Hi, Would like to know some advice on upgrading my computer. My current specs are: Antec P182 Black Case (no PSU) Arctic Cool. Freezer7Pro s775 500G SAMSUNG SATA2 HD501LJ 640MB BFG 8800GTS PCIE O/CLOCK ASUS P5K SE S775 MOBO Corsair DDR2 TWINX 2GB PC6400 CORSAIR HX 520W MODULAR PSU Logitech G5 Laser Mouse PS2/US Saitek Eclipse PZ30AVR Red LED LiteON 20x DVDRW RAM SATA RETA My budget is probably around £800 Thanks
I went for the asus maximus v gene awesomesauce for £150 but mATX if you don't need expansion cards it is a great bet
I recommend an Asrock board. I use the Extreme 4M in the workstations I sell and they are solid. They are also cheaper than the equivalent Asus board. A 2500k will overclock higher and run lower temps when overclocked. Its also a few bucks cheaper. Otherwise the 3570k will runner cooler with less energy at close to stock clocks. I recommend a Crucial SSD with Seagate or Western Digital for storage. As for video card, I would go with an HD7850 and overlcock it to 1ghz. Its plenty fast to play anything at 1080P. I like Adata and Corsair memory. Get 8gb of 2133 for cheap. Have fun building your new rig.
16gb is a waste of space, even if your into high end video work it still requires multiple instances of that program to get close to 16gb of ram usage. ( which in turn requires multiple processors ) Till more programs can actually benifit passed 2gb of ram then the point of going passed 8gb is small to tiny, Its cheap because nobody really needs memory upgrades anymore. If you have between 6-12gb of ram your not really gonna be upgrading it any time soon. 3570k,560ti (448 cores pref),128gb SSD ( samsung or crucial ), 8gb of ram ( corsair pref ), new cpu cooler (arctic freezer i30 is cheap(£16), powerful, and pretty quiet), Asus z77 board dont buy a ROG board they are a huge waste of cash vs a cheaper board. ( they dont overclock any better thats for sure) Difference between most z77 boards is not really noticeable performance wise either, If you want SLI or Crossfire at a later date make sure you get a board that supports it. Everyboard has the headline features of the z77 series.
For the current price, it would be rude not too. All it would take is the odd flood in the wrong place and BANG, £140 for 4GB!
And why do people keep on recommending the 3570k? No noticeable performance increase from the previous gen, so hot you could cook a steak on it and if you want a really high overclock, then get on the phone to BOC...pointless fanboy, 'I must have the latest' upgrade.
Then why did you buy a 2550k and not a 2500k ? Stupid comment. They are only hot when you put an OC on it, anybody going for a decent CPU should have a decent cooler on it anyway.
The 2500k and 3570k cost the same amount of money could have something to do with people always recommending the later option. ( as recommending 1 year old tech seems a bit backwards to me ) 3570k does have 1 advantage over its 2500k power consumption.
I have had 2 2500k's and this one comes without the onboard graphics which, owning a GTX 670, I have no need for. It is essentially the same chip. And no need for the attitude. 2550/2500k's are not hot, AFTER you put an overclock on them and there is minute performance difference between the Ivybridge furnace.
I chose the 2500k recently, within the past 2 weeks or so. The difference was, as far as I can tell: no native USB3, pcie2 not 3, cooler (when OC'd) marginal performance gain. It was a tough choice, but I opted for tried and tested
The 2500k is a great cpu (i own one). However if I was to build a new system now I would go for ivy bridge simply because its newer, yes they run hotter but they dont run TOO hot.