Upgrade motherboard + CPU + RAM

[grobima]

Hi all,

The heavy duty stuff I am doing with my PC right now are photo (21.1 megapixel raw files) and video editing plus the occasional Battlefield 3 gaming. I am okay with the speed I have but I would like to upgrade my RAM to improve my performance. However, my motherboard only supports DDR2 RAM.

Unfortunately I am not very up-to-date on things and really would appreciate some expert help.

My current set-up on my Windows 7 - 64bit PC is:
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP43-S3L
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400
RAM: 4x2GB DDR2
Graphics Card: Radeon HD 6870

Thanks for your help in advance. I would not like to spend more than 450 dollars.

Bastian

 

[TheDevopsGuy]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 229.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293 134.90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231560 82.99.

final price is 447.88$

seeing that your video editing a cpu with hyperthreading and more threads would be wonders unfortunatly the i7 didnt quite fit your budget unless u would of gone for the older versions which I wouldnt recommend the i5-3570k is a beast overclocker and is the best bang for the buck in gaming and I doubt u will have any regrets the graphics card is okay for another year or so so youll have a decent system all in all which will run battlefield 3 on ultra/ w/o AA proly or even with AA depends resolution

 

[grobima]

The i5-3570k is the one I came across before. I think I will go with that. Thanks!

I hope I can still make some $150-200 selling my stuff.

So what do you think of the Asus P8777-V? http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2406888&CatId=6976

 

[TheDevopsGuy]

So what do you think of the Asus P8777-V? http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2406888&CatId=6976

That motherboard is perfect mate seeing that it has crossfire ready too it would be one of the most wonders if u want u can add another radeon 6870 if its crossfire compatible.

If ur going to take ram try to find them with the highest frequency atm its somewere 2333 frequency since there is only 8gigs

I hope I can still make some $150-200 selling my stuff.

u will definatly be able to get a good sum from the cpu and motherboard and ram that cpu would go for a 100 or 80 $ + motherboard with ram would easily sell for 80ish u could get about 200 of that any system builder for a company would take that offer right when it was out

 

[Jad Chaar]

Dont get Asrock motherboards, I have used many in the past and they have all failed on me. ASUS is the only brand I trust. I recommend spending a few more bucks for Ripjawz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231429

 

[klepto12]

If you get 16gb ram go for the two 8Gb sticks leaves room for later and frees up cpu cycles now by not populating every ram slot.

 

[Jad Chaar]

If you get 16gb ram go for the two 8Gb sticks leaves room for later and frees up cpu cycles now by not populating every ram slot.

Good point, didn't know this. I just go for 4x4 because I know I would never upgrade