so if you have any IDE drives then unless you can find some dodgy IDE-SATA converters then you need new ones.

If you have SATA drives? then get this,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2300 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £145.99
(£121.66) £145.99
(£121.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
OcUK Value 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £198.31
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 : £41.56
Total : £249.37

The motherboard has SATA3.0 + USB3.0 and that is a quad core i5 sanybridge CPU with 8GB of DDR3.

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:12

Yeah I have SATA drives, thanks for the quick reply!

Edit: So you think the i5 is worth the extra £50?

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:15

It is, the extra cores will be of benefit to you and your uses,

Hers a i3 2100/2120 review that includes a i5 2300 also - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100.html

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:22

Final thing then, is it worth a fiver extra on the 3.1GHz i5?

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:38

Then going to another Xbitlabs review - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300.html if you can afford it? then go for it.

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:45

OK I am gonna splash out on the 2500K, I have had my e6420 for 4 and a half years so I think an extra £20 is well spent if it is gonna last me that long!

Once again, thanks for the help!

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 03:49

It would be wise to get a Z68 chipset board then to be able to overclock the K chip.

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:00

Any recommendations?

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:05

Http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18335129

Its the cheapest Z68 board at ocuk, there are four links in the thread to reviews etc.

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:09

Ok I went for the Gigabyte board you mentioned in another topic!

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:11

Yeah that is the one, didn't see your reply when i posted last! Thanks again

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:16

Actually, I think I went for the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 MoBo not the "Z68AP".

Do you know the difference? I am having a quick look now.. Sorry to keep asking for you help!

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:16

Bed time, I have been stuck in front of a PC benchmarking all day/night.

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:18

alexwolf47 said:
Actually, I think I went for the Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 MoBo not the "Z68AP".

Do you know the difference? I am having a quick look now.. Sorry to keep asking for you help!

The p has the lucid virtu and quicksync technologies as it has a display output for the CPU onboard gfx core.

alexwolf47 · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:24

Not worth the extra money then? Yeah I am about to head to bed anyway, just wanna get this sorted before I do!

stulid · 3 Nov 2011 at 04:28

It could be, as the p also has two more vrm power phases which might explain why it overclocks so well for its price point.