Upgrade time, £300 budget

Posodas

Posodas

Posodas

Associate
Joined
3 Mar 2011
Posts
5
Hi everyone, apologies for another upgrade thread, but I require your assistance

Here's my currently setup and spec just to get this started. Made this build about 3-4 years ago, and it's served me well. Originally had a 4870 GPU but I got a 5850 a few months ago.

Mobo - p45 Gigabyte (P5Q-E)
CPU - Q8200 Yorkfield Quad Core @2.3ghz
GPU - ATI 5850
PSU - Cosair 650W
RAM - 4gig of DDR2
HDD - 500gig

Now I've got a good graphics card, which I would like to keep, but its being bottlenecked severely by my ****** processor and my last generation RAM. I don't see the point in upgrading my GPU for at least another 12 months, a 5850 is a good card and far from obsolete, and i'm not paying out for a new PSU and other peripheral stuff, so I just need to get a motherboard, RAM and processor for around £300.

Can this be done? I've already had a look round, but I don't want to part with my cash until I hear some advice from you lot.

Much obliged!
 
Quite a bit over your budget, but if you stick around the forums long enough and contribute without spamming, you might get free shipping which would take £9.50 off. :)

If it is for gaming an i5 is the best option for your money. But it is up to you. :)
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Thanks mate!

Is that Gigabyte Z68 really worth the £120? Coz there are other Z68 models out there that are slightly cheaper, is it worth the extra?
 
Posodas said:
Thanks mate!

Is that Gigabyte Z68 really worth the £120? Coz there are other Z68 models out there that are slightly cheaper, is it worth the extra?
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Well it is on offer at the moment from £127.99 so I thought I would put it in.

And I have been told, (but don't quote me on this), that it supports the upcoming IvyBridge architecture so it would be helpful for the future.

Hopefully someone more tech savvy than me on here can confirm or deny this. :)

Also, a motherboard isn't something people should be cheaping out on because if something goes wrong with the motherboard it can damage other parts. :)
 
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Thanks Marine!

Also, if I'm trying to get this done for less than £300 is it worth trying to make savings by getting the 3.1Ghz 2400 model, or should I pay the extra £20 for the 2500k one, then perhaps overclock somewhere down the road?
 
Posodas said:
Also, if I'm trying to get this done for less than £300 is it worth trying to make savings by getting the 3.1Ghz 2400 model, or should I pay the extra £20 for the 2500k one, then perhaps overclock somewhere down the road?
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Non-K version CPU can't overclock. Go all the way with the i5 2500K!

Typically you can overclock it on stock voltage and need no more than the stock cooler for overclocking to 4GHz (make sure you get the Retail version not OEM, as the Retail version comes with a stock cooler and 2 more years of warranty).

If everything go smoothly, for overclocking to 4GHz...all you have to do is go into BIOS and change the multiplier x33 to 40, then save and exit the BIOS and that's it! (Note: the base clock for the SandyBridge is 100, so 100x33=3.3GHz, 100x40=4.0GHz)
 
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