Upgrade build - what PSU?

[comet315]

Time to upgrade my machine. I'm going for i5 760, Asus P55 mobo and 4GB DDR 3 1600 RAM. I' also running a WD raptor and a Seagate barracuda 7200rpm. Currently have an ati radeon GPU (low range) but thinking to get rid of it and use the mobos GPU instead as i'm not into gaming. I use the pc for music production (lots of VSTs etc).

As budget is a little tight i was wondering if i could get away with using my old case and PSU. It's an arctic cooling silentium T2 which is 5 yrs old nd has served me well on my old AMD64 and the PSU is 20-pin rated at 350w with 80% efficiency. More info on the case here:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/catalog/product_info.php?mID=208&cPath=4&pid_list=208,4&x=19&y=10


Would this setup work? I don't plan to overclock at this point.

 

[RJC]

Hello and welcome to the forums

The Intel chip and board speced don't have onboard gpu.

You will require the i3 chip and a H55 motherboard, on these the CPU has the gpu and not the motherboard.

Done a spec below:

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £82.24
(£69.99) £82.24
(£69.99)
Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £62.08
(£52.83) £62.08
(£52.83)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £59.98
(£51.05) £59.98
(£51.05)
Corsair CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £37.99
(£32.33) £37.99
(£32.33)
Sub Total : £206.20
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £37.84
Total : £254.04

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there, Welcome to the forums

Unfortunately that CPU/motherboard combo does not come with onboard graphics.
However, the Intel CPUs that do come with integrated graphics are only dual cores (the i5 760 is a quad).

Therefore, for running a CPU heavy application the best option is to stick with the 760 and use your current low power GPU (so long as it uses PCI Express connection and is up to the job).

As for the PSU, the one in that Silentium is Seasonic made - so the quality should be good and (depending on the graphics card) should be plenty to power the system you propose. That said, 5 years is quite a long time - I would be temped to switch to a newer PSU if your budget can bear it.

Also, please bear in mind that Intel is releasing their next generation "Sandy Bridge" CPUs and motherboards on January 9th - which will be faster clock-for-clock than their current CPUs and run faster at faster stock frequencies. So for CPU heavy applications they will be worth the wait imho.

 

[comet315]

Thanks both for the quick responses. In that case I would rather go for the quad and keep my old RadeonX300 PCI-Express. My budget could bear a new PSU but as I understand it, I would have to get another case too - as far as I know the silentium can't host any other PSU, or can it?

 

[cmndr_andi]

Aye, changing that PSU would require a new case.

However, looking at this power supply calculator - a full system using an i5 760, 2x DDR3 sticks and a X300 only needs a 291W PSU. So your existing PSU should be able to keep up.

The quad core sandy bridge CPUs will be the same power as the i5 750 (95W), so if the i5 750 works fine - then sandy bridge CPUs will too.

 

[comet315]

Great stuff, thanks commander and RJC. I'll give my current PSU a chance and see if it can handle it. Hope nothing gets fried!! Now shall I go ahead or wait for Sandy Bridge...decisions, decisions.....