System upgrade, woot!

[WhiteGiant]

Ole' Bessy here is begginning to show her age as she hasn't had a full upgrade for around four years *gasp*.

As such, I've budgeted £600 for a MB/CPU/RAM/GFX/PSU upgrade. Its been a while since I've done any decent research into 'whats hot' etc, so forgive me if I've made any glaring errors and please correct me. This is what I'm planning on getting shortly, coming in at a touch under £580 including delivery ;

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Mobo : Asus P5Q PRO P45
RAM : OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC
GFX : Gigabyte HD 4870 512MB
PSU : OCZ ProXStream 1000W PSU

I'd provide links, but don't have the post count for it yet.

The system will primarily be used for gaming, and I'll dabble with a little overclocking - nothing serious. Also once the system is up and running I'll double the memory to 8gb, and hopefully add another 4870 - hence the beefy PSU.

I was hoping to be able to afford a couple of decent hard drives for a little RAID action, but the need for a new PSU has scuppered that idea.

I was thinking the RAM might be a little excessive, but as its only £60 per 4gb why not? The only thing I haven't changed twenty times in the past week is the processor, it seems to be the best price Vs. performance available at the moment.

Comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!

[tonpal]

Looks like a solid build. Couple of things you may wish to consider.

A P5Q-E motherboard will give you a an e-sata and an additional gigabit LAN connection (iirc) for a modest bump in cost.

The 1000W PSU seems a bit OTT. An 800W should be fine even if you add a second graphics card.

If you are not doing any serious overclocking then some low latency 800MHz RAM would probably do the job as well as the 1066MHz but with the price of DDR2 at the moment that probably wouldn't be a great saving.

Good luck with the build

[Powderhound]

For £600 I'd try to go for something like my system; spend less on the PSU and get a P5Q-E and a quad core. I'm running such as system off a Corsair TX650W, which will easily be good enough for your needs, I reckon.

[staffsMike]

I'd say the same as Powderhound near enough.

The motherboard depends on what you want I suppose. The Asus boards are very feature rich, the Biostar boards are great value for money and DFI and more expensive biostar boards overclock like nobodies business.

CPU wise there is the Q9450 but I'd probably spend the extra (assuming it's still a small difference) on a Q9550.

If you want to go dual and this is for gaming then don't waste your money on the E8400 get the E5200, it's more than enough power for games and clocks nicely too.

[EarlGrey]

1.21 gigawatts!?!

The um, 1000W power supply is overkill, a good 500W would suffice, perhaps compromise and get a good 600-800W. Quality more important than quantity. You want to be working in the sweet spot of the powersupply, they are most efficient when running at about 80% capacity, not 40%...

Also, you might benefit from the 1GB 4870 in the long term, it has already been shown to be better than the 512MB in some games and the difference will only become more pronounced with time.

Good build though

[tonpal]

If you want to go dual and this is for gaming then don't waste your money on the E8400 get the E5200, it's more than enough power for games and clocks nicely too.

The extra cache on the E8400 should give much better gaming performance than the E5200. Most Quads would blow the budget except maybe for a Q6600.

[staffsMike]

The extra cache on the E8400 should give much better gaming performance than the E5200. Most Quads would blow the budget except maybe for a Q6600.

Not at high resolutions, it counts for next to nothing.

Low resolutions its good for about 10%.

[Pob255]

The extra cache on the E8400 should give much better gaming performance than the E5200. Most Quads would blow the budget except maybe for a Q6600.

You'd think that, but most test I've seen show a relatively small boost from the extra cache when two c2d chips are run at the same speed.


a q6600 is another one to look at

with ether the e5200 or q6600 then 800mhz memory will give plenty of overclocking head room

if you're looking to do a big over clock on the e8400 then 1066mhz memory is needed, if you're not planning to overclock then 800mhz is all you'd want.

[WhiteGiant]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated! - Keep em coming! One thing I should say, I only can warrent a big upgrade every 3 or so years, so this must last a while!

As suggested here's the new spec,

CPU : Same as before, I can't see the benefit of quad core at a lower speed, as few games currently utilise this feature(?)
Mobo : Asus P5Q-E P45 Socket 775 - next model up from my previous choice.
RAM : OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) (£35.99 - Vs. £60 for the 1066 stuff, useful change as my overclocking will be light).
GFX : The jump from 512meg to 1gb seems huge with regards to price, is it really worth it?
PSU : I thought 1000w was a little mental, I have a relatively new Enermax 500 modular, but I don't feel confident it could run a new system, so suggestions are welcome for this!

Once again, ta for the replies!

[Infinite]

that enermax should be fine

[WhiteGiant]

Based on the quote "Avril Lavrile is a female force."

Any other opinions?

[staffsMike]

That PC will barely pull 300W. New components are becomming more energy efficient and lower in the power reuquirements. They will also continue to do so therefore 500W is ample.

Blitzen on here is using the 625W enermax to run an overclocked Q6600 and 2 x HD4870 system with no issues just as one example.

If you are still going for the E8400 I think you are buring £80 that you really don't need to. The E5200 is the better chip bang for buck as it gives all the performance you need (and will still overclock to 3.0GHz+).

[tonpal]

I would say the Enermax would be ok too.

Attached is a link to a website with a PSU calc on it.

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

[WhiteGiant]

Hmmm, that calc suggests I should just about get away with using my current PSU.

Removing the PSU allows me to add a couple of drives for a bit of RAID action - we'll have to see if the PSU can handle it all!

Thanks for the thoughts guys, now I've just gotta save a little more cash . . .

[tonpal]

If you are still going for the E8400 I think you are buring £80 that you really don't need to. The E5200 is the better chip bang for buck as it gives all the performance you need (and will still overclock to 3.0GHz+).

I have found a review that compare the E5200 with an E8200. Overall it supports the view that the E5200 is fine for gaming. Of course the performance of the E8200, and therefore the performance of an E8400, is better.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...pdc-e5200.html

It is really a personal decision as to whether the performance gain is worth spending the extra cash on.

I think staffsMike has already voted "no".