Upgrade advice - especially CPU choice for me

[Hockeynut]

Upgrade advice - PSU Advice now

My PC is getting very old (AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ and ATI X1800 512MB GPU, Hiper 580W Type-R Black PSU). That's about 6 years old and it's time to finally upgrade, albeit a modest one. Given that Eve is one of the games I play most, it would be nice to know what is important when it comes to that.

Usage-wise I also do gaming, Eve Online, CSS, SC2, Starcraft 2, etc, nothing crazy, though I'd probably do a bit more if I upgrade just because I can. I also process my RAW photos in Lightroom, as well as programming in Visual Studio. I think that for me, higher core speed is more important than having 6 or 8 cores.

When I started looking at this (and got wifey approval!) my Budget was only around £460 based on an initial quick look. That gave me a modest upgrade, even a modest upgrade would still blow my mind compared to my current setup, but then I started looking into things more..... I don't want to make a half arsed upgrade, but I want good value for money, and creeping up to a lot more cost (like the i5) needs to be justifiable.

But these look ok for starters right? These are the basics which I was quite hapy with.
Existing:
I have a big old Antec P180 Case which everything will fit in with ease. I'm hoping my Hiper 580W Type-R Black PSU will be powerful enough also. I have 2 x 1TB HDD's which I'll still use as data/media drives.

Then I was looking to buy new:
£60 Memory 16GB RAM (Upped from the initial 8GB I was going to get)
£70 SSD OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD - SATA-III - Read 525MB/s Write 500MB/s 85,000 IOPS
£120 GPU AMD 7850
£120 New second monitor Samsung S24b300hl LED LCD Widescreen 23.6" HDMI Monitor
£370 Sub total approx

The things that are constant in my budget above are simple and look to me like sound choices, but the mobo & CPU are where my costs are changing a lot.

My initial budget was based around something like the AMD FX4 3.6GHz (£73), which with a mobo (£50) bought my total in at ~£490

So I've been looking at the following:
£73 FX-4 4100 Black 3.6GHz
£50 Mobo
£123 (£493)

£88 Phenom 965 3.4GHz
£50 Mobo
£138 (£508)

£114 i3 3240 3.4GHz
£80 Mobo
£194 (£564)

£164 i5 3570 3.4GHz
£80 Mobo
£244 (£614)

From what I've read, the i5 is easily the best, but the extra cost is significant to me. Are any of the above choices bad? Are there better options that I've missed? And which above provides the best VFM and suitablility?

Thanks.
HN

 

[Hockeynut]

P.S: You may also get some newbies who have never heard of Hiper try to tell you you should replace your PSU with a "branded" one like Corsair or XFX, ignore them their wrong.

Hehe - yes, when I got that a while back it I put some money into that PSU, built more around solid throughput rather than peak power output figures, it was one of the better brands back then. But will it still be sufficient for my new needs?

Gets you your I5 under £500
however only 60 gb ssd, enough for OS and couple of games

I'd like to stick with 120gb SSD, as it's not a lot of £££ more for the extra above 60gb.

7750 on sale, not as good as 7850 no. but will still get you by with good graphics

GPU is the place I've not looked into as much as the CPU. This is a very good suggestion, and an easier prospect to upgrade in the future rather than the CPU.

that monitor must have been on sale as cant see for that price

It is.

16gb of ram

I don't know much difference between the RAM's other than I remember you used to be able to get matched pairs, but they were a premium.


Based on some great replies above I think I'm homing in on something that enables me to afford the i5 I was interested in. In fact even the 3570K edition while OC has it on offer even this week!

Doing as dunn's suggestion of looking at a more modest GPU helped. I would stick with 120gb SSD, as it's not a lot of £££ more for the extra above 60gb.

This is how things are looking, but I'd like advice on the motherboard.

£161 i5 3570K 3.4GHz (Does the K come with a fan/heatsink?)
£50? Mobo - help required here. ATX Form factor for my Antec P180 case iirc.
£47 16GB Memory I don't know which yet
£80-90 120GB SSD
£65 MSI HD 7750 2gb Graphics
£120 Samsung 24" Monitor

I assume I also need a 3.5" adapter to fit the SSD in the case?

Thanks again for all the help so far.

 

[Hockeynut]

Thanks everyone for their help and advice, this is what I went for in the end:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Samsung S24B300HL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x Sapphire HD 7850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz & Sleeping Dogs PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £83.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £81.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £39.95
1 x Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156) £11.99
Total : £679.93.



I already have an Antec P180 case, DVD drive, and 2 x HDD's, and an old 19" monitor to now use as my second monitor.

I just need to sort out a PSU now, as my old one turns out to be faulty, I've asked in this thread here.

Just one last question, I have my old ATI X1800 graphics card.... is it worth popping that in alongside the 7850, or is it relatively pointless?

Thanks again everyone who offered advice.

David

 

[Hockeynut]

Could you not have stretched for a 2GB 7850. its pointless buying the 1GB version really.

Unfortunately not, it was already a push to be able to get that rather than the 7750. So the 1GB version is better than not.

Sell the ATI X1800, you cant do anything with it.

I figured that might be the case, but there was part of me which logically thought it might be better to add it in with the new one, as something might be better than nothing (though I suppose it has more added implications for the new PSU too then)!

YOUR BASKET
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX550M High Performance 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020001-UK) £59.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £186.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).

As for PSU's, I remember the Seasonic brand were decent. Is 500W easily enough or is it tight or anything?


For some reason my other thread specifically asking about the PSU has been closed. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23143288

Someone suggested this one, but it's a touch too much, I don't want to have to spend more than £60 really.

Is the 520 version mentioned above good enough similarly?

 

[Hockeynut]

I'm leaning towards the Seasonic S12II 520W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply.

Does anyone know if the cables on this have a good length? In particular the 4pin ATX Mobo connector?