Upgrading from Q6600 - need some advice please :)

[cameronlite]

Hi guys,

I've decided it's time to move on from my aging Q6600 to bigger and better things.

I do mostly developing on my PC, although i do like to play the odd game here and there. I use photoshop and visual studio everyday although the photoshop work is never with files > 50MB.

From what I've heard Bulldozer is better with multithreading (I.E visual studio) and Ivy/Sandy Bridge is better for gaming (although I have no evidence to back this up).

I'm capable of finding all the other components but there's so much confusion about whether Bulldozer will get better over time I just get lost looking for a CPU.

The CPU budget is about £200 although I could go a bit higher if the argument was good enough

Got any advice?

Cheers,

Cameron.

[badass]

Hi guys,

I've decided it's time to move on from my aging Q6600 to bigger and better things.

I do mostly developing on my PC, although i do like to play the odd game here and there. I use photoshop and visual studio everyday although the photoshop work is never with files > 50MB.

From what I've heard Bulldozer is better with multithreading (I.E visual studio) and Ivy/Sandy Bridge is better for gaming (although I have no evidence to back this up).

I'm capable of finding all the other components but there's so much confusion about whether Bulldozer will get better over time I just get lost looking for a CPU.

The CPU budget is about £200 although I could go a bit higher if the argument was good enough

Got any advice?

Cheers,

Cameron.

The Top 8 core bulldozer is faster than a Sandy/Ivy Bridge processor in only some (not all by any stretch of the imagination) multi threaded benchmarks, however Sandy/Ivy Bridge 2500k/3570k/2600k/2770k CPU's are so much faster in lightly threaded operations. The bulldozer also uses more power but the whole platform is cheaper.
If you're thinking bulldozer, i'd wait for Piledriver AM3+ CPU's if you can as it will be faster in lightly and heavily threaded tasks as well as use less power.
Otherwise, just get an Ivy Bridge 3570K based system now and be happy that it's only slightly slower than an FX-8150 in the benchmarks it loses on but miles faster on many of the ones it wins on.

Just remember, it's not about the CPU budget. It's the CPU and motherboard budget that matters. Bulldozer capable motherboards are a lot cheaper than the Ivy Bridge ones with the same features.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are you overclocking or not and what level of gaming are you doing?? The Intel Core i5 CPUs are better for gaming,but you can get an FX8120 for around £124.

AFAIK,Visual Studio has relatively recently got some more optimisations for Bulldozer,so I would have a look around for some more information.

With Visual Studio 2010 SP1,the FX8150 does reasonably well if you consider its price:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/863-...mingw-gcc.html

The Core i5 3570K is more expensive and slower and it would not surprise me if the FX8120 is as fast or faster.

Another alternative is the Xeon E3 1230 which is slightly underclocked Core i7 2600 with a semi-locked multiplier,a lower 80W TDP and no IGP:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...tio-80w-retail

With the lower clock speed it should still be a bit quicker than an FX8150,but offer better gaming performance too.

So my choices would be:
1.)FX8120 if you are not doing any intensive gaming. Will be a reasonable overclocker too.
2.)Xeon E3 1230 if you want decent performance in all applications including games but won't overclock.
3.)Core i5 2500K or Core i5 3570K if you think gaming performance is more important,and also will overclock.

[cameronlite]

Thanks for your replies!

It looks like the 8120 is the way to go for me. I do like to overclock and I develop more than I game (I have an AMD 5850).

Piledriver looks to be too far away and although the 10% increase in performance would be nice, I feel I'll just be constantly waiting for the next piece of tech! Also, seeing as the sockets are the same I could always upgrade when it's released.

So, the 8120 with this motherboard and 8GB of RAM. (I can't see the need for 16GB+, can you?).
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...e-20-(x16)-atx

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is your Q6600 overclocked or not??

Supposedly the 990 motherboards will be better for overclocking the the FX8100 series although I cannot confirm that.

Edit!!

If you are looking at 970 based motherboards the following are the ones to consider:

http://www.ebuyer.com/270702-asus-m5...oard-m5a97-pro

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-...706201&sr=8-13

[cameronlite]

My Q6600 is overclocked to 3.0GHz.

I wasn't looking for a 970 chipset specifically. I'm still trying to compromise performance against price though.

How about?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revi...By=addFiveStar

Thanks for your post - any views on MB manufacturer?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My Q6600 is overclocked to 3.0GHz.

I wasn't looking for a 970 chipset specifically. I'm still trying to compromise performance against price though.

How about?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revi...By=addFiveStar

Thanks for your post - any views on MB manufacturer?

Gigabyte are good and so are Asus. I know people who have both 970 based motherboards I suggested and they are quite happy with them.

The Gigabyte 900 series motherboards did have a slight issue with throttling last year with Bulldozer CPUs but from what I gather that was solved by newer BIOS revisions.

That 990FX is the top end AMD chipset and it looks a nice motherboard too.

This 990X motherboard is cheaper though and gets good reviews:

http://www.ebuyer.com/270698-asus-m5...ard-m5a99x-evo

The 990X does Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X instead of PCI-E 2.0 16X/16X which the 990FX.

Pob255 has one:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...waysgrade.html

[cameronlite]

Wow, thanks for all the info. There will likely be a point in the future when crossfire will be handy and I'd rather full speed.

I think I'll go for the 990FX chipset.

Probably this one (it has no reviews on ebuyer but it gets very good reviews on other websites):
http://www.ebuyer.com/270602-gigabyt...-ga-990fxa-ud5

If not, a slight downgrade to:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...e-20-(x16)-atx

Neither appear to be UEFI bios though - seems like something that should be on a motherboard of this price, no?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH,the 990X should be enough for what you doing. You have to careful with how much you spend on the motherboard as you could put it towards a more expensive AMD or Intel CPU.