What do you think of these proposed upgrades?

David on 8/1/2011 at 17:37

You'll have to let me know what the Synology NAS is like, as that's the same model I was looking at getting next month.

Matthew on 9/1/2011 at 13:20

Will do, David!

So Overclockers say that if/when finance gets approved I can make any changes I want and just pay the difference. As a result, I was thinking that the best change might be to go for this:

(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-358-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1859) Intel Core i7-2600K - £270

(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-295-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517) Corsair Vengeance 8Gb (2x4Gb) - £125
(The store only has 4Gb sets of G.skill RAM, Renz. Intel's website suggests that only 1333Mhz RAM is suitable but nearly everyone else suggests 1600Mhz.)

(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-432-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906) Asus P8P67-Pro Motherboard - £150
OR
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-154-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906) MSI P67A-GD65 - £145

Hard drives, case & NAS as before.

That would be an increase of about £70 which sounds well worth it. As for after-market cooling, I don't know if it's as necessary for Sandy Bridge models? I may hold off to see what sort of temperatures I'm getting before splashing out another £50 - 80.

Sulphur on 9/1/2011 at 13:46

Good to hear they let you change the order, Matt. Looks like you're getting a system that's ready to really kick ass. :thumb:

Load temps appear to average around ~60° C from the benchmarks I've read. People also seem to have no trouble pushing the 2600K to 5 GHz on air, so I doubt you'd really need to replace the stock cooler.

Both of those mobos look good and about evenly matched performance wise; I'm fond of Asus m'self, if for no other reason that, barring a weird quirk or two, there hasn't been a board that's failed me in the last 8 years.

Brian The Dog on 10/1/2011 at 15:41

I'd definitely go for an Asus motherboard myself - I've had two MSI ones fail on me in the past few years, whereas Asus have been fantastic. Plus their BIOS upgrade software is far easier to use than MSI's.

Matthew on 10/1/2011 at 16:34

Cheers for that Brian - my only exposure to date has been to MSI boards, which I haven't been overly fond of but it was a case of 'better the devil you know'. I think in light of Sulphur's note and your recommendation I'll plump for the Asus with the funky heatsinks.

Sulphur - thanks for your endorsement of the board and the cooling plan!

steo on 10/1/2011 at 16:43

I would avoid using a 5400rpm HDD as a system drive, if that's what you're planning. Whatever the marketing says, your performance will suffer, especially for random I/O. You might consider getting an SSD for the system drive, considering how much money you're spending. Just make sure it's one of the newer ones that supports the TRIM command and use Windows 7. Games installed on a 5400rpm drive will be slower to load as well.

Matthew on 10/1/2011 at 18:02

Thanks steo - those two drives are just for the Diskstation though. My two current Caviar Blacks are being transferred over to the new machine.

dj_ivocha on 10/1/2011 at 18:22

I'm rather partial to (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-114-AN) this case. And it isn't silver either ;)

If you can find the predecessor of that case, the P182, you can even get away with paying quite a bit less, too. I myself have the P182 and it's great (silent, too).

Matthew on 10/1/2011 at 18:31

A good choice and one that I was looking at! :D However, I don't want a door on the front of this one, having constantly forgotten to open the door on my current case prior to ejecting a disc :p

dj_ivocha on 10/1/2011 at 19:50

Better to forget to open the door prior to ejecting the disc, than for the drive to forget to stop the disc from spinning before it ejects it. :eek:

Good thing I have a normal drive with a.. drawer? rather than one of the slot-in ones. Otherwise I might have gotten a firsthand (or firstneck...) experience with how it feels to be a redshirt character in SyFy's newest movie, Attack Of The Killer DVD Drives. :sweat: