Time to move on from Q6600

P20

P20

P20

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My Q6600 is starting to struggle and we've had more and more problems with reliability, more blue screens of late than I can remember for a long time. It may just need rebuilding, but I'm thinking of upgrading. :)
I'll need a CPU, board, and ram. I'll be carrying over the ssd and raid 1tb, 4850 graphics and antec sonata with 500w psi.

I've looked at i5 2500k, stock or mild overclock, 8gb ram and would like to add in a sealed unit water (antec/corsair) CPU cooler. Looking at around £400 budget. Would love an i7, but don't think it will fit within budget, though I could keep existing 4gb ddr3 to keep price down and upgrade ram later.

It won't be used for gaming. It will be used for multiple office based applications for wor lass, media server to the tv via media box and network to phones and iPad. I'll also use it for photoshop cs5.
 
what model PSU came with the antec sonata? antec is usually a good brand for PSU's, but that doesnt mean to say they bundled a good one with their case
 
Jony27 said:
it might be either the earth watts or the basiq.
Click to expand...
hmm, not familiar with either of those names. do you have a custom cooler for your Q6600, because the motherboard i am going to recommend has a mounting system that means your cooler will fit, despite it being a different board
 
right, found some reviews. the earthwatts is a perfectly good budget PSU's, which is all you will need for what you have.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=35

here is what i'd recommend:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99
1 x Asrock Z68 PRO3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
Total : £397.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

your current cooler is plenty to keep an i7 2600k cool, and will fit on the asus motherboard because it has mounts for socket 775:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.hu.asp?Model=Z68 Pro3

the motherboard doesnt do crossfire or SLI properly (x8/x8), but since your not going to be gaming then i figure that wont be a problem atall
 
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Cheers. Any benefit of sticking with asus boards? I've had a couple now, seem quite nice. Would the sealed water coolers be quieter?
 
I went from a Q6600 to the rig in my sig an all i can say is that im very clad i did, huge difference in gaming an encoding :D
 
i5 2500k is pretty beastly at the moment, pretty much the equivalent of the Q6600.

Relatively easy to overclock, and if you do you get INSANE performance for the money you spend.
 
The i5 would save about £80. I've read about the over clocking is easy on the 2500k. Is the i7 2600k easy to over clock?
 
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