System upgrade

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24 May 2008
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After running with an intel 8400 and ATI 4870 combo for a couple of years, I am just about to upgrade and would like your thoughts on which way is the best to jump

I am going to get an I5 2500k but the budget is forcing a compromise

I can go for a Z68 board but will have to only go with a 6870 or 5870 graphics

or go for a p67 and a 2gb 6950

Other system bits being carried over 50gb Vertex2 boot drive, 2 gb storage drive and 2 x 2gb Geil ddr3 memory.

Was looking at the Z68 for future proofing, is it worth it?

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated
 
Not really. You'll be better off with a 6950 2GB and a good P67 (well, there aren't any bad boards at any price range, but Asus have their problems).

- If you're happy running your SSD as a OS drive, then you don't need Intel Smart Reponse.
- QuickSync is only useful if you do a lot of transcoding. But the 2500K is also very capable on its own.
- Virtu isn't really something anyone needs. Maybe people running their machine 24/7 with big graphics card and wanting to save energy.

So get a good P67 imo, you won't be missing out. p67 is as good as Z68 for future proofing.
 
Z68 isn't worth it when your already using an SSD as a boot drive and having to come down from a 6950 to a 6870/5870 unless your gonna be video transcoding 24/7 lol

Go for the P67 and a 6950.

Whats your total budget, uses of the pc and what exactly will you be reusing and what will you need?
 
Got any HDDs or do you need a new one? also do you need an OS?

edit: just re-read to OP and remembered about your SSD and HDDs lol
 
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You have decent DDR3? That'd be another £40.

I wouldn't bother with fancy cooling if you are on a budget. You have good coolers at £20 that will get you to 4.2-4.4GHz. Or even hold on for a while and stick with stock cooling, with maybe a slight bump (4.0GHz).

I have a H50 BTW, it's doing a good job so far. It's not completely silent, so I want to get back to big air cooling, most likely a Noctua next time.
 
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MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £219.98

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99

Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £27.98

Total : £543.35 (includes shipping : £9.50)




That 6950 is flashable to a 6970, and that air cooler should be good enough for what you need, unless you wanna go for the Antec 620 which will push you £15 over budget. You could always stick with the stock cooler as Olivier said, and save up for your preferable cooler.
 
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