My Core 2 isn’t cutting it, and I’m getting a decent sized tax return, so I’m going to put some money into upgrading my computer, and would appreciate some help. I’ve never built my own, I think I know what to look for when getting a processor and mobo (socket type, RAM type, number of RAM slots, PCI and PCIe slots) but don’t really know.
The things I want to keep from my current build are the PSU, case, DVD drive, capture card, and GPU. I’m considering getting another GPU and SLIing them together, but my current GPU is a GTX 470, which is notorious for running hot. How hard would it be (if it’s even possible/advisable) to get a better cooling system for it?
I’m not sure what model my case is, but here is a picture of it. It looks similar to some of the CoolerMaster cases I’ve seen.
Anyway, here’s my current parts list:
Intel Core 2 6600 (OC’d to 2.9 GHz)
4x2 GB DDR2 400 MHz
GeForce GTX 470
AVerMedia C027 PCIe (capture card)
MSI P6N Platinum (MS-7350 according to CPU-Z)
1 TB 5200 RPM HDD (don’t remember make/model, I’d like to replace this and Ghost the data over to the new one)
CoolMax Green Power 700w (I’d be willing to replace this if the manufacturer sucks, but it hasn’t given me any trouble)
IDE DVD burner w/ LightScribe (I’d be willing to replace this with a basic DVD burner if the new mobo doesn’t have IDE)
I think that covers everything I have now
I want to get at least 8 GB of RAM, and wouldn’t mind having a dedicated sound card, I’ve had onboard sound in every computer I’ve owned, and wouldn’t mind a bit more quality. I also wouldn’t mind suggestions for a new heatsink for the processor. The processor would preferably be an i5 2500k or i7 2600k, and I’d be willing to wait about a month if a new Intel processor is supposed to come out.
I think you probably know most of what you need to. One thing to keep in mind about your chipset though - for 1155 boards, P67 lets you overclock the K series chips, H61 lets you use the on-chip video, and Z68 lets you do both. Now this would sound like P67 is what you want, but from my research (since I am also planning to build a new rig here soon), Z68 has the most value for your money. The low-end to mid P67 boards are just as expensive as the Z68 boards, and the Z68s generally have more features than the P67s.
Even the 460 can handle most modern games at high-ultra settings at 1080p. I don’t think SLI would benefit you much. Your Core 2 is probably bottlenecking your GPU in fact, so I would wait and see how it performs after you get your new chip. If you really want to SLI later, you could go with a water cooling solution which should be plenty effective. It’s not extremely hard to do, but you definitely want to be comfortable working on your PC.
Yes, definitely replace that HDD. Although hard drive prices are still pretty steep, that drive must be slowing down your loading speeds. Or, if you can afford it, get an SSD and put your Windows install and games on that, and use the HDD for storage. Also, unless your Windows install is fresh, I’d recommend doing a new installation on whatever your new drive is. It’s a good idea to do it every so often, and an upgrade is the perfect opportunity.
The PSU ought to be alright. Once you switch to an i5 you should consume less power anyway.
You’re almost certainly going to have to replace the burner, as few motherboards nowadays come with IDE.
Yeah, there’s no real reason to go with less than 8. It’s dirt cheap (picked up a set for $30 myself), and will be beneficial for 64 bit systems, but more than that is overkill for most applications.
Sound cards are pretty nice man, a big difference in sound quality from onboard. Get one if you can, but try to get one that has an onboard processor so it doesn’t drain your CPU power while playing games.
For your processor, I wouldn’t bother going higher than an i5 2500k. There’s not really much benefit for games, but if you do video editing or 3d rendering or something than you may want to. Personally, I think I’m just going to go with an i3 2120. It’s already proven to be a champ in games and I don’t do much overclocking, so it’s pretty compelling to save that $100 over a 2500k and put it in a sound card or something. Ivy bridge is supposed to come out this spring, but I wouldn’t bother waiting. My philosophy is that if you start waiting for the next big thing, you’ll always be waiting and never buying since there’s new announcements and new releases all the time.
Also the Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a really popular cooler for i3/i5/i7 chips. It’s a monster though, so make sure you can fit all 6.25 inches of it into your case before you buy it.
For a cooler, I have a Corsair H50, which is sort of a water cooler. It comes with water in it and cycles it through by itself so all you do is put it in and it works. I have my CPU overclocked from 2.8GHz to 3.5GHz and it’s running at about 40C right now and usually only gets up to 60C when playing games.
I forgot to mention budget in my first post. Basically, I want this thing to last a while, but don’t need the most current/expensive parts. I will have enough to do a completely new build, but would rather use what I can from the parts I already have. It needs to be reasonable, but doesn’t really have an upper limit. (IE: I don’t want to end up spending more than $1200, I would assume I could get great parts for less than that)
Thanks Orpheon and Kairouseki, I’ll get a measurement of the space inside my case, and I’ll take your suggestions into consideration. About the video card: if I was going to get a new one, it would be later, to see how well the current card performs with a better processor behind it.
Yeah that’s more than enough to get good parts. My new build is only gonna be about $500 total, but that’s reusing PSU, GPU, and HDD, and not getting the most expensive stuff. You should be fine. As for me, right now I’m still stuck trying to decide on a sound card…
I saw that, I’ll refer to your thread as far as choosing my sound card (if I go for one)
And real quick, as far as gaming goes, what’s the difference between an i5 2500k and an i7 2600k? Why do people turn hyperthreading off with the i7 2600k? Will FRAPsing stuff be significantly different between the two?
I know they are essentially the same, and the i7 has hyperthreading, but other than that, the only difference seems to be the i7 is almost $100 more.
I really want to learn as much as I can about parts doing this so I’ll have less questions next time.
Alright, I’ve got a list here. It has both an i5 and an i7, I’ll remove one before ordering. Let me know if this looks good or bad. (no sound card or cooling fans/heat sinks yet, I’ll look deeper into cooling after getting home from work today, gonna measure the inside of my case and see what’ll fit as far as monster processor coolers go)
lookin’ good. Think about getting a custom cooler for the i5 (i.e. CoolerMaster Hyper 212+), or, if you are going to SLI two GTX470’s and have money, water cooling.
The nVidia 4-series cards are probably a lot cheaper than the 5’s by now, but they’re notoriously hot and power-hungry. If you can, spring for a single GTX 560Ti 448-core model. Those cards are beastly; so much so that they’ve pretty much supplanted the GTX 570.
I’m still unsure of what I’m gonna do about the video card, cooling wise, but as I said, I’m going to wait until after everything else is in place before I decide about that. And the main reason I said I would measure the inside of my case is because
I will take all opinions into consideration, though
And about my earlier question comparing i5 to i7, what’s the main difference aside from hyperthreading and price? Why do people disable hyperthreading? From my understanding, the way hyperthreading works essentially doubles the number of cores with very little loss, with the way it’s done these days. Is it just because there isn’t any point right now, or are there performance concerns? This is the biggest question I have about this build. (parts-wise)
Hyperthreading is apparently not used in games as most games, I think, typically use only 2 cores, and some still only use one, such as the Stalker games. Hyperthreading is useful for modeling and video editing however. Not quite sure the reason for disabling it but if you don’t model much or edit video much there’s really no point in having hyperthreading.
I have actually never heard of anybody disabling hyperthreading on their i7. Then again, I don’t know many people with i7’s; the i5 is way more more than adequate for almost everybody. I think the only other differences are that the i7 has a slightly larger cache and it comes with a higher clock speed out of the box.
This. I haven’t heard of it either, but what it comes down to is that getting anything better than the i5 2500k is likely going to be a waste. Even the LGA2011 chips are hardly any better at gaming than a 2500k. Might as well save the dough and spend it on something else.
Alright, thanks for the input guys. I saw someone here, I think it was Collision, that got an i7 and said they disabled hyperthreading.
And I just measured the space between the mobo and the side of the case, it’s (almost) exactly 7 inches, so I can fit a Cooler Master Hyper 212 if I decide to go with one of those.
Got my federal return today, I’ll order parts today or tomorrow, I’ll post a final list here before ordering. Is there a website I can go to to check compatibility issues for everything? I want to make sure it’ll all work before I spend money on it.
Alright, I just put in the order, I went with the list I put above, with an i5, a Cooler Master Hyper 212 and some Arctic Silver thermal paste. (recommended by a guy at work) I would hope with the motherboard and processor both being Intel, that they won’t have any compatibility problems.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I’ll revive this thread if I need more help with the video card down the line somewhere.
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