Winter With A New Rig

ManInTheBoat · 09-30-2011, 01:02 PM

Okedokie then, the summer is coming to an end and one of my other hobbies, biking, will be reduced to commuting to work and back. So I'll have lots of indoor time on my hands to get a few headshots in. My rig, below, is starting to struggle and I want to play BF3 and Red Orchestra 2 on decent settings.

Antec Nine Hundred (Antec 900)
LITEON SATA 20X DVDRW/RAM Black
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 16Mb
XFX NFORCE LT 680I SLI
OCZ GameXStream 1010W Power Supply
2GB OCZ Platinum Revision 2 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Memory Kit - x2
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core CPU
768MB XFX GeForce 8800GTX
LiteOn DH-20A3H-06C 20X DVD Writer
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
Windows XP Home

My budget is about a £1000 and I figure the case, dvd drives, hard drive and sound card can stay.
My options are:

Pentium -

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad Core Processor
Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.0 Socket 1155 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) Memory Kit 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 240-pin DIMM with Intel XMP Support
Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Graphics Card
120GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive (luxury I don't need)
Total - £868.37 + £150 for Windows 7
OR

AMD -

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 3.3GHz Hexa Core Processor
Asus M5A99X EVO Socket AM3+ Motherboard
Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Graphics Card
12GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit
120GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive (luxury I don't need)
Total- £779.55 + £150 for windows

Also, if I was sensible I'd buy a new helmet for my bike which is a Schuberth C3 at £425.

So the questions are these:
What will the above rigs be capable of?
Is there an upgrade that will do what I want leaving me the money to buy my new helmet as well?
Anyone, who suggests an upgrade, money for lid and a new leather jacket will receive a can of beer

WeKnowHowToLive · 09-30-2011, 01:07 PM

What kind of beer? If its Tennents I refuse to help.

ManInTheBoat · 09-30-2011, 01:09 PM

Will Skol do?

WeKnowHowToLive · 09-30-2011, 01:12 PM

I have no idea what that is.

I'm coming from sort of the same situation you're in. I even have the same RAM in my old computer.

Are those options for upgrade like a bundle from a certain store?

ManInTheBoat · 09-30-2011, 01:20 PM

No all parts from CCL in the UK. I can get the intel chip overclocked to 4.6, motherboard and memory with a cooler for an extra 100 quid.

WeKnowHowToLive · 09-30-2011, 01:42 PM

I just went through that site really quickly and put together basically what I just bought for myself, i5 2500K, ASRock P67 mobo, PNY 560Ti OC 2, basically any ram you want for 60ish or under for 8GB, and W7 for 630.

$73 for W7 Home 64bit OEM
http://www.cclonline.com/product/552...-SP1-/SFT0066/

$144 ASRock P67 Extreme6 Mobo
http://www.cclonline.com/product/596...board/MBD0159/

$167 i5 2500K
http://www.cclonline.com/product/449...essor/CPU1109/

$185 PNY 560Ti OC 2
http://www.cclonline.com/product/596...-Card/VGA0277/

$60 or less any 8GB with decent timings and a decent brand (IE Corsair or GSkill)

That would leave you almost $400 for a helmet.

I just built almost that exact computer and put Assassins Creed 2 on all the highest settings and had zero problems. I'm sure it would play BF3 at "decent" settings

ManInTheBoat · 09-30-2011, 01:53 PM

cool,that might be the way to go. I think the SSD drive is going to remain a dream for a while.

Unfortunately the can of Skol,remains just beyond your reach. Oh yeah got this off wikipedia:

Skol was initially created to be a global beer brand. Allied Breweries (UK), Labatt (Canada), Pripps-Bryggerierna (Sweden) and Unibra (Belgium) formed a new company called Skol International in 1964. Its aim was the creation of a world-wide beer brand, Skol, which could be licensed, manufactured and marketed across the world. Since then participation in the company has changed significantly.[1]

Currently, Skol is the most popular beer in Brazil. Originally produced by Caracu, which was bought by Brahma in 1980. Brahma merged with Antartica and became Ambev, then InBev and later AB InBev. AB Inbev is the biggest beverage company in the world, larger than Coca-Cola in revenue.[2] Skol beer became internationally recognized as a Brazilian beer, though not initially conceived in Brazil.

Carlsberg holds the license outside Africa and South America.[3] Unibra holds the license for Africa.[4] The merger between Allied Breweries and Carslberg, created Carlsberg-Tetley's, who now brew the beer at their brewery in Leeds.

The name is related to the Scandinavian toast "skål". For a period, the Hagar the Horrible cartoon character was used for promotion

WeKnowHowToLive · 09-30-2011, 02:01 PM

Oh, I live in America, so we have Skoal. Ill take a can of that though.

You could probably downgrade the motherboard a little bit (although I have the ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 and its insanely nice) and get some RAM for $50 (1600 at CAS 8 or 9 should be in that range) and get it down to $600. Whats your screen resolution? I had no issues with the brief testing i did with older games (Assassins Creed 2, Dragon Age 2) on the highest possible settings but I'm also running 1680x1050.

caveman26 · 09-30-2011, 02:03 PM

Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 252535 316 in stock £239.34 £239.34
Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 276562 16 in stock £84.32 £84.32
G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V 264750 202 in stock £39.99 £39.99
Sapphire HD 6950 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort Dual Fan PCI-E Graphics Card 280180 17 in stock £195.62 £195.62
OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD - SATA-III - Read 525MB/s Write 500MB/s 50,000 IOPS 268244 > 99 in stock £130.00 £130.00
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English 259863 153 in stock £71.05 £71.05
Cart total inc vat: £760.32

you could save about £70 and get an i5 2500k cpu which for gaming is great

angrytigerp · 09-30-2011, 02:07 PM

If this is a gaming rig, THE 2600K IS A WASTE OF MONEY.

Can not stress that enough, use the money you save to get an even better GPU.

Doc_Gonzo · 09-30-2011, 02:08 PM

If it's only gaming that you're doing, then dropping back to the i5 2500K will save you close to £100 and you won't see any difference in game performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Other than that, getting rid of the SSD is the only other way I see to cut corners and still have a good rig

angrytigerp · 09-30-2011, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc_Gonzo

If it's only gaming that you're doing, then dropping back to the i5 2500K will save you close to £100 and you won't see any difference in game performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Other than that, getting rid of the SSD is the only other way I see to cut corners and still have a good rig

Of note is that the gaming benchmarks are at resolutions of only 1680x1050, where the CPU is more relevant. At full 1080p/1920x1080, the difference will be even MORE negligible... assuming you don't use the $100 you saved getting a 2500k on getting a step higher of a GPU.

WeKnowHowToLive · 09-30-2011, 02:16 PM

Yeah looks like the i5 2500K is the best bang for the buck right now.

Motherboard is going to be a pretty wide range of options. Figure out the features you really care about and then find something with good reviews and the price you want.

RAM, I would try and get something with lower timings but honestly you're not going to notice a huge difference between 8 and 9. That $40 Ripjaw is a good deal.

GPU is the hardest thing to decide on IMO. I went with the 560Ti because I got a stock OC'd PNY with a lifetime warranty for $200 USD. The 560Ti and 6950 will each score higher FPS scores in games that favor their maker. BF2 favors the nVidia cards so I assume BF3 will as well.

Doc_Gonzo · 09-30-2011, 02:44 PM

Asus P8P67 Pro R3 - £128.59
http://www.ebuyer.com/260185-asus-p8...x-p8p67-pro-r3

Intel Core i5 2500K - £167.78
http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-c...bx80623i52500k

G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit - £39.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill...2800cl9d-8gbxl

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - £71.05
http://www.ebuyer.com/259863-microso...ia-1-gfc-02050

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - £27.41
http://www.ebuyer.com/245376-cooler-...rr-b10-212p-gp

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 HD 800MHz 2GB - £199.99
http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati...m_content=Q200

If you're planning on overclocking, which I assume from the choice of the "K" edition CPU , then you'll need an after market cooler which I've included. Total: £634.31

(-Mujahid-) · 09-30-2011, 03:29 PM

How long will the i5 2500k last compared to the i7 2600k?

Will it still be acceptable to have in a high end system, say 2-3 years from now?

How easy is it to change processors? Do you just remove the fan and take it out and replace the fan? [assuming its the same socket]

09-30-2011, 01:02 PM	#1
ManInTheBoat Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 6 Posts: 147	Winter With A New Rig Okedokie then, the summer is coming to an end and one of my other hobbies, biking, will be reduced to commuting to work and back. So I'll have lots of indoor time on my hands to get a few headshots in. My rig, below, is starting to struggle and I want to play BF3 and Red Orchestra 2 on decent settings. Antec Nine Hundred (Antec 900) LITEON SATA 20X DVDRW/RAM Black 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 16Mb XFX NFORCE LT 680I SLI OCZ GameXStream 1010W Power Supply 2GB OCZ Platinum Revision 2 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Memory Kit - x2 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core CPU 768MB XFX GeForce 8800GTX LiteOn DH-20A3H-06C 20X DVD Writer Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Series Windows XP Home My budget is about a £1000 and I figure the case, dvd drives, hard drive and sound card can stay. My options are: Pentium - Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4GHz Quad Core Processor Asus P8P67 PRO REV 3.0 Socket 1155 Motherboard Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) Memory Kit 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 240-pin DIMM with Intel XMP Support Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Graphics Card 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive (luxury I don't need) Total - £868.37 + £150 for Windows 7 OR AMD - AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition 3.3GHz Hexa Core Processor Asus M5A99X EVO Socket AM3+ Motherboard Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB Graphics Card 12GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 2.5" Solid State Drive (luxury I don't need) Total- £779.55 + £150 for windows Also, if I was sensible I'd buy a new helmet for my bike which is a Schuberth C3 at £425. So the questions are these: What will the above rigs be capable of? Is there an upgrade that will do what I want leaving me the money to buy my new helmet as well? Anyone, who suggests an upgrade, money for lid and a new leather jacket will receive a can of beer

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09-30-2011, 01:07 PM	#2
WeKnowHowToLive Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 175 Posts: 5,587	What kind of beer? If its Tennents I refuse to help.

09-30-2011, 01:09 PM	#3
ManInTheBoat Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 6 Posts: 147	Will Skol do?

09-30-2011, 01:12 PM	#4
WeKnowHowToLive Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 175 Posts: 5,587	I have no idea what that is. I'm coming from sort of the same situation you're in. I even have the same RAM in my old computer. Are those options for upgrade like a bundle from a certain store?

09-30-2011, 01:20 PM	#5
ManInTheBoat Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 6 Posts: 147	No all parts from CCL in the UK. I can get the intel chip overclocked to 4.6, motherboard and memory with a cooler for an extra 100 quid.

09-30-2011, 01:42 PM	#6
WeKnowHowToLive Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 175 Posts: 5,587	I just went through that site really quickly and put together basically what I just bought for myself, i5 2500K, ASRock P67 mobo, PNY 560Ti OC 2, basically any ram you want for 60ish or under for 8GB, and W7 for 630. $73 for W7 Home 64bit OEM http://www.cclonline.com/product/552...-SP1-/SFT0066/ $144 ASRock P67 Extreme6 Mobo http://www.cclonline.com/product/596...board/MBD0159/ $167 i5 2500K http://www.cclonline.com/product/449...essor/CPU1109/ $185 PNY 560Ti OC 2 http://www.cclonline.com/product/596...-Card/VGA0277/ $60 or less any 8GB with decent timings and a decent brand (IE Corsair or GSkill) That would leave you almost $400 for a helmet. I just built almost that exact computer and put Assassins Creed 2 on all the highest settings and had zero problems. I'm sure it would play BF3 at "decent" settings

09-30-2011, 01:53 PM	#7
ManInTheBoat Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 6 Posts: 147	cool,that might be the way to go. I think the SSD drive is going to remain a dream for a while. Unfortunately the can of Skol,remains just beyond your reach. Oh yeah got this off wikipedia: Skol was initially created to be a global beer brand. Allied Breweries (UK), Labatt (Canada), Pripps-Bryggerierna (Sweden) and Unibra (Belgium) formed a new company called Skol International in 1964. Its aim was the creation of a world-wide beer brand, Skol, which could be licensed, manufactured and marketed across the world. Since then participation in the company has changed significantly.[1] Currently, Skol is the most popular beer in Brazil. Originally produced by Caracu, which was bought by Brahma in 1980. Brahma merged with Antartica and became Ambev, then InBev and later AB InBev. AB Inbev is the biggest beverage company in the world, larger than Coca-Cola in revenue.[2] Skol beer became internationally recognized as a Brazilian beer, though not initially conceived in Brazil. Carlsberg holds the license outside Africa and South America.[3] Unibra holds the license for Africa.[4] The merger between Allied Breweries and Carslberg, created Carlsberg-Tetley's, who now brew the beer at their brewery in Leeds. The name is related to the Scandinavian toast "skål". For a period, the Hagar the Horrible cartoon character was used for promotion

09-30-2011, 02:01 PM	#8
WeKnowHowToLive Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 175 Posts: 5,587	Oh, I live in America, so we have Skoal. Ill take a can of that though. You could probably downgrade the motherboard a little bit (although I have the ASRock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 and its insanely nice) and get some RAM for $50 (1600 at CAS 8 or 9 should be in that range) and get it down to $600. Whats your screen resolution? I had no issues with the brief testing i did with older games (Assassins Creed 2, Dragon Age 2) on the highest possible settings but I'm also running 1680x1050.

09-30-2011, 02:03 PM	#9
caveman26 Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 1652 Posts: 4,159	Intel Core i7 2600k 3.4GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 252535 316 in stock £239.34 £239.34 Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Socket 1155 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 276562 16 in stock £84.32 £84.32 G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V 264750 202 in stock £39.99 £39.99 Sapphire HD 6950 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort Dual Fan PCI-E Graphics Card 280180 17 in stock £195.62 £195.62 OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD - SATA-III - Read 525MB/s Write 500MB/s 50,000 IOPS 268244 > 99 in stock £130.00 £130.00 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English 259863 153 in stock £71.05 £71.05 Cart total inc vat: £760.32 you could save about £70 and get an i5 2500k cpu which for gaming is great

09-30-2011, 02:07 PM	#10
angrytigerp Join Date: Sep 2010 Reputation: 202 Posts: 966	If this is a gaming rig, THE 2600K IS A WASTE OF MONEY. Can not stress that enough, use the money you save to get an even better GPU.

09-30-2011, 02:08 PM	#11
Doc_Gonzo Join Date: Nov 2010 Reputation: 819 Posts: 1,697	If it's only gaming that you're doing, then dropping back to the i5 2500K will save you close to £100 and you won't see any difference in game performance: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287 Other than that, getting rid of the SSD is the only other way I see to cut corners and still have a good rig

09-30-2011, 02:16 PM	#13
WeKnowHowToLive Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 175 Posts: 5,587	Yeah looks like the i5 2500K is the best bang for the buck right now. Motherboard is going to be a pretty wide range of options. Figure out the features you really care about and then find something with good reviews and the price you want. RAM, I would try and get something with lower timings but honestly you're not going to notice a huge difference between 8 and 9. That $40 Ripjaw is a good deal. GPU is the hardest thing to decide on IMO. I went with the 560Ti because I got a stock OC'd PNY with a lifetime warranty for $200 USD. The 560Ti and 6950 will each score higher FPS scores in games that favor their maker. BF2 favors the nVidia cards so I assume BF3 will as well.

09-30-2011, 02:44 PM	#14
Doc_Gonzo Join Date: Nov 2010 Reputation: 819 Posts: 1,697	Asus P8P67 Pro R3 - £128.59 http://www.ebuyer.com/260185-asus-p8...x-p8p67-pro-r3 Intel Core i5 2500K - £167.78 http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-c...bx80623i52500k G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit - £39.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill...2800cl9d-8gbxl Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium w/SP1 - £71.05 http://www.ebuyer.com/259863-microso...ia-1-gfc-02050 Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - £27.41 http://www.ebuyer.com/245376-cooler-...rr-b10-212p-gp XFX ATI Radeon 6950 HD 800MHz 2GB - £199.99 http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati...m_content=Q200 If you're planning on overclocking, which I assume from the choice of the "K" edition CPU , then you'll need an after market cooler which I've included. Total: £634.31

09-30-2011, 03:29 PM	#15
(-Mujahid-) Join Date: Dec 2010 Reputation: 16 Posts: 236	How long will the i5 2500k last compared to the i7 2600k? Will it still be acceptable to have in a high end system, say 2-3 years from now? How easy is it to change processors? Do you just remove the fan and take it out and replace the fan? [assuming its the same socket]