Upgrade advice please help

renandstimpy · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:15

Which would be the better upgrade for gaming/video encoding/future proofing.

My current PC:

Asus M4A785D-M Pro
Phenom II X2 555BE unlocked to X3
Radeon HD5850
4x1Gb DDR2

option 1:
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
Intel Core i5-2500K
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz

or

option 2:
keep my current system, but replace the GPU to a
MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB

both options are under £300. Which option would you go for? Im open to any other suggestions as long as its within my budget.

Blue160 · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:21

Option 1. Then a new graphics card when you can afford it. A Phenom X2 to a 2500k will be a nice step up, whereas a 570 with your current rig would be badly bottlenecked.

olivier renault · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:21

Option 1, definitely.

olivier renault · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:25

BTW, if you are talking about the 2500K OEM, you will need a cooler.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Alpenföhn Civetta CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1155/AM2/AM2(+)/AM3/FM1) £15.98
Total : £321.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).

This one if you are short on money, or a gelid tranquillo if you can stretch.

honosuseri · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:34

Option 1!

If you buy a mobo that can do SLI/xfire properly, you could consider getting a 2nd hand 5850 if you see one going cheap as an upgrade later on in the builds life.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/303?vs=306

*EDIT* note that oliver spec'd the retail i5K that includes a heatsink but it's dearer than the OEM version and you won't even use the supplied heatsink. You could get the OEM and a gelid tranquillo for the price of that retail i5K.

renandstimpy · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:41

ok thanks guys. Option 1 it is. Never thought of the 5950 SLI idea. Cheers

honosuseri · 8 Jan 2012 at 12:49

renandstimpy said:
ok thanks guys. Option 1 it is. Never thought of the 5950 SLI idea. Cheers

You mean 5850 and Xfire not SLI...i know it's a slip of the tongue. You get free delivery too if you link your account!

The retail i5 does have a longer warranty but the mobo is more likely to fail before the CPU ever does. I'd go OEM, the extra oliver spent on the heatsink i'd put back into the mobo so you get xfire done properly, considering you dont pay delivery you have another £10 or so to stick into it too.

Any problems with the build let us know.

P.S You could sell your old mobo bundle, maybe that would cover the cost of another 5850 perhaps?

renandstimpy · 8 Jan 2012 at 13:10

Can you suggest a mobo that is good for xfire or at least be able to do it properly?

Surveyor · 8 Jan 2012 at 13:38

renandstimpy said:
Can you suggest a mobo that is good for xfire or at least be able to do it properly?

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3

x8/x8 for Crossfire and SLI.

1 left in stock.

honosuseri · 8 Jan 2012 at 15:33

Surveyor said:
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3

x8/x8 for Crossfire and SLI.

1 left in stock.

That's good! The trouble is that many mobo's can claim to do SLI and/or Xfire but only some do the express lanes "in sync". To find out you need to delve into the specs.

Check the product website for surveyor's suggested mobo, then compare it to the one oliver suggested (decent budget mobo). Look at the spec on the pci-express lanes to see the difference.

£100ish is about right, what board we would suggest depends on daily and weekly offers. Now you know what we look for fella, oliver has shown the difference in price your paying to get it done properly.