Spec a bargain basement C2Q setup for me ?

[Fatboy40]

So, on the verge (if the Mrs says yes) of having around £300 (possibly up to £400) to get myself upgraded to an Intel C2Q.

All my other kit is fine, so it's just the CPU + MOBO + RAM I'm after. I know that I'll be getting a Thermalright Ultra 120 cooler and re-use my current 120mm fan.

So far I'm leaning towards the C2Q Q8400 from Scan @ £140 inc VAT, I want to get everything from Scan if possible. I'm not going to overclock anything, and will be sticking with the upgrade for at least four years so I don't need a flash MOBO but need at least 4GB RAM (will be installing Windows 7 Ultimate x64).

Any suggestions ?.

ta

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II is much better value for money. The Phenom II X4 955BE trades blows with the Q9550.

This is what I would get if you want to spend around £300:

Phenom II X4 955BE C3 ~ £125 to £130

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...he-125W-Retail

OR

Phenom II X4 965BE C2 ~ £130

http://www.scan.co.uk/ShopOffers/Index.aspx

The Phenom II X4 965BE C2 does have a high TDP of 140W though.

Gigabyte GA-MA770TA-UD3 ~ £80 to £82

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191059

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...3Gb-s-RAID-ATX

The motherboard has USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0,a split 8+2 phase VRM and all solid capacitor construction.

4GB low latency 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £100 to £101

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169488

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179278

1333MHZ DDR3 RAM at low latencies is the best configuration for the memory controller of the current Phenom II processors.

OR

4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £85

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/178943

If you have a bigger budget I would look at the following parts:

Core i5 750 ~ £160

http://www.scan.co.uk/ShopOffers/Index.aspx

Asus P7P55D-E LX ~ £112

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

The motherboard has USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 and all solid capacitors.

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £100

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180490

Also the Phenom II X6 processors are being launched in the next few weeks too. It is worth waiting for these to come out IMHO. If they are competitive it could cause some price drops for the Core i5 and cheaper Core i7 processors.

Since you have a socket 939 Athlon X2 they are worth a reasonable amount on Ebay BTW!

[Ulti]

If you're going to buy new there's almost no point with going with a socket 775 system so I'd get what CAT is telling you to get. Depending on what you do you should just stick with an AMD system as you're unlikely to need the extra power of the i5.

However CAT also notes that Phenom II X6 processors are going to be launched soon so you could wait and see if it pushes prices down of the current processors at all.

[Fatboy40]

Thanks guys, but I'd far prefer an Intel CPU.

And I do need the horsepower due to plenty of VM's I run in VMware Workstation, and from what I remember most VMware apps (Workstation and ESX)prefer the Intel CPU's for virtualisation.

[DanceswithUnix]

Thanks guys, but I'd far prefer an Intel CPU.

And I do need the horsepower due to plenty of VM's I run in VMware Workstation, and from what I remember most VMware apps (Workstation and ESX)prefer the Intel CPU's for virtualisation.

The C2Q will be an improvement over what you have today, but it is the worst choice of available CPUs for VMware.

Later CPUs, both from Intel and AMD have more advanced virtualisation features, and they do help.

So back to what Cat said: i5 if you must have Intel, Phenom II if you want best value for money. Either will be an excellent choice.

[Fatboy40]

OK, so it looks like the i5 route for me then.

Happy with the price for the 750 and RAM, but will have to think about the MOBO as realy want to spend no more than £80 if possible leaving cash for the heatsink...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II X6 1055T which has 6 cores is around £165 (was pulled by Scan from their website today). AFAIK,having more cores will help for virtualization.

[Calmeister]

If you can't wait, go for the i5 with a Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2, or if you can, wait for the Phenom X6s which are just around the corner.

[Syllopsium]

How seriously are you into virtualisation? Whilst I'm a bit of an Intel fan, some of the AMD processors feature lower latency on some virtualisation calls.

You may also want to look at the support for an IOMMU. Again, AMD have led the pack on this one - their architecture is more amenable to remapping memory and suchlike. I don't really follow AMD much though, so you'd have to investigate it.

Intel's alternative is VT-d; if you're running virtualisation that simply accesses the emulated hardware you probably won't care about this. However, if you're thinking of allowing the VM direct access to physical hardware (custom addin cards, VMs using their own GPU) you'll need a VT-d capable motherboard, and that limits your choices substantially. It's still fairly leading/bleeding edge stuff (works with Xen and to a limited extend with some of VMWare's stuff) but worth thinking about.