moving from amd phenom 2 to i5 , advice needed

[Brewster0101]

So I am currently running a Phenom 2 720be, (tri core at 2.8ghz) on a Asus 990x board. I brought this motherboard to be ready for bulldozer. Kinda got bored and fed up with waiting for amd to produce a next generation CPU that is worth buying. Bulldozer just seems to consume too much power and lack oomph compared to Intel's equivalent.

So I am now looking at replacing with the following :

Intel i5 3570 @ £177
And Asus maximus V motherboard

Not had a intel CPU since my old core duo E6300, is the above a good match. I use SSDs , USB 3. I see the Intel chip sets are a lot better than amds current ones with regard to speeds on USB 3 and SSDs

[HalloweenJack]

tis a good board - intel and amd (heck even asmedia) are better than marvell sata 3 chips


if you want to overclock get a good cooler for ivy bridge they do get warm quickly


what ya doing with your current kit?

if your not wanting all the feature set of the asus board btw (is it around £150?) then look at the asrock z77 pro4 - the pro4 will do everything the others will , but you can get a good aircooler for the difference between them (asus and asrock) in the cost!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So I am currently running a Phenom 2 720be, (tri core at 2.8ghz) on a Asus 990x board. I brought this motherboard to be ready for bulldozer. Kinda got bored and fed up with waiting for amd to produce a next generation CPU that is worth buying. Bulldozer just seems to consume too much power and lack oomph compared to Intel's equivalent.

PD will work on that motherboard,so IMHO I would see how well it does - both Trinity and Vishera will be released around Windows 8 launch time. That would place PD around a year after BD.

[Brewster0101]

PD will work on that motherboard,so IMHO I would see how well it does - both Trinity and Vishera will be released around Windows 8 launch time. That would place PD around a year after BD.

I like AMD and would rather keep with them, but I don't see piledriver being that good compared to Intel's currently range.

I wont be overclocking it bug want good solid gear. Was once a nut for modding and water cooling and possibly one day I will have time to do it again.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I like AMD and would rather keep with them, but I don't see piledriver being that good compared to Intel's currently range.

I wont be overclocking it bug want good solid gear. Was once a nut for modding and water cooling and possibly one day I will have time to do it again.

I would say wait and see though - you have a good motherboard. If anything Vishera will be more competitive with IB than BD,so I suspect even your motherboard will not really loose any more money. I also don't see IB prices changing that much either. You also have an HD6870 too,which probably will be as much as a bottleneck in a number of games as your Phenom II X3 CPU.

[Brewster0101]

You also have an HD6870 too,which probably will be as much as a bottleneck in a number of games as your Phenom II X3 CPU.

Too be honest I am stuck playing battlefield Bad Company 2, I haevn't progressed past this to battlefield 3 yet.

[dfour]

The rig you have will cope with battlefield 3 no problems on med to high settings especially if you overclock the tri core to 3.2 or more as that is the same specs as one of my friends rig I built for him to play bf3 with.

[scaryjim]

... I don't see piledriver being that good compared to Intel's currently range. ...

Maybe not, but it will be a lot better than Bulldozer and pull back some of the ground between them, plus a top of the range PD CPU is going to cost a lot less than a 3570k + Z77 motherboard And you lose nothing from waiting - Ivy Bridge isn't going to go up in price suddenly, and if AMD manage to pull something special out of the bag with Vishera for the desktop, it might even go down.

Besides, virtually no tasks *need* a 3570k - most games are dependant on graphics capabilities (unless you run ultra-low quality/resolution, very old game, or have a stupid powerful graphics set-up). So the improvements in Piledriver (higher IPC, higher clock speeds, lower power draw) should make it a valuable upgrade over the X3 720.

Also, X3 720s are still quite sought after as upgrades to older AM2+/AM3 systems, so could sell well. And as CAT says, even if you're not happy with Vishera and decide to go Ivy Bridge, others will choose Vishera, and if it's a good chip your motherboard's second-hand value may actually go up!