- Jan 8, 2016
- 1
- 0
- 4,510
Hello! 
I've recently had the gut feeling that my PC needs a makeover. I brought the PC from Dell back in 2007 (I think it was £400 for a whole desktop set up inc. peripherals). The motherboard died in 2011. To save buying a new PC, I replaced the motherboard with a Gigabyte one and a new power supply, along with a basic ATX case and a new processor cooler fan. The hard drive, CD drive, and graphics card are the originals that came with the Dell PC.
Recently, I've cleaned all the components and transferred them to a new Corsair Carbide Spec-01 MidATX case. I've just finished cloning my 9 year old Seagate 500GB HDD to a new WD blue 1TB HDD - I hear no clicking! And I think responsiveness has been improved.
Now it's time to get serious and start building. I'm very confused by the abundance of choice available and am undecided in what to do next
As my PC has been running an AMD processor since the beginning, I began to look and the AMD A8 processors but with more research, I've been swayed to the Intel processors, mainly the 4th gen i5's. I now know that there are the newer 6th gen i5's available and should I continue along this line, I will blow the budget and get more confused - Overclocking? I am open to this but never done it before. Should I first overclock my current system?
I'd like help in figuring out what components I should use to build/upgrade my PC.
My current set up:
Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-01 MidATX (£40)
HDD: WD blue 1TB (£40)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M52L-S3P
Processor: 9 year old Dual Core AMD 64 Athlon II 3600+ (BIOS states this is running at 1.9GHz
)
Processor fan: basic heatsink and blow fan from Akasa
GPU: AMD Radeon (basic one, maybe 512mb, came with the original Dell)
GPU fan: Evercool blow fan
CD Drive: It's a generic drive
RAM: 3GB (1gb x2 512gb x2) <-- it's a mix and match
Power unit: CiT 500W
OS: Win 7
My ideal budget is £300 but can stretch if there is added value. I'd like to get mid-range components. I have already spent £50 on a new HDD and case (I had a £30 gift card for amazon).
Proposed New Build items:
Processor: i5 4460/4690k/6500 ??
Mobo: ?? Asus? Gigabyte?
RAM: Hyper FuryX 8gb (4gb x2)
Case fans: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Static Pressure Fan Dual Pack (can get later on)
Processor cooler: Coolermaster Seidon 120V Hydro Cooler (the Hyper Evo 212 does not fit my case)
Flexible to upgrade in the future (3years+)
The concept of the build is to create a robust PC, that can handle intermediate photo and GoPro video processing, produces nice 5.1 surround sound, great at the usual tasks (surfing web, streaming, documents etc) with scope to play games - I was going to buy a PS4 but an upgraded PC that I could occasionally play games on would be better for my needs!
Any insights and wisdoms would help dearly. I'm seeing this as an investment and a chance to self build that will hopefully last as long as my 'upgraded Dell' did!
(From the UK and am using Amazon.co.uk & Scan.co.uk to source components).
Apologies for the essay - Looking forwards to ideas!
I've recently had the gut feeling that my PC needs a makeover. I brought the PC from Dell back in 2007 (I think it was £400 for a whole desktop set up inc. peripherals). The motherboard died in 2011. To save buying a new PC, I replaced the motherboard with a Gigabyte one and a new power supply, along with a basic ATX case and a new processor cooler fan. The hard drive, CD drive, and graphics card are the originals that came with the Dell PC.
Recently, I've cleaned all the components and transferred them to a new Corsair Carbide Spec-01 MidATX case. I've just finished cloning my 9 year old Seagate 500GB HDD to a new WD blue 1TB HDD - I hear no clicking! And I think responsiveness has been improved.
Now it's time to get serious and start building. I'm very confused by the abundance of choice available and am undecided in what to do next
As my PC has been running an AMD processor since the beginning, I began to look and the AMD A8 processors but with more research, I've been swayed to the Intel processors, mainly the 4th gen i5's. I now know that there are the newer 6th gen i5's available and should I continue along this line, I will blow the budget and get more confused - Overclocking? I am open to this but never done it before. Should I first overclock my current system?
I'd like help in figuring out what components I should use to build/upgrade my PC.
My current set up:
Case: Corsair Carbide Spec-01 MidATX (£40)
HDD: WD blue 1TB (£40)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M52L-S3P
Processor: 9 year old Dual Core AMD 64 Athlon II 3600+ (BIOS states this is running at 1.9GHz
)Processor fan: basic heatsink and blow fan from Akasa
GPU: AMD Radeon (basic one, maybe 512mb, came with the original Dell)
GPU fan: Evercool blow fan
CD Drive: It's a generic drive
RAM: 3GB (1gb x2 512gb x2) <-- it's a mix and match
Power unit: CiT 500W
OS: Win 7
My ideal budget is £300 but can stretch if there is added value. I'd like to get mid-range components. I have already spent £50 on a new HDD and case (I had a £30 gift card for amazon).
Proposed New Build items:
Processor: i5 4460/4690k/6500 ??
Mobo: ?? Asus? Gigabyte?
RAM: Hyper FuryX 8gb (4gb x2)
Case fans: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Static Pressure Fan Dual Pack (can get later on)
Processor cooler: Coolermaster Seidon 120V Hydro Cooler (the Hyper Evo 212 does not fit my case)
Flexible to upgrade in the future (3years+)
The concept of the build is to create a robust PC, that can handle intermediate photo and GoPro video processing, produces nice 5.1 surround sound, great at the usual tasks (surfing web, streaming, documents etc) with scope to play games - I was going to buy a PS4 but an upgraded PC that I could occasionally play games on would be better for my needs!
Any insights and wisdoms would help dearly
. I'm seeing this as an investment and a chance to self build that will hopefully last as long as my 'upgraded Dell' did!(From the UK and am using Amazon.co.uk & Scan.co.uk to source components).
Apologies for the essay - Looking forwards to ideas!
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram