So I'm overhauling my desktop...

[RaptorShark]

I've decided to go back to 'The Beast' as she used to be called. I dusted her off and carefully cleaned her to the best of my ability. Then I go and turn her on, and she's just not what I remember her being.

I've switched over to gaming on my laptop the past couple of years, but 'The Beast' has never been too far from my thoughts when I'm using one of these "portable" gaming rigs, and the time has finally come for me to look into what it's going to take to bring the old girl into 2011.

I've decided that she's going to need more-or-less a total overhaul. Currently, it's running some pretty outdated tech (although I think the latest thing I upgraded before I stopped was the GPU):

* P6N SLi Platinum motherboard [http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1140]
* eVGA GTX260 [http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gtx_260_us.html]
* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz [http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2quad/specifications.htm]
* 4GB DDR2 (I think) RAM @ 1333MHz

Anyway, here's what I'm looking to put in her:

* ASUS P8Z68-V PRO [http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68V_PRO/#specifications]
* Intel Sandybridge i7-2600K Unlocked Core i7 Quad-Core Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1155)
* EVGA GeForce GTX 580 SuperClocked
* 2x Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz

I suppose I'm looking for advice about which of these upgrades are necessary, anywhere I can save any more, any components which are incompatible with each other, or any alternative hardware that would be better suited. As you can probably tell from the parts I've picked out, I'm a gamer on a little bit of a budget so any advice you could give at all would be awesome.

 

[MrTub]

Whats your psu & chassi?
Do you need a hdd or do you want a ssd?

I would replace the cpu and because of that you need a new mobo and because of that your ram will not work so you need to buy ddr3 ram

I would replace the gpu, the one you found seems good. But I would buy a gtx 580 with an aftermarket cooler.

 

[RaptorShark]

Whats your psu & chassi?
Do you need a hdd or do you want a ssd?

I would replace the cpu and because of that you need a new mobo and because of that your ram will not work so you need to buy ddr3 ram

I would replace the gpu, the one you found seems good. But I would buy a gtx 580 with an aftermarket cooler.

The PSU is 850W and the chassis is plenty big enough, so I haven't bothered to mention those things. Are the 580s prone to overheating? Cooling in the case I have is generally pretty good (I've never had any problems). As for the hard drive, I'll probably not be upgrading, and if I do it will just be another HDD (unless the price of SSDs crashes between now and then).

 

[MrTub]

Whats your psu & chassi?
Do you need a hdd or do you want a ssd?

I would replace the cpu and because of that you need a new mobo and because of that your ram will not work so you need to buy ddr3 ram

I would replace the gpu, the one you found seems good. But I would buy a gtx 580 with an aftermarket cooler.

The PSU is 850W and the chassis is plenty big enough, so I haven't bothered to mention those things. Are the 580s prone to overheating? Cooling in the case I have is generally pretty good (I've never had any problems). As for the hard drive, I'll probably not be upgrading, and if I do it will just be another HDD (unless the price of SSDs crashes between now and then).

Alright. Well first of all 580 is a Fermi cards which means it loves its energy, so an aftermarket cooler its very much needed unless you want to run at 70% fan profile (around 4800rpm at 100% if its the same as gtx 480) and considering those cards cost about the same amount as normal cards there is really no reason to not get it.

I've got 2x 480 in sli

At 100% load my cards are around 90'c and 75-80% fanprofile (keep in mind that one goes up to 4800rpm and the other goes up to 5200rpm) and this is with standard cooler.


I must ask, is it a brand psu with 80+ certified or is it a budget psu?

 

[RaptorShark]

Alright. Well first of all 580 is a Fermi cards which means it loves its energy, so an aftermarket cooler its very much needed unless you want to run at 70% fan profile (around 4800rpm at 100% if its the same as gtx 480) and considering those cards cost about the same amount as normal cards there is really no reason to not get it.

I've got 2x 480 in sli

At 100% load my cards are around 90'c and 75-80% fanprofile (keep in mind that one goes up to 4800rpm and the other goes up to 5200rpm) and this is with standard cooler.


I must ask, is it a brand psu with 80+ certified or is it a budget psu?

It doesn't appear to be 80 PLUS certified, but it is a CoolerMaster so it's not a budget brand. The 80 PLUS certification is for energy efficiency anyway, so I'm not too bothered.

Doing a bit of reading on the GTX580, the cooling solutions on it appear to be a skip and a jump ahead of those used in the 480. In short; more power, less noise, less heat and less energy consumption.

 

[MrTub]

Alright. Well first of all 580 is a Fermi cards which means it loves its energy, so an aftermarket cooler its very much needed unless you want to run at 70% fan profile (around 4800rpm at 100% if its the same as gtx 480) and considering those cards cost about the same amount as normal cards there is really no reason to not get it.

I've got 2x 480 in sli

At 100% load my cards are around 90'c and 75-80% fanprofile (keep in mind that one goes up to 4800rpm and the other goes up to 5200rpm) and this is with standard cooler.


I must ask, is it a brand psu with 80+ certified or is it a budget psu?

It doesn't appear to be 80 PLUS certified, but it is a CoolerMaster so it's not a budget brand. The 80 PLUS certification is for energy efficiency anyway, so I'm not too bothered.

Doing a bit of reading on the GTX580, the cooling solutions on it appear to be a skip and a jump ahead of those used in the 480. In short; more power, less noise, less heat and less energy consumption.

Yeah the 580 is pretty much what 480 was suppose to be.
About the psu yeah coolermaster does great things.
The reason I was asking about 80+ certified cause even then you can get budget brands and still be sure its quality stuff in it.


Here are some recommendations for which 580 you should buy (IMO)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127567&cm_re=Gtx_580-_-14-127-567-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121429&cm_re=Gtx_580-_-14-121-429-_-Product

I've only heard extremely good things about those