Worth upgrading?

[Jano]

So, currently using the following couple of year old bundle bought from OCuK...

*OVERCLOCKED* AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 2.80GHz @ 3.30GHz / Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P Motherboard / Corsair Dominator 4GB DDR3 XMS3 PC2-1600C9D TwinX (2x2GB) Bundle

Although mine has 8gb of ram, and I think the overclock may have disappeared over time. For a couple of reasons I need to do a clean install, and will be upgrading to an SSD and Win7.

This then got me thinking, as the comps a little noisy with numerous case fans (case is a TJ09), should I invest in one of those Antec Kuhler/Corsair Hyrdo jobbies, and if I'm doing that, is it worth upgrading the CPU while I'm at it.

Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea if an upgrade on the CPU is worth it, nor what I could actually put in, I am way behind the times. I could go the whole hog and change the mobo as well, but then its getting to new comp time and not sure I can really be bothered to change everything.

Any recommendations?

 

[Jano]

When it works, yes. The graphics cards kaput at the moment (MSI Lightning R6970), the win7 upgrade and reinstall is a last resort before RMA'ing.

 

[Jano]

The cooler that came with the bundle was, I think, the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro. Only reason I could see to change that was for something quieter really.

I wouldn't bother with Overclocking, so doesn't look like theres much to gain from changing.

Thanks anyway!

 

[Jano]

The Bios has been reset/flashed as there were a few issues when I first put the thing together, so pretty sure it went then. I've never had any luck with overclocking and really very reluctant to try again, same reason I was looking at the cooling kits, I know my luck and my computer would end up underwater if I tried to watercool.

I shall see what todays deals bring and have a thing about it.

 

[Jano]

The system crashed constantly when I first put it together, the BIOS flash was the only thing that fixed it, which may also have been down to the overclock. I really have no interest in bringing that problem back, so definitely wont be overclocking it again.

 

[Jano]

Get the feeling I may aswell just do the lot

Bang for buck time, i5 2500k seems to be the best price point at the moment, if I changed everything? Would also allow me to get Sata 3 on the Mobo which would speed up the SSD?

 

[Jano]

Will be a Crucial M4 128gb.

 

[Jano]

Orcvader, there is a thread over on graphics cards. http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18307305

Long story short, it was an upgrade of 2 1gb 4870's in crossfire, and its never been right. The PSU is a 750w, very highly rated Seasonic.

 

[Jano]

Bonus + Rebate from touchpad... probably got about £500 to play with.

 

[Jano]

So I have three choices really, if I was going to upgrade, upgrade the processor, upgrade the processor, mobo and ram with AMD bits (seems a bit silly to do this though from what I can see, especially with bulldozer nearly here), or go Sandybridge.

If I was to upgrade and go Sandybridge, does anyone have any recommendations? I would literally just need Mobo/Processor/Ram and cooler, everything else is covered, and would be in the following case:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=94&area=en

Which is obviously a big bugger, so could probably fit just about anything.

 

[Jano]

The £500 is on top of the SSD by the way, if that helps

I dunno, I'm just umming and ahhing now, would I see that much of a performance increase between just upgrading the processor and over to SandyBridge? Theoretically I'd be spending ~£200 on new processor and cooling, probably less than that by the looks of it, against £500ish. Would I really be getting £300 worth of performance increase?

 

[Jano]

And now they drop the price on the SSD... Guess that means more money to spend!

So if I go with the 2500k, is it worth getting an MSi Mobo for the ocgenie feature, seeing as I wont be doing any overclocking? Or is there a significantly better offering/alternative? My Mobo's in the past have been Asus/Gigabytes generally.