Upgrade for games and video editing

C14N

I'm currently looking to upgrade my PC that I built but I'm a little lost at the moment, things have changed a lot since I last bought some components

At the moment I have an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (2.66Ghz) with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a Gigabyte X48 mainboard. This is all old stuff (bought back in 2008) and it's starting to show its age a bit, especially when I do a bit of HD video editing. I have done some upgrades in the meantime and I do now have a 60GB Corsair SSD and nVidia GTX 560 Ti.

What I was looking for was an i7 Ivy Bridge processor with 8GB of RAM (is that enough anymore?) but I'm having trouble finding a mainboard that would suit. Any site I look on seems to give huge lists of 1155 chipset types and I really don't know which one to go for.

I would like to get one with 3 internal USB headers, at least one PCI slot (the old kind) and the ability to run two cards in SLI. I'm not asking to be pointed to the mobo of my dreams but where would be a good place to look at least?

Like I said, I was planning on going for a low-end i7 processor but would this give much of an advantage over a high-end i5 for what I want?

I was also thinking of upgrading my SSD to a larger one and buying two more 24" monitors to run three screens at once (with whatever nVidia's version of Eyefinity is). Just wondering though, do most games run alright with a super widescreen resolution like that?

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

I'm currently looking to upgrade my PC that I built but I'm a little lost at the moment, things have changed a lot since I last bought some components

At the moment I have an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU (2.66Ghz) with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a Gigabyte X48 mainboard. This is all old stuff (bought back in 2008) and it's starting to show its age a bit, especially when I do a bit of HD video editing. I have done some upgrades in the meantime and I do now have a 60GB Corsair SSD and nVidia GTX 560 Ti.

What I was looking for was an i7 Ivy Bridge processor with 8GB of RAM (is that enough anymore?) but I'm having trouble finding a mainboard that would suit. Any site I look on seems to give huge lists of 1155 chipset types and I really don't know which one to go for.

I would like to get one with 3 internal USB headers, at least one PCI slot (the old kind) and the ability to run two cards in SLI. I'm not asking to be pointed to the mobo of my dreams but where would be a good place to look at least?

Like I said, I was planning on going for a low-end i7 processor but would this give much of an advantage over a high-end i5 for what I want?

I was also thinking of upgrading my SSD to a larger one and buying two more 24" monitors to run three screens at once (with whatever nVidia's version of Eyefinity is). Just wondering though, do most games run alright with a super widescreen resolution like that?

How much do you have to spend? The only real difference between i5 and i7 is that the i7 can has the ability to hyperthread. It all depends on how much you have in your pocket.

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

How much do you have to spend? The only real difference between i5 and i7 is that the i7 can has the ability to hyperthread. It all depends on how much you have in your pocket.

Oh right, should have mentioned that

I would ideally like to keep it under €500 for the mainboard-CPU-RAM combo, but I'm flexible on that. What is hyperthreading and what are the benefits of having it?

Skylinehead

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€212.07
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€129.53
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€36.71
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€397.30

ShadowHearth

Howuch of video editing you doing? Hyper threading will help it, but for games it's useless.
If you want a good all arounder then ivy i5 k series and a nice z77 board would do the trick. It won't skin you, but will give you a good perfoamce boost.
As for gpu. The only 2 Gpus that can support 3 monitors fr nvidia are 670 and 680.
You could run games on 3 monitor setup, but you will have to bump down eye candy a wee bit on games like BF3.

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Howuch of video editing you doing? Hyper threading will help it, but for games it's useless.
If you want a good all arounder then ivy i5 k series and a nice z77 board would do the trick. It won't skin you, but will give you a good perfoamce boost.
As for gpu. The only 2 Gpus that can support 3 monitors fr nvidia are 670 and 680.
You could run games on 3 monitor setup, but you will have to bump down eye candy a wee bit on games like BF3.

I do it a fair bit but it's amateur stuff (I only use Cyberlink Powerdirector). It seems to put the biggest strain by far on my current set up though. I have no troubles with games at the moment in 1080p.

Are those really the only two cards that can run games on 3 monitors?:( My current one claims it can, as did my previous ATI 5800 and 6800 series cards. Is it possible to get the Surround on just two?

Sarz91

If you want you could always go with a hd 7950.

ShadowHearth

C14N wrote: »

I do it a fair bit but it's amateur stuff (I only use Cyberlink Powerdirector). It seems to put the biggest strain by far on my current set up though. I have no troubles with games at the moment in 1080p.

Are those really the only two cards that can run games on 3 monitors?:( My current one claims it can, as did my previous ATI 5800 and 6800 series cards. Is it possible to get the Surround on just two?

nvidia only those 2, if you want to go to red side then almost anything 6870+++ can do 3 monitors. if you want to keep it single gpu setup with 3 monitors then you should go 7970 anyway.

if you do a lot of editing and have few spare bob to spend then i7 all the way, but keep in mind it will be double the price of i5 3570k, though you wont see double the speed.

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

If you want you could always go with a hd 7950.

Those are pretty expensive, I can't really justify the cost when I haven't had any problems with games on my current card.

ShadowHearth

C14N wrote: »

Those are pretty expensive, I can't really justify the cost when I haven't had any problems with games on my current card.

3 monitor setup chews any gpu. if you want to stay single monitor gaming setup at 1080p then 7850 would be grand, but for 3 monitor setup it wont have enough juice.

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

nvidia only those 2, if you want to go to red side then almost anything 6870+++ can do 3 monitors. if you want to keep it single gpu setup with 3 monitors then you should go 7970 anyway.

Is it just games that will run poorly or will it basically suck for everything? And just as a hypothetical idea, would a Radeon HD6950 run three monitors fairly well?

ShadowHearth wrote: »

if you do a lot of editing and have few spare bob to spend then i7 all the way, but keep in mind it will be double the price of i5 3570k, though you wont see double the speed.

It's a bit of a hike, but not double the price. The i5 was €212, the i7 comes in at €280.

ShadowHearth

C14N wrote: »

Is it just games that will run poorly or will it basically suck for everything? And just as a hypothetical idea, would a Radeon HD6950 run three monitors fairly well?



It's a bit of a hike, but not double the price. The i5 was €212, the i7 comes in at €280.

my bad with i7 pricing. 315 on harwareversad. not twice, but still 100eu more. you might bite the bullet and get it so?

it wont make everything run crap m8, just games. you can still play on single monitor out of 3 with your 6950 on very demanding games, but you will still be able to play older games with a wee bit droped settings on 3 monitors.

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

my bad with i7 pricing. 315 on harwareversad. not twice, but still 100eu more. you might bite the bullet and get it so?

it wont make everything run crap m8, just games. you can still play on single monitor out of 3 with your 6950 on very demanding games, but you will still be able to play older games with a wee bit droped settings on 3 monitors.

Yeah I think I might splurge on the i7 if the hyperthreading helps editing, but I'll probably get it from Scan to save a small bit of money. I might pair it with this Gigabyte Z68 motherboard too since it's a good price and seems to tick all the right boxes.

Then I should still be able to get the RAM from HVS posted above. Quick question, I noticed it's only 1333Mhz. I've always wondered does the Mhz rating make any real difference to the performance?


I think I might get one of the old 6950s now. If I get a decent sale on my 560 Ti it won't be too expensive to upgrade. Then I can buy a pair of these 24" monitors and run it in Eyefinity. I don't normally play games that are especially taxing, so hopefully it would run alright.

ShadowHearth

You should pair ivy with z77 boards m8. If you want to stick with z68 then you might aswell get sandy 2600k, which basicly same CPU, but cheaper.

Don't worry about ram speeds. You won't feel the difference. Just grab cheapest ones and with no stupid heat spreaders.
Get an aftermarket cooler while you at it. It will be quiter and cooler. Plus it's very easy to overclock k series CPUs. It's just the matter of mouse click or changing 2 values in bios.
Try to keep all stuff from same crowd. If you plan to go with scan, then get all the stuff from them. It will be only one delivery charge then.

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

You should pair ivy with z77 boards m8. If you want to stick with z68 then you might aswell get sandy 2600k, which basicly same CPU, but cheaper.

Oh, right, would the Z68 act as a bottleneck or something? For a Z77, would this ASRock Z77 Pro 4 board do alright?

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Don't worry about ram speeds. You won't feel the difference. Just grab cheapest ones and with no stupid heat spreaders.

Right, will do. Thanks for the advice.:)

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Get an aftermarket cooler while you at it. It will be quiter and cooler. Plus it's very easy to overclock k series CPUs. It's just the matter of mouse click or changing 2 values in bios.

Oh right, forgot to mention this. I actually have a Zalman Reserator cooler already (I know it's noobish but my friend gave it to me for a very good price). Will I have to buy a whole new water block to accommodate this? Because as I understand these can be quite expensive

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Try to keep all stuff from same crowd. If you plan to go with scan, then get all the stuff from them. It will be only one delivery charge then.

Well I'll see how it works out but at the moment, it seems like the monitors from HVS might be so significantly cheaper than the ones on Scan that it would be worth it to go with both. HVS also have the OCZ Agility 120GB SSD for only €85 and I might be tempted to get that.

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

Well I'll see how it works out but at the moment, it seems like the monitors from HVS might be so significantly cheaper than the ones on Scan that it would be worth it to go with both. HVS also have the OCZ Agility 120GB SSD for only €85 and I might be tempted to get that.

I've read quite a few bad things about the OCZ SSD's. It could well have been earlier versions though. I'd look up a few reviews first.

ShadowHearth

Stay away from OCZ stuff. This gen was horrible. Get crucial m4 or Samsung one. Best reliability out there.

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Stay away from OCZ stuff. This gen was horrible. Get crucial m4 or Samsung one. Best reliability out there.

Okay, I'll spend the bit extra. Here's the current plan then:

Part|Item|Price
Motherboard|ASRock Z77 Pro 4 S1155 | €114
CPU|Intel CPU Core i7 3770 Quad Core | €281
Cooler | Alphacool 10418 NexXxoS XP³ Light Acetal Water Cooling Block | €48
RAM|2 x 4GB-Kit GeIL Enhance Corsa | €43
Monitors | 2 x Acer S240HLbid | €304
+ P&P | | €32
Total | | €822


Then there are the optional items.

Samsung 128GB 830 : €97
Radeon 6950 : €185

I can't link these two as HVS is acting up on me but I'm not entirely sure about the last two.

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

Okay, I'll spend the bit extra. Here's the current plan then:

Part|Item|Price
Motherboard|ASRock Z77 Pro 4 S1155 | €114
CPU|Intel CPU Core i7 3770 Quad Core | €281
Cooler | Alphacool 10418 NexXxoS XP³ Light Acetal Water Cooling Block | €48
RAM|2 x 4GB-Kit GeIL Enhance Corsa | €43
Monitors | 2 x Acer S240HLbid | €304
+ P&P | | €32
Total | | €822


Then there are the optional items.

Samsung 128GB 830 : €97
Radeon 6950 : €185

I can't link these two as HVS is acting up on me but I'm not entirely sure about the last two.

Would it not be better to get it all form HVS?

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

Would it not be better to get it all form HVS?

I just realised HVS have the same CPU at an even lower price So I think I will go 100% with them on this.

So now the only thing is that I need a cooler. I can't find any cheap water blocks on HVS, is there anywhere I could go for this? Maybe I would be better off getting rid of the whole Zalman Reserator anyway (I only use it for the CPU and I never OC), would I be better off just going for a simple cooler instead? And if so, is there any cooler you would recommend?

Here's the new plan:
Part|Item|Price
Motherboard| Gigabyte Z77-DS3H | €92
CPU|Intel Core i7 3770 Quad Core | €273
RAM|8GB-Kit Corsair ValueSelect PC3-10667U CL9 | €40
Monitors | 2 x Acer S240HLbid | €304
+ P&P | | €19
Total | | €729

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

I just realised HVS have the same CPU at an even lower price So I think I will go 100% with them on this.

So now the only thing is that I need a cooler. I can't find any cheap water blocks on HVS, is there anywhere I could go for this? Maybe I would be better off getting rid of the whole Zalman Reserator anyway (I only use it for the CPU and I never OC), would I be better off just going for a simple cooler instead? And if so, is there any cooler you would recommend?

Here's the new plan:
Part|Item|Price
Motherboard| Gigabyte Z77-DS3H | €92
CPU|Intel Core i7 3770 Quad Core | €273
RAM|2 x 4GB-Kit GeIL Enhance Corsa | €43
Monitors | 2 x Acer S240HLbid | €304
+ P&P | | €19
Total | | €732

If you're not overclocking then the stock fan should be enough. Get this RAM instead. Unless there is some specific reason for that RAM.

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

If you're not overclocking then the stock fan should be enough. Get this RAM instead. Unless there is some specific reason for that RAM.

I switched the RAM to a Corsair before reading this (€40). Is there something especially good about that RAM? The only reason I went for the Corsair was because it had metal plating and I feel like I'm less likely to damage it that way but if the G.Skill is better then I'll get that instead.

As for the cooler, the main reason I dislike the stock coolers is because they tend to be noisy. If I did spend a bit on a different cooler like, for example the Antec Kühler H2O 620, could I get a decent bit of extra speed out of the CPU without too much risk? Or is that only possible on the 3770K?

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

I switched the RAM to a Corsair before reading this (€40). Is there something especially good about that RAM? The only reason I went for the Corsair was because it had metal plating and I feel like I'm less likely to damage it that way but if the G.Skill is better then I'll get that instead.

As for the cooler, the main reason I dislike the stock coolers is because they tend to be noisy. If I did spend a bit on a different cooler like, for example the Antec Kühler H2O 620, could I get a decent bit of extra speed out of the CPU without too much risk? Or is that only possible on the 3770K?

There seems to be little or no difference in RAM so go with whatever is cheapest. I'm pretty sure you can only overclock K models. Don't quote me on it but I'm pretty sure. So if you wanted to overclock I think you'd have to go with the K version.

Sarz91

If you're looking for a CPU fan and you want to overclock Everyone here says this is a great fan

Apparently it's kind of hard to install though.

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

There seems to be little or no difference in RAM so go with whatever is cheapest. I'm pretty sure you can only overclock K models. Don't quote me on it but I'm pretty sure. So if you wanted to overclock I think you'd have to go with the K version.

Sarz91 wrote: »

If you're looking for a CPU fan and you want to overclock Everyone here says this is a great fan

Apparently it's kind of hard to install though.

Okay so if I decide I want to overclock, I may go for the K model with the Macho cooler.

I'm kind of new to overclocking. I'm planning on doing some research on it but just to get the basics, is it generally fairly safe/straightforward and how much extra could I get out of something like the 3770K (which starts at 3.5Ghz)? Could I get it up to 4Ghz for example?

Sarz91

C14N wrote: »

Okay so if I decide I want to overclock, I may go for the K model with the Macho cooler.

I'm kind of new to overclocking. I'm planning on doing some research on it but just to get the basics, is it generally fairly safe/straightforward and how much extra could I get out of something like the 3770K (which starts at 3.5Ghz)? Could I get it up to 4Ghz for example?

It seems fairly safe so long as you don't do anything really stupid. 4GHz should be no real problem. These guys got 4.7GHz.

ShadowHearth

Op, make sure you getting K series CPU. Only K series overclock easilily.
It's only few quid extra, but it will save you hundreds when you will need a boost in performance.
Even if you don't want overclock now, you will be able to overclock it when system gets a bit slower for your liking. It is a matter of changing 2 values in bios and boom! You got way more performance!

C14N

Sarz91 wrote: »

It seems fairly safe so long as you don't do anything really stupid. 4GHz should be no real problem. These guys got 4.7GHz.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Op, make sure you getting K series CPU. Only K series overclock easilily.
It's only few quid extra, but it will save you hundreds when you will need a boost in performance.
Even if you don't want overclock now, you will be able to overclock it when system gets a bit slower for your liking. It is a matter of changing 2 values in bios and boom! You got way more performance!

Okay, I think that's what I'll do, the idea of getting an extra Ghz out of the CPU is pretty appealing. What are the two BIOS settings to change?

ShadowHearth

C14N wrote: »

Okay, I think that's what I'll do, the idea of getting an extra Ghz out of the CPU is pretty appealing. What are the two BIOS settings to change?

core speed multiplayer and increase voltage a wee bit. Most boards even come in with software, which overclocks it for you and then you can work around from there. ( like droping voltage a wee bit as those auto clocking programs being a bit too generous on it )

C14N

ShadowHearth wrote: »

core speed multiplayer and increase voltage a wee bit. Most boards even come in with software, which overclocks it for you and then you can work around from there. ( like droping voltage a wee bit as those auto clocking programs being a bit too generous on it )

Okay that doesn't sound too hard. How do you know how far is too far though? And can you leave it as an "always on" thing or do you have to start fiddling with settings every time?

Current plan looks like this:
Part|Item|Price
Motherboard| MSI Z77A-G43 | €91
CPU|Intel Core i7 3770K | €315
RAM| 8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9 | €37
Monitors | 2 x Acer S240HLbid | €304
Cooler | Thermalright HR-02 Macho | €35
+ P&P | | €19
Total | | €799

Eboggles

That's a pretty poor motherboard, get the AsRock Z77 Pro3 instead.