Upgrading

StonedPenguin · 10 May 2011 at 21:49

Hi all

I have a budget of £500 (or there abouts) I've been putting a basket together and this is what ive came up with..

I already have a Corsair tx750, HD4890 & a couple of sata hdd's + case. Upgrading from c2d @ 3ghz, Is this a significant upgrade do you think?

I will upgrade video card in summer sometime when funds permit.
Should I look at a Z68 board or is a P67 more than capable? Is that a good choice of SSD?

I doubt I will ever sli or crossfire.. I use machine for gaming at 1920x1200.

Thanks

stulid · 10 May 2011 at 21:51

Latest Z86 motherboard - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-457-AS

And the Retail CPU is £2 more, includes a 3 year warranty, and has a stock Intel heatsink you can use for a while until funds allow a aftermarket heatsink.

StonedPenguin · 10 May 2011 at 21:56

Thanks. I'll get the Retail version then for the sake of £2.

Is thier a big improvement using a Z68 board over a P67 for gaming do you know?

Cheers

stulid · 10 May 2011 at 22:02

Probably no difference in gaming perofrmance , but it has a few extra features

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68-express-lucidlogix-virtu-ssd-caching,2888.html

StonedPenguin · 10 May 2011 at 22:53

I probably wont use the extra features so might stick to a P67 board..

Is it not worth getting the Corsair A50? Should I save a bit more and get a A70 or something? I'll probably only overclock to ~4ghz.

Is the SSD a good choice? I was looking at the OCZ Vertex Series 120GB but the 2E has faster speeds.. Is this noticable?

stulid · 10 May 2011 at 22:55

The stock supplied Intel heatsink with the retail CPU is very good and will allow just over 4GHZ easily if you ever decide to squeeze more performance out.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/3

These chips overclock very well. Both my Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K hit ~4.4GHz, fully stable, using the stock low-profile cooler.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/11

Make sure your processor is properly cooled (we used the stock Intel cooler and forced the fan to 70% RPM

Operation · 10 May 2011 at 23:59

Agree. If your case ventilation is half decent I would just leave the stock cooler on for the time being for 4ghz. Not sure I'd choose the ocz ram personally as RMA/replacements/additions could be an issue soon. The xms or g.skill sticks are around the same price, or within a few £ anyway. I know nothing about ssd's so can't really comment on that.

But as to the initial question, yes, it will be a nice upgrade.