CPU Which way to go re CPU - need advice

First of all, I'd like to say hello to everyone as this is my first post.

I am currently sourcing components for a new pc at the moment, but have gotten to a point where I need a little advice on which route to take from here regarding the CPU. I should say I have built a few pc's but not recently due to the wife having triplets (hence the username) so am a little sketchy on the newer processors. Past builds have always tended to comprise AMD processors, so this is going to be my first Intel based system!

Anyway, I have purchased the following components for the i series build;

Mainboard - ASUS P8Z68-V-LX 1155 board
RAM - 4GB (2x2GB) set of Corsair Vengeance Ram
case - Coolermaster Elite 360
A CiT 550w PSU, however I am considering throwing that in the current pc and getting a better one for this new build
Bog standard optical drive




but only have enough money left at the moment to cover either of the following

a/ Purchase a lower end i5 processor (something like the 2300 series) and rely on the onboard graphics until I can put money away for a decent mid range graphics card, which will probably take a few months if the saving to get where I am at has taken.

b/ Purchase an i3 processor, and purchase a mid range card (I class £50-£70 as my mid range) at the same time, thereby having all components available. I will have to add about £40 onto what I have to get the graphics card though.


My thoughts are that I should go for the i5 as its the better processor - albeit, it won't be the 2500k as I don't have that kind of money available (top end around £140, but that means adding an extra £40 to the remaining budget), but at least the mainboard I purchased will (hopefully) allow future upgrades of the processor to something which could be overclocked.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Andy (dadoftriplets)

 

i would wait till april ivy bridge should be out by then

 

Firstly don't use the CiT PSU, go for a better branded one. Corsair are really good. Other folks will suggest different brands.

Mobo is fine Z68 are cracking boards, though brand again is down to you. ASUS boards are pretty good.

CPU - i5 2500k seems to be the way to go right now. That gives you scope to OC if needs be. The i7 2600k is overkill unless you need the Hyper Threading.
GPU - nVidia GTX 560ti seems to be what many people would suggest as a mid range GPU. Though this card wont be under £100. What resolution monitor are you using?

And as suggested wait to Ivy Bridge and prices on i5's should come down a little. Plus 600 series nVidia cards are due out Q3 I believe. That may reduce the prices on 500 series GPU's.

 

I'd concur with the PSU argument, Last CoolIT PSU I had nuked a motherboard on the way out. Then the other motherboard I plugged in to test it, too. I was not amused at the time. Corsair Basic power supplies would more than do the trick for anything up to a 2500K & 560Ti combination.

 

If I didn't want to wait another two months to do the build, what lower end i5 processor would you suggest for near enough £140

If that GTX560 is mid range, then I will be looking at the lower end of the market otherwise I'll be saving for months for it!

Re monitors - I have two, of two different resolutions, an old Acer 1366x768 and a BenQ G2222HDL, which I believe is 1080p

What sort of watt should I be looking for? I had a look at one of the PSU calculators which gave a reasonable 336w/386w PSU, however my current computer is on pretty much all day (7am-11pm) so I gathered on increasing the wattage to 550/600 - would you agree?

 

if all you are doing is gaming, grab an i3, and a solid psu...400 watts will be more than enough...corsair builder series or the like...

 

Corsair Builder 430w CPU would fit you. As for CPU I'd say go i3 2100, or even a pentium G620 if you REALLY want to save. In gaming it is almost always better to have more graphics card than CPU, except for terribly coded console ports.

 

I should have been more forthcoming with information. This new build will be used for ripping a few hundred DVD's for use with a media extender and also encoding them into usable files for my Android tablet. I also plan to do a bit of gaming - with my current build, I'm playing BF2, burnout paradise, football manager - witht he new build i would like it to be able to handle some of the current titles (COD, BF3 etc)

And, of course, the usual internet usage, office tasks and sketchup design work for future woodworking builds.

 

How about buying a second hand GPU for now, 768mb GTX 460's go for £65 here on the marketplace (which you'll be able to access after a month here and 50 or something posts). Alternatively of course, you can shop at evil bay.

I'd definitely go for the quad core CPU. While some games/tasks don't really take advantage, 4 cores are essential for some games and tasks like rendering

Also, as other have said! Get rid of that PSU!

I'm going to be honest here: Add another few quid to your budget, at the bottom end of the market, the investment of a little more always nets huge gains (and the opposite is true at the top end of the marke with the law of diminishing returns)

 

Re PSU - Noted! - will probably stick it in the current computer to give a little leeway as it only has a 450w in it at the moment - it will eventually be used by the triplets maybe in a year or so, but then again, I could always set up some sort of NAS with the case....... As for this, a 430w + Corsair needs to be purchased

The on board graphics of the i series processors - I read they are as powerful as a Radeon HD5450? Is this true? The reason I ask is that is the card I have in my current pc and it runs most of the games I currently play just fine. This would mean I could leave the gfx for a couple of months until I get some cash together for a decent card.

I think I am going to take your advice and put a little extra cash towards the processor. I read the review on BT regarding the i5-2400, the i5 2500k and the i7 2600k - This review gave me the impression that although the 2400 isn't designated as a over clockable CPU (with 'k' designation) in the usual sense, there is still room for pushing the processor a little further than stock? But then again, looking at the article again, the date is was released at the start of 2011, so I'm not sure whether that information is still valid.

If this is true, then I think the decision to be made is whether to go for the lower priced i5 2400 series or the i5 2500k as I don't plan to do much oc'ing, if any at the moment.

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.

 

You can overclock it, a tiny tiny tiny bit – basically your multiplier is locked, so you can only increase the base clock, which is tied in with al manner of other components on the CPU. So for example, if your multiplier is locked at 31, and you can increase your base clock from 100 – 102mhz, you’ll gain an overclock of 62mhz – hardly worth getting out of bed for. In all honesty, if you get anything that isn’t a K variant – forget all thoughts of overclocking. That said, it’s still a very very capable processor, and you’ll be hard pressed to find anything it won’t do well.

Don’t know off the top of my head how good the iGPU in the 2400 is in comparison to its discrete brethren off the top of my head. What games do you play? And at what resolution? It’s probably ok for old school games, but it will be absolutely woeful for anything made in the last 3 or 4 years or so.

Honestly, look at second hand GPUs, I saw a 4850 change hands for £20 the other day!

 

sounds like you need to decide what the final budget is, get a solid psu, then a cpu or cpu/gpu from whats left...not giving us a hard amount you can spend doesn't allow for great advice as you saw at the beginning of your thread.

i wouldn't worry about shelling out for a new 2500k, especially if you dont plan to "overclock much". that is the whole point of those chips. additionally, an i3 hyperthreaded will give roughly the same performance of a quad non-hyperthreaded in any apps or games that are multi-threaded. kinda surprised parge isn't conveying that o.0. additionally, most "multi-threaded" games still only hit 2 cores with any real work...

 

The budget was £150 max having already spent out on the PSU, MB, Ram and Case (already have Sata HDD), for either of the two options I listed in my initial posting (either i3 and GPU or i5 and wait for GPU)


sharpethunder - I have just read Ivy Bridge is now delayed until June, and I cannot wait until June to do the build. See the link
http://www.itpro.co.uk/639163/intel-pushes-back-ivy-bridge-processors-until-june

 

This isn't strictly true. The i5-23xx-25xx non K all have "limited overclockability". This basically means then can all be overclocked 4 bins above their max turbo. In the 2400's case this should yield a quad core clock of around 3.8-3.9GHz (I can't remember exactly).

Clock for clock it will be identical to the 2500k, at 3.8 it should fast enough for basically anything bar being the highest on benchmark leader boards.

I would agree that saving the extra for the 2500k is wise but ultimately if the 2400 is al you can afford you won't be too dissapointed.

The iGPU is a HD2000 6EU model, it is the lower powered of the two available in the SB processors. Oddly in the desktop lineup the fully unlocked "K" models have the HD3000 12EU GPU. This is odd as at the time of launch the MB that allowed you to overclock them also didn't allow for iGPU output..... If anything the iGPU situation should have been the other way round with the fully unlocked models getting the lower end GPU.

The HD2000 will ultimately be to slow to game on enjoyably. You would have to stump up extra for a Discrete GPU if you plan on playing anything recent. The same holds true with the i3-2100 processor as well.

If you plan on doing alot of media encoding I would definately plump for the i5 over the i3. This is probably one of the key consumer areas where the i5 is noticably faster than an i3 at the same clockspeed.

GPU wise if you looking new I would plump for a HD6860 1GB. Overclockers have one on TWO for £89.99. If you don't want to spend as much then a HD6770 might suffice at around £65 although at this price range I would start to look at the used market. I managed to pick up a XFX HD4870 1GB with an Accelero Twin Turbo Pro cooler attached, boxed with all original accessories and in great condition for a little under £35 from my local independant Game Store.

 

2500k or 2700k Cheesecake or wait for a x63 multiper in IB

 

The 2500k is £163 on scan, are you sure you can't stretch another £13? A few more posts on here and you won't pay postage on Scan deliveries. There's your extra £13

What might be better is if you give us you budget, what you need, what you don't need and see what we can build for that amount.

 

*** This was written earlier this afternoon - but I forgot to press the submit button ****

Thanks for that xaser04 - I think the decision has been set upon getting one of the i5 24xx series as it suits my budget and will do everything I want it to at a decent pace. Yes, the i5 2500K would be nice, but I don't see me trying to overclock the processor (put it another way, I have never tried overclocking for fear of burning the cpu out/blowing the computer up!

For the time being, I could just take the Radeon HD5450 from my old pc and stick it in the new one until I can afford a newer, more up to date dedicated GPU - would that be a better bet than relying on the onboard GPU for now?

 

I already get free delivery from Scan through AVForums - used it twice so far (MB, Ram, PSU, Case, cabling and other little bits.)


AlphaAngel - I am already stretching my budget for an i5 - I had planned on an i3 21xx, but decided otherwise I have £100 cash and was going to bump it up to enough to cover the i5 24xx which I believe is somewhere between £139-£145. On top of that I need to shell out for a further PSU to replace the Cit one I bought, which I've decided will go in the old pc, and the one from the old pc will go into another old case with a really old AMD Sempron 3400 (i think) which I've had floating about.

And, the wife has been on at me to do some decorating, make the doors for the bookcase..... the list is endless and all requiring cash to be thrown at it!


To make it easy

I have for this build
Mainboard - Asus P8Z68-V-LX
Ram - Corsair Vengeance 2 x 2GB
Case - Coolermaster Elite 360
DVD Writer - Samsung xxxxxxx Can't remember but it don't matter
I have a PSU but it will need replacing


BUDGET FOR i5 CPU and PSU - £180 - I am not that worried about overclocking so please take this into consideration. I also need a GPU, but I plan on using the one out of the old PC to save some cash in the immediate future.

 

In this instance yes it would.

The HD2xxx is not bad per se it just isn't any good for gaming. The HD3000 is better but nothing to write home about.

If you want to stick rigidly to your budget then the i5 2400 is a great cpu.

 

In terms of PSU's which brands are best to look at? Quite a few BT users have mentioned Corsair, but what about the likes of Antec, Coolermaster, OCZ etc - are these just as good as the Corsair branded PSU's or is there something I am not getting.

I put the motherboard in (test fit) into the elite 360 - VERY VERY tight fit. Yes it can accept a full ATX board, butI may suffer problems with drives and cabling overhanging and what not.