upgrading

darego

built my computer last year with the intention of upgrading around now:

specs atm
8 gigs of ram
as rock z68 pro3 gen3
xfx pro 650w
Intel Celeron G530 (got this just until i upgraded)
ati radeon 4850 (got it off a friend until i upgraded)
R3 case/1gb HD etc

now i want to upgrade CPU and get a GPU and maybe even the mobo. i'm not too into FPS games but i play some sometimes so when i do i'd like decent FPS on my samsung 24" sncmaster

i have 400~500~ to spend on the cpu/mobo and gpu. what cpu/mobo would you guys recommend? also what gpu is best bang for the buck atm?

cheers

Danger781

I assume your mobo is socket 1155 so get this CPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Generation-i5-3570K-3-40GHz-Technology/dp/B007RUZKK6/ £169.60

And get this GPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BBKO65S/ £208.30

Comes to a little over €440 and I highly doubt you can get much better for the money :P

darego

cheers for the reply buddy, but you linked 2 GPUs

Danger781

darego wrote: »

cheers for the reply buddy, but you linked 2 GPUs

Fixed! :P

darego

thanks a lot. is there a new generation of cpus out? how much more would it cost to get the new i5 + a new mobo to accommodate it?

although that looks like a good deal for €440

BloodBath

Go to sellers and select Amazon for the £208 price on the card. Those 2 would be your best bet.

You could overclock the cpu as well with your current board. It might need a BIOS update for ivy though.

Upgrading to haswell would not be worth the extra costs. I'd add a good cpu cooler like this and overclock for far bigger performance gains.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-120mm/dp/B0068OI7T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1372685995&sr=1-1&keywords=212+evo

darego

cheers for the reply. i actually have a spare heatsink that i will use. will my motherboard work with ivy bridge? as i bought it thinking i was going to go with an i5 2500k sandybridge

BloodBath

Yes it supports ivy but may need a bios update as I said.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?cat=CPU&Model=Z68%20Pro3%20Gen3

darego

Danger781 wrote: »

I assume your mobo is socket 1155 so get this CPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Generation-i5-3570K-3-40GHz-Technology/dp/B007RUZKK6/ £169.60

And get this GPU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BBKO65S/ £208.30

Comes to a little over €440 and I highly doubt you can get much better for the money :P

was going to order these 2 today lads but i seen the price on the card has gone up a lot. is there anywhere else i could get a 7950 and i5 3570K for 440~450 quid?

darego

bump looking to order tomorrow lads and can't find a cheap 7950. have 250 euro to spend on a gpu. it's a pitty this bad boy is out of stock for only 250 quid
http://www.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=82940&agid=2270

darego

after looking into things i have found the powercolor 7870 MYST edition. supposedly runs on the same chip as the 7950 and can overclock to near 7950 performance. a bargain for 210 euro?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/POWERCOLOR-AX7870-2GBD5-2DHPPV3E-Graphics-DisplayPort/dp/B00AO35AXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1374454510&sr=1-1&keywords=PowerColor+HD+7870+MYST

can anyone confirm this? if not i can go with a 660ti also for 210 euro

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GTX660-TI-DC2-2GD5-Graphics-Surround-PCI-Express/dp/B008X3CMSE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374455635&sr=8-1&keywords=660+ti

Lu Tze

darego wrote: »

after looking into things i have found the powercolor 7870 MYST edition. supposedly runs on the same chip as the 7950 and can overclock to near 7950 performance. a bargain for 210 euro?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/POWERCOLOR-AX7870-2GBD5-2DHPPV3E-Graphics-DisplayPort/dp/B00AO35AXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1374454510&sr=1-1&keywords=PowerColor+HD+7870+MYST

can anyone confirm this? if not i can go with a 660ti also for 210 euro

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GTX660-TI-DC2-2GD5-Graphics-Surround-PCI-Express/dp/B008X3CMSE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374455635&sr=8-1&keywords=660+ti

If yoy are going for 7870 joker/xt card, aria have (or at least had yesterday) the xfx version with better cooling than power color, which is supposed to be very loud, with 4 free games for £165

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+DD+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140

BloodBath

The 760gtx wouldn't be a bad option either. It would outperform the 7870xt but no free games.

Item|Price
Palit GeForce GTX 760 Jetstream 2GB mit GeForce Experience|€238.96
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€201.87
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€459.82

darego

cheers lads. an extra 40 quid for the 760 - the games so going to go with that 7870. for 200 euro + the extra free games it looks like a bargain

Gumbi

darego wrote: »

cheers lads. an extra 40 quid for the 760 - the games so going to go with that 7870. for 200 euro + the extra free games it looks like a bargain

I would personally go for the 760. The Double D has a poor cooler AFAIK.

darego

Gumbi wrote: »

I would personally go for the 760. The Double D has a poor cooler AFAIK.

cheers for the reply. i am not ordering the i5 for another 2 weeks so if i was to order from HWS i would just be ordering the 760 for 254 including shipping. would that be the best i could do(gpu wise) for 250 quid budget?

edit:
http://www.hardwareversand.de/2048+MB/82648/Gainward+GeForce+GTX+760%2C+2GB+DDR5.article

found this 760 for a tad cheaper. worth saving the extra few euros? haha or is the other one worth it just for the better fans?

Gumbi

darego wrote: »

cheers for the reply. i am not ordering the i5 for another 2 weeks so if i was to order from HWS i would just be ordering the 760 for 254 including shipping. would that be the best i could do(gpu wise) for 250 quid budget?

edit:

found this 760 for a tad cheaper. worth saving the extra few euros? haha or is the other one worth it just for the better fans?

Why not just get it all together and pay the shipping only once? (19 euro). You haven't linked to any 760 in your last post.

darego

apologies. fixed

won't have enough moola for another 3 or so weeks for the i5 unfortunately

found it on scan. faster delivery
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-palit-gtx-760-jetstream-28nm-pcie-30-(x16)-6200mhz-gddr5-gpu-1072mhz-boost-1137mhz-cores-1152-dv

cheers for the help everyone.

TerrorFirmer

I'd actually love to see the G530 with a GTX760. I'm always fascinated with low end CPU's paired with high end GPU's, mostly because I feel CPU is a grossly overrated area in a market saturated by GPU limited games - generally speaking. Years ago I used to have a dirt cheap overclocked E2160 paired with 4870 crossfire - though I suppose the difference back then was that CPU's weren't locked at all and it was possible to compete against high end extreme CPU's with ridiculously cheap low end Pentium CPU's that overclocked like demons even on air. The fact that mid range Core 2 Duo/quad processors from 2006-7 can keep up with today's modern games pretty well with some mild overclocking speaks volumes though. I have a 3570k, but if I was building a budget platform today, I'd go for an fx-4100 or similar and throw the money into a video card. It yields so much better rewards. Fair enough, if you're running software that can take advantage, but in general, for the majority of 'budget' gaming builds, you're far, far better off investing in a good GPU than wasting a good chunk of your budget on a CPU that whilst technically brilliant, hampers your overall gaming experience by taking away from your GPU budget.

darego

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I'd actually love to see the G530 with a GTX760. I'm always fascinated with low end CPU's paired with high end GPU's, mostly because I feel CPU is a grossly overrated area in a market saturated by GPU limited games - generally speaking. Years ago I used to have a dirt cheap overclocked E2160 paired with 4870 crossfire - though I suppose the difference back then was that CPU's weren't locked at all and it was possible to compete against high end extreme CPU's with ridiculously cheap low end Pentium CPU's that overclocked like demons even on air. The fact that mid range Core 2 Duo/quad processors from 2006-7 can keep up with today's modern games pretty well with some mild overclocking speaks volumes though. I have a 3570k, but if I was building a budget platform today, I'd go for an fx-4100 or similar and throw the money into a video card. It yields so much better rewards. Fair enough, if you're running software that can take advantage, but in general, for the majority of 'budget' gaming builds, you're far, far better off investing in a good GPU than wasting a good chunk of your budget on a CPU that whilst technically brilliant, hampers your overall gaming experience by taking away from your GPU budget.

i am also wondering how it is going to go. do you know if games like League of Legends/World of warcraft will share the demands between CPU and GPU? or will more be put on the GPU? i'm wondering what settings i will be able to achieve until i get the i5

BloodBath

There are lot's of cpu limited games. Not every game is a graphics intensive fps.

In general strategies / mmos and large open fps games like bf3/4 and planetside 2 benefit a lot from the cpu. That's a massive portion of the market.

darego

there are 2 760s on komplett lads

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb_01com/80011815/msi_geforce_n760_twin_frozr_2gd5_oc__2gb__pci_e/details.aspx

http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb_01com/80011713/asus_geforce_gtx760_dc2oc_2gd5__2gb__pci_e/details.aspx

which would be the better card? one of those 2 or the palit JetStream? all 3 work out from 255~260 delivered. they all look like they are factory OC'd. i wouldn't mind buying from komplett, buying irish and all the craic

BloodBath

Are they even Irish?

Asus have been knocking out good coolers for a while.

Skill Magill

BloodBath wrote: »

Are they even Irish.

No but
" Opened the Irish webshop pick up point, local office and RMA department on 1 September to facilitate Komplett.ie customers."
They're out in Blanch

wench

Skill Magill wrote: »

No but
" Opened the Irish webshop pick up point, local office and RMA department on 1 September to facilitate Komplett.ie customers."
They're out in Blanch

They closed the pick up point earlier this year, and the free delivery option went too.

darego

ended up going with the msi gtx 760 gaming OC:
http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb_01com/80011815/msi_geforce_n760_twin_frozr_2gd5_oc__2gb__pci_e/details.aspx

from techpowerup reviews it got the best overclock results out of the 3 cards (looks like the best 760 on the market atm):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GeForce_GTX_760_TF_Gaming/30.html

MSI GTX 760 Gaming 1180 MHz 1960 MHz 87.8 FPS
ASUS GTX 760 DC II OC 1175 MHz 1840 MHz 86.5 FPS
Palit GTX 760 JetStream 1140 MHz 1750 MHz 82.9 FPS


it also, along with the asus one had the best cooling and the lowest fan noise ahead of the palit. the palit jetstream was the best out of the box though (before overclocking) + a free game (which i probably wouldn't have played anyway)