time for upgrade

[GTFO. Gash]

so i'm looking to upgrade my current system to an i7/ddr3 etc...

i currently have a HD5850 so im not keen on changing that yet (i can always Xfire if needs be), but wondering of what is good value atm etc??

needing new mobo, ram, proc and potentially SSD...

been mostly looking at overclockers bundles atm...

[GTFO. Gash]

for example this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =BU-072-OE

[DooMeR]

The best 2 value and best cpus out at the min are the sandybridge cpus the i5-2500k and the i7-2600k they are both awesome cpus. The i5-2500k is the best choice for gaming as theres very little diffrence performace wise in games between the 2 expect the more heafty price of the i7. However if you want to more fancy stuff like video encoding and stuff like then go for a i7-2600k.

Its also worth to note amd having amd new cpu coming out next month called bulldozer, i neevr been a fan of amd cpus but it still might be worth waiting see how they stack up price and perfoamce wise to the i5-2500k and i7-2600k.

Ram wise things are getting cheaper you dont really need super fast ram as it makes little diffrence in gaming. Any thing over 8gb is a waste.

Motherboard wise theres very little to choose between them all depends on what brand you prefair, i would aviod asus cause as i am finding out there coustmer support is very poor if you ever have a problem with the board.

My choices would be
ram http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=1517 if you want to spend a bit more http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... -CS&tool=3 You could also save your self some money and get the 4 gig versions of each and add more at later date if you feel its needed,


Mobo wise
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =MB-051-AK would be my choice. It the new sandy bridge chipset and has alot of fancy features like ssd caching, its a great feature option to have if you are going to get a ssd.

cpu
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CP-360-IN would be my only choice as i said might be worh waiting for the new amd chips see how they stack up but thas a awesome cpu that you cant really go wrong with.

[DooMeR]

That bundle looks good gash but i would aviod using asus as i said the customer support is very bad. I been waiting over a week just to see they will take my busted mobo back.

my choice for a bundle would be http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=2063 but maybe get the slighty better mobo which adds 20 quid. Gaming wise would see very little diffrence between the 1 you posted and the money you save you could get a better graphics card which will make a bigger difference in terms of fps and preformance.

[GTFO. TommyBoy]

I'd check out http://www.dinopc.com/ as well Merv, they seem to have some very good systems at prices that beat OC's. Seen some decent reviews of their systems as well.
eg. this http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b- ... 4p1110.htm I know its not i7 but its less than 100 quid more for a full system, it's O/C to 4.7ghz and it has an SSD. Also, if you customise the build and remove the OS, you can upgrade the SSD from 64gb to 128gb for only 17 quid extra.

[GTFO. Gash]

Cheers guys will have a look... Will be looking to future proof it as much as I can too... Atm 5850 is still a gd card so won't b touching that...

Currently have an asus board and have loved it but shall consider...

[DooMeR]

Yeah asus boards are usally great i have owned 3 or 4 over the years this is the first one i have had a problem with and their support is shocking its really put me off buying another one. Which ever cpu you choose it will be a big step up if you got the money might be worth spending the extra 50 quid or so on the i7 just for piece of mind that you have one of the best if no he bes cpus out atm.

[GTFO. Gash]

ok did a random pricing one now...

help needed on RAM with regards to outta these two..

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b- ... 7p1035.htm

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... ubcat=1392



remaining spec is

Asus P8Z68-V Pro

Corsair H60 Water Cooler

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G)


not buying till end of September ne way

[GTFO. TommyBoy]

The triple channel memory is only for the older non sandybridge boards mate, you need dual channel.

[r3loaded]

For the GPU, you can either stick with your 5850 or get a GTX 560/6950. However, the next-gen cards will be dropping in a few months time, so you're probably better off hanging on to the 5850 and waiting since the performance gap between the 5850 and the 560/6950 isn't enormous.

CPU-wise, the 2500K is perfect for gaming. You only need to consider the 2600K if you're doing video encoding or 3D rendering. For the RAM, I've selected the low-profile version of the Corsair Vengeance series as it's less likely to interfere with large CPU coolers. I'd also like to point out that you don't need anything faster than 1600Mhz RAM - there is literally *NO* benefit in any application with higher bandwidth or lower latency (except for memory benchmarks). 8GB ought to be plenty for a few years anyway.

On the SSD front, the Agility 3 has quite a bit of a random access performance issue since it uses asynchronous flash memory. I'd recommend either the Vertex 3 or the Crucial M4.

Finally, as for Asus's customer support, it's been faultless in my experience. I had one of the early boards with the defective Intel chipset, I contacted Asus and they organised a replacement very quickly, collecting it and delivering the replacement board with a total of 4 days downtime. I find their EFI firmware to be much superior to others.

Here's my own spec:

Core i5 2500K: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-co ... 95w-retail

Asus P8Z68-V: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-p8z68-v-intel-z68-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-sata-pcie-20-(x16)-vga-on-board-atx (the Pro model is £20 more if you're interested, but both support multi-GPU)

8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-jet-black-lp-pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v

SSD: Either http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120gb-oc ... s-85k-iops
or http://www.scan.co.uk/products/crucial- ... te-175mb-s

[kyub]

Just got myself a second ASUS 6850 to go crossfire

ps. can someone take the gtfo tag off my name?!

[DooMeR]

Can you give me the contact e mail or phone number u used reloaded still not hread anything back from the getting pretty pissed off.

[GTFO. Gash]

cheers reloaded for the advice, was awaiting your response!

is that your current spec pc? or the spec you would choose to build now?

[GTFO. Coxy]

SSD wise I'd get the Vertex. I've got a vertex 2 and it's brilliant. Also got an intel x-25 and that's good too.

[r3loaded]

Can you give me the contact e mail or phone number u used reloaded still not hread anything back from the getting pretty pissed off.

I used 01442 202700. It's the same as the 0870 number, but without the national rate charge. It connects you to their customer service department in the Netherlands. If it's a B3 motherboard replacement you're waiting on, do be aware that there's quite a line for that. Once your turn comes up, it's very quick from there on.

cheers reloaded for the advice, was awaiting your response!

is that your current spec pc? or the spec you would choose to build now?

That's the spec I would advise for you, not for me. In my case, I chose an mATX case, so I had to pick an mATX motherboard. The low-profile Vengeance and Z68 chipset weren't available at that time either, and I already had the SSD.

On the subject of SSDs, do look at AnandTech's Benchmark Table. You can sort and compare benchmarks of various SSDs for different workloads, and it also has a price/performance graph.

[GTFO. kk20]

I have a vertex 2 aswell. original firware was shocking - drive locked up a few times but after flashing with 1.33 it has been a dream.

[r3loaded]

Just like to point out that Crucial have brought out new firmware for the M4. It improves performance quite significantly, bringing it close in real-world terms to the Vertex 3 while still being cheaper: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4712/the- ... ith-fw0009

[Troops]

Wouldnt touch OCZ with a bargepole, M4 or corsair force 3 if it was me, mainly for good rma support.

Crucial are doing cheap C300 refurbs but only 30 days warranty if you fancy a gamble.