Upgrade [Mobo/CPU/RAM/GFX] £400

[Zulu]

Here are my current specs

Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156)
Geil Black Dragon 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel
Asus GeForce GTX 460 1024MB DirectCU GDDR5

Would ideally not like to extend further than £400, but would consider it if it makes a difference.

To be used for gaming and browsing the web. Not really interested in the most demanding games but the new Call of Duty would be good.

 

[ShivP]

Current PSU? You might want to replace that also if it isn't up to scratch
Also, do you have an SSD?

 

[stulid]

What case+psu do you have?

Are all your drives SATA?

 

[Zulu]

I have a Alpine 650W Quiet Silent PC Power Supply PSU 120mm Fan, which was a panic buy after my other one gave up.

I have a 250GB SATA drive and no SSD.

I would extend my budget to £500 if these need upgrading

 

[stulid]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £225.97
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £445.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).



You do need a new PSU as you have a cheap unit which cant deliver its rated power.

Still need to know what case you have so the GFX card fits.

My board certainly will fit as it is mATX just like yours.

Are your drives all SATA as your old board had IDE too (the fat ribbon cable).

 

[ShivP]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £252.58
1 x **B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-333-AS) £129.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £512.10 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Fast, overclockable CPU, GPU is faster than a new 280 and is cheaper so is a steal!
Do you currently have a CPU cooler also?
This assumes your case is full ATX, as your board is mATX so this motherboard might not fit

If your case is mATX;

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-333-AS) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-D3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £513.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[Zulu]

Thanks guys, my drives are IDE and I have a ATX case.

and this CPU cooler:

Akasa AK-CCX-4001HP Nero S Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / LGA775 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 )

 

[stulid]

Thanks guys, my drives are IDE and I have a ATX case.

and this CPU cooler:

Akasa AK-CCX-4001HP Nero S Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / LGA775 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 )

You need new drives then.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £225.97
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £499.49 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Looks like I asked the right questions

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare runs well on many cards including the R9 280,

It will be faster than the R9 270X in this video and roughly around the R9 285 shown in the graphs.

 

[ShivP]

Which case exactly? You'll need some new drives too then

 

[Zulu]

Sorry guys, when I said IDE, I actually meant SATA..

The case is a Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - Black, dusting off the history books here to find this info.

 

[ShivP]

Sorry guys, when I said IDE, I actually meant SATA..

Lol that's ok then, the first two specs will work

The max length GPU is 10.5 inches (26.67cm) for your case http://www.antec.com/pdf/manuals/SonataIII_manual_EN.pdf

So the 280X I specced won't fit

 

[stulid]

Sorry guys, when I said IDE, I actually meant SATA..

The case is a Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - Black, dusting off the history books here to find this info.

Well your case can take up to 10.5" long GFX cards.

The Sapphire I linked too is 262mm so will fit.

The ASUS R9 280X Direct CUII OC wont as its 11.2" long.

 

[Zulu]

Is it worth buying a new case to accommodate the 280X

 

[stulid]

Is it worth buying a new case to accommodate the 280X

Nope.

A R9 280 does not struggle to play games at 1080P resolution which is the average resolution most people game at.

R9 280 vs R9 280X - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1332?vs=1041

The video I showed a few post above shows that COD Advanced Warfighter easily runs on even much slower GFX cards at lovely frame rates, its even capped to a maximum.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £225.97
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 280 Dual-X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
Total : £445.55 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Back to the original spec.

Save the money, your case still fits it all in.

Keep your drives.

Sorted.

 

[ShivP]

I would say you could do

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-333-AS) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Silverstone SST-PS08B Precision Midi-Tower - Black £26.99
Total : £512.89 (includes shipping : ).




aaand you save money with the free shipping which covers the cost taking into consideration the £20 saved over a 280 - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207
So effectively you get half of the price of the case included with the free shipping
This has an overclockable CPU which will beat the one in the bundle at stock
More upgradeability as Z97 has rumoured future Broadwell support (probably will be)

It's up to you whether to spend the small amount of money to get a more powerful GPU, more powerful (overclockable) CPU and more upgradeability which'll give better performance in all games

 

[stulid]

I would say you could do

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus Radeon R9 280X DirectCUII OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express G (GX-333-AS) £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Silverstone SST-PS08B Precision Midi-Tower - Black £26.99
Total : £512.89 (includes shipping : ).




aaand you save money with the free shipping which covers the cost taking into consideration the £20 saved over a 280 - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18630207
So effectively you get half of the price of the case included with the free shipping
This has an overclockable CPU which will beat the one in the bundle at stock
More upgradeability as Z97 has rumoured future Broadwell support (probably will be)

It's up to you whether to spend the small amount of money to get a more powerful GPU, more powerful (overclockable) CPU and more upgradeability which'll give better performance in all games

LOL

mATX case and a ATX sized board do not fit!

Have another go at editing

@OP just buy what I recommend, at least I guarantee it all fits!

 

[ShivP]

Edit button is there to be used

Did get the case wrong, sry (assumed wrongly midi-tower meant ATX). This would be better

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-162-BX

 

[stulid]

Edit button is there to be used

Did get the case wrong, sry (assumed wrongly midi-tower meant ATX). This would be better

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-238-SV&groupid=2362&catid=1092

Shame zulu cant re-use his current Akasa CPU cooler in that case, what a waste that is.

CPU cooler - Cooler dimensions 120 (W) x 87 (D) x 160 (H) mm

Case - Limitation of CPU cooler 155mm


@OP keep your current case and you just need some new thermal paste to re-attach your Akasa Nero S to the motherboard in the bundle to keep things quiet.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Antec Formula 6 Nano Diamond Thermal Compound £3.95
Total : £6.23 (includes shipping : £1.90).



A little pea sized blob of that on the middle of the cpu surface and its that simple.

 

[ShivP]

Shame zulu cant re-use his current Akasa CPU cooler in that case, what a waste that is.

CPU cooler - Cooler dimensions 120 (W) x 87 (D) x 160 (H) mm

Case - Limitation of CPU cooler 155mm


@OP keep your current case and you just need some new thermal paste to re-attach your Akasa Nero S to the motherboard in the bundle to keep things quiet.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Antec Formula 6 Nano Diamond Thermal Compound £3.95
Total : £6.23 (includes shipping : £1.90).



A little pea sized blob of that on the middle of the cpu surface and its that simple.

Neos takes 160mm CPU coolers?

 

[stulid]

Neos takes 160mm CPU coolers?

Only because you edited again.