Upgrade from e2160 775 to i5 2500k or i3 2100

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whitebrandon77

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Ok well im going to have around $700 in a week or two. and i have the upgrade itch. i want to play witcher 2, world in conflict maybe crysis 2 luv it on xbox :) .i watch a lot of movies, download torrents,surf the net.it is also my htpc my monitor is my vizio 42in 240hz 1080p lcd native resolution.my 9600gt does great for 720p movies but stutters badly on 1080p. i would like to possibly use the 3d tech if it ever matures. im thinking about the asrock extreme 4 Mobo, 8gb ram more if you all recomend it was thinking i5 2500k or i3 2100 but i luv to tinker with OC stuff. and maybe a gtx 460 1gb or a 560 ti.Not against ati just don't know as much about them. and i would like to keep this system for say 4yrs apx. Thank you for any help. :hello:
B. White

P.S. any rumors of a i2500k price drop .fingers crossed


my old build About 3 yrs old now.
e2160 oc slightly
nice Zalman 9500 something model no led but a great cooler would like to reuse if its still a good one.
coolermaster 460w PSU probably will need new one
2 sticks 512mb ram ddr
evga 9600gt
windows 7
1 sata 1gb 7200rpm drive +200gb ide that has OS on it going to put win7 on 1gb drive would love to get a SSD at some point.
 
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About PSU: your current one should be more than enough to run 1 gpu setup at stock but when you start overclock and throw in second card... there is no go for it.

You have to know that PSU age and loose their power output along with it. There is also efficiency which means that 460 W PSU at 80% eff is around 370 W effective. And there is allways loss over time of few % a year (1-2 mostly).
Still regular no oc systems never reach 300 W :p

I'm not aginst overclocking at all but for the next 2 years with i5 and gf560ti/hd6870 you wouldn't need it unless you like sweat your hardware for overkill fps. Also nvidia cards are power hogs just read toms reviews... brand new 700-800 watt at least 80+ for dual gpu overclock to be on the safe...

cypeq

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You might need stronger gpu if you like top details at 1080p also i5 doesn't need overclock to kick major ass you may consider i5-2400 if you find 2500k out of budget don't forget about turbo.

i5 is step up from i3 in terms of performance also at this time having 4 cores starts to be reasonable choice.
 
I would look at a Asrock Extreme 4 P67 or Z68, 2500K, and GTX560ti and a 500w quality power supply.

Or if you want to save a few bucks, get the i3-2100 and upgrade to a Ivy Bridge cpu in 2012. The i3 will do all your needs quite well until then.

You would be better off making this post when you actually are ready to buy. I say this because I typically know what the best deals are at any given moment and they change daily. So I'm not going to give you any links because the choices will change by then.
 

whitebrandon77

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ok well my heart is kinda set on the i5 2500k seems like a good long lasting cpu for what i am going to do What do you all recomend as far aas graphics say medium-high settings and good 1080p movie playback is a must i was thinking gtx 460 1gb but i read there not making that card anymore so there wont be any if i want to sli in a yr or so. i normally run nvidia but if ati is better thats fine as well.and is 8gb enough or should i spend a little more and get 16gb and 1600 or 1333 speed wise will it make a difference for me. sry for all the questions used to be up on this stuff but wife and kid came first. and psu size would 700 watts be enough i used the coursair calculator and said 430 was enoough but i dont think my coolermaster 460 probably wouldnt be good for this would it.thx again for the help and replies.
B. White
 

yummerzzz

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Well, 4GB is enough, 8GB is Great, and 16GB is a little overkill, 1600Mhz with a 1.5V rating is great.

See if you can find a HD 6850/GTX 460 or HD 6870/GTX 560, the are on par as far as performance at sock speeds, but the ATI cards use less power, but when you start to Overclock the nVidia cards...

For power supplies try XFX,Seasonic,Corsair,Antec.
 

cypeq

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About PSU: your current one should be more than enough to run 1 gpu setup at stock but when you start overclock and throw in second card... there is no go for it.

You have to know that PSU age and loose their power output along with it. There is also efficiency which means that 460 W PSU at 80% eff is around 370 W effective. And there is allways loss over time of few % a year (1-2 mostly).
Still regular no oc systems never reach 300 W :p

I'm not aginst overclocking at all but for the next 2 years with i5 and gf560ti/hd6870 you wouldn't need it unless you like sweat your hardware for overkill fps. Also nvidia cards are power hogs just read toms reviews... brand new 700-800 watt at least 80+ for dual gpu overclock to be on the safe side.

Imho thanks to SB Overclocking stops to exist Intel smell the market for oc fans and now they sell downclocked chips so they can push it as ultimate OC chips... with cheap stock coolers. They easily go easily 1ghz up without touching voltage.

In the old days intel would just sell 4.8 4.5 4.2 and so on models with locked multi.

 
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whitebrandon77

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would it be worth it at all to get a used quad core for my 775 from ebay and some ram?regular old ddr is so expensive now. thats why i was going to upgrade or would witcher 2, crysis 2 even play on it ? would it bottleneck the gpu
 

whitebrandon77

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its a gigabyte ds3l 775 pretty decent mobo. and i would like to be around 500.00 but i realize if i go 2500k and 560ti thats going to be 750ish i just dont want to buy ram and a cpu at a crazy price to find out that my system isnt good enough for crysis2 witcher2 and 1080p movies
 
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