Help with setup of the month Dolphin

[Tehrealk]

Hello, i have been looking to upgrade my computer for some time now, and i recently saw the setup of the month and decided it was time to upgrade. However i have a question about modifying the cpu from an i3 to an i5. Im not the most computer savvy person out there, so i came here to ask for help.

I would like to keep everything from the "Dolphin" setup of the month with the GTX 560 video card. But i would like to replace the i3-2100 with an i5-2400 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074) keeping the same Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 motherboard. Would this be possible to accomplish, or would i need a different motherboard and or power supply.

If you dont remember the setup of the month here is a link, its near the middle of the page (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...he-Daily-Blink)

Also, im wondering if there is a different compatible hard drive i could get with less space but has the same performance. I really dont need a full terabyte of storage.

Thank you for your responses.

[Uggorthaholy]

1TB is almost standard now for HDDs.

You can easily switch that CPU, it will all fit and be a huge performance bump, THOUGH, if you are bumping, I would highly recommend the i5 2500k. Best gaming CPU on the market.

[Termy]

1TB is almost standard now for HDDs.

You can easily switch that CPU, it will all fit and be a huge performance bump, THOUGH, if you are bumping, I would highly recommend the i5 2500k. Best gaming CPU on the market.

If you don't know how to overclock, it might be worth the increase in price, if you do know how to, or get a software program to do it (many motherboard vendors include it with their boards these days) - It's totally worth the increase in price.

Basically any SATA drive would fit, and performance between conventional harddrives is basically pointless. It's extremely slow versus very slow, you won't notice the difference untill you start playing with an SSD.

[Tehrealk]

I guess the extra 20 bucks would be nice to drop on it for the best cpu. But is the performance without overclocking worth it? I know how to overclock, ive just always been paranoid about reducing the cpu life.

[Termy]

I guess the extra 20 bucks would be nice to drop on it for the best cpu. But is the performance without overclocking worth it? I know how to overclock, ive just always been paranoid about reducing the cpu life.

As long as you keep it below 1.3volts on the core, you are not reducing the lifespan of the CPU by much.

People think that when you overclock your PC will die in a year, that's true only if you do it very badly. Keeping the voltage in the safe area will decrease the lifespan, but it'd still be significantly longer than the average lifespan of any PC.

In short, the PC would be replaced years before the CPU would fry from a minor overclock.

[BicycleMafioso]

I would highly recommend the i5 2500k. Best gaming CPU on the market.

Or rather, going much above it will increase the performance, but will increase the pricetag substantially more. So it's the best positioned CPU for gaming.

As long as you keep it below 1.3volts on the core, you are not reducing the lifespan of the CPU by much.

Even as high as 1.4
An overclock today if done right (and it's quite hard to get it wrong these days. Don't touch the FSB/BCLK on Sandy bridge and you're fine) will still make the computer outlive its longest reasonable lifespan (meaning, it will still live longer than the computer will be useful for)

[Tehrealk]

Thank you all for your responses, ordering the parts today. my 1.8 dual core and 7600gs will finally be replaced.