New Ivy Bridge Upgrade

nckfrtg28 · 30 Apr 2012

So I was looking around yesterday and made my upgrade (list) for my PC. Tell me if theses parts are good. I hope to get the parts ordered next month sometime.

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-3550 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX806237I53550

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128543

Ram:Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL

If you find any cheaper parts please tell me.

Maguscreed · 30 Apr 2012

That's probably about as good spending wise as you are going to get if you insist on going ivy bridge.

ignatzatsonic · 30 Apr 2012

I don't see a motherboard.

nckfrtg28 · 30 Apr 2012

Maguscreed said:

That's probably about as good spending wise as you are going to get if you insist on going ivy bridge.

Here it is.

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Maguscreed · 30 Apr 2012

Personally I would be looking into an i7 sandy bridge right now since the prices have gotten friendlier.
I think pretty much every part in my system has come down in just the 5 months or so since I put it together.

ignatzatsonic · 30 Apr 2012

That's all good mainline stuff.

Whether it's the best bang for the buck is unknown since we know nothing about your budget, purpose for the PC, or if you even care about bang for the buck.

You can certainly get more powerful or less powerful as you see fit. I couldn't quickly find a broad benchmark score on that particular processor, but it is a very new CPU.

The general consensus that I have seen on Ivy Bridge is that it is a very modest improvement on Sandy Bridge--entirely as expected--and is priced with that in mind.

nckfrtg28 · 30 Apr 2012

I really want it to be a better gaming computer and faster at running Photoshop.

ignatzatsonic · 30 Apr 2012

nckfrtg28 said:

I really want it to be a better gaming computer and faster at running Photoshop.

Depending on how much you do each of those things, you might be better off just getting another video card and an SSD.

linnemeyerhere · 30 Apr 2012

nckfrtg28,
The i5 is a fine performer and if you can eek out some more cash then up the ante to a i7 but either way please don't short speed your ram. Minimum 1333 otherwise use these or better and maybe even consider 2x8gb's.
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL

Maguscreed · 30 Apr 2012

The only way you are going to get photoshop to seem 'snappy' is to get a SSD.
The bus speeds, processing capacity, and all those other things you seem to have covered already. 8 gigs of ram should even be adequate. I'm at 16 now but the honest truth is I've never managed to use more than about a third of it. Another thing that will speed up photoshop is to NOT use an active antivirus.
I personally do not I only scan manually now and then. All the same I have managed to go infection free for a very long time thanks to a few handy browser plugins.

This is not something I openly suggest to others as I realize I have both the experience and knowledge to avoid infection and not everyone does, but it will make the system function slightly faster overall as well.