I've had my current build for about 3 years. Unfortunately, my mobo's quit on me. Based on advice in the forum, rather than remaining locked to an old chipset, I've decided to upgrade both processor and mobo, and get a new case while I'm at it. With RAM so cheap, I'm thinking of getting some new RAM too. I'll be using my existing GFX card, and disk drives. Budget for the upgrade: approx £500 What do you think of this build: (existing equipment in blue, new in green) CPU: 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K - £180 Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene - £150 Memory: 8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 - £35 CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer i30 - £30 Case: Corsair Carbide 500R - £90 GFX: 2GB MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III Power PSU: Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail Storage: 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, S Storage: 2TB Seagate ST32000542AS Barracuda Storage: Crucial CT128M4SSD2BAA 128GB M4 SSD 2.5 inch Total: £485 Usage: Primarily gaming, at 1080p. I don't think i'll be overclocking, though I don't mind having the option. My PSU is about 3 years old, do you think that 650W is sufficient for this build?
Why not a smaller case as well, if you are going mATX ? Silverstone TJ08-E, PS07 ? Or go even smaller, Bitfenix Prodigy + ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe ? Your stuff should fit as well, and the price should be very similar (boards are priced nearly equal in my country), case is cheaper. You could take out the top hard drive bay, making room for the graphics card, your hard drives would fit in bottom tray... The only thing you need to check if your graphics card can fit, as max is dual slot in this ITX case (seems like a dual slot to me, so it should be OK).
You said about your PSU, I think it would be fine with that load. A rule of thumb I was told was 650 for 1 GFX, 850 for 2, and 1K+ for any more. (obviously that is a rough guide). All i would say that if it is three ears old ou may find something a bit more efficient out there now.
