Upgrade bundle - Mother board, CPU+fan and RAM

OmegaRed

Hey guys,

I have a budget of a bout €400 and I am looking to upgrade my current gaming rig with a new MoBo, cpu/fan and ram. My current rig looks like this:

Case: Antec Nine Hundred, ATX
MoBo: MSI P6N SLI-FI, Sockel 775 nForce650i SLI, ATX
RAM: 4GB-Kit OCZ PC2-6400 ReaperX
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 boxed, 8192Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Kentsfield
GPU: Radeon Toxic HD 5850 - 1 GB GDDR5
Power: Corsair TX750W 750 Watt

(and i know that board is built for Invidia and I am using an ATI card, hence the upgrade).

Board needs to be crossfire compatible as I would potentially like to get a 2nd card.

I have been looking at overclockers and something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-023-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=1802
but want the best bang for my buck so would buy the parts individually. Thinking from HWV as I have bought from them before.

Any advise would be great.

sink

I suggest

Intel Core i5-2500K - £173.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-368-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - £134.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-166-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906

Corsair A70 Heatsink- £37.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-CS&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz - £43.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Total - £390.96

That processor will rip the i5 760 to shreds. With that motherboard and cooler it can be overclocked up to 4.8 GHz. The motherboard also supports both SLi and CrossFireX.

http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/963798-msi-p67a-gd55-review-oc-guide.html

sink

Here the same from HWVS.

Intel Core i5-2500K - €181.11
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224&agid=1617

MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - €137.24
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43884&agid=1601

Corsair A70 Heatsink - €33.03
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38536&agid=669

4GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 C9 - €42.47
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28068&agid=1193

Total: €393.85
Deilivery: €30

OmegaRed

sink wrote: »

Here the same from HWVS.

Intel Core i5-2500K - €181.11
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224&agid=1617

MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) - €137.24
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=43884&agid=1601

Corsair A70 Heatsink - €33.03
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38536&agid=669

4GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC1600 C9 - €42.47
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28068&agid=1193

Total: €393.85
Deilivery: €30

awesome, and massive difference on price from HWV. One question, will that fan work? it looks to be just a AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366 socket and not 1155

sink

OmegaRed wrote: »

awesome, and massive difference on price from HWV. One question, will that fan work? it looks to be just a AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1156/1366 socket and not 1155

Socket 1156 & 1155 have the same mounts, but are not cross compatible for processors.

OmegaRed

Thanks and Thanks!!!

deconduo

A70 is out of stock, and no info on when its coming back in so I'd recommend this instead:

http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25731

jme2010

Looks like EVERYBODY is building the same rig.

I'll be ording from HWVS in a day or two:

i5 2500K & MSI P67A GD55.

How much better is the A70 than stock at cooling?

OmegaRed

jme2010 wrote: »

Looks like EVERYBODY is building the same rig.

I'll be ording from HWVS in a day or two:

i5 2500K & MSI P67A GD55.

How much better is the A70 than stock at cooling?

If you were not OCing then the stock cooler would be fine, but where is the fun in that? Especially when it sounds so easy....

I decent (non stock) cooler is pretty essentially for any sort of OCing

IrishMetalhead

no point getting a k cpu either if your not going to overclock but i'm pretty sure the 2500k is actually cheaper then the 2500 for some bizzare reason =/
if the 2500k is cheaper then the 2500 then get the 2500k for obvious reason

oceanclub

I'm planning a similar build but can't make my mind up between the MSI board and the Asus P8P67.

EDIT: Heck, I'm going to go with the above recommendations. Looks good to me, and less time researching = more time playing games.

One question I have is about the cooler; according to this review, there's not much clearance room:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/lga-1156-heatsink,2535-16.html

Should there be enough clearance for this G-Skill memory, do you think?

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44312&agid=1192

P.

OmegaRed

Hi Sink

Quick question regarding that board and RAM, are the compatible?

The board supports PC3-10600 and PC3-8500 but the RAM is 1600 MHz ( PC3-12800 ).

I was also thinking of just getting 2X4GB sticks (http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38052&agid=1192) but this is 1333 MHz ( PC3-10666 )

Can you recommend the best compatible one please?

sink

OmegaRed wrote: »

Hi Sink

Quick question regarding that board and RAM, are the compatible?

The board supports PC3-10600 and PC3-8500 but the RAM is 1600 MHz ( PC3-12800 ).

I was also thinking of just getting 2X4GB sticks (http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38052&agid=1192) but this is 1333 MHz ( PC3-10666 )

Can you recommend the best compatible one please?

It will work with faster memory.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD55--B3-.html#/?div=Detail

The one you selected will work fine, if a fraction slower. TBH you will hardly notice the difference between faster and slower memory.

OmegaRed

So bang for your buck, would you go with this:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28068&agid=1193

or this:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38052&agid=1192

I noticed also the supported RAM voltage is 1.5v on the MSI site and the 2X2GB is 1.65v and the 2X4GB is 1.5v.

sink

OmegaRed wrote: »

So bang for your buck, would you go with this:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28068&agid=1193

or this:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38052&agid=1192

I noticed also the supported RAM voltage is 1.5v on the MSI site and the 2X2GB is 1.65v and the 2X4GB is 1.5v.

Running memory intensive applications such as RAW photo editing or HD Video editing you will be better off going for the 8GB. If don't use memory intensive applications and you game you will be better off going for the faster memory as it will make a greater difference.

That is the default RAM voltage but you can edit the voltage in the bios, you will also need to edit the clock rate in the bios to get the benefit of faster memory.

OmegaRed

Thanks sink! Order placed!