Upgrade advice for an out of touch enthusiast!

thepeteh

thepeteh

thepeteh

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Joined
2 Jan 2009
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Location
North Yorkshire
Right, my current rigs spec;

Asus PK5C
Q6600
ATI RAEDON HD 5770 1GB
4GB Geil PC6400
Kingston 256GB SSD
Creative Soundcard

Just checked my emails, wow... can't belive I built this rig in 2008!!

So, it's time for an upgrade, with a small amount of research I'm looking at the following;

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MSI GeForce GTX 680 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games £347.99

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Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £259.99

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Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.99

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Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £53.99

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Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Orange (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3)
 £66.98

Total :£949.93

Am I far off at that? Could I improve or spend less for not much decrease in performance? I want to be able to play the latest battlefield games, fps such as CS:GO at a good frame rate, which at the moment my rig seems to struggle with.

I can re-use my Lian-Li A05B case, ssd, secondary hard drive, dvd drive and power supply. As you can see I don't upgrade often so this upgrade has to stand the test of time.

Any help appreciated!

Cheers
 
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First thing's first, OEM CPU's come with a 1 yea warranty vs retails 3 year your call but i would pay the extra (you also get intels paperweight)

Have the chip and had the board before i decided to downsize to ITX, the OCing on that board is excellent i highly recommend it and whilst some will say you only need an I5 for gaming if your after long life i would and did go for the I7. Multithreding games are on their way so you may as well.

The samy green ram has a good following here but TBH its getting to be rather expensive vs the competition, if your going to try and screw it to the wall and push t to 2133Mhz then great otherwse have a look for a nice set of teamgroup extreem, as you will get 2x8Gb for that price especially if your willing to wat for a today only.

The 680 should make easy work of games on single screen for a good couple of years too.

Only thing i'm not sure about is the cooler, looks awful but its not aout looks i suppose.

The Vgene has great sound onboard so consider flea baying your soundcard too for a little more cash
 
Similar to your build but cheaper.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £173.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Orange (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £39.95
Total : £797.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).



edit: The CPU is up to you, you can go for the i7 if you have the money and I would only go with the GPU if the games you play use physx or you use software that uses cuda.
 
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Gav_881 said:
First thing's first, OEM CPU's come with a 1 yea warranty vs retails 3 year your call but i would pay the extra (you also get intels paperweight)

Have the chip and had the board before i decided to downsize to ITX, the OCing on that board is excellent i highly recommend it and whilst some will say you only need an I5 for gaming if your after long life i would and did go for the I7. Multithreding games are on their way so you may as well.

The samy green ram has a good following here but TBH its getting to be rather expensive vs the competition, if your going to try and screw it to the wall and push t to 2133Mhz then great otherwse have a look for a nice set of teamgroup extreem, as you will get 2x8Gb for that price especially if your willing to wat for a today only.

The 680 should make easy work of games on single screen for a good couple of years too.

Only thing i'm not sure about is the cooler, looks awful but its not aout looks i suppose.

The Vgene has great sound onboard so consider flea baying your soundcard too for a little more cash
Click to expand...

Gav, thanks for your advice. I've taken your advice about the memory+retail cpu and changed that now. The cooler looks odd I know, but once the lid is on the case I wont see it, the reason for choosing it was that it got good press/benchmarks on a rival website.

My current sound card is old enough that it probably doesn't warrant being sold but then agan, I will be looking at selling the mobo, cpu and gfx to help fund the upgrades.

I don't really plan on overclocking at all. Could I perhaps save some money on the motherboard without losing good on-board sound quality?

Cheers.
 
thepeteh said:
Gav, thanks for your advice. I've taken your advice about the memory+retail cpu and changed that now. The cooler looks odd I know, but once the lid is on the case I wont see it, the reason for choosing it was that it got good press/benchmarks on a rival website.

My current sound card is old enough that it probably doesn't warrant being sold but then agan, I will be looking at selling the mobo, cpu and gfx to help fund the upgrades.

I don't really plan on overclocking at all. Could I perhaps save some money on the motherboard without losing good on-board sound quality?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Get a basic giga Z77 mobo for 80 quid and buy a sound-card.. no need to dish out 170 on a mobo... Motherboard shouldnt be more expensive than cpu.

If you go nvidia, get 670 and not 680 there is not much difference there performance wise not really good value for money.... its either 670 or 690
 
Lazder said:
Get a basic giga Z77 mobo for 80 quid and buy a sound-card.. no need to dish out 170 on a mobo... Motherboard shouldnt be more expensive than cpu.

If you go nvidia, get 670 and not 680 there is not much difference there performance wise not really good value for money.... its either 670 or 690
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying about gfx, will take that into consideration.

Second point makes less sense, spend ultimately the same amount in the end? + the cpu is ~240 and the mobo is ~150. Hardly the same price.
 
thepeteh said:
Gav, thanks for your advice. I've taken your advice about the memory+retail cpu and changed that now. The cooler looks odd I know, but once the lid is on the case I wont see it, the reason for choosing it was that it got good press/benchmarks on a rival website.

I don't really plan on overclocking at all. Could I perhaps save some money on the motherboard without losing good on-board sound quality?
Click to expand...

Good cooler, yes. But you would be 'saving' in the wrong area.

If you don't plan on overlockcing, then the cooler is unnecessary, the z77 is unecessary, and the unlock CPU is unnecessary!

However, I strongly suggest you stick with a unlockable CPU, a Z77 board, and a decent cooler. BTW, you really don't need a massive phantek for some medium overclocking (the performance sweet-spot, after which the improvements will be marginal and at greater risk).

I know, you don't want to 'overclock', but a unlocked CPU and decent hardware such as these will at least give you the option later, at the tail end of the CPU lifetime. And thirdly, it's so easy and safe (keep under 1.35V vcore!) on Ivybidge / Sandybridge, it's worth at least trying.

So I'd suggest a more balance build. Keep the motherboard for decent overclocking. And a cheaper cooler as well, like a Matterhorn Pure / HR02 Macho / TrueSpirit 140 / Dark Knight / Whatever, which will give you ample cooling for 4.2 / 4.4ghz.

So there, saved £30, and it gives you good options for the future / improve other components.

As for the sound card, it's probably PCI, not PCI express. Some motherboards ditched the standard PCI, or the legacy slot is in an awkward position. So check the motherboard if it's gonna be trouble.

Secondly, you might be satisfied with onboard anyway. I use onboard sound just fine, and all recent motherboards have good onboard.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £167.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML16GX3M2A1600C10) £74.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £59.99
Total : £884.94 (includes shipping : £10.00).



And I'm using fancy components too. Can save £100 and have a good performing system (Z77-D3H, 3570K, matterhorn Pure, 8GB ram). That also gives you a budget for a SSD.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games £329.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £159.95
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
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 Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
Total : £743.84 (includes shipping : £10.00).

 
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Took your advice on the cooler and I am sure onboard sound will be fine. Basket price of £789 is looking much better than what I started out with. :)

Edit-

Just seen you've added the two baskets, will take a look at those. I already have a 256GB Kingston SSD so don't require another.
 
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My HX620 came with two 6 pin PCIE connectors, not the usual 8 pins. God knows why, since it can do 50 Amps at 12 Volts. That's plenty of power for any modern single GPU graphics cards.

However if you have a GPU taking 8 pin PCIE connectors, might be a bit of a pain. In nay case the Asus 670 DirectCU takes 2x6 pin connectors, so that's ok. Just keep that in mind if you select a GPU for that power supply (and yours may have come with 6+2 PCI power connectors, which in that case is a non-issue, and will support anything you want without modifications). I would not have a problem using my HX620 to power a GTX670.

NOTE : Strangely enough, my HX620 is a 'back up' PSU, but my graphics card, a 6950 TOXIC takes one 6+2 pin power. So, not really a good back up if my PSU packs it in :)
 
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YOUR BASKET

EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Borderlands 2 & Assassin's Creed III PC Games (02G-P4-2678-KR) £311.99
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
Asus Z77 Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £154.99
GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1600C11DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £39.95
Xigmatek Dark Knight SD-1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA 2011/1366/1156/1155/775 and AMD FM1/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £34.99
OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black £5.99
Akasa AK-455 Thermal Compound £2.99
OcUK Value PCI Express 6-Pin to 4-Pin Power Adaptor for PCI-E Graphics Cards (RB-527) x 2 £3.98


Total : £806.87

Just about to purchase :eek:
 
1) Do you need the molex power adaptors? You should have the PCIE cables with the HX620 and you should really use those.

2) CPU cooler, yeah fair enough. If you have looked at the reviews and found it satisfactory.

3) For thermal compound, either no need, or get some ChillFactor3 (what comes with silver arrows and the likes), or some MX-2. Something with good performance, else it is kinda pointless.

4) Motherboard is good, it's also micro-atx. If that's an issue or not (less PCI slots).

5) Not sure you need a SSD adapter, but you should know. It's quite expensive, where a bit of velcro tape / double sided tape will do the job.
 
1, Could only see 1 x 6 pin connector in my case which is hooked up to my ati5770 atm.

2, Gone with what people say on here and reviews seem to be adequate.

3, Ooops, already ordered - oh well, it'll be fine... or at least it was when I used it in 2008 :D tech moves on I guess.

4, My lian-li case is very small, it was a conscious decision to choose an matx board.

5, My SSD is just balanced in mid air atm in my case, a £5 adapter wont break the bank to tidy things up but you're right I could have improvised :)

So I should receive all the bits tomorrow but I'm away working tomorrow for 5 days so the build will have to wait! sucks.
 
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