MY own computer upgrade finally, advice needed.

[Cornholio]

Well, considering ive been upgrading everybody elses pc's i figured it was about time to ask for some advice on my own pc.

Budget £300.

Components required, cpu, mobo, ram.


Current system.

C2D E6600 w/ freezer 7 pro.
4gb OCZ reaper 800mhz
Gigabyte ds3 mobo
1gb xfx 4890HD
corsair hx520
1tb sammy f1
1tb sammy f1
OS installed on 500gb sammy.
Case TJ09.

So as you can see, i only really need to replace my cpu, mobo and ram.

What you got for me ? I cought the end of a previous thread of mine, somebody offered advice on an am3 system, but then mentioned theres a new am3 cpu coming out.

Andy.

[nightkhaos]

Hmm... £300 might be a bit tight for an i7 system, but I'll give it a go at £400. I know it's 33% more than your budget, but it is worth considering, particularly now that the i9s are coming out on 1366 slots, which you will be able to upgrade too later.

MSI X58 PRO @ £132.45
Intel Core i7 920 D0 @ £204.90
6GB of CAS9 1333MHz RAM by Corsair @ £82.92

Total £420.27

Now that that's on the table, we'll see if we can find something closer to £300 if you're not happy spending £120 extra... probably an AMD X4 on an AM2+/AM3 board. I'm not to crash hot with the latest and greatest of AMD, however, as until recently I was purely focused on hardware related to the i7 for my new build. What I recommend you will probably be 9 months out of date when it comes to AMD stuff.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is what I would get:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £147

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167782

4GB DDR3 ~ £55

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142388

The Total comes to around £272.

Here is a review of the CPU:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796

Here are some reviews of the motherboard:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...=347&Itemid=69

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigaby...rboard-review/

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/985/1/

http://www.dvhardware.net/review/47821

The X4 965 which runs at 3.4ghz is being released on the 13th of August but it may cost around £170 to £180 though.

[nightkhaos]

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £147

I was gonna recommend a 955... I was just worried it might be crap and some person would tell me off for not knowing anything!

[Cornholio]

Here is what I would get:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £147

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167782

4GB DDR3 ~ £55

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142388

The Total comes to around £272.

Here is a review of the CPU:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796

Here are some reviews of the motherboard:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...=347&Itemid=69

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigaby...rboard-review/

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/985/1/

http://www.dvhardware.net/review/47821

The X4 965 which runs at 3.4ghz is being released on the 13th of August but it may cost around £170 to £180 though.

Cat, what watt is the 965 gonna be, and are those confirmed prices ? for its release i mean.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cat, what watt is the 965 gonna be, and are those confirmed prices ? for its release i mean.

There was a leaked price on a website and it said £180:

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...A-AP2965&af=50

Other websites are quoting around the £200 mark though:

http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=p...l=en&scoring=p

The only one of these retailers I have dealt with though is Insight.

[nightkhaos]

Other websites are quoting around the £200 mark though.

Still works out cheaper than the i7 system I quoted. And you'll still get a very decent performance out of it. The primary advantage of the i7 is 8 threads after all, and if you are playing older generation games having more threads is not much of an advantage.

The secondary advantage of the i7 however is how easy it is to overclock.

[scaryjim]

Any particular reason you're upgrading the lot, and not just going for a Socket 775 quad? Like a Q8400, for instance - or even a Q9550? I'd've thought it's hard to better your Reaper, at least, in which case you could look at a top end AM3 CPU but put it in a top end AM2+ mobo?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Any particular reason you're upgrading the lot, and not just going for a Socket 775 quad? Like a Q8400, for instance - or even a Q9550? I'd've thought it's hard to better your Reaper, at least, in which case you could look at a top end AM3 CPU but put it in a top end AM2+ mobo?

He has a 965 based motherboard so the upgrade options are more limited.

[circuitmonkey]

Any particular reason you're upgrading the lot, and not just going for a Socket 775 quad? Like a Q8400, for instance - or even a Q9550? I'd've thought it's hard to better your Reaper, at least, in which case you could look at a top end AM3 CPU but put it in a top end AM2+ mobo?

I was curious about this too, if your not going to stretch to an i7, why not drop in a quad core and depending if you can get use out of it, another 4GB RAM

just read CAT-THE-FIFTH's post, I googled DS3, wasn't sure if it was p35 or 965

[Cornholio]

Main reason i want to do the lot is..ive had this config 2 years now, ive never kept a pc that long. Dont get me wrong..it serves me right, but nowadays alot of performance can be had for little money, just fancy a change.

And a sad reason...i HATE the push pin design on intel coolers, why cant they just use a retention bracket like amd.

[nightkhaos]

And a sad reason...i HATE the push pin design on intel coolers, why cant they just use a retention bracket like amd.

that's why I always get aftermarket coolers.

[Cornholio]

that's why I always get aftermarket coolers.

This freezer 7 pro is aftermarket.

Gotta remove the fan to get two pins out easier, just a general ball ache lol. Not sure if others are any better ?

[Cornholio]

Here is what I would get:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £147

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164047

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ~ £70

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167782

4GB DDR3 ~ £55

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142388

The Total comes to around £272.

Here is a review of the CPU:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796

Here are some reviews of the motherboard:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...=347&Itemid=69

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigaby...rboard-review/

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/985/1/

http://www.dvhardware.net/review/47821

The X4 965 which runs at 3.4ghz is being released on the 13th of August but it may cost around £170 to £180 though.

Do i go for that system today/tomorrow cat, or do i wait for the x4 965 ? Will there be much of a difference ?

Also what cooler is best for the am2/+/3.

cheers.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do i go for that system today/tomorrow cat, or do i wait for the x4 965 ? Will there be much of a difference ?

Also what cooler is best for the am2/+/3.

cheers.

IMHO I personally think that unless the X4 965 reduces the price of X4 955 then there is not much difference TBH. It is like going from a stock cocked Q9550 to a Q9650. Unless you intend to overclock a lot I would stick with the stock cooler too as it seems good enough upto around 3.5ghz from what I have read. Before spending any extra money I would give it a try.

This article maybe of use to you though as it compares the stock heatsink to some aftermarket coolers:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16744

[Saracen]

Main reason i want to do the lot is..ive had this config 2 years now, ive never kept a pc that long. Dont get me wrong..it serves me right, but nowadays alot of performance can be had for little money, just fancy a change.

And a sad reason...i HATE the push pin design on intel coolers, why cant they just use a retention bracket like amd.

Well, several Xigmatek coolers use a crossbox bracket on the back of the mobo and bolt-thru .... though it's an option, not supplied with the cooler as default. Just be careful to get the right crossbox, and there's several for different coolers.

As for an upgrade, how about ....

Asus P45 mobo .... from about £70 to £150, depending on what features you want. Assume £100 for a midpoint.


Intel Q9550 ..... around £160.

Xigmatel cooler and crossbox £25-£30-ish.

Cost, about £300. Oh, and use the same RAM as you already have.

If you want to go i7, flog the mobo, cpu and RAM, add you're £300 budget and you're about there .... though personally, I don't really see the benefit, other than paper specs.