Upgrade Time! But I have a couple of questions first

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by Crugath, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Upgrade Time! But I have a couple of questions first (now with successful upgrades!)

    Good morning Guru3d!

    In the next few weeks or so, I am planning on buying a new motherboard, processor and RAM, getting ready for the winter releases of things like BF3, Skyrim etc.

    I was thinking of getting something along the lines of;

    Intel Core i5 2500k
    2x4GB Kingston Hyper X Genesis Grey 1600MHz
    and possibly the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3 motherboard

    Although I'm not sure what CPU cooler to go for, I will be planning on overclocking the 2500k at some point, so something that can cope with an overclocked 2500k would be nice. I've looked at various reviews for things like the Corsair H50/H60 and the Noctua D-14, and I just thought I'd ask for people's recommendations. Ideally I'd not like to spend more than £50 on a cooler.

    Also, as I have in my current build at the moment, I have a Corsair HX520 which I have had since July 2008, if I go for the parts mentioned above, and sticking with the GTX 460 1GB and the same hard drives, will the HX520 be able to cope? I am not intending on getting SLi or Crossfire X at any point, it'll be a strictly single-card affair.

    Thank you very much!

    Edit: I thought I'd list the rest of the stuff in my case, in case it helps;
    Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced
    hard drives: 3x 7200 rpm SATA-II drives (1x 400GB 1x500GB 1x1TB)
    Optical: SATA DVD-RW drive
    Several 120mm fans, and the 140mm fan that came with the case
    and a PCI wifi card
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2011
  2. lehtv

    lehtv Ancient Guru

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    Good morning!

    Personally I'd buy 1.5v memory for Sandy Bridge as it's according to Intel recommendations, but I've been told that lots of people use 1.65v without any problems. I'd go for Corsair Vengeance 2x4gb, and a potent CPU cooler that doesn't obstruct memory slots e.g. Thermalright Archon if you can fit it. It can be had for £44 at Scan.

    For power requirements see http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power. I estimated 478W at 90% (ALL components)... It's cutting pretty close to the rated wattage but being a Corsair HX it should handle it. I'd keep the PSU and if problems ensue, either get a replacement from Corsair or upgrade.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2011
  3. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Thank you for replying, lehtv!

    I'll keep an eye out for some 1.5v sticks, what about the Corsair XMS3 DDR3 stuff? I like the look of the Corsair Vengeance sticks but with the heatspreader they have on them will that not get in the way of something like the Thermalright Archon? I believe the Archon will fit in the 690 II Advanced, according to the official specs it can fit a cooler up to 177mm tall and the Archon is 170mm tall, so it'll fit... Just about.

    And thanks for working out rough wattage for me, it does seem a little close to the max, but having done a little research on google, other people were saying that the HX520 would be absolutely fine - I just wanted to make damn sure first. Last thing I want is to get my shiny new parts, spend the time putting it all into my case, turning it on and have the PSU go bang! I could always buy a new PSU in a few months, or whatever, if I start to get nervous about it.
     
  4. lehtv

    lehtv Ancient Guru

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    XMS3 is also good, yes. I guess it's a matter of budget/preference. At scan they cost the same actually. Vengeance Low Profile is a bit cheaper. With that or XMS3 you won't need to worry about CPU cooler compatibility btw.

    Thermalright Archon should fit so that even the first memory slot becomes available for sticks with tall heat spreaders. That's what it was designed for. The downside is that it's so wide that depending on your motherboard, the first expansion slot may be unusable, and so tall that it won't fit into all cases.

    Of course there are some other coolers as well which leave plenty of room for memory sticks, maybe others can suggest some.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2011

  5. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

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  6. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Thanks for the replies lehtv and deltatux.

    I've read some reviews of the Archon, looks like a good cooler to me. Having it quiet is fairly important to me, and lots of the reviews have praised its silence. I'll probably try to go for some low profile ram though, just to make sure it all fits together ok. Do the larger profile heat spreaders on sticks like the Vengeance actually make much difference when it comes to dissipating the heat, or is it all show?

    And deltatux, any particular reason you'd advise staying away from MSI? I've seen some strong reviews of the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3, even one here on guru3d where they heaped it with praise. I also like the feature set it has, like the 2x LAN (handy for the once a year I decide to turn the xbox on) and the UEFI BIOS looks nice.

    However, I do like how everything on that gigabyte board is black...
     
  7. lehtv

    lehtv Ancient Guru

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    Tall heat spreaders do make some difference to temperatures, but nothing you should worry about when running the RAM at its rated speed. In tests, Vengeance has proven to be very overclockable, and I'd expect the low profile RAM to be slightly less overclockable. However, on Sandy Bridge, RAM speeds operate separately from CPU clocks, so when overclocking the CPU you don't need to worry about RAM speed; and also, the SB memory controller is so good that RAM speed makes very little difference to system performance. In most applications, 1333MHz is practically just as good as 2000Mhz.
     
  8. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Thanks for the info lehtv! I'll keep that in mind when getting some sticks. If overclocking the ram makes little difference, I'll probably just stick with some low profile stuff to ensure compatibility with whatever cooler I get...
     
  9. att_user

    att_user Banned

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    I would recommend getting more RAM instead of faster RAM is always the better option. Faster RAM looks better on the system specs in the forum display but does not yield noticeably more performance.

    For CPU cooler get Corsair H60. More compact and less weight and strain on your mainboard compared to big tower cooler and your computer is portable without the need for dismounting the heatsink. Get a second fan with that for push/pull configuration and better cooling performance.

    For a better upgrade it may be worthwile to get the I7 2600K instead of I5 2500k.

    Good motherboards are: ASUS P8P67, Gigabyte UD3/UD4/UD5 P67.

    I would not buy Z68 mainboard unless you are planning to use the integrated graphics. For a gaming computer definitely go P67 as the Z68 mainboards are more expensive.

    Your PSU will be enough for your new computer setup. The Q6600 uses much more power than the new I5/I7 cpu´s.
     
  10. deltatux

    deltatux Guest

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    past experience with MSI tells me to stay the hell away from the manufacturer. Terrible terrible experience, had to RMA/fix a large number of systems with their motherboards installed.

    As for UEFI, as I've said in the past, should not be confused with BIOS as both are two very distinct technologies. Both are motherboard firmware interfaces, but they're not related. As for the interface themselves, personally I still like BIOS since I can use my keyboard to change the settings. I'm a lot faster on BIOS than for UEFI because I don't need to use my mouse. The only thing I like about a graphical UEFI interfaces is the graphs they produce.

    deltatux
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2011

  11. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Thanks att_user.

    I was planning on getting 8GB (in the form of 2x 4GB sticks), don't really see the need for more, I'm not really finding I run out ever with the 4GB I have at the moment.

    I'll keep my eye out on the H60, I have seen good things about it before. Not too worried about the weight strain on the motherboard though, the Tuniq Tower 120's ~700g weight has been absolutely fine in my current build for 3 years now!

    I can't really justify the extra cost of the 2600k myself, I've seen several benchmarks that show little difference in performance in games, and when I am working from home, QuarkXPress and Photoshop CS5 are quick enough on the Q6600 as it is.

    I rethink my plans for a Z68 motherboard, I'll have a look around and see what's good. Thanks for the suggestions.

    And thanks for confirming that the HX520 will be ok with a Sandy Bridge based build. I'm glad it will be, I don't really fancy forking out for a new PSU quite yet...

    EDIT: Thanks deltatux. I didn't realise MSI had a bit of a dodgy record, might well just stay away to be on the safe side... And thanks for the clarification on the UEFI / BIOS thing.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2011
  12. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Big Bump! Got my upgrades!

    Thanks for all the help everyone, I bought some upgrades!

    I now have:

    Intel Core i5 2500k with a Thermalright Venomous X and Chill Factor III (I was worried the Archon wouldn't fit after I took some measurements - so I went for the Venomous X for compatability)
    2x4GB Corsair Vengeance Black Low Profile 1600MHz
    and the Asus P8Z68-V Pro motherboard.

    I also bought a couple more hard drives, so now I have 3x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3.

    Everything has gone together well, apart from having to install Windows 7 twice because I did something a bit thick and had to start from scratch...

    Only issue I do have is that when I'm in the BIOS the motherboard reports the CPU temperature as being 10C higher than it actually is. Which a fair few people seem to have reported, but software in windows, such as the AI Suite II, CoreTemp and RealTemp all report correct temperatures.

    Temperatures on the whole are nice though, 32/34/35/31C idle for the 2500k and 31C idle for the GTX460, rising to approx 48-50C and 58C after an hour of BC2 for the 2500k and the GTX 460 respectively. No overclocking yet, that is something I will have a crack at in a few months...

    Now I'm ready for Battlefield 3, Skyrim and friends!

    Thanks again
     
  13. Pill Monster

    Pill Monster Banned

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    Nice.
    Wise move avoiding MSI, their boards have been plagued with H/W incompatibility issues in the past. I don't trust them myself.
     
  14. Crugath

    Crugath Active Member

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    Yeah I did a fair bit of research before finally deciding on a motherboard and found a lot of reports of people complaining about MSI motherboards, as well as the comments from deltatux here.

    Only one thing that's annoying me now, is that I've realised that the motherboard can only control 3 of the 6 fan headers. The 2 CPU Fan headers and 1 chassis fan header. The other 3 run full speed all the time.

    My old Abit IP35-Pro XE had voltage control for all fan headers. Short of getting a fan controller, is there anything I can do to control the other case fans?

    Thanks :)
     
  15. lehtv

    lehtv Ancient Guru

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    Venomous X is a great cooler, it shouldn't be a problem to clock that 2500K up to 4.5 without much increase in temps, based on what I hear... I don't have the experience of using SB yet myself. But I know it's easy to OC, since memory clocks operate separately from CPU clocks.
     

  16. att_user

    att_user Banned

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    Why do you need all those fans? My case is barely heating up with my I7 2600K and i only have 3 fans in my case including the cpu fan.
     
  17. bokah

    bokah Guest

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    i miss my abit mobo for its been only one with 6 controllable fan header, yet any asus or gigabyte ive seen dosnt have this, but ive only gotten cheopo models, i havent had any msi but i heard there is better fan control

    what u can do is get some noctua fans with u.l.n.a (its just resistor but between)
     

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