Upgrade Advice

feeddagoat

feeddagoat

feeddagoat

Associate
Joined
19 Nov 2008
Posts
412
Location
carnmoney outside Belfast
Budget: around £300

Main uses of intended build: gaming, folding at home (when not gaming), video conversion

Parts required: Ram, motherboard, Hard disks, cooler

Previous build information (list details of parts):
Phenom ii 955 @ stock
Asus M3A78 pro
4GB DDR2 667MHz
GTX460
CM 690 case
250GB seagate
1TB samsung green
FSP 600W PSU

Monitor resolution: two 22" @1680*1050

Storage requirements: Looking at an SSD for OS and programs and maybe around 1TB for games. Other than that storage is sorted

will you be overclocking: yes

Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): at least 2 pci-e x16 slots,

Extra information about desired system: I put together this

cooler master Hyper 212 £26.99
ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 £86.99
Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory £79.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive £71.99
OCZ Agility 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk N/A

Mainly need more ram and storage which is what prompted this.
Future plans are for another card folding. Looking at picking up a third monitor too (not necessarily for surround gaming tho it might be an option) would be nice if SLI was an option for a small boost in gaming.
Currently the 955 handles itself well and there is the upgrade to piledriver with this route. The other option is core i3 + mobo but I don't know if it's fully worth it vs this option. What are your opinions.
Many thanks in advance!
 
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I'd remove the competitor link if I was you!

Also, are you keeping your current CPU? You've requested RAM, MOBO, HDD & Cooler, but no CPU.

Edit - Just seen the CPU bit!

How about something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2130 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £25.99
Total : £375.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).



A new board wouldn't support your DDR2 RAM, you'd need to replace MOBO & RAM together.

AMD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD128BW) £107.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x MSI 990XA-GD55 AMD 990X Chipset (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £25.99
Total : £368.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
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Yea Keeping the CPU. While not the fastest its still good enough for gaming and the encoding I do. Current mobo is horrible for OC'ing so being able to OC, more ram (feel DDR2 is a waste of money) and extra pci-e slots am3+ was the way to go. I would like and SSD for OS and was going for a 1TB HDD for games storage.

Ill remove the link now
 
 
Is upgrading worth it vs switching to a core i3 build. Could the money put into the i3 be spent elsewhere?

EDIT: Just saw your second reply whats phanteks cooler like performance wise compared to the 212?
 
I like AMD as it's cheap, Intel would be a better choice! If you can stretch, you'd be better of with an i5.

You could add the SSD later on.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £35.99
Total : £357.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).



I'd go for the Phanteks over the CM 212.
 
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feeddagoat said:
head says intel heart says AMD lol. How does the MSI compare to the ASRock extreme 3?
Click to expand...

I can't tell you to be honest. I'd only open both in different browser windows and compare the 2. I selected the GB one, as I've got a GB board and really like it. You get UK RMA if needed with the Gigabyte one.
 
I've only had experience with ASUS, ECS, MSI and DELL. The 2 MSI boards I used (770-C45) died after 12months but they where budget AM3 ones. While it hasn't totally put me off it has made me cautious.
 
If you currently have an option to get a Piledriver CPU without a motherboard change then grab the 8350 / 8320 (which ever is cheapest). Whats your full name of the power supply as its pointless to upgrade to a better rig with a crap PSU.
 
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