Upgrading my PC (£400 upgrade budget)

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HennoGarvie

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Jun 30, 2013
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Hello my current rig is:

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 @ 3GHz
GPU: HD7770 1GB GDDR5
RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz(Only running at 1333MHz)
Mobo: ASUS P8H61 LX3 R2.0
HDD: OS drive: 500gb seagate, 2nd WD Blue 320gb
PSU:500W OCZ CoreXstream

Now I have a number of upgrade ideas and I can raise the budget a little if needed as I will sell all the parts I replace most likely.

I'm quite sure that I want to upgrade to an i5 but i'm not sure on which generation and what model, I wont be overclocking. I am also thinking about upgrading my mobo as it is a very cheap mobo I have currently although I have built many PCs with it I feel its time a pay a bit extra for one but not sure which to get due to different sockets for certain generations of i5s

I'm also sure i want to upgrade the GPU but i'll only go with AMD GPUs (just personal preference) unless someone can show me better value for money with nVidea.

I would like an ssd either 64gb or over because id like store atleast a few games on it for loading times.

RAM and PSU I believe should be fine but if there is need for improvement i'll do it

I also want to ask, if i upgrade all this stuff like the CPU and GPU will i need to re install windows or programs? Obviously I know id re install it with an ssd but will I need to if I upgrade other things?

Thank you for reading and thank you to anyone who replies.
 
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synthaside

synthaside

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May 2, 2011
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You can absolutely achieve this , personally i would go for something like this

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1295

That is is an all in one bundle for you , then i'd bring in the old GPU and Psu across its 500 watt should be ok as the i5's are substantially less power hungry than your chip .

As for an SSD perhaps one of these , im sure some will scoff about it being refurb but i've been using a refurb from there for about a year and half now and its great , the reason it was a referb was light box scuffing and it still comes with 12 months warrenty

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb-ocz-vector-refurbished-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-indilinx-barefoot-3-25nm-mlc-read-550mb-s-write-4

good luck
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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Aug 9, 2011
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What operating system are you using? If you have an OEM copy of windows 7 you will need to purchase a new one because it is tied with the motherboard. I would reinstall regardless because of all the hardware changes.

Personally I wouldn't suggest an SSD lower than 120GB, that is good price point and gives you enough room for the OS and a few of your favorite games/ones with large load times.
 
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HennoGarvie

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Jun 30, 2013
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I'm running windows 7 home premium 64 bit and it isn't OEM, the only reason I don't want to re install windows is because of all the stuff ill need to re install, but I suppose a clean install will be good. I know what you mean about the SSD hough so I think ill only go with 120gb+

@synthaside that pre built set up looks really good except I don't need the extra 8gb ram but it'll all add to the speed and that ssd is very cheap too! that all looks very good to me and ill have spare money to buy a better GPU too because I think the hd7770 is a good card but I just want to be a bit more future proof with maybe a hd 7850?
 
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burdenbound

burdenbound

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The 7850 is already an older card, I would use this guide to find the card that works best for your budget. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html
 
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synthaside

synthaside

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I think you can do custom builds in there builder to change the components and take out the ram .... but i think they only do pre-overclocked bundles when they do the ram too

Worst case ..... 16gb of ram ... ( obviously will run at you old rams speed)

Scan are probably the biggest computer supplier in the UK right now and i'm sure their doing some horrible things like paying children in shiny pebbles , whilst dodging taxes and eating babies ... But they are brilliant on price the catch is you usually pay for next day delivery on their stuff .... but ITS ALWAYS NEXT DAY and you get scan-sure to insure your purchase too

i'd keep you GPU and upgrade it later down the line because there's new stuff coming rumors of new AMD card's performance as good as titan with far lower prices ;-)
 
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filippi

filippi

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Oct 18, 2012
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If you plan to change CPU, MB and GPU maybe you should even consider something like this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1H8or
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1H8or/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1H8or/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£111.59 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard (£79.73 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 2 160GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£173.75 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £434.07
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-24 17:41 BST+0100)
 
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HennoGarvie

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Jun 30, 2013
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That all sounds good expect AMD processor, I personally prefer Intel as they just seem better built, although that is a very good build.

I think I will wait if that is the case about new AMD GPUs, my HD7770 can still play most modern games on ultra anyways so no rush i suppose.

@synthaside I think ill go with the scan configuration since it seems so well priced, only worry is their overclocking, is it safe? I know there is a warranty on them but nobody likes a pc blowing up, so do you have any experience of these scan overclocked processors?
 
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HennoGarvie

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Jun 30, 2013
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Ive had an Xeon in the past and didnt really like it to be honest, i'd prefer to go with the i series over an Xeon.
 
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synthaside

synthaside

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If you are worried about the overclock you can actually ask scan to not overclock or to " do a mild overclock" they do test the to make sure its stable and remember this is comign with a far better cooler than you would have used previosly so the overclock is going to be fine .

worst case if its not stable you turn the overclock downn its really very very easy to do
 
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HennoGarvie

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Jun 30, 2013
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The bundle that you sent me was a very good price but I also just priced up those parts individually on scan.co.uk minus the ram and artic cooler(couldnt uy it stand alone) so added a Noctua NH-L9i for £35 and including that refurbished ssd comes out as the same price as the bundle so I think im going to do that instead of the bundle and overclock myself if I need to, but thanks for recommending that bundle as it is already great value and all i've done is it made ita bit cheaper and tailored it more to my needs, thanks synthaside
 
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