Upgrade help

Marshstyles

Marshstyles

Marshstyles

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27 Dec 2008
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754
Right me Grandad will probably be on here later telling me off for questioning his advice but hey (I would have phoned you but its late).

Im upgrading my CPU from a Q6600 to hopefully another CPU what will go 4 years aswell.

I've got 500-600£ (i can go a touch more if its worth it)to spend on this upgrade which will consist of:

CPU
COOLER (im thinking water cooler)
MOBO
RAM
SSD Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB

I am completely out the loop with the latest gear.

I was all set to get this

Krypton Z68 600i Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.60GHz Overclocked Bundle Options applied to the above product:
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
Options applied to the above product:
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

I then felt that i'm being a bit restricted on the products because there is faster ram availible better CPU's and coolers. All because i wanted OCuk to do the overclocking (which really i can do myself).

so ive done this list

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor RetailAsus P8Z68-V Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard Crucial RealSSD M464GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel* Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9) Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler
OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black

My main questions are:

whats the performance gain with dual/tri channel ram?
performance/overclocking gain for the 2500k/2600k
is the water cooling that much better than air.

Any other suggestions?

note: i only need a 64GB SSD for my operating system so that doesnt need to be ammended.

Thanks in advance.

I want this to build it this weekend
 
You'll find the NH-D14 and silver arrow (both air coolers) get better reviews than any closed loop water cooler, but the closed loop water coolers are neater and better looking but will easily give you top end cooling. The 620 you've mentioned has received rave reviews by such purchasers on these forums in comparison to their Corsair counterparts.

As for the the RAM, sandybridge socket 1155 chipsets use dual channel RAM. So if you get a 2600k or a 2500k go dual channel.

As for the best of the two chips, the 2500k will pretty much eat any game up at the moment and probably will do for the foreseeable future with a good OC. The 2600k is more doing all the design work and stuff that enthusiasts beyond gaming use. Stick to the 2500k if this is to be gaming rig primarily.

The crucial is a good ssd but it lacks in the write speed department. The OCZ agility 3 60GB reads and writes faster but has had mixed reviews due to some hardware issues from what i've reason on the board. But remember, those who don't have a problem with a standard product tend not to blab on about it so its hard to gauge the proportion of people which have had issues. Or the Corsair Force Series 3 is arriving at OcUK soon, I've read nothing about it but its in the same price bracket as the above two and reportedly has better read/write speeds than the crucial.

Also, try and space your products out into a more coherent list, kinda hard to read smoothly.

EDIT: also, what about a graphics card/psu/case/main hdd?
 
Last edited:
To be fair I wouldn't of ventured too far away from your original 600i idea:

YOUR BASKET
1 x intel core i5-2500k 3.30ghz (sandybridge) socket lga1155 processor - oem £167.99
1 x asrock z68 extreme4 gen3 intel z68 (socket 1155) ddr3 motherboard £159.98
1 x crucial realssd m4 64gb 2.5" sata 6gb/s solid state hard drive £83.99
1 x antec kúhler h2o 620 cpu watercooler (socket intel lga 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / amd am2 / am3 / am2+ / am3+) £54.98
1 x kingston hyperx genesis grey 8gb (2x4gb) ddr3 pc3-12800c9 1600mhz dual channel kit (khx1600c9d3x2k2/8gx) £47.99
total : £526.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).



my main questions are:

whats the performance gain with dual/tri channel ram?
you can only use dual channel ram on a 1155 socket motherboard. if you put 3 ram modules in they will either all run in single channel or 2 will run in dual, the other in single.

performance/overclocking gain for the 2500k/2600k?
you will only see the benefit of the 2600k if you use programs which benefit from hyperthreading. games at the moment don't use it, but if you know for a fact that your will not be upgrading for then next 4years then the i7-2600k wouldn't hurt you if you have the ££.

is the water cooling that much better than air?
not really, some air coolers are fantastic. i'm talking mainly about the noctua nh-d14 and the thermalright silver arrow
you can see the results of some test done here: link
Click to expand...

If you change your mind on the water cooling then have a look as i mentioned earlier @ the Thermalright Silver Arrow
 
There is not much difference between PC12800C9 and PC1500, except maybe in benches and very heavy memory usage (video transcoding, 3D rendering, that sort of thing).

The 2600K is probably the best performing CPU available, short of going crazy. However, the 2500K is the best value for money around, if you don't need the i7 horsepower (hyperthreading, bigger cache).

If by water cooling you mean the self-contained units like the H60, Kuhler H2O, they perform well, but air cooling is cheaper, and you don't need massive performance in the cooling department to hit good OC (30%). You will be more limited by the amount of volts you can safely put to the CPU. The limit is how brave you want to be with voltages, and that's not something you want to push if you want the CPU to last a few years. So that means, a £30 air cooler will do the job anyway.

With SandyBridge, you can only use dual channel RAM. Saying that, Sandys outperform triple channel RAM X58 in some benchmarks, in terms of memory bandwidth.

The Asus P8Z68-V Pro is a good board, but the non-pro version is very similar, minus a couple of things missing (some SATA ports, some USB3 ports I believe, and the power-on button on the board).

It depends if you want to do some enthusiast overclocking, or something reasonable (30%), if you need the hyperthreading (doing a lot of video and rendering work).

Personally, I am going with the sensible option. A Z68 board, a 2500K, and low profile 12800C9 memory like the XMS3, HyperX, and the Vengeance LP. Low profile memory preferred because high ram heatsink often interfere with air coolers. That's another advantage of coolers like the H60.
 
R088ieS86 said:
To be fair I wouldn't of ventured too far away from your original 600i idea:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £54.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
Total : £526.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).





If you change your mind on the water cooling then have a look as i mentioned earlier @ the Thermalright Silver Arrow
Click to expand...

That's my setup, with a 128GB M4, and a £30 air cooler (MUX-120).
 
R088ieS86 said:
To be fair I wouldn't of ventured too far away from your original 600i idea:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £83.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £54.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99
Total : £526.33 (includes shipping : £9.50).





If you change your mind on the water cooling then have a look as i mentioned earlier @ the Thermalright Silver Arrow
Click to expand...

if going the closed loop liquid cooler route then might be better going corsair vengence and saving £6(well if you order it tonight as the prices of both ram goes up in the morning).

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-299-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

if going air cooler then go with the low profile ram.

marshstyles whats the current psu?
 
Thx for the replies

The rig will be for gaming only.
my GPU is a GTX 570
case/PSU Coolermaster Black NVIDIA Edition Stacker 830 With CM Realpower 850W Modular PSU
D: hard drive is a 2x Spinpoint F1 my games are installed here.
x-fi fatality sound card

re: SSD write speed. this is really only a dedicated C: drive. it wont have anything apart from a few core programs and windows on it so im not too bothered about write speed.

I have set aside this money for the upgrade so it you think its worth it i will get the 2600k but as i say it is only for gaming. of course i dont know for a fact that i wont be upgrading but i dont intend to for a long time.

Sorry about the spacing, ive had a few beers (also a reason why i havnt bought anything yet xD).

Ive made no comitment to any hardware yet (though the crucial SSD does seem to be the best bet for me) and I am completely open to any suggestions.

Edit: also want the CPU OC to the 4.5GHz OCuk were offering
 
Wonder if the OC put there is just them 'flicking a switch' in the BIOS. It has presets for various overclocking levels. Although they always run them a bit hotter than they should.

In the end, you will be better off with overclocking yourself.

For 2500K vs 2600K, for gaming, the decision should pretty much be the last. If you have £70 to throw away at the end of the day, then why not although the 2500K is the gaming chip.

The Crucial is considered the best choice for OS. Write speeds dont matter, and it has a solid reputation (compared to the Sandforce drives).
 
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