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- Joined
- 3 Sep 2011
- Posts
- 11
Hi, i'm hoping to upgrade a few core components at some point this month and have been researching some of the various new chipsets and such.
I've got some bits picked out but there are a few areas i'm not 100% sure on, so i'd like some advice!
I've picked out the following:
To go with these i already have
2GB HD 6950
8GB DDR3 G.Skill RipjawsX 1600Mhz (new, not in current system)
2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint (one F1 + one F3)
And monitor, etc.
If it's any use the rest of my current system is
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black, unlocked to 4 core X4 B50
Arctic Cooling Freezer64 Pro
MSI 770-C45
Corsair HX 520W
4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600Mhz
The CPU i've opted for since this rig will mostly be used for gaming so i don't think i need anything more than that right now. I've not really looked into comparisons but i'm guessing it will be a good improvement over my current one.
For the motherboard, after some research, i've decided on the Z68 chipset and would prefer Gigabyte or to stick with MSI as my current board has been fine. The only bit i'm not really sure on is whether to go for PCIe 3.0 support or not. My graphics card is only about 3 months old so i'm not really planning on upgrading it anytime soon, on the other hand i want to make this build as future proof as possible. I'm pretty close to the maximum i'd want to spend on the entire upgrade right now, so i'm thinking the current choice of board is the best value given it's features, even if it does lack PCIe 3.0, which will probably have matured by the time i'd upgrade graphics again anyway.
The 600t case i'm fairly set on, my only current uncertainty is whether or not i could live with a beaming white case, so i might stick with the more subtle standard version currently in my basket.
PSU, i'm almost definitely going corsair HX again as i've been very impressed with my current modular one. I'm just not entirely sure what wattage to go for. From what i've read so far i think the 750w one should be enough to cover me even if i decided to go for a crossfire setup later on alongside the current build and overclock i'm planning. Though for about £15 more or so i could get the 850w, but i think this might be overkill, even with future proofing in mind.
The cooler seems like a pretty good performer for the money. I've done complete watercooling builds in the past and i'm not sure i can be bothered (or afford) doing a complete one again this time, so this seemed like a decent option. Any recommendations on other similar products or higher range ones? This one seemed to perform pretty well in some reviews i looked at but i'd like to hear from anyone with experience of it, especially with overclocking the 2500k with it.
I think that's about it, i have a good idea of what i want but i haven't really been following the new tech much and Gigabyte alone seem to have about 20 odd Z68 chipset motherboards so everything has been more baffling than i'd hoped
Oh i suppose i should ask if the new intel cpus or more PCIe 3.0 stuff is due anytime soon. I'm not in urgent need of upgrading so if they are due and might offer either a more worthwhile upgrade path or a reduction in price of the current parts i'm eyeing up then i might delay for a bit. If they aren't due this year though then i'll probably go ahead and upgrade this month or next.
Thanks!
I've got some bits picked out but there are a few areas i'm not 100% sure on, so i'd like some advice!
I've picked out the following:
To go with these i already have
2GB HD 6950
8GB DDR3 G.Skill RipjawsX 1600Mhz (new, not in current system)
2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint (one F1 + one F3)
And monitor, etc.
If it's any use the rest of my current system is
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black, unlocked to 4 core X4 B50
Arctic Cooling Freezer64 Pro
MSI 770-C45
Corsair HX 520W
4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600Mhz
The CPU i've opted for since this rig will mostly be used for gaming so i don't think i need anything more than that right now. I've not really looked into comparisons but i'm guessing it will be a good improvement over my current one.
For the motherboard, after some research, i've decided on the Z68 chipset and would prefer Gigabyte or to stick with MSI as my current board has been fine. The only bit i'm not really sure on is whether to go for PCIe 3.0 support or not. My graphics card is only about 3 months old so i'm not really planning on upgrading it anytime soon, on the other hand i want to make this build as future proof as possible. I'm pretty close to the maximum i'd want to spend on the entire upgrade right now, so i'm thinking the current choice of board is the best value given it's features, even if it does lack PCIe 3.0, which will probably have matured by the time i'd upgrade graphics again anyway.
The 600t case i'm fairly set on, my only current uncertainty is whether or not i could live with a beaming white case, so i might stick with the more subtle standard version currently in my basket.
PSU, i'm almost definitely going corsair HX again as i've been very impressed with my current modular one. I'm just not entirely sure what wattage to go for. From what i've read so far i think the 750w one should be enough to cover me even if i decided to go for a crossfire setup later on alongside the current build and overclock i'm planning. Though for about £15 more or so i could get the 850w, but i think this might be overkill, even with future proofing in mind.
The cooler seems like a pretty good performer for the money. I've done complete watercooling builds in the past and i'm not sure i can be bothered (or afford) doing a complete one again this time, so this seemed like a decent option. Any recommendations on other similar products or higher range ones? This one seemed to perform pretty well in some reviews i looked at but i'd like to hear from anyone with experience of it, especially with overclocking the 2500k with it.
I think that's about it, i have a good idea of what i want but i haven't really been following the new tech much and Gigabyte alone seem to have about 20 odd Z68 chipset motherboards so everything has been more baffling than i'd hoped
Oh i suppose i should ask if the new intel cpus or more PCIe 3.0 stuff is due anytime soon. I'm not in urgent need of upgrading so if they are due and might offer either a more worthwhile upgrade path or a reduction in price of the current parts i'm eyeing up then i might delay for a bit. If they aren't due this year though then i'll probably go ahead and upgrade this month or next.
Thanks!
