Upgrade help

jg623

jg623

jg623

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2010
Posts
57
Hi,

I'm going to build a new i5/i7 machine. There is a few things im unsure of though.
Should i buy an i7 motherboard and pair it with a 2600k then upgrade this to the 6 core processors in a future date?

or build an i5 2500k machine, and overclock it?. If i were to go down this cheaper route then I'm not really sure what i5 motherboard is good for its price.

Its going to be used for gaming. My current system consists of:
eVGA 780i
eVGA 9800GTX+
Q6600 @ 3GHz
Corsair H50
4GB PC8500 1066MHz
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair SSD 60gb
Coolermaster cosmos case
2x 74gb raptors in RAID 0
Fatality titanium soundcard

It does the job at the moment and has done for the past 3 years, its time for a change though :) . I'm thinking about selling this machine after this upgrade (minus the case and HD's) Do you reckon i could get £200-300 for it?
Sorry for all the questions,



Your help is much appreciated.
 
Last edited:
so out of your current spec, you can reuse the SSD,cooler,sound card and maybe the case.

and were not allowed to discuss price checks outside the MM.

what will this PC be mainly used for?

and do you have a budget in mind?
 
It will be used for gaming, and my budget is 300-400. I'm in 2 minds whether to keep the 9800gtx at the moment so i can maybe get a slightly better motherboard or something. So i can then upgrade the graphics card in a month or 2

All i need the board to handle is a decent graphics card and a sound card, but giving how far onboard audio has came i might rule a soundcard out entirely.

Thanks for your quick reply!

edit: Am i better getting a bundled deal?
 
Last edited:
you've got yourself confused here, the i2600k and i2500k use the SAME motherboards(sk1155 and there is NO 6 core cpu currently for it). what you are thinking of is the old i7 and i5 which have differnt motherboards.

if its for gaming and you wouldn't be doing video encoding or use programs that make use of hyper thread you're better off saving the money and going i2500k.

looking at your current spec you only need to chang cpu, mb and ram

possible upgrade:

cpu: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

mb: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

ram: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS

if you don't need the extra 2yrs warrant you can save £10 on the cpu and get oem(1yr warranty and no retail cooler tho not needed as you have the h50).

the ram is just an example, you can choose something else.

and if you want a new graphics card would say 6950 2gb or gtx570 depending on budget and if you're 'red or green'.

I would say just sell the mb, cpu and ram, keep the rest the sound card and psu are good. sell the graphics card if you want to upgrade or might be an idea to hold onto it for a few months untill the new nvidia 6xx series and amd 7xxx series cards are out.
 
Last edited:
ah sorry, looks like i did get confused, my bad. Thats an amazing price for a motherboard, i was looking to spend at least £150 on one but since that one has onboard SSD, im pretty much sold :)

I've been quite loyal to NVIDIA when it comes to graphics cards, although the 6950 is really impressive.. have ati sorted out their 120hz problem?. I have the benq xl2410t @ 1920x1080. So its not suprising my 9800gtx+ 512mb cant cope at times..

Thanks for your input!
 
keep:

Corsair H50
Corsair AX850 PSU
Corsair SSD 60gb
Coolermaster cosmos case
2x 74gb raptors in RAID 0
Fatality titanium soundcard

do you have a mounting bracket for the H50 that fits on socket 1156? if not you can go for an asrock Z68 motherboard as they have mounting holes for socket 775. if you do then you can take your pick of any of the sandybridge motherboards as socket 1155 and 1156 share the same mounting mechanism

as for the rest of the spec i need to know what your doing with the PC
 
£150 mb wise

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-361-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

as I said if you can bare to go a few more months with the 9800gtx then might be an idea to wait and ssee what the new gen offers, will allow you to save up a bit for the graphics card upgrade.

I have the non '+' 9800gtx but never used it for much more than 3d mark bench marking(and maybe a very small amount of gaming) as the pc I had it in caught a maleware/virus and when I tried formating the hard disk and reinstalling windows it wouldn't for some reason and I never got around to trying to fix it(and has been disassambled), I only had it running for a few months while I tried to oc the q9450 and the 9800gtx before I started using the machine for gaming etc but never got the chance.
 
Thanks for the input so far,

Ok so i know for definite that the CPU will be the i5 2500k.
I'll probably stick with dual channel DDR3 at the moment- looking at getting this..

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-056-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Im racking my brains over the motherboards though. Is it true that PCI-E 3.0 has to be paired with the upcoming Ivy Bridge processors for it to achieve its full potential?.

I dont want to hold off for these processors as im guessing they will have a big price tag. Anyway, back to the motherboards. There is some that are PCI-E 3.0 ready, while others have built in SSD. Im probably leaning towards the PCI-E 3.0 motherboards,

as fowler002 recommended:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-054-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

does this have good overclocking features?

Thoughts?
 
yes the pci-e3.0 will need ivy bridge cpu, like anything the prices should come down/newer cheaper models will be released etc. with the gen3 mb you wouldn't have to buy a new mb in the future should you decide to go ive bridge + pci-e gpu.

I've only read 1 review of the asrock but it was positive, have a look at thread for it in the motherboard section of the forums.
 
Ok, i think ive made my mind up.

Im gonna go for a i5 2500k, Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 motherboard and some sort of half decent priced dual channel RAM, probably corsair/gkill.

The gt560 is reasonably priced although, im gonna wait until a pci3 card then i'll buy an ivy bridge processor, price permitting! :D

Thanks for your help, its very much appreciated.
 
RiseAgainst said:
Here is a good deal on the g.skill ram get 8 gigs for £35 :D
Click to expand...

Nice!

One last thing, skimping over the Asrock FATALITY 1155 motherboard, is it really worth £50-60 more?

I guess the only things i would upgrade a year or so down the line would be a PCI-E 3.0 graphics card - ivy bridge processor - and a soundcard.

If i did have this set up, would a PCI-E soundcard be effected by the PCI-E 3.0 graphics card? (giving that it uses more lanes)
 
jg623 said:
Nice!

One last thing, skimping over the Asrock FATALITY 1155 motherboard, is it really worth £50-60 more?

I guess the only things i would upgrade a year or so down the line would be a PCI-E 3.0 graphics card - ivy bridge processor - and a soundcard.

If i did have this set up, would a PCI-E soundcard be effected by the PCI-E 3.0 graphics card? (giving that it uses more lanes)
Click to expand...

you mean this?

not sure what that offers over the extreme4 gen3 other than the fatality name and spattering of red, don't think its worth the extra.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom