Upgrade advice

[spaceace420]

The pc it will be replacing is a e6400, dfi infinity 975x, 4x2 gb 6400 ram, and currently using a amd 6670. I have been out of the pc building for awhile and alot has changed since then. I need some advice on how to best upgrade one of my rigs. I have a few other rigs and still rock a opteron 165 server in a dfi nforce ultra d with the sli mod lol. Thanks for any help and advice

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming with some light encoding
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2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included
$350-maybe more if I beg the misses
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3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

U.S. Springfield OR but I work up in Portland alot
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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, Ram and Motherboard OR just upgrade video card and pick up quad core s775. I will look to add a ssd as soon as I have more money available too.
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5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Blu ray drive, 2 TB hard drive + smaller spares, case, power supply (antec 430w eco New ) if it will cut it
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6) Will you be overclocking?
I would love too but I am not sure if the budget allows. On a side note what ever happened to overclocking being about taking the low end parts and working your ass off for days tuning memory and fsb. Kids these days get to just turn up the multi and call it good? I remember fighting with socket a and 939 machines for weeks just to break personal bests, 300 1:1 with tccd the good old days. Sorry for the ramble
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7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1680x1050 20" or 1440x900 19" (the smaller has better color etc.)
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8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
asap
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9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Can't afford crossfire or sli , usb 3.0 would be nice, sata 6gb's yes, esata doesn't matter, onboard video no preference, uefi sounds cool though
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10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Windows 8 x64 and all older besides 7, been out of the loop the last few years.
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[Dangman]

Is the HD 6670 meeting your gaming needs or do you want increased performance?
If the latter, what games are you playing?

 

[spaceace420]

I actually picked it up to replace an 8800gts 512 and was pretty surprised when it wasn't much faster at all. I play quite a variety skyrim, sleeping dogs, witcher 2, batman ac but no BF3 really. I also have permission to upgrade the video card later if I build the rest now.

 

[Dangman]

When do you think you'll be able to swing another $120 for a GPU upgrade?

 

[spaceace420]

Maybe even this coming friday, why is there a great deal on one now? thanks for the help

 

[Dangman]

Nah, no great deal AFAIK.

Anyway, here's a build:

$180 - Intel Core i5 3350P CPU
$110 - MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$40 - Patriot PSD38G13332 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
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Total: $330 shipped

As for the video card, the HD 7770 should do the job nicely:
$115 - Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHZ 1GB Video Card

6) Will you be overclocking?
I would love too but I am not sure if the budget allows. On a side note what ever happened to overclocking being about taking the low end parts and working your ass off for days tuning memory and fsb. Kids these days get to just turn up the multi and call it good? I remember fighting with socket a and 939 machines for weeks just to break personal bests, 300 1:1 with tccd the good old days. Sorry for the ramble

A few reasons really:
1) These days, people don't have the time to spend all day or even weeks to overclock the CPU. Lots more distractions these days (damn you Wikipedia).

2) Intel, in a rather smart business move really, made it so that some of their CPUs weren't overclockable, had limited overclock capability, or full overclock capability. So no longer can you overclock the lower-end Intels and that therefore forces you to spend the extra cash for an Intel "K" series CPU if you want full overclock capability. The Core i5 CPU I recommended above is one of Intel's limited overclock CPUs: it can only be OC'd by another 400Mhz. A K series Intel CPU would be capable of a 1Ghz+ overclock.

3) Intel and AMD are trying to broaden their enthusiast hold since those will provide decent profits for either companies. As such, making it easier to overclock would definitely cause more enthusiasts to spend the extra cash for higher-end hardware.

 

[spaceace420]

Awesome and thanks again. Would it be worth spending the other 20 in the budget to move up to an 2500k? That motherboard looks very nice and capable of everything I need.

 

[tiraides]

Performance-wise, at stock speeds, the i5-3550P and the i5-2500K are similar. With the i5-2500K, however, you'd lose some features, namely PCI-E 3.0 and native USB 3.0 support. Those aren't exactly deal-breakers, but they are factors that some people consider when choosing a processor.

 

[spaceace420]

Thanks for the quick info guys, I had never heard of the 3550p but it sounds like it will work great for my needs. I do wish there was a deal on the 3570k for around 200 though. What about the 3570 non k version from amazon for 199, probably doesn't overclock much at all though and only a little faster. I feel like such a noob having to ask silly questions.

 

[Dangman]

With the i5-2500K, however, you'd lose some features, namely PCI-E 3.0 and native USB 3.0 support.

The native USB 3.0 support is on the motherboard, not the CPU.

Thanks for the quick info guys, I had never heard of the 3550p but it sounds like it will work great for my needs. I do wish there was a deal on the 3570k for around 200 though. What about the 3570 non k version from amazon for 199, probably doesn't overclock much at all though and only a little faster. I feel like such a noob having to ask silly questions.

It's a limited overclock CPU so again, only a 400Mhz OC. Not really worth it IMO.

If you can find the 2500K for $200 shipped, then go with it.

 

[spaceace420]

I went with your suggestions and grabbed the 2500k from tiger direct. It came out to 203 with shipping and I will end up getting the itch to overclock later. When I first get it I'll try to leave it stock for at least a week i've made it 2 weeks without rooting my new phone, it just takes small steps. Thanks again for the help and i cannot wait to get it built now.