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Old mobo toast. Time to get the upgrade gloves on!

Last response: in Systems
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Hey all,
Apologies for the first post being a pleeeze elp post, I'm just looking for a bit of justification really!
Always have and always will build my own system but my last build has bucked the kickit (80s refs ftw!) and so forced my hand. As always tech has moved swiftly since I last had cause to do this so a bit of backup on my research would be greatly appreciated.
Surviving from the old system I have.

A 6 month old 550w OCZ PSU
60gig OCZ SSD
1T Seagate sata HD
ATX case of unknown providence but has 2 fans and pretty lights :) 
Optical drive, keyboard,mouse etc.
AOX (?) widescreen 1920*1080 monitor.
Second old crt used for monitoring emails/facelob/twitter whilst playing games.

Its mainly a gaming machine - used to quite happily run skyrim/crysis etc. on reasonable levels with a gtx260 and AMD 3.0Ghz 4 core under the hood. Obviously I would like this new update to do me for the next 2/3 years with the expected drop off as games get more and more sparkly.

I'm kind of set on AMD as the price/performance calcs come out better in my opinion. A well reasoned and empirically supported argument for intel could still sway me though.

Budget.... started at £300, pushed it to £400ish, can't really push anymore unless anyone needs a slightly used kidney?
No need for OS, have that.

Anyways, brass tacks.
I've included the PSU on this just so I could check it is fine for the system. Looks good, systems are much more efficient nowadays! Not like my old 286/10, that was a beast!



PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/yd0j
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/yd0j/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/yd0j/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£122.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling UCACO-FZ13100-BL 4.0 CFM Ball Bearing CPU Cooler (£26.57 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme3 ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard (£80.67 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£18.68 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£18.68 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card (£156.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£63.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £488.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-18 08:11 GMT+0000)

The cooler is there because
a) I may overclock as time goes on.
b) my room is actually pretty warm, I'm sure the heat did for the old system.

I've rambled for long enough. If someone can give me a quantified assesment of how big a moron I am then we can all move on with our lives.
Thanks for your time!

More about : mobo toast time upgrade gloves

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Solid choice for the most part. If you do want a comparable Intel build, I suggest a Z77 board with an i5-3470. Intel chips do offer very compelling performance compared to AMD right now, although the FX-8350 is no slouch. Check for some comparative benchmarks to see which one will give you more benefit for your planned use cases.
Homebuilt system Expert

Here is a decent intel build for you if you decide AMD isn't the way to go. Just slightly under budget which is good.

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£142.20 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-GL Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£47.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£171.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Other: 60gb OCZ SSD
Other: 1T Seagate sata HD
Other: 550w ZT OCZ
Total: £396.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-18 11:09 GMT+0000)
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Homebuilt system Expert

GreatBigHippy said:
Thanks all.
I'll have a look at the intel build. Thanks for going to the trouble of putting that together. Slightly faster GFX card on that build, I guess because of cash saved on mobo. Food for thought.
Cheers


Glad to help. Post back when u've made your choice :) 
Homebuilt system Authority

mikerockett said:
Here is a decent intel build for you if you decide AMD isn't the way to go. Just slightly under budget which is good.

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£142.20 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-GL Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£47.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£171.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Other: 60gb OCZ SSD
Other: 1T Seagate sata HD
Other: 550w ZT OCZ
Total: £396.51
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-18 11:09 GMT+0000)


Very good build, i always reccommend the xfx 7870 ghz, amazing bang for buck

Back again.
Thanks for the that little advice cat, I'll just put that over here with my decision pigeons.. and... OH GOD!!!

I've gone away and done a lot more research and you are quite correct. It seems for my uses the intel chips seem to perform better at lower clock speeds.
I have 3 quick questions:

1) Is the micro ATX ok for an ATX case?
2) Is it worth me paying a bit more for the z77 chipset? I may be able to push to the gigabyte z77-ds3h if it will make more of the rest of the expensive components.
3)I think I may know the answer to this but am I right in thinking that the intel restricts my future upgrade path due to the major changes between releases? It isn't a dealbreaker as i tend to only upgrade every 3 years or so which normally means the whole lot goes in the bin and I start again, but it'd be nice to know :) 

Thanks again for your help!
This is now what I am looking at
http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/ypMu

Grand. Thanks for that.
I think I have made a decision of sorts.
After thinking that overclocking wasn't on the cards I came to conclusion that due to a lack of upgrade path the ability to overclock in future would be nice. And I am a natural tinkerer. Once I get the extra bits I'll probably while away a good couple of weekends on an overclocking project :) 

I have found the bits I need for about the same amount I had before. Slightly above the original budget, but I can sell a liver, you only need one right? ;) 

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£158.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£69.32 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£34.51 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£171.34 @ Scan.co.uk)
Other: 60gb OCZ SSD
Other: 1T Seagate sata HD
Other: 550w ZT OCZ
Total: £434.16

Obv no extra cooler or anything yet. I tend to overclock once warranties have run out anyways!
The only part I wasn't sure about was the mobo, but it has good reviews etc.

Buying parts in a week (payday!) so jump in now if I am doing anything horribly wrong.

Thanks for your help again!
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