About to buy this Intel 2500k, board and ram upgrade - any advice/recommendations?

Associate
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Hi all,
I'm about to buy this selection of components to upgrade from my overclocked 3Ghz Q6600 existing system onto the 2500k bandwagon and I wondered if you had any comments/advice/recommendations? I want to run it about 4Gz at least without worrying too much about voltages and trial and error.

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939/AM2/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366)
Asus P8Z68-V PRO GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2)
OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)

I don't game as much as I used to but I have unopened copies of Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim that I'm looking forward to installing so I will probably upgrade my existing Nvidia GTX260 to a newer card if its worth it, but I'd be definitely sticking with Nvida and in the £150-£200 mid range prices.

Also my existing Enermax Liberty 620w PSU? Will this be okay for my proposed upgrade or do I need a newer PSU as well?

Many thanks! Can't wait to order!
 
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Also my existing Enermax Liberty 620w PSU? Will this be okay for my proposed upgrade or do I need a newer PSU as well?

Yep, re-use it.

I wondered if you had any comments/advice/recommendations?

All your drives SATA? including optical drive?

I would make a few switches of parts,

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £175.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £123.95
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £122.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £43.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
1 x OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black £4.99
Total : £505.28 (includes shipping : £9.50).




• Retail CPU has 3 year warranty, box+heatsink (useful for re-sale value)
• Good cooler/price.

I will probably upgrade my existing Nvidia GTX260 to a newer card if its worth it, but I'd be definitely sticking with Nvida and in the £150-£200 mid range prices.

GTX560ti 1GB or 2GB
 
Associate
OP
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Hi,
Thanks for the advice, you're very kind.

I was looking at the current bundle that has the Corsair A50 cooler, but I didn't want it to be any more louder than my current Q6600 set up which has a Freezer Pro on it, and I saw somewhere that A50 fan has no PWM sensor so I was worried it runs flat out all the time?

I did wonder about the motherboard. Is the Gigabyte better?
I have a Gigabyte DS3 at the moment and its really awkward with RAM, never been stable with anything but 2 sticks. Perhaps they've improved them!

Good catch on the SATA optical drive, all my current drives are all SATA including the optical, so I will need to replace it to install Windows7!
 
Caporegime
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The A50 reading reviews is a quiet cooler,
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/zardon/corsair-a50-and-a70-coolers-review/5/

It also comes with a speed reducing adapter to plug inline with the cable.

I did wonder about the motherboard. Is the Gigabyte better?

I think it is, 3 year warranty, based in the UK, that one is part of the Ultra Durable3 range so better quality components.

Good catch on the SATA optical drive, all my current drives are all SATA including the optical, so I will need to replace it to install Windows7!

Keep all your drives then , just do a fresh re-install of Windows.
 
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OP
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Will the CPU and RAM be recognised automatically when I first boot it up? Not sure which settings to use! I recall with my old Q6600 and Geil RAM I had to up the memory voltages to make it boot properly?
 
Caporegime
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They will,

The RAM has an XMP profile which you can load in the BIOS to set the timings/frequency ect correctly for you.

Set the SATA controller to AHCI for the SSD and connect it to the native intel SATAIII ports (white), not the slower Marvel controlled SATAIII ports (Grey).
 
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