Upgrading 5yr old rig for ~ £200

pageboy81

pageboy81

pageboy81

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Hi guys,
Wondered if you could advise me on an upgrade for about £200.
Current specs are:

MOBO: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
CPU: Intel i7 D20 @3.6 Ghz
PSU: Corsair TX 650W
RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 16000MHz
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon HD 5870 1GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB

System is used for gaming and browsing. I have 2 monitors hooked up but only one is used to game (1080p) whilst the other just has a browser or stream running.
Haven't been playing a lot of new stuff lately but intend too. At the moment I want to mess about with ENB stuff on Skyrim but its a slide show with my current graphics card.
Feel like I could use some more RAM as well but as the current stuff is triple channel (which seems pretty expensive) I'll probably replace it with 8GB (maybe 16GB) of Dual channel DDR3.

As far as Graphics cards go I'm thinking
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-262-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

Not averse to NVIDIA just used to ATI/AMD cards.

I think my current CPU is still pretty good, and I'm not worried about SSDs for the moment as I intend to build a new system within 18 months but want something better than I have right now.
Any feedback greatly appreciated as I'm a bit out of the loop!

Thanks in advance.
Oli. :)
 
See if you can pick up another matching stick of what you've already for.
I wouldn't suggest going for 16gb. As in 18 months it'll be DDR4 + skylake.

Where as the SSD you could use in the new system but I'd say you'd want 256gb.
Little more than £200 but I expect you could sell the 5870 still.

MSI AMD Radeon R9 285 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £139.99

Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99

TeamGroup Elite 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED32GM1600C1101) £14.99

Inc Shipping: £244.57
 
Thanks for the replies.
I guess I should be thinking about an SSD then.
I'm still favouring the 285 over the 280x, only because I don't think I'll see any benefit of the extra 1gb gaming at 1080p (correct me if I'm wrong) and it has a lower TDP.
Can't get the same type of DDR3 sticks anywhere I have OCZ Gold PC3-12800C8, the one linked above has higher timings and lower voltage so I guess its not as simple as slotting it in to the 4th slot and having it work. There is some on ebay (not OCZ but has same voltage and timing) so i might bid a bit on that.

Thanks again for the replies. :)
 
Also you do not want to add one more stick since the board/processor you have is triple channel, hence having 3x 2Gb sticks.

Best upgrade is just an SSD and graphics card as suggested.
 
Gunda said:
Also you do not want to add one more stick since the board/processor you have is triple channel, hence having 3x 2Gb sticks.

Best upgrade is just an SSD and graphics card as suggested.
Click to expand...

Ah, of course! So the only way to add more ram would be to find a 3x 4Gb triple channel memory kit I guess? That is gonna be more than I want to spend I think so I'll probably go with SSD and new graphics card then.

Thanks for all the help. Will probably order GPU this afternoon and have a think about SSD size.
 
Honestly you'd be fine with a 128GB SSD then use your current HDD as your data drive. The difference is really amazing.
 
pageboy81 said:
Ah, of course! So the only way to add more ram would be to find a 3x 4Gb triple channel memory kit I guess?
Click to expand...

Triple channel motherboards will also run dual channel. Just need to insert the sticks into the correct slots for dual channel config (there are pics and info all over the web). Just to clear that up.

£45 will get you 2 x 4GB.
 
pandem0nium said:
Any three identical ram sticks will work in triple channel mode.

second hand xeon x5650 on the bay are going for cheap and would give you 980X hex core performance.

YOUR BASKET
1 x SK Hynix 256GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS256G32MNB-2201A) £84.98
3 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1600C1101) £25.99 (£77.97)
Total : £172.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Thanks. Might well go that route for RAM. Probably won't upgrade CPU but would that work with my motherboard?
 
+1 for ssd and new gpu. can grab the 3gb twin frozr R9 28 for £155 from OCUk, and you should be able to pick up a decent 120/128 gb SSD for around £50 easy.

the SSD will give the most noticable difference day to day, without a doubt!

If you want triple channel RAM for a future upgrade, keep your eyes peeled on fleabay and on many etailers' b-grade/clearance sections. 6 gb kits do pop up cheap from time-to-time.
 
I agree tho new GFX card and SSD will give it a new lease of life until you upgrade and you can always take them over to the new PC
 
locrieth said:
http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3265

Don't think that ones on the compatability list....
Click to expand...

No, it's not. A google search tells me it will work though.

With that said, I recently pulled my X58 parts out of the closet to breathe some new life into them after my gaming laptop bit the dust. My X58 setup consisted of a GA-EX58-UD3R (rev2), i7-960, 6x2gb Corsair 1600mhz ram, and an EVGA GTX 280. After doing some research on the best upgrade path I picked up a GTX 770 and a Xeon L5639. I was able to OC the L5639 to a stable 3.8ghz (211bclk and pretty low voltage) and was pleased with the results but figured I wanted to give a X5650 a try. So, I just received my X5650 last week and have been toying with it a bit. Unfortunately I wiped out the settings I had for the L5639 at 3.8ghz so I started over with the X5650. I am able to run it up to 4.0ghz with pretty low voltage but I am having a hard time reaching a stable OC at 200x22=4.4ghz without a large jump in voltage. In order to make it into windows I need to be running ~1.36V and that is not stable. It will post at around 1.3V but needs the 1.36V to get into Windows.
Click to expand...

http://www.overclock.net/t/1461359/official-xeon-x5660-x58-review-discussion-and-xeon-l5639-benchmarks-inside/350
 
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