Advice on my semi budget upgrade

[narz]

Hi - just looking for some advice on this build - im upgrading from:

Gigabyte P35 DQ6, Q6600, 8800GT, Antec 550w truepower in a random PC world case

to

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R - £62
CPU: i5 3570K 3.4Ghz - £155
Board: ASUS P8Z77-V LX - £95
Memory: corsair XMS3 8GB: 2x4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - £38
GFX: GTX 560 Ti 448 (bought)
Powersuply - keeping
DVD-RW: keeping

total: £350

Usage - Gaming @ 1900x1200 (CS:GO mainly), light photoshop, video editing and O/S Virtualisation

I do want to overclock a little in future once it starts getting dated, was thinking of the i5 2500K but the price saving was small.

So anything you would change? Suitable for my needs?

What do you guys think of a 1x8gb ddr3 Stick? are they more stable

I might try saving a few quid here and there with buying second hand too..

appreciate any advice!

[narz]

Forget to mention cooler - a toss between hyper 212 £30 or Bequiet Darkrock 2 - £50

..this is not as budget as I thought!

[Phage]

Looks good to me. You didn't mention storage or OS though.

[narz]

Greaat storage I was thinking of keeping the Samsung HD502HJ (relatively fast for a 3.5")

Or Samsung 256GB 830 SSD Basic £130

What do you think of 1x8gb Ram sticks over 2x4gb sticks?

Is the motherboard suitable to utilitize all the features of the ivy bridge?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

O/S Virtualisation

The K series lack IOMMU although you need a compatible motherboard too.

What do you guys think of a 1x8gb ddr3 Stick? are they more stable

Not a good idea as performance will drop.

Moreover,if you are not sure about overclocking,get a Xeon E3 1230 V2 and a cheaper motherboad. The Xeon E3 1230 V2 is basically a downclocked Core i7 3770,but it cannot be overclocked much AFAIK. The HT will be useful for virtualisation I suspect and video editing.

However,the Xeon E3 1230 V2 lacks an IGP,so you cannot use Quick Sync,but has a lower 69W TDP,as opposed to the 77W of the Core i7 3770 and is much cheaper.

[SixFeet]

Corsair Memory Vengeance LP Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop @ Scan for £28 atm. will save you £10 and it's 1600MHz aswell.

[narz]

The K series lack IOMMU although you need a compatible motherboard too.

Its harder to find a decent desktop board that supports VT-d. For example will a P8Z77-V LX support it with a xeon 1230?

Would VT-x alone not suffice? considering virtualisation is used irregularly

Moreover,if you are not sure about overclocking,get a Xeon E3 1230 V2 and a cheaper motherboad. The Xeon E3 1230 V2 is basically a downclocked Core i7 3770,but it cannot be overclocked much AFAIK. The HT will be useful for virtualisation I suspect and video editing.

However,the Xeon E3 1230 V2 lacks an IGP,so you cannot use Quick Sync,but has a lower 69W TDP,as opposed to the 77W of the Core i7 3770 and is much cheaper.

Since the price difference between the Xeon E3 1230 V2 and i5 3570K seems to be about £20~ I would pay this for HT and the 69W TDP. (if I could just bang it in the existing setup). No Quicksync doesn't bother me much.

I don't fancy a server board with less features tho..

[narz]

Corsair Memory Vengeance LP Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop @ Scan for £28 atm. will save you £10 and it's 1600MHz aswell.

Thanks will consider these actually

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its harder to find a decent desktop board that supports VT-d. For example will a P8Z77-V LX support it with a xeon 1230?

Would VT-x alone not suffice? considering virtualisation is used irregularly



Since the price difference between the Xeon E3 1230 V2 and i5 3570K seems to be about £20~ I would pay this for HT and the 69W TDP. (if I could just bang it in the existing setup). No Quicksync doesn't bother me much.

I don't fancy a server board with less features tho..

You would need to consider if it is important or not. It is harder to find VT-d support on consumer boards it seems and the Asus ones are supposedly flaky in this regard:

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...virtualization

There is a list of Intel motherboards which support it and supposedly the AsRock motherboards are fine.

Some of the Gigabyte motherboards are supported too as are the MSI ones:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2046358

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte...port-vt-d.html

http://ultimatewhitebox.com/forum/showThread/1064/last

So it seems the following motherboards are confirmed to support VT-d via actual testing:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z...oogle+shopping

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...oogle+shopping

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asroc...b-dvi-d-hdmi-a

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...t-dvi-hdmi-atx

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...dvi-d-hdmi-atx

There might be more motherboards,but this is what I could find!

[leonc]

Memory: corsair XMS3 8GB: 2x4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - £38

Not sure why you getting 1333 RAM. You can get vengence 1600 8GB at low price these days. Just check scan.

[narz]

Good finds Cat the fith! - That ASROCK Z77 Extreme 4 is looking appealing @ £112, as its roughly in my price range

These boards from ASRock look much better from the last time I looked at them few years ago, they must be upping their game.

Are these as reliable as ASUS/INTEL/MSI/gigabyte?


Adding the recommended changes will bring me to a reasonable £406.

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R - £62
CPU: Xeon E3 1230v2 - £178
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo - £26
Board: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 - £112
Memory: Corsair Memory Vengeance LP Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz - £28
GFX: GTX 560 Ti 448 (bought)
Powersuply - keeping
DVD-RW: keeping
HDD: F3 HD502HJ Keeping [Optional - Samsung 256GB 830 SSD Basic £130 ]

Sounds like a great build, maybe another 8Gb of Ram .. because its cheapish. £434

Just to confirm (the only lingering bit in my mind now),

Disadvantages of the xeon is the lack of IGP and overclocking.

But get lower TDP and HT

otherwise on par with the 3570K (stock)?

[narz]

Memory: corsair XMS3 8GB: 2x4GB DDR3 1333Mhz - £38

Not sure why you getting 1333 RAM. You can get vengence 1600 8GB at low price these days. Just check scan.

Wasn't aware - I updated now to one recommended above

Corsair Memory Vengeance LP Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop @ Scan for £28 atm

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Good finds Cat the fith! - That ASROCK Z77 Extreme 4 is looking appealing @ £112, as its roughly in my price range

These boards from ASRock look much better from the last time I looked at them few years ago, they must be upping their game.

Are these as reliable as ASUS/INTEL/MSI/gigabyte?


Adding the recommended changes will bring me to a reasonable £406.

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 300R - £62
CPU: Xeon E3 1230v2 - £178
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo - £26
Board: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 - £112
Memory: Corsair Memory Vengeance LP Arctic White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz - £28
GFX: GTX 560 Ti 448 (bought)
Powersuply - keeping
DVD-RW: keeping
HDD: F3 HD502HJ Keeping [Optional - Samsung 256GB 830 SSD Basic £130 ]

Sounds like a great build, maybe another 8Gb of Ram .. because its cheapish. £434

Just to confirm (the only lingering bit in my mind now),

Disadvantages of the xeon is the lack of IGP and overclocking.

But get lower TDP and HT

otherwise on par with the 3570K (stock)?

The Xeon E3 1230 V2 has 8MB of L3 cache as opposed to the 6MB in the Core i5 3570K which is clocked 100MHZ higher. Hence,IMHO,they should be around the same.

Also,you might find the Intel stock OK in a larger case.