Upgrade Advice

spicymchaggis

My current pc specs are

Case: Fractal Design Define R3
Soundcard: Asus Xonar D2 Audio Card
CPU: Intel i5-2500k LGA1155 Processor
PSU: Super Flower Golden Green 550w Power Supply
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 Motherboard
Graphics Card: MSI GEFORCE GTX 680 Graphics Card
OS DDS - Crucial M4 SSD with windows 7
RAM: 4GB G-Skill Ripjaws DD3 1333 x 4 (16gb total)
Cooling: Noctua NH-D14

First of all Im looking to upgrade to windows 8 and I also need some more sata ports so a sata card may be needed. Would like a case with red led's and something nice looking than my plain case, benefits of a full tower? As far as future proofing is there any real advantage to running two of the same graphics cards? What is my power supply capable of running?
I havnt had any trouble running any game on ultra yet. How does my cpu stand up?
Looking to try overclocking as well so maybe more fans? A front panel fan controller maybe as well.
Any help would be appreciated

marco_polo

Not much to do here for the core components at least tbh, presuming you're gaming at 1080p you probably won't need to touch the GPU for at least another year or two, and with a little overclocking which you probably don't even need to do yet, you could easily knock another 2-3 years out of the CPU.

In terms of longevity the i5-2500k is definately one of the best CPU buys of the last few years as it still compares very well with the last two generations.

uberpixie

spicymchaggis wrote: »

My current pc specs are
First of all Im looking to upgrade to windows 8 and I also need some more sata ports so a sata card may be needed. Would like a case with red led's and something nice looking than my plain case, benefits of a full tower?

Bear in mind your case while a plain jane has very good cooling and keeps the noise from your parts muffled. A new case may be different in cooling prowess and noise silencing features.

Full tower means more space for water cooling gear, not really a huge advantage over your current case unless you go crazy into watercooling and really need the space.

Have a google of the coolermaster haf series of cases or the NZXT phantom series that can come with red leds.

Alternatively just find a case you like the look of and fit red led fans yourself.

spicymchaggis wrote: »

As far as future proofing is there any real advantage to running two of the same graphics cards? What is my power supply capable of running?

PSU you will prob want to beef up a little if you were considering sli, sli only really comes into it's own at very high resolutions though.

A lot of folk just prefer one powerful gfx card over running two as there is less hassle and worries about game support. Not all games support sli or support it well.

What monitor do you have? what res do you game at?

spicymchaggis wrote: »

I havnt had any trouble running any game on ultra yet. How does my cpu stand up?

No need to upgrade cpu, cpu is still excellent.

spicymchaggis

Cheers for all the help. GPU and CPU good.
How am I sorted motherboard wise? I will need more sata ports and would like a fan controller. My heat sink good or would something like the corsair h100 work better?
Case wise I'd like something windowed and enough space for a fair amount of drives.
PSU is good then if im only gonna use the one gpu? Might consider a new one anyways for something modular

uberpixie

spicymchaggis wrote: »

How am I sorted motherboard wise? I will need more sata ports and would like a fan controller.

No real point replacing motherboard, motherboard does have x6 sata ports though. How many drives you looking to fit? How old are the harddrives?
(you might be better off buying one or two large capacity harddrives and consolidating your data.....

A fan controller will fit in a 3.5" bay or 5.25" on the front of the pc. There are loads to choose from.

spicymchaggis wrote: »

Case wise I'd like something windowed and enough space for a fair amount of drives.

Some sample cases in no particular order....

Silverstone Fortress 01 with window kit
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-ft01s-w-silver-fortress-flagship-aluminum-mid-tower-case-with-side-window-w-o-psu

Corsair 800D
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-obsidian-series-800d-black-full-tower-case-with-side-window-3-x-140mm-fans-w-o-psu

Silverstone fortress 2 with window kit
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-sst-ft02b-w-black-full-tower-aluminum-case-usb-30-with-side-window-w-o-psu

silverstone Temjin 07 with window kit
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-temjin-tj07b-w-e-atx-black-aluminium-full-tower-case-with-usb-30-and-window-(w-o-psu)


Corsair 600T graphite with window kit
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-graphite-series-600t-silver-mid-tower-gaming-case-with-side-window-w-o-psu

Corsair 650D wit window kit
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsair-obsidian-series-650d-all-black-mid-tower-case-with-sata-dock-and-side-window-w-o-psu

Bitfenix colossus with window kit and gaudy red lighting :-)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-BX&groupid=2362&catid=1850

Cooler Master HAF 912 (more gaudy red lighting)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-302-CM&groupid=2362&catid=29

Cooler Master Haf X (ditto! with the red lighting)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-203-CM&groupid=2362&catid=29

Corsair 540 Carbide
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-143-CS&groupid=2362&catid=1489

spicymchaggis wrote: »

My heat sink good or would something like the corsair h100 work better?

Your heat sink is good, a corsair h100 is not going to be much better. I would not be in a rush to upgrade your cpu cooler.

spicymchaggis wrote: »

PSU is good then if im only gonna use the one gpu? Might consider a new one anyways for something modular

Your psu is still good an I would not be in a rush to replace unless you go a case with a window kit.

TBH it sounds like you currently suffer from upgraditis: the unstopable need to upgrade when you really don't need to :-)
(don't worry there is a support group for this affliction here as many of us suffer from this as well)

spicymchaggis

hard drives arnt that old Im just a bit of a storage / organisation whore. I like keeping things seperate. a drive for tv shows, one for movies, os, photography, backup drive, gaming etc.....
The more I see the lighting on cases now the less I want it.
I think I might just invest in nice new case then and a pci card for more sata ports, any recommendations on any?
The nzxt is nice and supports a fair amount of drives. I notice it also has a fan controller built in.
Want something nice and sleek looking as I will be moving it into my office / library im building.
The nzxt looks nice or even the define xl r2 or some of the corsairs
What' the advantage of changing the psu if I get a windowed case?

BloodBath

The Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 will be out soon if you can wait.

http://www.nanoxia-world.com/product/1/55/Deep+Silence+6

spicymchaggis

BloodBath wrote: »

The Nanoxia Deep Silence 6 will be out soon if you can wait.

http://www.nanoxia-world.com/product/1/55/Deep+Silence+6

now that is a very nice case indeed. enough room for plenty of drives without having to move the cage if I wanted to try my hand at water cooling.
Any estimated release date and price?

BloodBath

No clue on the date. The deep silence one midi goes for €95 on HWVS so I'd guess around €150 for the 6.

spicymchaggis

damn, really want that case now. Good pci cards for extra sata ports?
Best place to pick up a copy of windows 8?

spicymchaggis

Ive settled between the nanoxia deep silence 1 or corsair 600t.
What modular PSU's would you recommend.
Was also thinking about the consolidating my existing drives as suggest to 4 or 5 3tb drives. What would be the best way of running them? RAID? Would have them, my ssd for os and my cavier black for my games

BloodBath

For an sli rig the Corsair 750w or 850w hx are good modular psus that are gold rated with a 7 year warranty. 750w is loads I'd say.

http://www.hardwareversand.de/700+-+800+Watts/63629/Corsair+Professional+Series+HX750+80PLUS+Gold+750W.article

spicymchaggis

only looking to run a single card. also my soundcard, a bunch of drives, dvd tray and fan controller
need to figure out the bed way to do the drives though

BloodBath

Why bother upgrading at all then. What you have is perfectly good. With a good cable managed case going modular will make no difference.

How many hdd's are you adding and for what purpose? If it's just storage drives they don't need to be that fast and setting up a raid is only going to increase the chance of losing everything with a single drive failure.

I don't see the point of upgrading from a fractal design R3 to the Nanoxia either. They are very similar cases.

spicymchaggis

I have my ssd and my cavier and then a bunch of random 500gb, 1tb and 2tb drives. Was thinking of replacing them with 4 or 5 3tb seagate drives for music, video files, recordings, photograpgy, documents etc...

spicymchaggis

I've decided to do a little bit of an upgrade and do the inside of my case in a black / red colour scheme and want to pick up one of these boards due to extra sata, the colour scheme and a slot for usb 3.0 on the board but would like to know the difference between these 3 boards


http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/57626/ASRock+Fatal1ty+Z77+Professional%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/101867/Special+item%3A+ASRock+Fatal1ty+Z68+Professional+Gen3%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article

http://www.hardwareversand.de/DDR3/102326/Special+item%3A+ASRock+Fatal1ty+Z77+Professional%2C+Sockel+1155%2C+ATX.article