Upgrade for £400 (from AMD Phenom II X4 965)

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Hi all.

Current setup:
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.4GHz
Memory: 8Gb Samsung Green DDR3 PC3-12800C11
Audio: Xonar D1
PSU:OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply
GFX Card: Radeon HIS 4890
OS HD: Agility 3 SSD 60GB
Other HD: 2 x 750Gb (raid0)
Monitor: V7 22"

I have around £400 quid, and was looking to get the best bang for the buck. I am looking to switch to Intel, but I also need to factor in a new GFX card into the mix. I feel a little between a full upgrade, and just pumping some cash into the GFX card. PC is mainly used for Reason, Warcraft, and some Creative Suite work.

Get paid on Thursday so looking to order for the weekend.

Any thoughts on the above welcome :)
 
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Well, with your requirements (Reason, Warcraft etc) it sounds like you wanted to waste some money :)

If I had 400 quids, I'd buy used Yamaha PSR-S700 :)
 
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £82.99
Total : £434.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).



or just update your vga for now,

1 x Sapphire HD 7950 Boost 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-19-20G) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
Total : £250.79 (includes shipping : £9.00).



rest of money spend on a good OC cooler and OC your chip, and save whats left
 
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[TW]Sponge;24012943 said:
You can use the ram you have currently. This is the best you will get for £400.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £169.99
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-HD3 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
Total : £411.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. Though doesn't enable over clocking but if your not worried about that, its a great way to spend £400..
 
Zak made a good point, I have the same chip as you and find it quite good for what's thrown at it for what I paid. I think a nice GPU upgrade and a overclock will do you quite nicely.
 
Time to balance the equation..with this AMD chip and motherboard you should be able to achieve a decent overclock..also chucked in a cooler of course.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £164.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £104.99
1 x ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £88.99
1 x Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £35.99
Total : £406.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Btw what is the make of your PSU?
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £161.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-380-GI) £52.00
Total : £393.97 (includes shipping : FREE).



At 100 posts you should get free P&P (UK mainland only). This mobo can do Xfire properly and with that 650W PSU adding another 7850 is certainly an option for more gaming grunt.
 
Thanks for the replies all.
I've updated my OP with correct memory and PSU, sorry forgot I had upgraded my memory a few months back, there's irony for you.


I did consider the graphics upgrade only path, but was trying to eek out the base of a full upgrade, whilst keeping some elements. I know the memory, PSU and Disks will be fine (I think..), that leaves me with roughly £125 if I went with the below?.

Would it be a viable path to take, with the requirement of a GFX card for around £125?.
Edit, just added a possible GFX option, slightly over budget though.



1 x Intel Core i5-3570 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £169.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 WindForce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £155.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £19.99
Total : £443.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).
 
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You should be looking at the "K" CPUs that are unlocked for overclocking. The Z68/Z77 mobos are meant for overclocking, it's a waste not to use the right CPU. Might as well leave the cooler off and use the cash to get the "K", I think most here would agree.

Honestly I think I'd still go with my spec for the price, if you had some extra cash then you could add a heatsink to the spec.
 
honosuseri said:
You should be looking at the "K" CPUs that are unlocked for overclocking. The Z68/Z77 mobos are meant for overclocking, it's a waste not to use the right CPU. Might as well leave the cooler off and use the cash to get the "K", I think most here would agree.

Honestly I think I'd still go with my spec for the price, if you had some extra cash then you could add a heatsink to the spec.
Click to expand...

Nah, my spec is better than yours. :p :D
 
Idleman said:
Nah, my spec is better than yours. :p :D
Click to expand...

Yeah nice selection of parts but does lean heavily on B grade bud.

I have 3 years warranty on the CPU and GPU which also comes with two great games. The mobo is also Xfire/SLi capable (£100+ for that feature on a Z77) and it can be updated to a UEFI BIOS.
 
honosuseri said:
Yeah nice selection of parts but does lean heavily on B grade bud.

I have 3 years warranty on the CPU and GPU which also comes with two great games. The mobo is also Xfire/SLi capable (£100+ for that feature on a Z77) and it can be updated to a UEFI BIOS.
Click to expand...

Here you go. 3 years warranty on the Cpu. Mobo sli/xfire capable, would be very surprised if there was`nt nearly a full warranty, give or take a month or two. The same being with the MSI 7850. Still good value.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x **B Grade** MSI HD 7850 Power Edition Twin Frozr IV OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £80.99
Total : £432.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
No games though buddy :(

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £161.99
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte Z68A-D3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 (MB-380-GI) £52.00
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A (BW) Performance CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £430.96 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Slightly cheaper, still has the games and an aftermarket heatsink to overclock the SandyBridge i5K. Is amazing though what you can get for your cash if you are crafty with B grade items. Plenty of nice suggestions floating around now for the OP to consider :D
 
 
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Lazder said:
Ima go bonkers and post this...

8150 isnt that bad compared to 2500 or 3570 especially non K edittions.

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Sleeping Dogs PC Game £199.99
1 x **B Grade** AMD Bulldozer FX-8 Eight Core 8150 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x **B Grade** ASRock 990FX Extreme3 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX (MB-060-AK) £75
Total : £364.98 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...

Lol a controversial spec on this forum. I like your thinking though! that GPU is golden! The CPU for that price is not a bad shout, no matter how much ppl bash bulldozer, for that price, its definitely worth considering. The motherboards VRM's will however give up with this CPU and you will be throttled under load even at stock. last week there was 3 threads about the extreme 3 throttling fx 6 core bulldozers and 8 core piledrivers.

If you swap the mobo out for like an EVO or that 8+2 power phase 990fx £80 msi board, this would be the best performing spec (in terms of FPS ingame) out of all of them so far.
 
Checked with a sales rep today on the B-Grade, 3 months warranty, and board only, so not overly keen on that option. Will need to make up my mind by tomorrow as I will be ordering.

Wanted to move away from AMD and try some Intel love. thanks for the options so far, much appreciated, will post later on a hopeful final build :)

Out of interest, would I be right in thinking that my current GPU is my bottleneck on smooth/stable fps on a 22" monitor?.

/ponder
 
Avenged7Fold said:
Lol a controversial spec on this forum. I like your thinking though! that GPU is golden! The CPU for that price is not a bad shout, no matter how much ppl bash bulldozer, for that price, its definitely worth considering. The motherboards VRM's will however give up with this CPU and you will be throttled under load even at stock. last week there was 3 threads about the extreme 3 throttling fx 6 core bulldozers and 8 core piledrivers.

If you swap the mobo out for like an EVO or that 8+2 power phase 990fx £80 msi board, this would be the best performing spec (in terms of FPS ingame) out of all of them so far.
Click to expand...

well am not in touch with AMD motherboards... just looked at biggest number and cheapest price :)
 
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