Upgrade Advice Needed

wilm

wilm

wilm

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Joined
28 Jan 2012
Posts
34
Hi Guys,

Back in early 2012 i bought the following pc:

Titan 8100i Triceratop" Intel 4.40GHz Quad Core System
-Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155
-OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G)
-HIS ATI Radeon HD 6970 IceQ Turbo 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
-Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black
-System Int. Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB
- OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
-Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- 10 gig of ram - can't remember the exact specifications on this.

I'm looking to upgrade to a more modern gaming pc- I'll probably have about £1000 to spend. Is there anything from my old set up worth keeping- and just upgrading or am i better off buying a completely new machine?

Thanks!
 
Hi,

The CPU is still good and with that 4.4Ghz OC even today will be performing fine.

You need a new GFX card thats for certain to bring it up to par.

Problem there is two fold,

1) The case will need changing as I think that room inside for modern cards which have grown in length is limited.

2) The board will likely need a BIOS flash to support new cards, thus wiping out the overclock.

Also a new bigger SSD would be good.
 
Get yourself a larger SSD and a new GPU. The case can take cards of 12.5" / 318mm which should be plenty, so no need to change there.

I suggest a 240 or 500 GB Samsung SSD and a GTX 1070 when it's launched.

You might also consider adding a 21:9 3440x1440 monitor.
 
So If I were to get the new 1070 when it comes out and remplacement my ssd with the 500 gb Samsung one. That would all fit in my case Alright? And my motherboard would be OK to handle it?

And the cpu , ram, fan , psu, case and motherboard are worth keeping?
 
Case depends on the length of the card you buy.

You can look up the specs and dimensions at the manufacture websites.

The board may or may not need a BIOS update to "see" the latest released gfx card, if you do have to update the BIOS, note down all the settings used for the overclock and reapply them afterwards.
 
I would upgrade to 2X8GB of DDR3 2133Mhz as it's cheap as chips. Keep the 60GB SSD for page file and a little storage and buy a another faster SSD for everything else.

You can probably get the 2500K closer to 5Ghz so maybe consider adding an AIW cooler.

I'm not sure if I would keep the PSU. OCZ range from very good to complete garbage and it might not support a graphics card upgrade. You would have to do a little research into that model.

Depending on the monitor you have, a really high end graphics upgrade might be a waste of time. You might be better off with a monitor and graphics card.

On the storage side I think I probably would go with one of the 960GB SSD's and a 2TB mechanical drive.
 
You are looking at £50 for 16GB of top end DDR3. Assuming he has 8GB or 10GB of 1600Mhz RAM he will see a decent performance boost just from the memory upgrade.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the replies guys. So it looks like I'm looking atb getting a new monitor, RAM, graphics Card, SSD and possibly PSU. Sorry for being a bit dense but what is an AIW Cooler?

Any ideas for actual parts would be greatly appreciated.
 
For memory I would look for Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB 2400Mhz or Patriot Viper 3 16GB DDR3-2133Mhz.

For the PSU (if you need one) I would go with something SeaSonic or XFX based and 550 watts or better.

This would be ideal but you might have to look elsewhere as it's out of stock.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-xt-series-600w-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-ca-023-xf.html

SSD, something like these if you are looking at 1TB. Buy on price the performance is pretty much the same.

OCZ Trion 100 960GB
Sandisk Ultra II 960GB
Patriot Torch LE 960GB

I'm not too sure on the graphics as it depends on the monitors resolution.
This seems a nice deal.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-374-as.html

UK based RMA and 3 years warranty.

Dell U2515H. Maybe something with VVR. Depends what you want to spend really.
 
I think i've decided that i'm going to sell my old one for a little bit, and put the proceeds into building my first pc.

I've been researching it as much as possible and so far this is what i've come up with:

Stock ID Description Price Total
1 MB-675-AS Asus Z170-E Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £113.99
1 HD-191-SA Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State
Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)
£79.99
1 CP-581-IN Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail £281.99
1 MY-445-CS Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel
Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B30
£65.99
1 CA-003-SF Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 HD-334-SE Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM003) £37.99
1 HS-041-AL Alpenföhn Brocken 2 CPU Cooler £37.99
1 CA-171-NX NZXT H440 New 2015 Edition Case - Matte Black & Red £94.99
1 MO-082-DE Dell UltraSharp U2515H 25" 2560x1440 IPS Professional Widescreen LED Monitor -
Midnight Grey
£275.99
Total - £1048.91

I plan to add on the 1070 when it's released.

My question is, do the parts i've picked compliment each other? Would this be a good build, and viable for a first time builder. Or is there a more efficient build for the money?

It's gone a bit over my original budget- I'll just have to not tell the wife!

Thanks once again.
 
wilm said:
I think i've decided that i'm going to sell my old one for a little bit, and put the proceeds into building my first pc.

I've been researching it as much as possible and so far this is what i've come up with:

Stock ID Description Price Total
1 MB-675-AS Asus Z170-E Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £113.99
1 HD-191-SA Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State
Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)
£79.99
1 CP-581-IN Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail £281.99
1 MY-445-CS Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel
Kit - Black (CMK16GX4M2B30
£65.99
1 CA-003-SF Super Flower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 HD-334-SE Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM003) £37.99
1 HS-041-AL Alpenföhn Brocken 2 CPU Cooler £37.99
1 CA-171-NX NZXT H440 New 2015 Edition Case - Matte Black & Red £94.99
1 MO-082-DE Dell UltraSharp U2515H 25" 2560x1440 IPS Professional Widescreen LED Monitor -
Midnight Grey
£275.99
Total - £1048.91

I plan to add on the 1070 when it's released.

My question is, do the parts i've picked compliment each other? Would this be a good build, and viable for a first time builder. Or is there a more efficient build for the money?

It's gone a bit over my original budget- I'll just have to not tell the wife!

Thanks once again.
Click to expand...

Thats a lot of money to spend for very little extra performance.
 
Again thanks for the replies, it's really helping!

I thought it would be a pretty big performance upgrade, but i guess it's not, so i really am better off just upgrading?

How about the following:

1 CA-038-SF Super Flower Leadex GOLD 550W Fully Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply - Black £64.99
1 HD-192-SA Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU) £129.95
1 MY-384-CS Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2 £74.99
1 MO-029-AO AOC Q2577PWQ 25" 2560x1440 IPS Professional Widescreen LED Monitor - Silver/Black £229.99
Total: £499.92

I'll add on the 1070 when it comes out. Will i need to get a PSU cooler too? Or will the above plus the 1070 have me set up?

Thanks again for the replies.
 
jigger said:
For memory I would look for Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB 2400Mhz or Patriot Viper 3 16GB DDR3-2133Mhz.

For the PSU (if you need one) I would go with something SeaSonic or XFX based and 550 watts or better.

This would be ideal but you might have to look elsewhere as it's out of stock.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-xt-series-600w-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-ca-023-xf.html

SSD, something like these if you are looking at 1TB. Buy on price the performance is pretty much the same.

OCZ Trion 100 960GB
Sandisk Ultra II 960GB
Patriot Torch LE 960GB

I'm not too sure on the graphics as it depends on the monitors resolution.
This seems a nice deal.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-374-as.html

UK based RMA and 3 years warranty.

Dell U2515H. Maybe something with VVR. Depends what you want to spend really.
Click to expand...


The XFX XT isn't very good by the way.
 
It seems plenty good enough to power a system with a overclocked quad core and 150 watt graphics card. Going off the XFX spec's it should run that system with a pair of GTX1070's if needed.
 
jigger said:
It seems plenty good enough to power a system with a overclocked quad core and 150 watt graphics card. Going off the XFX spec's it should run that system with a pair of GTX1070's if needed.
Click to expand...

It is on par with a Corsair CX. I wouldn't use one for a build like this. It is definitely worth spending an extra £20 on a good quality unit such as the 550W Leadex Gold.
 
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