Worth doing???

ghutchison14078 · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:13

Hi guys,

Was considering changing my setup to sandy bridge, mainly for the higher cpu speeds that games take advantage of.

Current:

i7 950@ 3.8Ghz
Asus P6TD
6Gb Corsair 1600mhz Dominator RAM.

Considering changing to:

i5 2500k
Gigabyte Z68x-UD5 or Asus P8Z68 DELUXE
8Gb of good quality RAM

If I get decent sale prices for my existing gear I could probably do the swap for £100 - £150

Thoughts?

Ginger-Menace · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:16

why dont you just overclock the cpu a bit more? your set-up will be fine for future games, you could alway stick another 480 in there as well

ghutchison14078 · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:19

Ginger-Menace said:
why dont you just overclock the cpu a bit more? your set-up will be fine for future games, you could alway stick another 480 in there as well

SLI isnt an option at the moment as I have the KFA2 GTX 480 "Anarchy" graphics card which has a triple slot cooler and I would be dubious if my Corsair HX850 PSU would be up to the task of 2 of those!!!

I suppose I could push the 950 a bit more but I really wanted to avoid the mega heat that i7's chuck out when seriously overclocked.

Plus I was thinking that about 4.0 - 4.2 Ghz is really the safe limit if my motherboard could even push it that far...whereas the 2500K seems to do 4.5Ghz and upwards without too much hassle????

Jony27 · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:28

no point, waste of money as the i7 1366 are still capable CPUs, with a pair of gtx480 youll be safe for future games.
a second hand GTX480 would be the cheapest option, however the "anarchy" will have to operate at the the "slower" 480 speeds.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/159
shows 668W while running Crysis and 851W under Furmark, but the HX series are quality units.

ghutchison14078 · 12 Sep 2011 at 21:06

Not really interested in SLI'ing the 480 tbh,

Holding off for Kepler before upgrading the gpu

Jony27 · 12 Sep 2011 at 21:36

ghutchison14078 said:
Not really interested in SLI'ing the 480 tbh,

Holding off for Kepler before upgrading the gpu

well you just answered your own question.

whats tje point of upgrading if you dont need to?
does your current system struggle with anything you do?

setter · 12 Sep 2011 at 21:40

Id overclock a bit more, with a decent cooler the heat from an i7 is pretty manageable.

ghutchison14078 · 12 Sep 2011 at 22:33

Might try to get a bit more outta the 950, I'm currently using a corsair h50 cooler which I know ain't the best...any CPU cooler recommendations?

setter · 12 Sep 2011 at 22:39

The h50 should cope with 4.0-4.2ghz ok, course the fan/s used make a lot of difference. Generally it's on a par with some of the higher end air coolers. Using a prolimatech supermega here with dual akasa viper fans.

ghutchison14078 · 13 Sep 2011 at 16:59

Ok, I've listend to everyone else's logic and you're all quite correct....my current setup is still damn good and not holding me back at all....

....damn upgrade itch.......can the doctor give me anything for this condition?????