Time For A New PC Build - Advice Please

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Edwe

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I'm finally getting rid of my old C2D machine and upgrading! :D

It's been a while since I've really looked at new hardware, so any advice/criticism would be very welcome. My absolute budget ceiling is R9000. I will use the PC mainly for work (MATLAB/Simulink simulations and software development), but occasionally for gaming, sound editing and messing around in Bryce.

What I'm considering:

Intel Sandybridge lga1155 i5-2500K - Quad core / 4 threads , 3.3ghz box cpu / 3.7ghz turbo boost (stock heat sink) @ R2140

Asus P8Z68-V LX LGA1155 mb; intel Z68 chipset @ R1670

4Gb x 2 kit Corsair CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 ddr3-1333 , CL9 , 1.5v - 240pin @ R510

Sapphire HD6970 2Gb 256bit 4 channel DDR5 @ R3960

Coolermaster RS550-ACAAE3 GX 550w @ R600

Already have and keeping: 500GB + 2x250GB Seagate SATA HDDs, 1TB Western Digital USB3 HDD, Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty (PCI) with NAD amp and speakers, 23" Samsung P2370 HD Monitor and sucky 19" LG something or other monitor, Microsoft USB wireless keyboard & mouse, unbranded ATX chassis (going to remove cheapo PSU), lots and lots of cables @ No extra cost

Total price is roughly R9000. Is this an okay setup? Any recommendations?
 
Only thing I'll comment on is the PSU. Get a decent Antec or Corsair PSU.
 
No calls to wait for HD7950 launch (31 Jan)? Although... will prob be around R4500 so might be outta budget and is prob overkill for occasional gaming. Which actually makes me think, rather buy a HD6950... occasional gamers do not need top of the line stuff imo. Heck, even GTX560Ti or HD6870...
 
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Archer said:
No calls to wait for HD7950 launch (31 Jan)? Although... will prob be around R4500 so might be outta budget and is prob overkill for occasional gaming. Which actually makes me think, rather buy a HD6950... occasional gamers do not need top of the line stuff imo. Heck, even GTX560Ti or HD6870...
Click to expand...

Yeah and put the saved cash into a new monitor.
 
ponder said:
Only thing I'll comment on is the PSU. Get a decent Antec or Corsair PSU.
Click to expand...

Is Corsair considered to be better than Coolermaster? I can get a 550W Corsair for pretty much the same price.

Archer said:
No calls to wait for HD7950 launch (31 Jan)? Although... will prob be around R4500 so might be outta budget and is prob overkill for occasional gaming. Which actually makes me think, rather buy a HD6950... occasional gamers do not need top of the line stuff imo. Heck, even GTX560Ti or HD6870...
Click to expand...

I'm timing my buy to the end of the first week of February. I was hoping the launch of newer cards would lead to a reduction in price of the HD6970 by then, as it would then no longer be anywhere near top of the line. And, as you say, I don't really need top of the line.

At first I wondered whether it wouldn't make more sense to rather get an i7 2600K (R1000 more expensive than the 2500K) and a cheaper graphics card, but my friend who just bought a new PC convinced me that I would get better performance with the 2500K and a good graphics card than with the R2600K and a cheap graphics card.
 
You need to have a look at how multi threaded your main applications are. I remember Matlab can get pretty intense, but it depends what you do with it. So from that point of view a 2600k might be worth your while. From a purely gaming perspective however, 2500k wins hands down as you almost zero extra performance by going for the 2600k
 
Save the grand for sure, the trouble is amd may not see fit to lower pricing due to nvidia but with the 570 so popular you may find the 6970 comes down in price, also the rand is not good at the moment and you can bet it won't be less than 5k for the 7950 sadly.

If you are only upgrading in feb then you may just get lucky and find a price drop on the 6970. What games do you intend on playing? Rather get a good vga card and know it can handle anything because it will cost more to replace it later on. Again i am assuming you will play games like bf 3 and some of the newer titles, i doubt cod mw 3 needs more than a riva tnt :p to get good frames so if you play call of duty a mid end card is all that you need but bf 3 really does look incredible and you will want to pump out ultra with AA for sure.
 
Also get 1600Mhz 1.5V RAM instead of the one you're looking at. I paid R280x2 for 4GBx2 Corsair Vengeance LP 1600 1.5v.
The bonus of this is that it's supported by Ivy Bridge so with your next upgrade you've already got ram. And on top of that you get a marginal performance increase for like R50 more.

+1 on upgrading to a better PSU Corsair > most others.
Also the graphics card. Namebrands are everything with gfx (their own coolers/custom speeds).
Matlab will love it if you used a 2600 instead of the 2500k. 2600k isnt necessary if you're not going to OC. The 2600 will outperform the 2500 by miles in Matlab.
 
killadoob said:
Plus they have a special on axtrom ram for 129 ex vat for 4gb ddr1333, get 12gb of those bad boys and you set :D. If you are worried the kingston ones are only 169 ex.
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I see you also got your mail this morning :D
 
For occasional gaming get a much cheaper GPU (HD6870 ?) and get an SSD from the savings !! :D
 
Maybe worth the wait for Ivy Bridge? Just throwing it out there.
 
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