Would Like A New PC.......Just Behind On The Times

[Blitzen]

I have the rig in my sig, and its all going for sale with the exception of:

- Antec 900 case (i love it)
- Enermax PSU (still a moster)
- I can sort the new GPU myself, as i can still get my head around those)

Now.....i need an Intel based PC, i5 I assume, that will give me at least 20% more than what i am getting at the moment.

Give me a hand fellas, as I am so far behind with the new stuff, I don't really know where to begin.

£400 is the budget for everything else.

Cheers!

[Domestic_Ginger]

2500k and a motherboad with some bling, not sure the 2600k is such a good investment unless you need HT. Settle on both and then the rest on ram. You should fit in 8gb quite easily.

Whats the PC for?

You could always hold on for a few months for BD. I would.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Your overclocked Q6600 is around the same speed as Core i5 750 so I would look at the Core i5 2500K if you intend to overclock.

The new Intel processors can only be overclocked in any major way by using the multiplier and only the K series have a fully unlocked multiplier. The non-K Core i5 processors have a few extra multiplier settings due to Turbo Boost meaning you can enhance it somewhat.

If you want to overclock you need to get a P67 motherboard altogether the higher end Z68 is inbound. AMD Bulldozer is also being released in June if you can wait.

TBH,your Q6600 for a single card setup will not very limiting if it is for gaming.

[Pob255]

yes a i5 2500k, p67 motherboard and 2x2gb or 2x4gb of ddr3
You could upgrade the 500gb hard drive to a pair of 1tb samsung f3 for £80 or just get one for storage and keep the current raid setup.

What cpu cooler have you got? probably be able to reuse that will just need a new mounting kit probable.

[Blitzen]

Your overclocked Q6600 is around the same speed as Core i5 750 so I would look at the Core i5 2500K if you intend to overclock.

The new Intel processors can only be overclocked in any major way by using the multiplier and only the K series have a fully unlocked multiplier. The non-K Core i5 processors have a few extra multiplier settings due to Turbo Boost meaning you can enhance it somewhat.

If you want to overclock you need to get a P67 motherboard altogether the higher end Z68 is inbound. AMD Bulldozer is also being released in June if you can wait.

TBH,your Q6600 for a single card setup will not very limiting if it is for gaming.

So really a new GPU would do the trick?
What would you recommend for around £200? (nVidia ideally, as i dont really the the ATI manufacturers).
eVGA/BFG/Gainward are the best i have come across and never had issues with any of them.

[Blitzen]

yes a i5 2500k, p67 motherboard and 2x2gb or 2x4gb of ddr3
You could upgrade the 500gb hard drive to a pair of 1tb samsung f3 for £80 or just get one for storage and keep the current raid setup.

What cpu cooler have you got? probably be able to reuse that will just need a new mounting kit probable.

I have a Scythe Mine. I love it. Tbh, i bought it especially for the OC on my Q6600 and its quiet, keeps everything very cool,and it doesn't need to run fast to perform.

[billythewiz]

So really a new GPU would do the trick?
What would you recommend for around £200? (nVidia ideally, as i dont really the the ATI manufacturers).
eVGA/BFG/Gainward are the best i have come across and never had issues with any of them.

Well Tom recommends the Radeon HD 6950, so do the good people of Hexus.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So really a new GPU would do the trick?
What would you recommend for around £200? (nVidia ideally, as i dont really the the ATI manufacturers).
eVGA/BFG/Gainward are the best i have come across and never had issues with any of them.

An overclocked Q6600 will still do the job as it is comparable to a higher clocked Phenom II X4 in many games.

Probably either AMD Bulldzoer or one of the Intel 22NM CPUs which are being released at the beginning of next year would be would I would aim for TBH.

The current bang for buck card at that price point is the AMD HD6950 2GB IMHO.

However,there are quite a few Nvidia choices at that price point.

The first would be a GTX480:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536m...i-plus-farcry2

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1536m...-dvi-mini-hdmi

The main issue of course is the power draw and noise.

Although I know quite a few people on Hexus don't like OcUK this GTX480 is probably one of the best:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...14&subcat=1750

It has a better cooler and IIRC slightly better power draw. However,it seems that the card has a higher return rate. It could be that like all GTX480 cards you need a PSU with a decent amount of amps on the 12V line.

OcUK are also selling the HD5850 1GB for £108:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...56&subcat=1711

A pair of these would be very powerful!

The next would be the GTX560. It has lower performance but better power draw at stock clockspeeds.

There are quite a few decent models available:

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...28384-cores%29

BFG are no more BTW!

Here is some info about the warranties with the different manufacturers:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18231329

I would probably consider one of these cards(they are not in order of price though):

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-k...s-dvi-minihdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...ores-dvi-mhdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-g...384-cores-hdmi

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...ck-950mhz-core

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...0mhz-384-cores

The stock GPU speed of a GTX560TI is 822MHZ. At around 880MHZ a GTX560TI should just about match an HD6950 IIRC.

The Gainward Phantom is meant to be relatively quiet and has a shorter PCB but is triple slot IIRC. The Gigabyte SOC has quite a decent factory overclock too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Interesting!

It seems that an HD4870X2 2GB still holds its own with a GTX480:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/174?vs=158

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N..._Fermi/32.html

An overclocked GTX560TI at around 950MHZ to 1GHZ should provide similar performance to a GTX480 IIRC.

However,I suspect that an HD4870 512MB may not have enough VRAM is some games when you start dialling up the image quality settings IMHO.

[danroyle]

Interesting!

It seems that an HD4870X2 2GB still holds its own with a GTX480:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/174?vs=158

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N..._Fermi/32.html

An overclocked GTX560TI at around 950MHZ to 1GHZ should provide similar performance to a GTX480 IIRC.

However,I suspect that an HD4870 512MB may not have enough VRAM is some games when you start dialling up the image quality settings IMHO.

But then a half decent Gtx480 will hit 800 core and 4000 mem and then leave the 560 behind again.


You are right though the 480 or 560 are the cards to go for unless you wanna stump the extra foir a gtx570 it will offer very little over the 480 but run a bit cooler.


The gtx480 is not quite as bad as everyone makes out yeah it runs a little warm but not hugely and fan noise is not that bad. during gaming it can get a little louder but your gaming so wont notice.

I run my new one at 800/1600/4000 and the gpu hits 80-85c under full load

[ik9000]

The Gigabyte SOC has quite a decent factory overclock too.

got the 460 version and can confirm the cooler unit works very well and is VERY quiet

The gtx480 is not quite as bad as everyone makes out yeah it runs a little warm but not hugely and fan noise is not that bad. during gaming it can get a little louder but your gaming so wont notice.

Some of us don't have the luxury of cranking up the volume sadly. I would notice the noise as I have the rig right next to me and the volume on low so the sound doesn't leak through the paper thin walls to my neighbour's flat.

[Behemoth]

The cooler on Gigabyte GFX cards is superb

The one on my GTX 460 OC2 is very silent indeed, you don't know it's running