System Upgrades

[[GIT]Fairy]

Had a lot of problems lately with hardware, and am back running on a lower end dualcore, Core 2 Duo E6400, with pretty slow ram etc. 

Been looking at hardware upgrades for a few weeks now and need to decide.  Heres where I am so far:

Mobo Asus P5E (Changing)
Core 2 Duo E6400 (Changing)
4gb Ram (Old Slow Crap Changing)
Case : CM Stacker (Staying)
PSU : OCZ 650W (Staying)
Sound : Sounblaster X-Fi (Staying)
Headphones Crappy Currys Ones (Changing)
HD's 3 drives totalling around 1Tb (Staying)
ATI Sapphire 5770 (Changing)
LG 20" Monitor (Staying, though undecided)
Win XP (Have Win 7 Ready to roll)

Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - ?149.99 inc VAT Link
Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55 - ?109.98 inc VAT Link
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit - ?169.98 inc VAT Link
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 - ?229.99 inc VAT Link
Logitech G35 7.1 Surround Sound Headset - ?86.99 inc VAT Link

Total is ?746, which as a spend for me is immense, and I may cut stuff off again.  The 5770 while a decent gfx card wont last me long as games progress so I'm going to take this opportunity to beef up the gfx.  Also the headphones are USB, negating the need for the Xi-Fi card, however I like to disconnect the headphones and put them away when I'm finished playing and conventional jack connections at the back of the PC make this a pain.

So looking a bit of feedback and views on this.  Dont want to make a mistake with this sort of spend!

[[GiT]Kel]

Get the headset via currys or pc world website for ?79.
Nice review of it here: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/07/15/review-logitech-g35-71-surround-sound-headphones
I've already ordered it so I'll let you know if its any good.

Also a good hardware guide here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-273518_13_0.html

New graphics card range supposed to be out soon so I'd stick with the 5770 for now tbh.

The processor/mobo combination seems to be a common one so likely v.good.

PC gaming is feckn expensive really

oh 4gig of that ram is ?84.99 dunno if u made mistake or going for 8gig.

[[GIT]Fairy]

Expensive allright but will get years out of it.

[[GiT]Kel]

I don't think I could sneak that many boxes past the missus either!

[[TiG]Grim]

as ive said before ditch the gfx card buy a new psu (the ocz one off legion?) instead rest is fine though

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-022-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

when ever i do a new build it always must have a new psu just for peace of mind

[Cully]

I wouldnt change that card at all mate, im running an ATI 4870 1 gig and was getting minimum 60 fps on the beta @ 2048 x 1152 , FSAA X8 AA X 16 , gfx set to max everything except shadows which were set to medium,ive yet to find a game that this card struggles with at its native res resolutions and max settings ingame.
Id either put the cost of a newer card into a psu or a nice big 24" monitor.

[[GIT]Fairy]

After much mind changing I've purchased the following :

Intel Core i5 750
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3
Speed Link Medusa NX 5.1 Gaming Headset
650W Corsair Professional CMPSU-650 Modular PSU
1GB XFX HD 5850 Black, PCI-E 2.0
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 Motherboard
Thermalright Chill Factor 2 - Thermal Paste

So decided to keep my 20" monitor, and have the card be able to do all bells and whistles instead.  Should be a pretty decent system now.

[[TiG]Grim]

\o/

[[TiG]Lucutus]

grats!

[[GiT]Kel]

nice, grtz!
Hope hittn that 'Confirm' button didn't hurt that much

[[TiG]Suppafly]

nice

[[GiT]Kel]

Ordered a few bits and bobs myself which were delivered today. (wife at work so all parcels safely hid)

Ended up getting the stuff from http://www.tekheads.co.uk/ mainly due to stock issues.

P55 Mobo
4GIG DDR3 RAM G.skill
i5 750 cpu
Sapphire Toxic OC'd 5850 1GB GDDR5
Xigmatek NRP-PC702 700W 140mm Fan PSU

Hopefully build will go smoothly, just a few backups to do 1st.

[[TiG]Lucutus]

very nice Paul, what did it come to in the end?

[Cully]

Nice gear lads.

[[GiT]Kel]

?614 not including the psu or headset. Thought I'd get away with my current psu (500w) but was told that it could be dodgy and might end up doing damage with it.
So the new psu was ?70.

Wiped out now though.

Don't know much about overclocking but seemingly the i5 overclocks loads and is very stable so when i get system build I'll tinker with the following
http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/intel_core_i5_750_overclocking_guide,1.html