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upgrading processor help/advise needed

grantsmith82

grantsmith82

grantsmith82

Associate
Joined
12 Jun 2011
Posts
280
HI all,
Im looking to upgrade my CPU and motherboard. My machine was originally a gateway GB5092b

spec here
http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1014956R/1014956Rsp2.shtml

however this has been rebuilt and i now have a corsair 880d casing new GTX580 gpu and also maxed out the M/B with 8gb (4x2gb) ddr2 ram.
also have 4 hard drives. solid state for the o/s and another
4gb from the other drives. I also have a water cooling kit going to the CPU.

anyway my current processor is a intel Q6600 quad cpu @ 2.4ghz.

i would really like to upgrade this to a intel i7 (one of the higher specs i7)
im not bothered about over clocking it etc..
i know i will need a new m/b as the i7 uses a different socket but looking at the i7 i see there are 3 socket varieties 1366? 1155? 1156?

which is the best processor / socket to get? also i would like a m/b with at least room for about 24gb ram

also with the watercooling kits will these only fit on certain processors / sockets or do they tend to be universal?

thanks
 
The 1156 are old now. Screw them.

The 1366 are 6 core extreme gaming CPU's and come at around £700.

The 1155 are the new Sandbridge CPU's. The only difference between the i7 and i5 is that the i7 has hyperthreading, and so if you do not use programs that have hyperthreading features, you will get the same results from going for an i5. This one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-368-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

This is the most favoured chip by nearly everyone today. It is also very easy to overclock as it has an unlocked multiplier. I know you said you didn't want to OC, but there is no point in having a water cooling kit if you are not going to overclock.

For the motherboard, go with this one:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-342-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

It does not give the 24GB you want. There are very few boards that do; none of them are Sandybridge. However, it is a very solid board and has great specs.

Most watercooling kits are universal. However, make sure that your case has watercooling holes.
 
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What are you doing that needs 24GB or RAM?

For gaming 95% of the time 4GB is enough and 8GB is plenty.

To use more than 16GB you need the professional, or higher, 64 bit editions of Vista or W7.

Your water cooling kit will fit Sandybridge if it has fittings for Sockets 1155 or 1156 as they have the same mounting holes.

Some Asrock motherboards also allow you to use coolers with Socket 775 fittings for Sandybridge.
 
hi
i dont want 24gb of ram i just want the ability / capacity to be able to upgrade in the future if neccessary at the moment im maxed out on 8gb ddr2

my current watercooling is on a intel Q6600 which i think is socket 775 ? i think the cooler should also support sockets 1366, 1155 and 1156 (i got it 2nd hand so unsure of the model to google it)

i am currently running win 7 ultimate 64bit so no issue with the ram recogognition.

so based on previous advise there is little diff between the i5 and i7

so was looking at the i5 2500 3.3ghz on socket 1155

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=6&subid=1275

however on this list the processors seem identical but the prices vary £159.99 £167.99 £173.99. anyone tell me why?
 
The first is a 2500 only, not 2500k hence multipliers are locked, i.e no overclocking.
The second is a 2500k OEM, slightly less price and 1yr warranty, haven't bought OEM in a while so assuming no heatsink.
The third is a Retail 2500k with all the gubbins and 3yr warranty.
 
HI again all, just reopening this again.. i decided to go with the i7 2600k. as i will in the future look at over clocking the CPU

However looking at a MB for the cpu i was looking at

Asrock Fatal1ty Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION**

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-049-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

however reading it said the board can support upto 32gb ram and has 4 slots. so to maximise that i would need 4x 8gb chips. now ive only ever seen 4gb chips for sale never seen a single 8gb ram chip so i would only be able to get 16gb (which is more than enough) however has anyone seem 8gb chips?

also what do you guys think of that MB good choice? better out there? any advise would be great.

i really want to change now as i am currenly running Q6600 with a GTX570 and 8gb ram however i got an ASUS sound card the other day and i cant fit it in as its right up against the bottom of the GPU which will hinder the fan. (i think my motherboard was designed before the Big GPU came in. as its from a gateway machine about 5 years old.
 
it looks nice aesthetically but i think its overpriced, the asrock z68 extreme4 will do the jobbie, and agree with not needing 32GB, 4GB is enough for gaming, unless your doing some number crunching/encoding w/e it is, you wont need 32gb, if you want you can buy 2x4gb kits and if thats not enough buy another 2x4gb
 
HI jony yeah i will prob go with two lots of 2x4gb ram chips.. my query was just hyperthetical really as they advertise 32gb max with 4 slots. yet no where ( i can see) sells 8gb single moduals ????
 
Hi All,
well i finally did it this weekend! got a new CPU and motherboard to replace my Q6600 i have a I7 2600k CPU with a Asrock Fatal1ty Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard B3 REVISION. Also got myself 6gb DDR3 ram and a new waterblock for the CPU. its all finally finished :) just rebuilding the OS now (didnt realise that when changing hardware the existing OS wont boot once hardware has been changed :( so had to backup favs, emails , documents etc.. (drag..) anyway really chuffed with the new CPU and board.

btw whats the advantage over USB3 than USB2? and is 6gb/s sata only if i have a SS drive supporting 6gb/s ?
 
USB3 is significantly faster, but only matters if:

- You have USB3 devices
- You do a lot of large-ish file transfers. E.g backing up games to USB3 HDD

If you're just plugging in game controllers, or transferring a document on a usb driver, you wont notice.

6gb sata even less. Only noticeable if you have a really fast SSD, and then only probably if you are benchmarking

Note, in a lot of Intel motherboards if you enable USB3/Sata3, then your GPU PCIe slots scale back to 8x when usb3/sata3 is being used or something. Not sure if this applies to your board
 
Consider buying a new windows licence your old one that came with the gateway will be revoked.

If you already bought one, Ignore me.
 
hi
yeah i have a new windows i am now running win7 ultimate 64bit.

the only thing i cant get to work is the app charger (where things like iphone etc can charge on usb when when pc is off/sleep/hibernation etc) it doesnt work.. any ideas?
 
grantsmith82 said:
yeah the 6gb is 3x2gb chips. i got them really cheap (£30) just after getting a 4th chip
Click to expand...

Trouble is that motherboard wants to run dual channel, so until you sort out 4 sticks it's kinda limping. There's concerns about getting an actual matching DIMM too - there's a reason they're sold as packs of 3, and that's because they're tested to work side by side (unless it's OCZ who never seemed to test at all)...

Still, you'll probably be ok, I've done mismatched RAM in dual channel before; ain't elegant but it can work. Modern boards don't seem to be nearly as sensitive about it as their older counterparts once were :)
 
im looking at the Argon Tarbosaur" Intel Core i5 2300 2.80GHz Bundle
£249.98 bargain if im being honest. i have to say though my dual core has been going strong for 3 years, but with next gen games i.e. BF3 it was time for a change and from reading the reviews regarding the i5 you cant go wrong.
 
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