Upgrade Advice

[Captain Helltheo]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for advice on an upgrade. I have listed some parts lists I've made bellow, but I'm not shore on which one I should choose or to choose something different

.

So if anyone can help that'll be awesome.

I have a budget of £600 but i wish to spend under £500, I currently have a Coolermaster 932 case which I'm not changing

(price are from Ebuyer.com)

Intel £500 - £600 (approx.)

• Intel i5 2500k - £165.74
  
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £112.28
  
• Sapphire 7770 OC edition - £110.40 or Zotac GTX 560 - £134.10
  
• Corsair TX750 - £83.19
  
• Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz Memory - £23.00
  
• NZXT Havik 120 CPU cooler - £46.05
  
• LiteOn DVD drive - £13.98
  

Total: £554.64 AMD graphics

£578.34 Nvidia graphics

Intel £400 - £500(approx.)

• Intel i3 2120 - £94.56
  
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £112.28
  
• Sapphire 7770 OC edition - £110.40 or Zotac GTX 560 - £134.10
  
• Corsair TX750 - £83.19
  
• Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz Memory - £23.00
  
• NZXT Havik 120 CPU cooler - £46.05
  
• LiteOn DVD drive - £13.98
  

Total: £483.46 AMD graphics

£507.16 Nvidia graphics

AMD £400 - £500 (approx.)

• AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition - £94.56
  
• ASUS Sabertooth 990FX - £116.28
  
• Sapphire 7770 OC edition - £110.40 or Zotac GTX 560 - £134.10
  
• Corsair TX750 - £83.19
  
• Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz Memory - £23.00
  
• NZXT Havik 120 CPU cooler - £46.05
  
• LiteOn DVD drive - £13.98
  

Total: £487.46 AMD graphics

£511.16 Nvidia graphics

AMD £500 - £600(approx.)

• AMD FX-8 8150 - £156.38
  
• ASUS Sabertooth 990FX - £116.28
  
• Sapphire 7770 OC edition - £110.40 or Zotac GTX 560 - £134.10
  
• Corsair TX750 - £83.19
  
• Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz Memory - £23.00
  
• NZXT Havik 120 CPU cooler - £46.05
  
• LiteOn DVD drive - £13.98
  

Total: £549.28 AMD graphics

£572.98 Nvidia graphics

Like I said these are just ideas I thought of, but I would like other peoples opinions on these or other setups that are within my budget.

Once I have made a decision based of this and ideas other people post I will post a build log or do a vid.

Theo

 

[SEBAR]

Nice builds, I would suggest going for the 2500K build and making some small changes inorder the get a 560ti. You should be able to get there for under £600.

 

[att]

Looking over those options, the 750 watt PSU would probably be a bit overkill, so I'd get the 650 watt tbh and save my money. Also there aren't many people on this forum who would recommend bulldozer, so I'd get the 2500k, which doesn't actually need a z77 board (the z68 boards would probably be a bit cheaper nowadays and perform around the same unless you are going to be upgrading to Ivy or pci 3.0). You *might* be able to use those savings to get a 560 ti if you shop around enough.

Good luck on your build.

 

[xdaax]

Intel £500 - £600 (approx.)

• Intel i5 2500k - £165.74
  
• Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - £112.28
  
• Sapphire 7770 OC edition - £110.40 or Zotac GTX 560 - £134.10
  
• Corsair TX750 - £83.19
  
• Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz Memory - £23.00
  
• NZXT Havik 120 CPU cooler - £46.05
  
• LiteOn DVD drive - £13.98
  

Total: £554.64 AMD graphics

£578.34 Nvidia graphics

I would take this one with the nvida gpu, but TX650 PSU( about 15 quid less) should be enough. If you have a HAF 932 already, haven't you got a optical drive you could resuse aswell. According the board, on that budget I would choose ab Z77-G45 of MSI which is about 15 quid cheaper,too. If you want to be really budget get the mATX version that is about 10 quid cheaper than the ATX one.

I close with a question: Do you plan to overclock the 2500k?

 

[Captain Helltheo]

I would take this one with the nvida gpu, but TX650 PSU( about 15 quid less) should be enough. If you have a HAF 932 already, haven't you got a optical drive you could resuse aswell. According the board, on that budget I would choose ab Z77-G45 of MSI which is about 15 quid cheaper,too. If you want to be really budget get the mATX version that is about 10 quid cheaper than the ATX one.

I close with a question: Do you plan to overclock the 2500k?

I have a optical drive but its like 6 years old and uses an IED cable

so I think its about time that I get it into the garden a burn it.

And yes I do intend on overclocking but not too much maybe about 3.5Ghz, I haven't done much overclocking I'm still a novice at it.

 

[sheroo]

The 2500K is almost £20 cheaper at Aria as well - that should help you toward your 560ti

 

[xdaax]

I have a optical drive but its like 6 years old and uses an IED cable

so I think its about time that I get it into the garden a burn it.

And yes I do intend on overclocking but not too much maybe about 3.5Ghz, I haven't done much overclocking I'm still a novice at it.

Okay then add one. I think the most in the forums won't say 3,5 GHZ is a real overclock. btw in the cart below I put a single 4GB ram stick instead of 2 2GB ones because the single stick is a bit cheaper and changed the gtx560 to a gtx560ti 448cores because its performing better.

 

[Captain Helltheo]

I'm not shore on the graphics tho I'm really debating between a 560, 560ti, 6850/70 and a 7770 but its just so hard they're all bout the same price and performance from what I've seen and read

 

[SEBAR]

I'm not shore on the graphics tho I'm really debating between a 560, 560ti, 6850/70 and a 7770 but its just so hard they're all bout the same price and performance from what I've seen and read

The 560ti beats the other cards you listed. I like to check Passmark to see how different cards perform in there tests.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[Jadarite]

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H dabs £ 99.99

Intel Core i5-2550K 3.40GHz LGA1155 6MB dabs £169.99

Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 7770 HD

1120MHz 1GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC dabs £109.99

Corsair TX750 V2 750W ATX dabs £79.99

Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 XMP dabs £19.99 X2

Sony Optiarc 24x Internal DVD Multi Writer

(DVD-RW/RAM) with Black Bezel Bare dabs £13.99

Noctua SE14 Top-Down CPU Heatpipe Heatsink inc NF-P14 Fan dabs £55.89

+ £1.99 p&p Total £571.81

and try useing code, april10 because if you spend £150 or more you get £10 off

 

[Master&Puppet]

Hi Theo,

If I had to choose between your builds I would go for the 2500k option but:

I would also recommend you save money and get a 650W PSU.

I would recommend that you get 8gb of RAM.

Now what I'm going to do is suggest something most people will call radical. I am assuming that this is purely a gaming rig so I want to back off the cpu and bump up the gpu.

The Rig

CPU and cooler - FX 4100 and Dark Rock advanced (£120 bundle deal)

Mobo - 990X (£75)

Ram - 8gb Low profile (£40)

PSU - TX 650m (£82)

GPU - AMD 7850 (£180)

DVD drive - £15

= £512

Disadvantages - less powerful cpu for general performance. However, even at stock this will handle modern games with a minimum fps of 30+. We can help you overclock the cpu to 4.5ghz or slightly over. These CPU's are very easy to overclock and don't run hot either.

Check out this review - you will see that in every single game ran at 1080p on high/ultra settings they only once drop below 30 minimum fps (to like 28 for a split second). 30fps minimum is basically seamless gameplay. Remember that this review is with the 4100 at stock and we can get this cpu to comfortably beat the i3 once its overclocked.

Advantages - Much better GPU which will give you a lot better fps than the other options. Take a look at this review. You will see that a 7850 is much faster than a 560 or 7770. Easy choice.

8gb RAM

 

[Captain Helltheo]

Its the right price but I have heard that the FX 4100 isn't as good as the Phenom II.

 

[Captain Helltheo]

I have desided on this setup. And before anyone asks I wanted a 560 ti and intel 2700k but 1) it was too expensive, 2) I'm going to use the intel 2120 and the 7770 in a LAN system in the future.

I would like to know peoples thoughts

 

[Gurt11]

But it gives you so much less gaming performance than the setup of Master&Puppet ... Why do that and throw more money at it? :/

And if you áre going for the i3-2120 -> why the expensive sabertooth z77 ? That's just useless. You won't be overclocking that i3 very far at all.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Up to you dude, obviously I agree with gurt about your choices. I can't see why you are putting that money into the CPU not the GPU and even then, CPU choice is wrong IMO, if you can't afford a 2500k then go AMD because they all come factory unlocked.

Really not sure why you wanted to get the 2700k... this is for gaming right?

 

[Captain Helltheo]

Ok, I have reworked it to be close top Master&Puppet's setup just a different board because it has some features I like and I hope the GTX 560ti from MSI is a good choice.

Its so hard to choose the perfect system

I hope this is a good choice

.

And yes its for gaming but all i want to do is play games between medium - high setting not ultra