What would you do?

Trojun · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:16

If you had £1000 to spend on upgrading from LGA 775 to 1155 and with that you needed to get everything apart from the case , HDD, headset, keyboard & mouse, would you spend nearly half the budget getting a Dell UltraSharp U2410... or use your existing Samsung 2253BW 1680x1050 and spend the rest on high-spec components?

This is the dilemma I'm facing atm, and I'd appreciate some advice

paradisiac · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:17

what do you use the pc for?

if it was me, i would cost out the price of the pc i would like, then if there is money left over then look at the monitor.

coldfused · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:19

agreed with above.
Why would you need an IPS panel? Would a Samsung 24" for £180 not be good enough?

Trojun · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:36

paradisiac said:
what do you use the pc for?

Gaming, some web/graphic design with photoshop, also some iplayer/films/web browsing/etc.

paradisiac said:
if it was me, i would cost out the price of the pc i would like, then if there is money left over then look at the monitor.

Already done that, and with my ideal spec there's nothing left over for a monitor. If I cut down the spec, for example from 8GB premium RAM to 8GB budget, a cheap air cooler instead of liquid, no SSD, etc. I could afford a TN 24" 1080p monitor. If I cut down my spec drastically, e.g. i3 2100 based system, 4GB RAM, I could JUST about afford the Dell.

paradisiac · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:38

Trojun said:
Already done that, and with my ideal spec there's nothing left over for a monitor. If I cut down the spec, for example from 8GB premium RAM to 4GB budget, a cheap(er) air cooler, no SSD, etc. I could afford a TN 24" 1080p monitor. If I cut down my spec drastically, e.g. i3 2100 based system, I could JUST about afford the Dell.

then buy the pc and save for a monitor. nothing worse than scrimping on parts, you will only regret it in the long term.

Trojun · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:54

All right then. I'll stick with the Sammy and upgrade somewhere down the line.

If anyone cares this is the spec I'm planning on:

Intel Core i5 2500K
Asus P8P67 Pro
Corsair H60
8GB Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR3
Crucial C300 64GB SSD
Gigabyte GTX560 Ti SOC
650W Corsair HX
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Cheers for the advice.

coldfused · 8 Mar 2011 at 16:59

Great spec however, I don't think you'll be able to get your hands on a 560 SOC. I don't think anywhere stocks them.

Trojun · 8 Mar 2011 at 17:00

I'm hoping that by the time I get the money through (couple of weeks) it'll be available somewhere. If not I'll have to rethink the GPU.

Cookeh · 8 Mar 2011 at 17:24

GTX480 beats it by a decent margin and is cheaper.

HD6950 is ~= to it, and can be flashed to a HD6970 - a faster card, also cheaper

coldfused · 8 Mar 2011 at 17:27

When you do have the money and the card is not available, there are three options:
1. Buy a pre-overclocked MSI or Gigabyte 560 then overclock it further
2. Look for a Sparkle X560 which is clocked ever so slightly higher than the Gigabyte 560 SOC.
3. By looking somewhere else you can pick up a EVGA GTX570 for £251 which is better and leaves overclocking headroom for later.