Upgrade advice needed...

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vagabond142

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
138
I'm a bit short on time, so I apologize if this is very terse.

I'm looking to upgrade my motherboard, RAM, CPU, and possibly PSU in the very near future (within a timeframe of about 1-3 weeks)

I currently have:

Core2Duo E8400 @ 3.3 GHz air cooled
8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR2-800
ASUS P5Q-E (lovely LOVELY mobo)
OCZ SilentXStream 600W

Video cards will NOT be upgraded this evolution (recently upgraded in 2011), Crossfire HIS HD6850's driving a 46 inch TV @ 1920x1080

Primary computer uses:

-Gaming (BF3, TERA Online when it releases, modern RPG's (ME3, Kingdoms of Amalur, etc))
-Video capture of said gaming (hence why I have Crossfire cards)
-Video editing using Adobe Premiere (making music vids of said game captures, example of my earlier work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIZ88gvVtq8 (that entire channel was when I was first getting into video making for my WoW guild))
-Multimedia including bluray movie watching, music, youtube watching, etc


My thoughts:

Socket 1155, Core i5 2500K, 16GB DDR3-1600, ASUS P8Z68-V / Gen 3 and, if need be, Corsaid AX850W Pro

The advice requested:

Would it be worth either bumping that CPU to i7 2600K, or going one step further and getting a Socket 2011 build with an i7 3820?

My budget is preferrably ~$400-500, but can go as high as $800, NOT including PSU price
 
So no chance of yuo waiting for Ivy Bridget to hit?

To answer your question: Yes for your needs, bump up to the 2600K. RAM wise, I recommend the following:
$47 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM
 
Ivy Bridge, for gaming and such, only provides a 5% boost (according to Anandtech previews)

It eeks out maybe 10% on some (SOME!) core-heavy processing.

I decided, due to a one day sale a local retailer is having, to pick up a i7 2600K, Asus P8Z68- PRO /Gen3, and 16 GB Corsair Vengeance CL9 DDR3-1600 Low Profile memory for $575 CDN, tax in. Superb deal.
 
First issue:

I got the whole thing built, into the computer, plugged in.... that glorious moment when I pushed the power button aaaaaaaaaaaaand....





... nothing o_O

So I took the mobo, cpu and memory BACK to the store. They tested it there, CPU was DOA. Got a new one on replacement. Got it home, all excited, plugged it in andddd



.... nothing O_O!

My PSU is an OCZ SilentXStream 600W, and I'm wondering if it's too old (bought when I got my core2duo E8400) to support i7's.

I was going to upgrade my PSU anyways, so I have a Corsair HX8500W Pro on order, to pick up tonight. I just hope that my PSU didn't fry the first i7, because if it fried THIS i7, I'm out of pocket as they tested and confirmed it working at the store.
 
Yeah meant to tell you that: You should definitely replace the PSU as it was of low quality 6 years ago let alone today.
 
New Corsair HX850W Pro is in. Computer is happy as a clam. Ran it in over a couple of hours last night running Prime95 across all 8 logical cores. Max temp of 55 C with a Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B with the turbo mode kicking in to 3.8 GHz.

I love this hardware :D
 
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