Upgrade advice

[neonfuse]

Hi all,

I'm a bit out of the loop in terms of hardware these days so I'm looking for some input.

Current spec:
GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
Asus Silent Knight II CPU Cooler
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz
Asus P5E Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Coolermaster Real Power 700w Modular Power Supply
GeIL (4x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)

Plan is to upgrade this system for around £400 (or less if possible). I feel the GTX 460 is sufficient for my gaming needs so I'm thinking CPU, motherboard, RAM and HD need attention but wouldn't know whats good value at the moment. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[stulid]

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £82.99
(£69.16) £82.99
(£69.16)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) **BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL DEAL** £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 High Performance CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366/939/AM2/AM2+) £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Sub Total : £314.12
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £64.72
Total : £388.34

Install the OS onto the SSD and other games and programs and use the Samsung drive you have as a storage drive.

Motherboard reviews,
http://www.kitguru.net/components/m...-z68ap-d3-z68-review-bargain-buy-of-the-year/
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_ga_z68ap_d3_review,1.html
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc...herboards/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-1026263/review
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2011/10/11/gigabyte-ga-z68ap-d3-review/1

 

[neonfuse]

Excellent, thanks for the response.

 

[valdai]

That's basically exactly what I would suggest as well, except I'd say also consider an extra £50 for a 120GB SSD so you have a bit more headroom for installing games on it, but it depends how many games you generally have installed at a time.