Upgrade me with £300 (with a twist)

Getting close to ordering all this kit, but will my power supply manage what I currently have along with the proposed upgrades?

Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-520HXUK)

Regards

Lee

*EDIT*

1. Also... will most of the proposed upgrades allow me to upgrade fairly easily in the future? ie I have to upgrade a lot now just to get up to speed, but will the mobo be good for a few years etc etc????

2. If I wanted to 16gigs of memory in, am i better off with 4x4gig or 2x8gig (thus still having space later). The Mobo says it can handle 4x3DDR's, but it doesnt say if they are 4 or 8 gigs?.
 
Last edited:
New Intel chipset Haswell will be released in June but the proposed upgrade will definitely be competitive for a few years at least :)

As for dual channel and quad channel I don't think there will be any difference in performance but I would go with dual channel as it takes up less space :)
 
Thanks for that! Hopefully it has worked.

I put this list of things together,mostly based on the above. But just wanted to make sure it all worked together.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED316GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Noctua Mounting Kit NM-I3 - Socket 775/1156/1366 £5.99
1 x Arctic Silver Alumina Thermal Paste (1.75g) £3.98
Total : £496.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Last edited:
 
Forgive me for asking but what is the difference between Retail and OEM? Is it that the retail comes with a heatsink?

I'm not sure which heatsink I have and if it's compatible.

Also....I'm feeling a little flush at the moment and was wondering if 32gig of ram would make much difference rather than 16?
 
Last edited:
dacads said:
As for dual channel and quad channel I don't think there will be any difference in performance but I would go with dual channel as it takes up less space :)
Click to expand...

Dual slot all the way if you don't need that much RAM. The only performance difference you will see is a slight drop in over clock stability on the RAM with 4 channels, but with the differences your splitting hairs.



leemonk said:
Forgive me for asking but what is the difference between Retail and OEM? Is it that the retail comes with a heatsink?

I'm not sure which heatsink I have and if it's compatible.

Also....I'm feeling a little flush at the moment and was wondering if 32gig of ram would make much difference rather than 16?
Click to expand...

OEM's don't usually have the heat sinks and have less warranty most of the time, go for retail version as the warranty alone is worth the extra few quid. Doesn't your OP say that your heatsink is Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler? I thought thats what the [Noctua Mounting Kit NM-I3 - Socket 775/1156/1366] was for, to make your current cooler compatable with your new CPU socket which will be a LGA1155.

You wont use more than 8gb of RAM, the reason why people are suggesting 16gb is because 2x8gb sticks are cheap, getting 4x8gb's of ram will make no differences to your performance.
 
eek.... it does say it's a NOctua..... I really should read what I write.

Thanks for the heads up on the RAM too. I might just save on the next paycheck and perhaps get another SSD for my games....

I wish to thank you all for your responses as I am now about to order my kit !!! (FINALLY)

THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH.
 
Congrats on reaching your decisioned.

On your OP you said you don't want to change the GPU, why is that?

I'm not going to recommend one since your current budget and shopping trolley is perfect and hasn't got much room to manoeuvre anything else into it, it's just you don't often see people willing to change everything in a system but the GPU. If you could stretch your budget enough for another SSD it will be far better spent on a GPU later than an extra SSD if you change your mind about the GPU.
 
Well.... the only reason I don't want to upgrade it is that it was the most recent upgrade I did... though I can not recall when it was I did it.

If, by todays standards, it's considered weak, then I will certainly re-consider my position in a few months or so. Especially if two SSD's aren't going to make much difference.

It's just that having spent whatever I spent on it and trying to limit myself again now, I didn't want to throw more money at something that is likely to be the most expensive thing in my basket having only recently upgraded it.

When I bought it, it was highly rated, at least within it's price range..... .such is the way of computers :)

I guess in two months or so I could consider something around the £200 mark

Regards


*EDIT*

If I purchase the Retail version of the CPU, why would I need a Mounting Kit? Is my current cooler better than the one that comes with the Retail kit?
 
Last edited:
Yeah, don't think about including a GPU to your current budget but if you manage to save up £200 a few months later, spending it on a GPU rather than a SSD is definitely the way to go, a ati 7870 or a 7950 would be a very good upgrade for the price
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom