Upgrade advice - been out of the loop for a while

Booner! · 7 May 2011 at 14:57

Upgrade advice - i5 bundle or i7...

Hello chaps,

I currently play TF2, LFD2, BFBC2 and a few other games....but I like to run things at max visuals.

Current set up:
Intel 975X Bad Axe
Socket 775 Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.85ghz
4 gb of OCZ DDR2 ram
Powercolor 4890 1gb @ stock
640gb WD sata drive + 74gb raptor too
Windows 7 home premium (uses 1.3gb of ram on idle..)

I have a dell 20.1" at 1680 x 1050. I believe that my CPU which is now overclocked is helping, but bottlenecking my GPU?

This year I want to upgrade to play BF3 later on and generally upgrade to the latest kit. I was thinking of doing this in stages though, so:
>Mobo, CPU, Ram now
>Decent GPU around BF3 time
>1080p 120hz Monitor for Xmas

Would a pre-OC bundle for ~£400 be a good start and leave me with a relatively solid base to work from, or is it worth waiting and doing all in one go?

Any advice welcome

Booner! · 7 May 2011 at 15:17

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-013-OP&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1858

Something like this? and which CPU cooler would be suitable without spending too much and being too large?

Booner! · 7 May 2011 at 18:25

I think I'm leaning towards the bundle, seems like a reasonable deal to me - as much as I've loved manipulating individual components together in the past.

Added 2 x 12cm Akasa fans, some artic paste (req?) and that should keep me going till the GPU, soundcard and monitor upgrade nearer the time of BF3

Booner! · 7 May 2011 at 23:40

Yeah I was hoping to keep the 4890 for a little longer and pick up a cheaper 480 or 580 later this year.. I think the CPU update will unlock some more power and FPS in my games for the time being.

Booner! · 8 May 2011 at 14:57

Just before I push the button, would I have any noticeable gains from this slightly more expensive bundle in comparison with the Radon Torosaur ? I'm pretty much settled on the Torosaur and I doubt I am going to notice a huge performance gain in games? The only difference between the i7 and the i5 is the HT?

"Radon Torosaur"

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-062-OE

This Week Only Offer
was £409.98 inc VAT

Bundle Specification
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.40GHz Sandybridge CPU
- Motherboard: Gigabyte P67A-UD4 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
- Cooler: Corsair A50 CPU Cooler
- Artic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Krypton

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-029-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1801

This Week Only Offer
was £469.99 inc VAT

Bundle Specification
- CPU: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz @ 4.00GHz
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard
- RAM: GeIL 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Triple Channel
- Cooler: Corsair A50 CPU Cooler

Booner! · 8 May 2011 at 17:06

I'm sold! 2500K bundle it is. Thanks for all your help guys. I think my PSU should be sufficient, it's a Tagan modular 580watt.

I'll take an HDD drive out and give all my old parts as a donor to my parents computer with an old 8800GTS for them.