upgrade time!

[geordie12]

Hi All,

Has been a few years since I upgraded my machine so I've been looking at doing a bit of an overhaul. I have a case and a 620w PSU, so I think I need a CPU, gfx card, memory, mobo and maybe a new hard disk (currently running 2 x Spinpoint F1 750GB Sata 2's in Raid 0).

What do you think to these upgrades? Have I made any schoolboy error's in the config? Anywhere I should go for a cheaper alternative?

Thanks in advance!

OcUK ATI Radeon 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £263.99 (£219.99)
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £239.99 (£199.99)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £127.99 (£106.66)
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £100.00 (£83.33)
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMX6GX3M3B2000C9) £79.99 (£66.66)

 

[mp260767]

if your only gaming swap the 2600K for the 2500K version.

you need double channel memory rather than triple for the sandybridge processors, like :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-132-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

what make psu do you have ?

 

[geordie12]

Great, thanks for the info, I'll swap the processor and the memory. What the general trend with HDD set up these days? The solid state drives are not to large so are they generally used as system drives and then keep normal spinning disk for files etc?

Yeah I generally use it for games at the moment and the PSU I bought last time was the Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2.

 

[geordie12]

By the way, why do you suggest the 2500k over the 2600k? Because games don't generally take advantage of hyperthreading?

 

[Vespasian777]

By the way, why do you suggest the 2500k over the 2600k? Because games don't generally take advantage of hyperthreading?

I think it's that, plus the amazing value of the chip. I'm at 4.6 with no effort whatsoever.

 

[fowler002]

is your case a matx case? if its atax then yoou'll want to swap th motherboard to z68xp-ud3 £110

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

if you don't plan on sli/xfire in future go with http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI

you'll also be wanting a cpu cooler to overclock the i2500k

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

 

[mp260767]

By the way, why do you suggest the 2500k over the 2600k? Because games don't generally take advantage of hyperthreading?

yeah, for the price/performance difference usually not worth going for the 2600, unless you do a lot of things that make use of the hyper threading.

 

[geordie12]

Cool, I'll swap out the CPU then and go with Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail [BX80623I52500K]

My current case is an Antac 900, should I still swap the mobo?

Thanks for all the replies guys, much appreciated!

 

[geordie12]

oh...and is it worth paying the extra for the radion 6970 over the 6950?

 

[geordie12]

Currently looking like -

OcUK ATI Radeon 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £263.99 (£219.99)
Intel Core i5-2500 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £163.99 (£136.66)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) £127.99 (£106.66)
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98 (£70.82)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT51264BA160A) x 2 £71.98 (£59.98)

 

[fowler002]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752 3 games, can overclock it further then current oc on it(£20 odd in your pocket).

by the by thats the non-k i2500(can't overclock), you want the k version

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

 

[geordie12]

ok great, processor and gfx card swapped!

What about the storage? Are SSD's the way to go now?