Upgrading!

Rage474

Rage474

Rage474

Associate
Joined
10 Sep 2008
Posts
145
Location
N. Ireland
So it's been a while since I've upgraded, and would like a little help deciding what to get. I have a budget of up to £600.

I'll keep my current power supply, hdd and case (Coolermaster 690). So I need a motherboard, cpu, gpu and ram. I use it mostly for gaming and work.

Thanks in advance!
 
What power supply do you currently have?

I put this together to get some ideas flowing:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £224.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £24.98
Total : £583.94 (includes shipping : FREE).



My issue of CustomPC came today and in it the Thermalright heatsink had a very good review and scored quite high.
 
Thanks for your reply! My current power supply is a Coolermaster Real Power 1000w Modular Silent, so I reckon it should be able to handle most things? Also, I already have a Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler, which I think I should also still be able to use?

I've been looking at the Nvidia 660ti, as I've always gone with them in the past, is there much of a performance difference between it, and the 7950 you have posted?

Cheers
 
Single display 1920 * 1080 resolution, and at stock speeds there isnt much difference between the two generally goes down to which game performs best with nvidia / AMD cards.

660ti only has a 192 memory bus controller which means that when going above 1920 * 1080 it is out muscled by the 7950's larger memory bus controller. so you will see fps drop more suddenly in 660ti than 7950

same applies when playing across multiple displays.

The 7950 can overclock far better than the 660ti.

7950 if ever crossfired is a force to be reckoned with. They crossfire really well and give some extremly good results.

I have a 660ti in my rig so don't think im being biased in anyway. 7950 is smarter choice but if you've always used nvidia cards and wanna stick to them then its your money and your choice ^^
 
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Rage474 said:
Thanks for your reply! My current power supply is a Coolermaster Real Power 1000w Modular Silent, so I reckon it should be able to handle most things? Also, I already have a Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler, which I think I should also still be able to use?

I've been looking at the Nvidia 660ti, as I've always gone with them in the past, is there much of a performance difference between it, and the 7950 you have posted?

Cheers
Click to expand...

The PSU is fine. I was just asking incase it was low wattage.

The heatsink you already own (which I do to, it's amazing) is of course the better option. I just assumed you didn't already own one. If you don't have any laying around you might have to order some thermal paste. I recommend something along the lines of Arctic Silver 5, although there are cheaper alternatives.

There are a few differences I can think of.

-The 7950 has 3GB of GDDR5 memory whereas the 660ti has 2GB. This however will not be an issue if you are not going above 1080p resolution.
-The 660ti has PhysX capabilities. ATI cards can handle it but don't perform as well. Certain games have PhysX features (basically more fancy effects/scenery) such as Borderlands 2.
-The 7950 comes with Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite
-The 660ti comes with Assassins Creed 3 and Hawken, Planetside 2, and World of Tanks in game currency.

The 660ti and 7950 are about equal although I would say the 7950 performs slightly better looking at some benchmark results. It really depends on which game you're playing as some games run better on one platform compared to the other (look at the recent Tomb Raider/nVidia fiasco).

With all of that said I wouldn't base your judgement on what I have said, wait for input from some other users first.
 
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Hmm, well at the minute I'm happy with

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
Total : £345.37 (includes shipping : £9.50).



So right now it's just a toss up between a 7950 and 660ti, I'll be gaming at 1600x1050 on one monitor, with a secondary one just work and internet browsing.
Also, I think I may need low profile ram to fit my cooler in better.
 
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Rage474 said:
Also, I think I may need low profile ram to fit my cooler in better.
Click to expand...

I didn't see the TWO offers until just now. There is a low profile version of Corsair Vengeance memory for cheaper:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
Total : £41.99 (includes shipping : FREE).



Or alternatively you could go for the samsung green:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung Green (MV-3V4G3D/US) 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual Channel Kit £49.99
Total : £49.99 (includes shipping : FREE).



It is more expensive but runs a lot cooler (hence no heat spreader needed at all) and you may be able to overclock it to 2400MHz.

If you want the Corsair Vengeance I would get it right now as it won't be on sale for its current price from 9/10am tomorrow.
 
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Awesome! Alright, so I think I'm going to go for this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
Total : £686.36 (includes shipping : £9.50).



It's a bit more than I had originally intended to spend, but I think it should turn out well.

Can anyone give it the once over before I commit? :)
 
Incrauze said:
If you can stretch your budget a bit more, you can invest in a aftermarket cooler and get the Intel i5 3570K OEM
Click to expand...

He already has a Cooler Master Hyper 612S which is a great cooler.

You made a good point about the OEM, however the decision is on Rage. OEM costs £12 less because it isn't in a nice retail package and doesn't include all of the extras (including stock cooler). However OEM only comes with 1-year warranty compared to the 3-year warranty of the retail version. Under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 you SHOULD get a 6-year warranty anyway but whether or not this would stand with OcUK isn't known.
 
Thanks a lot for the advice, but I think I'll go with the retail cpu, saving £12 just doesn't seem worth it to not get the full warranty and extras. The 7970 and 670 seem to be pretty evenly matched, I think I'll go for a 670 just due to personal preference :)
 
 
Cheers, but I don't need the cooler so I don't mind spending a wee bit more on the gpu to get what I want :). One thing which is concerning though, I've noticed the 670's need a 6 pin and a 6+2 pin pci connector, and I'm pretty sure I only have 2 6 pin's with my current PSU. Are these cables easy to come by, or is there an adaptor?
 
Rage474 said:
Cheers, but I don't need the cooler so I don't mind spending a wee bit more on the gpu to get what I want :). One thing which is concerning though, I've noticed the 670's need a 6 pin and a 6+2 pin pci connector, and I'm pretty sure I only have 2 6 pin's with my current PSU. Are these cables easy to come by, or is there an adaptor?
Click to expand...

Is this your psu in the link ? http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=2532&category_id=25 as it says it has 2 x 8 pin and 4 x 6 pin connectors.
 
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I think that I have this one:
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=2532
and also found an old 6pin to 8pin pci-e cable, along with a straight up 8pin pci-e cable, so I reckon I should be grand?

Also, thanks for the further advice, but I took the plunge and went for:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Assassin's Creed III & FTP Currency £339.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) £49.99
Total : £694.32 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Going to be my first 'build', but I reckon it should go smoothly enough :)
 
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