Help me upgrade!

[{{909}}]

Been looking around toms hardware and the likes for a few hours but finding it hard to get back into the swing of hardware pros and cons having not bought a system for about 5 years.

Currently got a core2duo 3ghz, gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L mobo, 3gig of ram (chosen for XP originally), Samsund 120g SSD, and a Radeon HD 6450 gfx card. the graphic card is about a year old, the rest are from way back and I think the mobo is a bottleneck since it only supports PCI-E 1.1, while the card is higher spec and currently my system is having a few issues running at 1440p on my new monitor.

So, basically I think its time for an upgrade.

I'm looking for ram, mobo, cpu and PSU to start with, I'll probably upgrade the gfx later as I want to play a few games I am missing out on since my PS3 and 360 have been in the UK the last 3 years.

So anyone start me off with a few suggestions? I looked at intel CPUs and noticed there was 3 different types on ebuyer, none of which I have any idea of the differences and I dont know how AMD are comparing these days either.

The main use of the system is going to be photoshop and to be honest the current system isnt that much of a slouch for my needs, although since upping the montor res its become noticeably more clunky and I think my ram is on its way out as progs have started crashing more frequently.

Price for the mobo, cpu, psu and ram needs to be around 400-500 quid I think.

[pattikins]

For what it's worth, here's my suggestion:

MSI B85M-G43

Intel Core i5 4670K

Antec VP550F

HyperX 16 GB 1600 Mhz CL9 DDR3

Total: £374

The 'business' motherboard can take up to 64gb of memory, & can support up to 4 displays. If you're not a fan of over-clocking, then it might be worth getting an Intel Core i5 4460 (saving £35) - the difference between the two cpus are marginal & if you're using Photoshop the money might be better spent on more memory . Both of those processors also have a built in HD 4600 gpu that should out perform the HD 6450 card - saves on power.

[superman112]

Thats a very good setup by pattikins, but defo install a graphics card dont use the embedded grapgics for gamins as I find that it works best for larger hdmi screens then gaming

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

[{{909}}]

A chap sent me a suggested system earlier but not had time to look at it.

One thing thats new since I last looked at hardware is the fact that most motherboards seem to come with HDMI/DVI or DSUB sockets which I thought meant they had some pissant onboard graphics, but as pattikins mentions some CPUs have a GPU onboard . How long has this been going on and does anyone know if theres any detriment to having this on your board if you are using a dedicated graphics card? can I buy the CPU without the GPU onboard?

If it does carry more beef than my current card I'll use it just to reduce noise and power while I save for a better card, if I can't choose to not have it.

[{{909}}]

For what it's worth, here's my suggestion:

MSI B85M-G43

Intel Core i5 4670K

Antec VP550F

HyperX 16 GB 1600 Mhz CL9 DDR3

Total: £374

The 'business' motherboard can take up to 64gb of memory, & can support up to 4 displays. If you're not a fan of over-clocking, then it might be worth getting an Intel Core i5 4460 (saving £35) - the difference between the two cpus are marginal & if you're using Photoshop the money might be better spent on more memory . Both of those processors also have a built in HD 4600 gpu that should out perform the HD 6450 card - saves on power.

showed this list, and another I was recommended to a seller and they came back with this :

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2Lyw7P

not really sure on the differences but 8gig of ram is enough for me, he's doing this bundle for 310 quid so may plumb for it, unless anyone can see any issues

[pattikins]

showed this list, and another I was recommended to a seller and they came back with this :

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2Lyw7P

not really sure on the differences but 8gig of ram is enough for me, he's doing this bundle for 310 quid so may plumb for it, unless anyone can see any issues

It's a bargain. That said, the bundle seems more suited to a high end gaming system build, rather than one set up for photoshop - i.e., the vast majority of gamers use a single graphics card, & based on your previous graphics card, I don't see you using 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes. So you end up paying for summat you're not going to use. The same goes for the psu. It might be worth asking the seller to swap the mobo & drive the price down further.