Was going to buy a new NAS but the floods have put the disks way over my budget, so it's time to upgrade my trusty Q6600 setup instead... I'd rather stick with Intel, sorry AMD fans, but the ranges have changed considerably since I bought the Q6600! I don't game, the only taxing thing it'll be doing is Photoshop work and iTunes... I work on A0/A1 multi-layer files at 300/600dpi so I'm going to want 16GB of RAM. Must be mATX as it's going inside my existing case. Not fussed about OC'ing as I like as quiet a setup as I can. Was planning on keeping my HD4600 unless the IGP is any good now? Don't want to spend more than about £350... I only need CPU/Mobo/RAM/Cooler as I'm keeping the rest of my setup, so, can anyone recommend a good upgrade for me?
I'd go for something like this. Maybe even knock it up to a 2500k, even though you're not overclocking, it has a better IGP and would allow overclocking at a later date. Should you want to overclock, add in a cooler like the Freezer13 for a mild overclock or a Dark Rock Advanced for a bigger overclock. I didn't include a cooler in the original link because the stock one is very good if you're running at stock speeds.
I did the same thing a couple of months ago so I could occasionally work from home (I'm a Solidworks CAD user). I went with a 2500K and an Asus P8P67-M Pro, keeping my 260GTX as I understand OpenGL is worse on later Nvidia cards.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=289 Id definitely go quad in 2011 (benchmarks are for the 2500k at stock, which will be the same as the 2500).
Don't know how I missed that in the specs! That's an awesome tool for comparisons! I'm actually thinking about getting the i5 2500K and a Z68 board so I can use the PG - that will generate less heat than having a graphics card also. Hoping I'll be able to run a passive cooler with just a single exhaust fan as I like a quiet PC.
Yep, very useful indeed! I use the iGPU on my system, didnt see any point adding heat and noise to my pc if I am not gaming on it. The Intel HD3000 gfx have been absolutely fine apart from a well known BSOD on H67 boards when using HDMI output (issue may actually be resolved with the latest drivers although Im not sure). I run two displays from it and it works really well.
Thanks guys for the advice Prob going to up the budget a bit and get these: Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 CMV8GX3M2A1333C9 PC3-10666 (1333) [two of these for 16GB RAM] Corsair Hydro Series H60
Go for 1600mhz ram, its the sweet spot for price/performance. Also, the XMS 3 stuff is 1.65V, ideally you want 1.5v for sandybridge, and something low profile (future proof yourself if you ever switch back to a BIG air cooler). Your options : http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-...pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v Or in a 16GB pack http://www.scan.co.uk/products/16gb...pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v Or this G.Skill stuff, bit more expensive but looks awesome, especially against a Gene-Z mobo 8GB http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-060-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517 16GB http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-064-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
Second that, if you're spending a fortune (£140) on that motherboard i'd give it some decent memory. Used that g.skill in my last build and its awesome! Get a kit with XMP 1.5v as they are intended for p67 and z68 sandybridge chipsets which will ensure compatibilty and optimum performance. You can get a perfectly decent z68 motherboard for £100 or less, if you're not overclocking i don't see the point in that Asus maximus other than it looks damn cool. I'd get a bequiet dark power air cooler for better overclocking performance, but i guess the h60 will be quieter being a liquid cooler.
You won't notice the difference between 1333 and 1600 memory tbh; if you need more get more, but don't get it or add voltages at the cost of a few extra MHz. Since you're OCing anyway not need to look at the 1.35V stuff I would strongly suggest an SSD too, even though you're playing in RAM all day background tasks won't wait to pull stuff from a HDD - esp. if you're loading lots of tiny files in plugins etc
I'm not overly fussed about memory speeds, I'm not going to notice miliseconds difference between the memory speeds. So long as the memory I listed will work with that mobo I'm happy. I chose the Maximus because it had HDMI, eSATA, 6x SATA ports and is Z68... if there's a cheaper board that'll do that I'd be happy for a different board! I'm going to build some custom ducting for the H60 so it sucks air from the rear fan and exhausts directly out the top of the case, going for a quiet system rather than OC'ing potential I was going to look into SSD's and maybe use the SSD Cache feature with a smaller drive? Not sure if that feature was any good tho?
