Sandy Bridge upgrade

C

cesium666

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My dad is looking to replace his desktop, so I will be giving him my old hardware and then upgrade my own computer.

It will continue to be used for gaming and photoshop, with heavy overclocking. Looking for new cpu, mobo, ram, and cooler, will be keeping the rest of the components.

REVISED:
CPU: i5 2500K - $180 at microcenter
Mobo: MSI P67A-GD65 - $150AR at newegg
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB DDR3-1333 - $50 at newegg [NOTE: seems like every few days newegg has a solid 16gb kit for 80-90, so may get one of those deals instead]
Cooler: Thermalright HR-02 Macho - can't find anywhere :( may end up keeping my megahalems and get a cheap cooler for my dad (won't be OCng his computer)

Any thoughts or suggestions? I'm open to anything, including changing parts that I said I would keep.




1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Photoshop, everything

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500 for the components listed above, it is flexible though. Tax/shipping don't matter.

3) Where do you live?
Michigan (5 miles from microcenter)

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
cpu, mobo, ram, and optionally a cooler

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
case, psu, gfx, hdd

6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Keeping my 30" dell

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next week or two

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
USB3 and SATA3 are absolute necessities

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, win7 x64
 
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Please copy and paste these questions in the OP and put the answer below each questions.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I can say right now you can get a Hyper 212+ and that will be plenty for a non overclocked CPU.
 
Oops, added those questions in :) Thanks for the hyper 212 suggestion, will probably go with that if I can't find the macho in stock anywhere
 
Any particular reason you need that ASUS mobo vs this MSI P67? The MSI has the USB 3.0 and Sata III you want.
 
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Go with the MSI GD65 mobo as the Asus P67 Pro mobo has an above average failure rate.

Not really a fan of that Patriot RAM as it's rated at 1.65V, which happens to be the max RAM voltage for Core i series CPUs. We generally recommend RAM rated at 1.5V to avoid any potential future issues.

And considering that there is little to no real world performance difference between DDR3 1333 RAM and DDR3 1600 RAM RAM and the fact that higher speed RAM makes little to no difference when it comes to overclocking the Core i series, really no point in getting that higher speed RAM besides e-peen. So you'll be fine with this RAM:
$50 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

And no I don't factor in rebates.

Also, what PSU, case, and GPU do you have?
 
Danny Bui said:
Go with the MSI GD65 mobo as the Asus P67 Pro mobo has an above average failure rate.

Not really a fan of that Patriot RAM as it's rated at 1.65V, which happens to be the max RAM voltage for Core i series CPUs. We generally recommend RAM rated at 1.5V to avoid any potential future issues.

And considering that there is little to no real world performance difference between DDR3 1333 RAM and DDR3 1600 RAM RAM and the fact that higher speed RAM makes little to no difference when it comes to overclocking the Core i series, really no point in getting that higher speed RAM besides e-peen. So you'll be fine with this RAM:
$50 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

And no I don't factor in rebates.

Also, what PSU, case, and GPU do you have?
Click to expand...

Gotcha on the MSI, the [H] gold award certainly helps :D

For memory, I was going off this anandtech article http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3 which made it seem like ddr3-1600 showed a decent diff in non-gaming apps. Didn't realize the 1.65v vs 1.5v made such a difference either.

xBanzai89 said:
He has the 650 HX and MSI 6950 2GB w/ that Hawk cooler in his sig.
Click to expand...

Yep prolly should've mentioned it was my sig rig that would be upgraded.
 
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