Time to upgrade

[Planenutok]

Battlefield 3 is coming so time to upgrade.
Just starting to look around, been out of the loop for a while. Wow how many damn sockets are available now? Need advise as to where to start my search, i7, i5 i3????

Here is my current specs:

LIAN LI PC-65 USB B2 Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA

1) What will you be doing with this PC?
Battlefield 3 mainly but want a good well rounded machine

2) What's your budget?
$800-$1000

3) Where do you live?
NW Arkansas

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
Thinking new mobo, cpu, gpu, ram, maybe a ssd, os

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Want to reuse my case, psu, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, optical and hard drives
Will my psu hold up to modern hardware or do i need to upgrade?

6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe not sure yet

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a 22" monitor, still works great for now may upgrade if any good holiday deals come out this fall


8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
i want to get if up and running stable before bf3 launch

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
usb 3.0

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
No got to purchase an os also

 

[xBanzai89]

Are you buying this next week or a few weeks before BF3 comes out?

 

[Planenutok]

i want to get it up and running good before bf3 comes out. Dont want the teething problems of a new system to interrupt playing the new game. I will probably purchase and assemble this in august so i can get it all up to speed before the game is released.

 

[Dangman]

Since you're planning on buying in August, please come back after the first week of August and ask for advice then. By then we'll know what Newegg August combo deals are available and therefore help save you a lot of money.

In the meantime, you should be starting with the Core i5 2500K CPU if you want the option of overclocking. If you plan on never overclocking, go with the Core i5 2400. These days, if an Intel CPU doesn't have that "K" branding, you cannot OC it in any way possible.

OS wise, you should be fine with Windows 7 Home Premium.

 

[E4g1e]

Since you're planning on buying in August, please come back after the first week of August and ask for advice then. By then we'll know what Newegg August combo deals are available and therefore help save you a lot of money.

Agree.

In the meantime, you should be starting with the Core i5 2500K CPU if you want the option of overclocking. If you plan on never overclocking, go with the Core i5 2400. These days, if an Intel CPU doesn't have that "K" branding, you cannot OC it in any way possible.

Actually, it depends on the motherboard and chipset. Motherboards that use any of the H or B series chipsets cannot be overclocked at all via the multiplier even if you're using a K series CPU. And the BCLK in these LGA 1155 platforms do not like to be raised by more than about 5MHz above the stock 100MHz. With a P or Z series chipset-based motherboard, the supposedly "locked" non-K CPU becomes "limited unlocked", which means that the non-K CPU is still "overclockable", just not as much. In this case, the i5-2400's maximum allowable overclocked speed would be 3.6 to 3.8 GHz via the Turbo Boost feature, depending on the number of cores under load.

OS wise, you should be fine with Windows 7 Home Premium.

I agree unless the OP needs the extras of Pro or Ultimate or if he wants to run more than 16GB of RAM on that system (the LGA 1155 platform technically supports up to 32GB, but there are currently no unbuffered non-ECC 8GB modules available).

 

[Bees]

If you are on the fence in regards to overclocking, and have some experience with the process, I would say to go for it and pick up an i5-2500k anyway. It leaves the door open for possibilities, unlike Intels "locked" CPUs.

By the way, your PSU looks fine, it's just getting a bit older. 620w will be fine unless you decide on going multi-card, which is mostly unnecessary at your resolution.

Have to agree with previous posts, though. Wait a few days and see what deals pop up. Could find a motherboard or RAM or a GPU with your name on it.

 

[Planenutok]

I want to keep the option open for overclocking so a K cpu is a must. I also plan on getting new cpu cooling hsf. What current mobos are overclock friendly? Any chipsets or brands to avoid? Whats the difference between Win 7 premium and pro or ultimate?

I am definitely going to see what kind of deals are available the first of august before i start piecing together a build

 

[Dangman]

I want to keep the option open for overclocking so a K cpu is a must. I also plan on getting new cpu cooling hsf. What current mobos are overclock friendly? Any chipsets or brands to avoid?

Stick with the P67 or Z68 chipsets. Avoid AsRock as they only have a one year warranty. Avoid Asus' P67 motherboards since they're having above average defect/issues rate. Stick with Asus' Z68 mobos, MSI's P67 or Z68 mobos, or Gigabyte Z68 mobos that have an onboard video output.

Whats the difference between Win 7 premium and pro or ultimate?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

 

[Planenutok]

Thanks for the replies Danny Bui.

Should I get 64bit or 32 bit windows?

 

[Dangman]

Thanks for the replies Danny Bui.

Should I get 64bit or 32 bit windows?

64bit hands down.