Approximate Purchase Date: asap - when i find all the parts
System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, general use,
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, case, graphics card, sound card
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: scan.co.uk,amazon.co.uk (uk vendors)
Country: England
Parts Preferences: I own 2 gtx 460s
Overclocking: Yes
SLI or Crossfire: Yes, SLI
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080
Additional Comments: Goals: upgrading with overclocks, games running on high graphics at 1920x1080, cutting down on the noise.
Hi guys, I just want to start my saying thanks for taking the time to read my thread.
I have had my current build for a few years now, upgrading parts here and there as i've gone along.
What im sitting on at the moment:
CPU:an old school intel core 2 e6300 clocked to the sweetspot of 2.8ghz With a Freezer Pro 7 cooler.
RAM:Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz,
MOBO: a very old gigabyte ga-p35c-ds3r,
GPU:nvidia 460GTX
PSU:corsair hx 520w
HDD:Seagate 1TB 3.5" Barracuda SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 7200RPM 32MB Cache
Soundcard:Asus Xonar DG 5.1
Case: antec three hundred
Strangely enough its quite happy to run all the latest games on reasonable mid settings sometimes even on high settings. (witcher 2, starcraft 2, mass effect 3, battlefield 3) I am however pretty sure my cpu is bottlenecking everything(it makes a god awful racket at high load). Theres always that doubt of "is it worth the money to upgrade?" going through my head.
I have been considering an upgrade for a while now. The opportunity came along when a friend of mine upgraded and gave me his old 460 gtx. Which is ofcorse pretty fantastic because i now own 2 and can run them in sli!
After the joy faded and I thought about it a bit I realised nothing in life is simple
My mobo doesnt actually support SLI, infact it doesn't even have the space for both cards and Im also thinking that my old corsair hx 520 wouldnt power the machine even if both cards fit!
Im thinking I need to upgrade my PSU, CPU, MOBO and RAM???..im also thinking I can keep my case, hdd, sound card and obviously the two gtx 460s.
Are my assumptions correct?
I have been doing a bit of research but any advice that you guys could give me would be a big help, I havn't been up to date with the latest components in quite some time.
Im looking at spending between £300 and £500 on the upgrades but any savings you guys can find would obviously be great.
I want to be able to overclock and get the most out of my components. I would like to run games for the forseeable future on reasonably high settings. Cutting down on the noise would also be a bonus.
I am toying with the idea of getting an ssd boot drive maybe with the space for 1 or 2 games?
The reason why i am unsure is i spend most of my time gaming and im unsure of the benefits of an ssd for games? Either way i definitely want the option of putting one in at a later date.
Any recommendations on some SSDs would be fantastic.
This is what I have planned out so far:
CPU:Intel CPU Core i5 Unlocked 2500K Sandy Bridge Quad Core Processor £166.98
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-core-i5-2500k-unlo...
Comes with stock cooler, I am unsure if my old freezer pro 7 will fit on to it or be any better at cooling than the stock. Are there any recommendations you guys can make on a decent cooler? I am looking to overclock and get the most out of the cpu
MOBO:Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3-B3 Intel Z68 Socket 1155 Motherboard £84.82
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z68x-ud3-b3-...
I am unsure about this mobo, this seems to be pretty lowend. Theres so many to choose from but im not sure of the advantages of the higher end boards?
RAM:Corsair Memory 8GB Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel £39.36
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-%282x4gb%29-corsair-...
This seems to be pretty decent?
PSU:Corsair CP-9020003-UK Enthusiast Series TX750M 750W Modular Power Supply (PSU) £87.00
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-psu-corsair-enthusi...
Is this sufficient to power my plans?
Total:£386.15 (including carriage)
Any help greatly appreciated and I am looking forward to your replys
Thanks, Paul