Upgrade Itch!

josh3190

josh3190

josh3190

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Joined
15 Aug 2011
Posts
171
Location
Southampton
The joys of my work industry and new contract means I will soon have far more free time than I know what to do with! Yay!

This means I have started looking at sorting out my old PC and reviving it to some part of it's former glory.

There are only a few things that I would look to upgrade, mainly the GPU and MOBO with possibly the CPU in the near-ish future.

The PC I currently have consists of the following:

Case: Corsair 750D Full Tower
MOBO: ASRock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen 3
CPU: Intel i5 2500K 3.50 Ghz Socket 1155
GPU: NVidia MSi GTX 570
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8Gb
SSD: Crucial M4 64Gb
HDD: Samsung 1Tb
PSU: Antec 850W plus Bronze Modular

I recently started trying to use my old PC and it keep crashing on start up and I think the MOBO has given up on me

So I was thinking either buy a slightly older 1155 socket MOBO and then leave the CPU and buy a new GPU

Or buy a new 1150 Socket MOBO, a new CPU and a new GPU

From browsing I've come up with the idea of a 4690K intel CPU, a GTX 970 and no idea on the MOBO

I was thinking a 200 limit on CPU, up to 100 on a new MOBO and then up to 300 on a new GPU, I know the new AMD ones are gonna be coming out soon and I wouldn't be buying anything for a couple of months and would only be looking at a 970, just an NVidia kind of guy,

So any advice on my ideas/thoughts? I've been out of the know for a while so some sound advice would be great!

Thanks guys!
 
The 2500k overclocked is still going to boss most games currently out with a suitably powerful GPU. The GTX 970 is a good choice of card certainly. It will make a huge difference to the 570 certainly!
 
4690K sounds good but you already have an i5 if anything try get a i7 even if used.

maybe 3770k?

anyway GPU gtx 970 is a good choice, personally id pick up a used gtx 780 for around 150 instead :D

& maybe uppgrade SSD to 256?
 
I had my last PC running at around 4.2Ghz thanks to the easy overclocking on the ASRock mobo but I'd need to find a decent new mobo to put in which is why I'm on here!

For sure the 970 will make the difference when it has a casual 8x the amount of VRAM my 570 has, the difference a few years makes...
 
I haven't entertained the thought of getting an i7 because I wouldn't use the extra capabilities that it would bring especially if i can still use the 2500K

I looked into a 250Gb MX200 Crucial SSD, any thoughts on that?
 
I wouldn't be buying anything until after I've moved (next month or so), why not just keep Windows on the current SSD my case has more than enough space....

Also can anyone suggest a reasonable mobo?
 
I would pick up a second hand 1155 Asus board then, my old 2500k was kept @ 4.5 with no problems. I used to even bench futuremark at 5.1.

One of my favorite chips; a time before Intel in their infinite, zero competition, wisdom started using TIM between the die and heat spreader... :confused:
 
I would go Asus and give yourself an upgrade path. Such as a board that takes Ivybridge natively. As most will tell you, it is the GPU change you are going to see the biggest difference.
 
You have a lot to choose from that use similar chipsets and capabilities. P67, Z68, Z77 etc.

I would go for a 2nd hand Gene or Sabertooth if your looking for bang for buck plus an easy upgrade path to Ivybridge.

What is your budget total?

It seems a new SSD and GPU are your main upgrades, spend more on those. Also one of the mentioned mobos would be good.
 
Yeah the whole chipset thing has always been a bit confusing to me but I will definitely look at the ones your suggested, ideally I'd like the mobo to be black or black and white to suit my case, also I was thinking of getting a self-contained watercooler set from Corsair so I can get rid of my huge ass heatsink on my CPU, H100/200?

I was thinking 300 for GPU, 100 for SSD and 100 max for mobo if necessary :)

All are a little bit flexible but I'd be happy to keep it to that cost hence my idea of the 970 which are around 280-300 and the SSD I mentioned I think is around 90
 
Those three items you mention will feel like a whole new machine. I remember going from a MSI board to an Asus and immediately found overclocking to go that much further and be that much easier.

An AIO cooler is a good choice, the 2500k with a good TIM would see 50c-60c @ 4.5Ghz

Edit: P67 was the first iteration of socket 1155 and Sandybridge boards, then Z68 then Z77 etc. So go for the newest, but I guess the older ones will be cheaper. I sold a Z68 board on ebay for less than £70 and that was quite some time ago.
 
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Ah right so ideally a Z77 socket would be the ideal contender on the mobo and I don't mind spending the money on a decent one, 100 was just a rough estimate, I'd rather have a mobo I know is gonna be smooth and cooperative,

OC'ing on the ASRock was a dream, just went into the bios, clicked what speed you wanted and away you went!
 
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