What to upgrade?

SwedishChef

SwedishChef

SwedishChef

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Joined
6 Jan 2006
Posts
137
Hello all - long time, no visit. Having two babies to look after means I haven't had any time to keep on top with the latest hardware. But BF3 is coming and I fancy a bit of that, so I need your advice on which components I'd be best upgrading to get the best BF3 experience. I'd probably not want to spend more than £500.

Current PC:
Intel e8400 @ 3.6Ghz
Abit IP35 Pro MB
4 GB Geil Black Dragon DDR2
Gainward Golden Sample Nvidia GT8800 GT OC (a bit old but is the dual slot version and the quietness is good).
Dell 2209WA 22" monitor @ 1650 x 1080 <-- A nice S-IPS panel for photo work, but starting to fancy a bit of full HD goodness so wondering about going dual monitor...
OCZ Vertex SSD
Realtek Onboard sound - because Creative put a coax on my X-Fi Extreme Music card, not an Optical, so couldn't connect it to my home cinema system.

I look forward to your advice! :D
 
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whats your current psu?

edit: do just want mobo,ram,gpu,cpu upgrade or do you want to upgrade your screen aswell. you could probably reuse your HDD,optical drive, PSU(if its a reliable one), and case
 
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Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £119.99

Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** *LOWEST UK PRICE* £78.98

OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W Power Supply £52.99

Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99

Total = £531.92 with your free shipping.

What's your case? If you're happy with your current case this will be under budget, same with your HDD and PSU :).
 
Great - some interesting ideas there!

I have a Coolermaster case which I'm very happy with. Current PSU is a Seasonic M12 500w or 550w. Probably the 500w, can't recall. Also, I'm up to my ears in hard drives so ok there. :-)

A bt undecided on the screen - to be honest I'm not certain that 1920 * 1080 is that big a difference over 1650 * 1080. Would probably prefer to spend the money on other bits unless I can be persuaded otherwise.

And wow, that Corsair XMS3 RAM is cheap! How long have prices been that low??!
 
couple of months maybe more :)

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99
(£137.49) £164.99
(£137.49)
LG W2363D 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black LG W2363D 23" TRUE 120Hz 3D Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £155.99
(£129.99) £155.99
(£129.99)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 Extreme 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** *LOWEST UK PRICE* Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** *LOWEST UK PRICE* £78.98
(£65.82) £78.98
(£65.82)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £458.28
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £94.01
Total : £564.04

pretty much a carbon copy of Mootdead's spec except without the things that you can reuse. 120Hz monitor great for FPS :D
 
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £164.99

Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3
REVISION ** *LOWEST UK PRICE* £78.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99

Total = £273.96 with your free shipping.

This is where it's up to you. Do you want a good last gen GPU (5850) and a 1080p 120Hz monitor for ~50 quid over budget or ditch the monitor and go for a great current gen GPU (6950 2GB) for bang on budget.

5850 vs 6950: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=293
 
Nvidia Gtx 560 for £150
or
Gtx 560 Ti which is currently out of stock and the cheapest on the OCUK website is £200, can be had for £170-180 if you look around.
 
SwedishChef said:
Looking good for the budget. I see there is definately a favorite CPU and GPU amongst you guys. Nvidia cards not in favour at present then?
Click to expand...

ATI tend to offer a better Price/Performance ratio but slightly less developer support and worse drivers. There is the GTX 570 for a 20-25 pound more than the 6950 2GB if you want Nvidia.

As for the CPU, it's a beast for the price and overclocks to over 1.2GHz over it's stock clock on a decent cooler.
 
I'd probably go for the Nvidia on the basis that I use apps like vReveal that run better on Nvidia cards.

Moothead2 person spec'ed a new 600w PSU - is 500w definately a no-go? I'm assuming that GPUs are even more power hungry than before, even if CPUs are more efficient nowadays.

@Moothead2 - good question on the graphics - I don't know. Will ponder it. Suppose it would come down to whether the last gen card would be good enough for full HD with BF3.
 
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