Upgrade Spec Please

GM2

GM2

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Hi

Current system now dated and eldest son (14) wanting to do more gaming - nothing too serious at the moment, but I'm sure he'll get worse before he gets better - so needs some reasonable grunt.

I use mainly for Photoshop and some video editing, but nothing too fancy.

Current spec is as below.

I also have a Samsung 256GB SSD 830 ready to add in.

No absolute budget, looking to spend as little as possible, but as much as needed to get something half decent. I'm thinking circa £400 - £450 for the MB / CPU and graphics. Less is better though!

So... thoughts please.

I may need a new cooler - I think one of the clips on the current one is suspect.

PCSpec-AsBought.jpg
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
Total : £475.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).




Use the stock cooler untill you can spend £25 on an aftermarket one, you can still OC the CPU tto around 4GHz with the stock item.

You get free dleivery so it comes to like £463.

Do you have a 64Bit suitable OS for the 8GB of RAM?
 
tbh I'd buy the cheapest Z77 motherboard you can find which has the features you need. Your going to need 8GB of DDR3 such as - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-290-CS - if your on a budget.

Ivy Bridge seems like the logical step as it's slightly quicker than Sandy Bridge clock for clock but the prices are relatively the same. If your not interested in overclocking then a quad core non K i5 would serve you well - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-432-IN - bonus is it's retail so you can use the Intel HSF for the time being.

You mention you do video encoding and work with Photoshop so you may benefit from a CPU with HT such as the i7, this will however bump up the cost quite highly.

Graphics card, well currently AMD cards are cheaper than Nvidia's offerings while offering similar performance. If you have no preference to either, then the 7850 is meant to be a very good card for the price, especially if you want to overclock it.

Nvidia side, I wouldn't go less than a 660 with the 6 series and generally speaking the 6 series cards perform better in games than the 5 series do (obviously a 580 will beat a lower spec 660 but you get what I mean). For comparison heres 7850 vs a 660 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=660 - they come very close but the 7850 can be found around £30 cheaper than the 660.

All depends on whether you want PhysX or not really.

edit and as I write this two posts with both a 660 and 7850 in them haha.
 
Yep I agree but the 7850 is cheaper and the performance difference isn't huge in some games (10fps less in some cases)

I'd still go with the stulids build and get the 660, msi 660 for that price is awesome and worth the extra pennies tbh

+ cuda cores off the nvidia card will shirley favour photoshop / video editing?
 
Thanks for all the speedy responses!

A few comments and some more questions:

1 Are there any significant differences between the suggested MBs?

2 What's missing from these that a more expensive MB might have?

3 OS-wise, I currently have Vista 64, but may upgrade to W7 64 (or even W8??).

4 Happy to get a new cooler now. Budget is more limited by what I want to spend on this, rather than lack of cash. So, if I need it, will get now, not later.

5 With 4 above in mind - is it worth looking at any of the bundles?

6 Looks like case, HDD and PSU are about all that will survive. Is the PSU OK for this spec?

7 Any recommendations for a new front plate with USB 3.0 on?

Many thanks all.
 
1) the Gigabyte board has digital audio out, dual BIOS and some great reviews,


2) the cheaper boards dont support SLI (dual Nvidia cards) mainly.

3) 64bit OS is good, so thats fine currently.

4) Two cheaper coolers,
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-021-XG&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-CS&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=

5) you get more for your money if you do it yourself.

6) PSU is fine.
 
OK, so processor seems like a 'given':

1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99

On the basis that I'm happy to spend the bit extra, does everyone agree a 660 is a slightly better choice? And, if so, is the MSI better than the similar price and spec Gigabyte?

1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £167.99

Which then leaves the MB...

The Gigabyte's had great reviews, but the MSI G45 is a more expensive board, currently on discount!

Both being suggested here as good... any more opinions on which is best at current equal cost?

Also, lots of memory options - are they all pretty much same?
 
Hmmm....

From surface of current MB to panel is about 170mm!

From top of fins on current cooler to panel, is about 40mm. But I'm not sure what the official dimensions are for that.
 
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