Summer Computer Upgrade

greedy123

greedy123

greedy123

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Joined
29 Feb 2008
Posts
1,173
Location
Nottingham
Hi

I'm looking to upgrade my pc this summer. I bought a new gc last summer but the rest of the system is bottlenecking it at the moment.

Here's the current line-up:

Win 7 Ultimate x64
ASUS P5K-premium
Intel Q6600 (2.4 x 4 ghz)
*OCZ Vertex 2E 240GB SSD
OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition
*Evga GeForce GTX 570 1280MB
*Creative SB X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty 7.1 Champion Series
*Coolermaster Real Power 850w
Antec P180 Case
*Samsung SM-2493HM and SM-226BW

(*-I intend to keep)


I do a lot of CAD work using Cinema 4D, photoshop, indesign, after effects, lightroom and a little gaming. Basically I'm looking to upgrade the CPU to an i7 and max out the memory for the cad work. I've not really kept up-to-date with hardware over the last year so would like some advice on a new motherboard, cpu, cooler(?) and memory to match my existing graphics card, hard drive and sound card. I may also consider getting a new case if its worth it, this one is 4 years old now and the fans are sqeaking and the internal arrangement is really cramped with the new gc, sound card and 4 hds.

Looking forward to your advice chaps!
 
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I'm running windows 7 ultimate at the moment and will be sticking to it as it suits me well.

budget... looking around £600-700 (not inc. case) but prob be willing to go a bit higher if its worth it
 
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you have lots of good hardware in there already. Not sure about the PSU for that kind of rig, and if it's worth updating.

2600K.
Good P67 - Z58 board.
16 GB ram.
Good CPU cooler for 4.4GHz stable, cool and quiet.
750W PSU.
Good air case (HAF, 690, Raven).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £254.99
1 x Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Silverstone RV02W-EW Raven 2 Evolution Windowed Case - White £155.99
1 x Thermalright MUX-120 Black CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1155/LGA1366) £39.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £39.98
Total : £665.93 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Cooler and case to personal preference. 8 gigs will be plenty, but 16 gigs is an option.
 
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Nice, thanks for the suggestions.

Couple of questions:
What's the difference between the sandybridge and Nehalem? I see the first has integrated graphics? will that boost performance on top of my gc or just act as a substitute?

Memory wise, I currently have 8gb and it is usually maxed while working so having more would certainly be useful so will prob be looking for 16-24gb. would I need a better motherboard than the one suggested if I say went for 2x Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel Kit?
 
Not much benefits going with super fast ram on Sandybridge, as most of the OC you do is on the CPU multiplier and voltage. It's really marginal going for high speed rams, and not worth the extra money. You'll be better off using the cash to go to 16GB instead. £160 on 16GB isn't a bad investment really if you are maxing 8GB.

You cannot use triple channel on sandybridge btw, so it will be either 8GB or 16GB (dunno if you can run 2x4GB + 2x2GB, but why would you :)).

The integrated GPU can be used for transcoding (QuickSync) on the Z68 platform only. That give a nice boost. The Z58 is also able to 'switch' between integrated and dedicated GPUs, so you can save on energy bills if your computer is on 24/7 not doing anything with your 570 GPU most of the time. It does impact on the frame rate in games.

On other chipsets, the integrated graphics are useless and a bit of a dead weight.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4199/...egrateddiscrete-gpu-on-sandy-bridge-platforms

So I'd say, go Z68 if you see the benefits of QuickSync and Lucid Virtu (GPU virtualisation), go P67 if you don't benefit from those and you can get a nicer motherboard for £160.

I wouldn't bother with Intel Smart Response tech with a high capacity SSD likke yours.

Sandybridge architecture is a sort of nehalem+. It's got better IPC, upgraded Hyperthreading, the manufacturing process is smaller, so the chip runs coolerand can clock much higher (4.4GHz should be quite easy). All in all, the 2600K is a great chip for the money. It destroys everything bar the expensive 6 cores intels, and even then gives them a run for their money.

Basically, you just can't go wrong with a 2600K, and a P67 / Z68 board, with your budget. As for cooling, it's up to you really, but I wouldn't bother thinking of going past 4.4 - 4.6GHz. 4.4GHz is a nice usable clock.

And for the case, I quite like the Raven. It's great for air cooling, and although it looks kinda weird (it's a long case rather than a tall case) and is setup at 90 degrees, is very well designed for low noise air cooling. Looks cool as **** in white as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGMbOKVzeEo

The Cooler I added cools well, but most importantly has been reviewed as very quiet.
 
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Personnally, I would go with a good P67. I'm not a fan of Lucid Virtu, but QuickSync can be useful, although software support is currently spotty.

The Corsair Vengeance will work, but the Corsair XMS is on a deal at £65, and will give similar results. There's a comparison between different rams and Sandybridge, at the end of the day, There isn't much between all of them, even after overclock. Most of the overclocking on SB is done via the CPU multiplier and the CPU core voltage, which makes overclocking RAM moot.

The GD65 and the AsRock Extreme P67 (if you don't like MSI) are good boards. Asus has had teething problems with their P67 boards, I don't know what's the state of those at present.

EDIT : Here it is.

There are over cases apart from the Raven that will do a good job for air flow (THe coolermaster HAF, but looks are a bit marmite). Then the expensive Silverstones and Corsair cases. The Fractal R3 ain't bad either, despite it's sound dampening layers. the Fractal Design Define XL isn't as efficient at air cooling. Shame, I really like the case layout. Maybe fixable with fans.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cases/2010/11/19/fractal-design-define-xl-review/3
 
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Nice, yeh i won't be doing much overclocking so cheaper ram is nice. I'm not as keen on those other cases really. I love the raven's back on top approach as much easier for where it will be kept. Pity OCUK are out of stock! Might look at sourcing elsewhere.

Thanks for your help olivier.
 
Every new build request I look at it seems to be full of guys ditching the kind of set up I am trying to build lol! I must be out of date!

Would like to her your thoughts once your system is built on how it compare to your current rig?
 
will do. i must admit i like having better and better stuff as time and therefore performance is very important to me in my work. i've upgraded my system a lot over the last 4 years and can honestly say the biggest jump in performance i saw was upgrading to an ssd.

will post my opinions on the new system once its all in place.
 
Have to agree ssd are very good jump in performance, my friend has 1 yet has a slower system over all compared to me but his ssd make his pc feel more snappy
 
The components came today from OCUK, very quick as usual, very excited! Just waiting on the case which arrives tomorrow (had to source from another place as OCUK out of stock).
 
Well, its all installed now. The case was such a annoying problem. Only component I didn't buy from OCUK and the only one with any problems! As expected. The case arrived with 2/3 of the 180mm fans missing and it took them almost 4 weeks to replace them the b@#^&*ds.

But anyway all installed now and so far WOW! So much smoother on lightroom, and the cinebench benchmark proves how much my old setup was limiting the graphics card.

Old setup:
CPU: 2.55
GPU: 28.14

New:
CPU: 6.73
GPU: 52.95

Such an improvement for working in 3D applications (cinema4d).

Still reinstalling all my applications, takes so much effort lol. A lot quicker than it used to be though with the SSD etc.
 
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