Upgrade to a new system

Mikey · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:30

Been out of the game for a long time, do IT for a living, but pay little attention to CPUs, RAM and so forth these days. Look after HP Proliant kit, so that's as far as it goes.

What I do know is that I'm looking for a new motherboard, CPU and RAM in order to do some Windows 2012 testing and of course the normal Windows 7/8 use. I do have some games, but haven't re-installed steam and that was circa 18 months ago!

Don't need disks as I have a 120GB SSD and a pair of 1TB drives mirrored. Also got a stack of 320GB disks sat in the cupboard (have been for 18 months), I don't sell disks! Keep meaning to get a NAS and fit them.

Current unit is

Intel Q9550 not o/c with a Noctua HSF
4GB RAM
Assus P5Q Pro
ATI Radeon 5870 graphics card.
Coolermaster silenco case.

I suppose in a nutshell, Windows 8 (unfortunately) for hyper-v and then grunt to test.

I have a HP 6715b with SSD and Windows 7 too, so hence the consideration for Windows 8.

stulid · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:32

Can I ask what PSU you have?

Are all your drives SATA type?

Mikey · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:35

stulid said:
Can I ask what PSU you have?

Are all your drives SATA type?

Corsair HX520 Modular PSU, prob not enough power for these days.

Yes all HDDs and optical drive use the SATA connectors.

stulid · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:48

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard + FREE Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler! £109.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9K) £59.99
Total : £372.77 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Your PSU should still be ok.

The motherboard comes with a free cooler, I hope it fits in your case at 158mm tall.

Mikey · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:50

stulid said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £191.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard + FREE Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Pro SR1 CPU Cooler! £109.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G186C9K) £59.99
Total : £372.77 (includes shipping : £9.00).

Your PSU should still be ok.

OK cheers, I'll have a look at those.

I was wondering if 8GB will be enough for hyper-v, but I assume the board has 4 slots

stulid · 13 Jun 2013 at 10:54

Mikey said:
OK cheers, I'll have a look at those.

I was wondering if 8GB will be enough for hyper-v, but I assume the board has 4 slots

It does have four slots.

There are 16GB kits (2x8GB) available which will leave two slots free for a possible 32GB, just watch the RAM physical height as you don't want it to clash with a aftermarket coolers fan.

Mikey · 13 Jun 2013 at 11:07

stulid said:
It does have four slots.

There are 16GB kits (2x8GB) available which will leave two slots free for a possible 32GB, just watch the RAM physical height as you don't want it to clash with a aftermarket coolers fan.

Ok many thanks, will look at this and will also look at what I can raise for moving on my current CPU etc.