Help me choose upgrade please

unkel

Forgive me brothers, it's been 5 years since my last upgrade

I need a decent performer that will last me another 4-5 years if possible. I don't game / don't edit video. I don't plan to overclock. I have everything except what I need to upgrade:

-motherboard
-CPU
-RAM

What do you recommend? I currently have a silent watercooled (Zalman Reserator) CPU. I'm thinking about retiring / selling this unit. Are modern standard CPU fan / coolers quiet enough? Or do I need a third party one? If so, which do you recommend?

Budget: flexible, but the least the better. Motherboard needs to be rock solid though!

Plenty of SATA connections needed too!

Serephucus

I'd reconsider overclocking if I were you. It's extremely easy, basically risk-free now-a-days, and will certainly help you get the longer lifespan you're looking for out of the machine. Just for reference, the non-overclocking build is below, with a good cooler for noise reasons (If you're used to watercooling, I wouldn't touch the stock cooler with a ten foot pole):

Item|Price
ASRock B75 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€67.19
Intel Core i5-3570 Box, LGA1155|€186.42
8GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€34.76
Noctua NH-U12P SE2, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1156|€60.27
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€367.63

Now the rig with overclocking support, and a cooler for OC/noise reasons:

Item|Price
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€85.04
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€205.99
8GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€34.76
Noctua NH-U12P SE2, Sockel AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1366/1156|€60.27
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€405.05

For not a lot of money at all, you could get an extra 30-40% performance, with a quick google, and a day's work. Just something to consider.

marco_polo

Your best non overclocking option is probably this. Board has 8 SATA (4xSATA2 + 4xSATA3)ports and it is the best non overclockable Intel CPU that you can find. You could swap in a slighly cheaper i5 like the 3470 and cheaper board with fewer SATA ports like the Pro3 version to cut costs a bit.

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G-Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€40.53
Intel Core i5-3570 Box, LGA1155|€186.42
ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP, Sockel 1155, ATX|€78.74
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€324.68

If you do plenty of multitasking the FX 8320 is a viable reasonably priced alternative as well, only 6 SATA ports here but they are all SATA 3.

Item|Price
AMD FX-8320 Prozessor, Boxed, Sockel AM3+|€155.37
ASRock 970 Pro3, AM3+, ATX|€62.99
8GB-Kit G-Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€40.53
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€277.88

Cooler I'd probably spend at least €25 on a decent tower cooler, nothing too fancy of not overclocking. Since you are coming from a silent CPU cooler then you might well find the stock fans quite annoying.

unkel

Cheers lads, very helpful suggestions. I'll brew over it for a bit