worth spending on socket 775?

[waekyns]

with core i7 out, it is worth investing a lot of money on a new pc as i currently have a set of DDR 2 800 (4x 1gb Corsair XMS), ati HD4850 graphic, hard and 800w PSU, but my motherboard and CPU have blown (due to extreme overclocking).

I pretty much need a new motherboard and CPU but now pondering on whether to spend it on a new motherboard such as the DFi Lan party Jr and a quad core cpu (i have a mATX case) or just ditch everything and invest on a new core i7 system.. (although this would cost alot more)..

or just get a v cheap budget system for now a wait for the 32mn cpu to appear?

its pretty much used just for gaming...

[Funkstar]

Going by the prices I've seen, buying a non-outragous 775 setup and then using the money saved vs. the i7 and spend that on a new system in a year when i7 is at decent prices

Job done. Two upgrades for the price of one.

[Webby]

Yeah I'm with Funkstar on this you have everything you need except a CPU and motherboard so I would just get those the DFI Jr is a great board (especially for an over clocker ) then you can pair that with a Q6600 job done for £240 or if you want to go duel core instead then an E5200 for £65 will give you plenty of OCing fun.

Of course the alternative is to get Phenom II instead released in 2 days DFI do a JR AM2+ board as well cost will be a bit higher as the PII 940 BE will probably cost £200-£230.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Get an E5200 for £65 ,an AK965 for £10 and, a Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L for £50 and a Coolermaster Elite 330 for £30. You You can overclock the the E5200 to 3ghz+. The E5200 has a 800mhz FSB and as a result has a high multiplier. You do not need a very expensive motherboard to overclock it!! Not bad for around £155!! No point going for even a Q6600 as they cost £135+ now.

Alternatively you could also get a 790GX motherboard and go down the AMD route too as you should be able to upgrade to a future AM3 processor as they will be compatible.

Put the money saved towards a future i7 or even an i5 system at the end of the year or even a bit later!!

Prices will have dropped by then as the newer Intel architecture will have become mainstream and also hopefully the pound may have got a bit stronger too!!!

Also AMD will have the newer AM3 Phenoms out too!! DDR3 RAM will also drop in price as both mainstream and enthusiast systems will use it!!

[waekyns]

Hmm... seem a like a lot to choose from here, i've not ventured in the AMD route since the Athlon XP days,

might even hold out to see if the new phenoms are any good since the last batch weren't exactly fantastic...

Choices choices choices..

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hmm... seem a like a lot to choose from here, i've not ventured in the AMD route since the Athlon XP days,

might even hold out to see if the new phenoms are any good since the last batch weren't exactly fantastic...

Choices choices choices..

The new Phenoms are £150+ from what I have heard. I honestly think it would be better to get a cheap system to tide you over for the next 6 months+. You can then do a decent full system upgrade and get a nice new quad core.ddr3 ram and a new graphics card. This will do you better in the long term. A 3ghz dual core is still going to be good enough for gaming for at least the near future!!

[waekyns]

ok, my budget is pretty much around £150, and i've think im going to go back to a socket 775 intel

what should i spend the money in terms on cpu or mother?

The DFI look v good but cost nearly £100, that leave me around £50 for the cpu...

I think i would rather spend it on the other way round (£100 on CPU) and around £50 ish on mother board,,

any decent micro atx board out there? my rams are double side, so i think the mother board need to support 8 gb minimum..

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Most of the cheaper socket 775 mATX motherboards have problems running 4 sticks of double sided RAM.

Have you thought of buying an AMD processor instead??

You could get an X2 7750+ and an ASUS M3A78-EM or Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H micro ATX motherboard for around £135:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...B-Cache-Retail

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...AID-HDMI13-ATX

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278

Unlike socket 775 the AM2+ motherboards will also be compatible with the future AM3 Phenom processors too!! Also for the price the micro ATX AM2+ motherboards are far better specified than the equivalent socket 775 ones!!

At stock speeds the X2 7750+ is competitive with the E5200 and E8200:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...-cpus-review/5

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-at...0-be-review/11

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16614&page=7

[waekyns]

your're right, it seem the older intel boards are not too hot on 4gb of double sided Rams,

i think i will go the AMD A780 board and get the cheapest phenom cpu..

"AMD X4 Phenom 9550", is this a good overclocker on stock fans?

[Webby]

No to put it simply the the phenoms were not good overclockers only the black editions were any good as you could fiddle with the multiplier a bit.

If you still fancy a Phenom after that damning then make sure you get a board with the 750 south bridge (only found on 790GX and newer 790FX boards) this drastically improves overclocking but were still talking ~3.2GHz max with a 9950BE CPU

[waekyns]

I've Just read that the Phenom II weren't too good on performance.. still don't know what to get..

might just wait till the end of the month to see if the price drop a little on the intel boards and get the E8400 as i heard it clock quite well

[Webby]

I think it really depends on how you look at Phenom II, no they are not as good as i7 but they are fighting it out with the similarly priced Yorkfield quads and winning (at least at stock, and overclocking will depend on chip but Phenom II's past 4GHz is not uncommon).

I personally see them as a good CPU but would probably wait and see what the AM3 versions bring to the table in a few months along with the new chipsets

[Time Bandit]

I have had a similar dilemma to yourself and was checking out the phenom II's (920 = £200) - there is an in depth review at Anandtech (wwwDOTanandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3492&p=1)(sorry forum noob - can't post links).

Although the 920 pretty much wipes the floor with the old phenom's and can keep up with some of the Intel quads, there are still areas where, for less money, a 2 year old Q6600 or an E8400 can match it or even beat it.

I like the fact that the new phenoms will work with the next generation of DDR3 mobos but I fear that by then Intel will have raised the stakes further still either through innovation, performance or aggressive pricing by the time AM3 gets going.

As always it depends on what jobs the machine is going to do - most current games seem to run as well on the dual cores as they do the quads whereas encoding/multitasking benefits from the extra cores.

I am pretty much decided to go with skt 775 for a mid/high new build (P45/Q6600 - £150/£120) and also for a second budget build (G31/E5200 - £40/£70) which will certainly cope with most of what is likely to be thrown at. It will only needs 2GB RAM 'cos it will be running with 32bit XP and may also dual boot with Linux. Come next upgrade time I am hope to employ a premium C2Q in the main machine and use the leftover bits to breath extra life into the budget build.

After that, well ..., lets see who has the upper hand when DDR3 comes into the mainstream. Timescale for this anyone?

[Blitzen]

There is no value AT ALL in the new chipsets yet.

Unless you have cash to burn, its not worth the spend.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have had a similar dilemma to yourself and was checking out the phenom II's (920 = £200) - there is an in depth review at Anandtech (wwwDOTanandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3492&p=1)(sorry forum noob - can't post links).

Although the 920 pretty much wipes the floor with the old phenom's and can keep up with some of the Intel quads, there are still areas where, for less money, a 2 year old Q6600 or an E8400 can match it or even beat it.

I like the fact that the new phenoms will work with the next generation of DDR3 mobos but I fear that by then Intel will have raised the stakes further still either through innovation, performance or aggressive pricing by the time AM3 gets going.

As always it depends on what jobs the machine is going to do - most current games seem to run as well on the dual cores as they do the quads whereas encoding/multitasking benefits from the extra cores.

I am pretty much decided to go with skt 775 for a mid/high new build (P45/Q6600 - £150/£120) and also for a second budget build (G31/E5200 - £40/£70) which will certainly cope with most of what is likely to be thrown at. It will only needs 2GB RAM 'cos it will be running with 32bit XP and may also dual boot with Linux. Come next upgrade time I am hope to employ a premium C2Q in the main machine and use the leftover bits to breath extra life into the budget build.


After that, well ..., lets see who has the upper hand when DDR3 comes into the mainstream. Timescale for this anyone?

You are wasting your money by paying £150 for a P45. Buy a P35 based motherboard as they do the same job for less than half the price. You must remember that the P35 will be good enough for a Core2 based system.

[Time Bandit]

You are wasting your money by paying £150 for a P45

Sorry, typo.

The P45's I was looking at are between £100 - £120, so with comparable P35's at from £80 - £130 it didn't seem over the top for a new build (obviously upgrading from a P35 would be a bit of a waste).

All in all native 1600 fsb, PCIe 2.0, updated southbridge plus crossfire support (if you are into that) seemed to be worth the extra. Oh, and I seem to have read somewhere that P45 has potential for cooler running and less power consumption owing to the new 65nm production process (according to Intel of course!)