Confused Dying PC. What do I replace it with?

[MrHorus]

So as the title says, my current PC is dying with random lockups and blue screens and I'm not quite sure if it's RAM, Motherboard or graphics card but as the whole thing is getting long in the tooth I figure it's about time that the whole thing was replaced.

Currently I'm running Core 2 Quad Q6600 @3.0GHz with 8GB of RAM and a GTX560Ti.

I can probably keep the graphics card (assuming it's not the card that's causing the lockups) but I reckon I need to get a new CPU and motherboard, which means that new RAM would be needed as well.

The problem is twofold:

1) I'm on a budget. No hard figures but consider it "flexible".
2) I have NFI what to buy these days.

I'm having a look at the IvyBridge i5s like the one here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-418-IN

Does anyone have one?
Are they much of a jump up from a Core 2 Quad?

I'd appreciate any hints or tips, or reminiscences about how life was easier and we could all follow tech when we didn't have wives or jobs to keep happy

 

[Yaka]

worth the jump

for mobo id say asus sabertooth seen em go pretty cheap recently just dont go for asrock
mem crucial or if you are wanting to oc corsair/gskill etc id say 16gb min
ssd ocz and crucial are hard to beat on performance/price
gfx your old one is resonable , id skip a gen tbh

oh and get a decent cooler and oc the fucking cpu while you are at it

 

[MrHorus]

Cheers, will take a look at the Asus Sabertooth.

I've already got a 64GB SSD boot drive in there, but I'll probably be looking to install a data SSD for games and keep my old mechanical drivers for music, films etc etc.

 

[TdC]

MrWhoreArse I went from that C2D setup you have to my current i7, though it was a bit harsh as I had to buy the mobo and ram, as well as the cpu due to ofc the architecture diff. At that time the i7 was just launched, so prices were steepish. I can not remember exactly when I got the base setup, but since then I swapped out the ram for more ram re school programming constraints, I swapped out the aging mechanical disks for two ssd's so I could wave my cock about, and I got a more modern Nvidia card so I could program CUDA, all in.....mmmm...3 or 4 years. Meaning that although I have swapped bits, I've not actually swapped CPU or mobo. Dunno if this helps or anything

 

[Bahumat]

No point buying i7

 

[MrHorus]

Why not?

 

[cHodAX]

Well overpriced for 10% more performance, the current K models of i5 are phenomenal performance at a great price. Oh and yes, the performance difference over Q6600 is pretty frigging substantial, especially when turbo is on or you go for a mild overclock. You are looking at close to double the processing power of what you currently use. Memory is so fucking cheap, I went 16gb to future proof this machine for at least 4 years.

 

[Bahumat]

i7 has hyper threading (i5 does not) iirc so there are 4 virtual cores making 8 in total. As far as I am aware (things may have changed), there are not any/many games or programs which use this so it's totally pointless. The gain from having an i7 over an i5 is not worth the money.

 

[cHodAX]

i7 has hyper threading (i5 does not) iirc so there are 4 virtual cores making 8 in total. As far as I am aware (things may have changed), there are not any/many games or programs which use this so it's totally pointless. The gain from having an i7 over an i5 is not worth the money.

Yep, infact hyperthreading can actually hurt performance in some situations and gaming is often one of those. Better to have 4 high speed cores at a reasonable price than 4 high speed cores and 4 virtual cores at a ridiculous price when you consider how few applications are even coded to make use of 8 parallel threads.

 

[Jupitus]

I'm in a similar situation. Ageing Q6600 on socket 775 architecture. I've just fitted a 120Gb SSD (was getting a bit low on drive space so prioritised this) but now need to venture forth on GFX and the mobo/cpu/ram combination. Looking at a GTX560ti as bang for buck in GFX but what bundles are available for the rest? Are bundles actually worth it, or should I decide on components and shop around more?

I'm on a budget too, so not the latest and greatest for me either. I'll keep my (4) HDDs for now and DVD writer, case and power supply should all be ok.

 

[Yaka]

tbh if you guys dont mind i7 then i got mobo, ram and cpu spare

 

[Kryten]

I went from a Q6600 to an i5 3570k. Very much worth the jump - the increase in memory bandwidth is the big one and CPU speed is phenominal.
SSD in there to boot and you can get yourself something stupidly rapid. For instance, an i5 3570 mobo and ram will be roughly £300. £50 for a decent case (corsair carbide 200R is uber for little money) and again for power supply, using existing drives and your GPU, and you're sorted.
Chop and change as you need.

 

[cHodAX]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/core-i5-or-core-i7-does-your-computer-need-the-extra-juice/

Worth a read.

 

[Yaka]

i agree with that article alot my bro and sis both just browse, troll on facebook, check mail, use a word processor both are always wanting to upgrade and dis regard what i am recommending for em

 

[Jupitus]

Well I took the plunge on GFX and ended up with a Radeon HD 7770 for about £100 - I was after a GTX 560ti really, but the 'must have now and install tonight' swayed my decision

 

[MrHorus]

How do you mean Yaka? You offering?

 

[MrHorus]

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/core-i5-or-core-i7-does-your-computer-need-the-extra-juice/

Worth a read.

Will do. Reading now in fact.

I've also borrowed some horrible old GFX card from work to test out and see if it really is the motherboard or the graphics card that's dying, as if I can buy some time until the New Year then I can hold out until I have more money.

 

[cHodAX]

In short, it basically says i7 is for people with too much disposable income or the 1% who need a ton of virtualisation. For gaming you want i5 unless you have a silly budget to burn.

 

[Yaka]

How do you mean Yaka? You offering?

yep, i7 920 cpu, msi mobo, 16gb corsair vengance ram, been holding onto em for a bit to build a spare rig but never got round to ordering a new case

 

[Kryten]

I do a ton of virtualisation and never even blinked towards the i7's in a proper computer. There's a lot of overestimation that goes on but that's natural - these people want your money. My graphics card is shit (6870) but there's nothing my pc as a whole won't do at full detail at 1920x1200. The virtualisation work I do means I have and use 16GB of ram but that's so cheap currently it's worth going for (42 quid for 16gb... no brainer if you use it.)