PC upgrade - advice please:)

[Kevin Ascher]

I plan to upgrade my rig next month.
I already have a Radeon HD 6950 graphics card and the goal is to get the best out of that card and use it's capabilities.
Budget is 350€ and what I was planning to get was an i5 2500k CPU (172€), 8GB of DDR3 RAM (around 50€) and a suitable motherboard.
As I am far from being a PC geek, I don't know what motherboard I should get and if the parts I "chose" are a reasonable choice and fit together well.

 

[Bob Luneski]

You're well on your way to a killer system. The i5-2500k is by far the best bang for the buck now. I just built a system centered around it and it rocks! My recommendation for motherboard would be one of the Asus P8P67 flavors, which one depends on the features you want. They're fast, stable, and have excellent overlocking properties. The other recommendation would be to buy as fast memory as you can afford and check the ASUS website for approved brands. Not all memory at the same speed is created equal.

Good luck with your project!

 

[Kevin Ascher]

Thanks, buddy
Do you think, it makes a big difference if I get 8 Or 16 GB of RAM?

 

[Adam Jonas]

Thanks, buddy
Do you think, it makes a big difference if I get 8 Or 16 GB of RAM?

He mean that there are several type of memeory which frequency is higher. For example: there are DDR3 RAMs with 1333 MHz frequency and 1600 MHz frequency. Bob said that (I think) you should buy the 1600 MHz DDR3 RAMs, if you've got enough money. But be careful: if you buy the 1600 MHz DDR3 RAMs, your motherboard have to support these frequency of RAMs, if not, they will run on lower frequency!

My opinion is not worth to buy more than 8 GB RAMs, only if you using programs that needs lot of memory (3D Studio). A lot of programs run very well with 4 GB RAM.

 

[Kevin Ascher]

Cheers Adam

 

[Adrian Britton]

Hi man
I am looking at upgrading my rig in a couple of months, I have been looking at the new...
Asus P8Z68-V Pro or the Deluxe version, I normaly reccomend friends to stay away from new releases, but these boards look impressive.

ASUS is proud to introduce the P8Z68-V PRO Motherboard which includes all of the rich features that you would expect from ASUS, providing users with Smart, Fast and Efficient Tuning.
The P8Z68-V PRO board brings users Intel® Smart Response Technology while also delivering the most flexible tuning of the core, graphics and memory.
Smart Response Technology allows users to experience the benefits of both SSD & HDD. The board combines SSD responsiveness with the capacity of HDD. This in turn results in a FASTER system boot and FASTER data retrieval!
Users can benefit from a free GPU performance upgrade via two simple methods using iGPU. The first method is through the on-board GPU Boost switch and the second method is via the easily adjustable settings in the friendly UI. Users can enhance GPU performance by a massive 34%*.
The ASUS P8Z68-V PRO features LucidLogix® Virtu, which is specifically designed for the Intel® Sandy Bridge platform's powerful integrated graphics. Its GPU virtualization dynamically assigns tasks to the best available graphics resources, providing greater flexibility and efficiency.
Exclusive ASUS features also include, Dual Intelligent Processors 2 which features DIGI+ VRM providing high system stability and efficiency, precise adjustment under BIOS &UI and an active cooling micro-processor. EPU provides system energy saving and real time power management. TPU delivers a second micro-processor to free CPU resources as well as easy O.C. and an instant performance boost through an on-board switch or the easy O.C. tool, TurboV EVO.
UEFI BIOS (EZ Mode) offers users a flexible and simple BIOS graphical interface and mouse control.
This model is also rich in SPEC, including Quad USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s ports and one Intel® LAN, allowing users to experience the thrill of faster data transfer rates.

So I might be investing in one of these in september myself, its is one of these or the new AMD AM3+ mtherboard The Crosshair V Formula with AMD 990FX, as it supports upto 8 cores, which would be ideal for rendering and graphics use.
(Which I guess is going to be the next AMD cpu release 8 core)

 

[Chris Butcher]

What on earth would you need 8 cores for?

 

[Adrian Britton]

Bryce, Carrara, Daz3/4 Auto Cad studio and animation.
I am off to Uni next year to study Graphics design, Art and Animation.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

What on earth would you need 8 cores for?

I use 256 cores atm. There's no such thing as too much power

 

[Jim Cole]

Sounds like someone either has a server farm or has the ability to send render jobs to systems in the work place that are idle.

 

[Henry Muller]

2500k is by far the best CPU choice at the moment, 8GB is more than enough to, as for the motherboard, you will be safe probably with any p67/z68 board...

as for AMD bulldozer... really, there is no point in waiting right now, the only performance numbers seen by far are very bad, even if it doesn't represent the final product, the release date delay is not a good sign, and I doubt that it's going to beat sandy bridge (perhaps it can beat for rendering and such in terms of price/performance... but...)

 

[Kevin Ascher]

Do you guys thinks it is worth to pay 50€ for the 1600 RAM instead of the 1333 RAM?
8GB

 

[Adrian Britton]

If your going for the P67/Z68 or even the AMD 990FX these boards only have four memory slots.
I would recomend (if your only using the pc for gaming) to use all four slots at 1600 DDR...

CORSAIR high performance Vengeance memory module 4GB (2x2GB) 1600MHz 9-9-9-24, sell two sticks at £37.68 inc VAT, ok so two sets of two stick would cost £75.36 inc vat. I know its more then you was wanting to pay, but the value for money is better then buying a cheep pair at 50€.

Buying good ram like Corsair will improve the perfomance by a lot when it comes to computer gaming.

Like I said before I am upgrading to, but I am aiming more towards a graphics computer then for gaming and I am planning on buying two sets of...
CORSAIR high performance Vengeance memory module 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz 9-9-9-24, for £68.54 each.

You cant cut back on ram or skimp out on them.
But this is just my opinion.

I hope this helps.

 

[Kevin Ascher]

This should be a good choice then, right?
http://www.amazon.de/Intel®-BX80623...GHz/dp/B004FA8NX2/ref=pd_bxgy_computers_img_c
http://www.amazon.de/P8P67-Rev-3-0-...her/dp/B004OA02OQ/ref=pd_bxgy_computers_img_b
http://www.amazon.de/Corsair-CMX8GX...DR3/dp/B002LE8D2U/ref=pd_bxgy_computers_img_c

 

[Adrian Britton]

I use www.scan.co.uk for my computer parts so it is worth shopping around to try and find a good deal, as amazon isnt the cheepest around.
(I hope nobody minds me putting that link there)

I would try and push for....
Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core, 3.3GHz, GPU 850Mhz, 6MB Cache, 95W OEM
2x 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.50V
Asus P8Z68-V PRO, Intel Z68, S 1155, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 2200(OC), SATA 6Gb/s, RAID, ATX, HDMI

The only reason i say the P8Z68 is for the new feature...

Exclusive ASUS features also include, Dual Intelligent Processors 2 which features DIGI+ VRM providing high system stability and efficiency, precise adjustment under BIOS &UI and an active cooling micro-processor. EPU provides system energy saving and real time power management. TPU delivers a second micro-processor to free CPU resources as well as easy O.C. and an instant performance boost through an on-board switch or the easy O.C. tool, TurboV EVO.

Also the Corsair Vengeance range have a better cooling capabilities with its heat spreaders then the XMS3's do.


I know the cost of this would push the boat out to 437.63€ an extra 100€ more then you are wanting to spend, but it would be worth it in the long run mate.
I know I am not much help in cost saving, I am sorry about that.

But if you are set on getting the above what you have listed, I would only change the Ram to one I listed, just purely on the cooling capabilities.

This is just my opinion though, so do ask others as well, its always helpfull to have more opinions.