New Chips - No Vinegar

[SuicidaL]

right guys, need some honest and sensible opinions on this.

i would love to do a complete upgrade on my rig, but with money as it is - just started working for myself so not gonna be as flush as i'd like for a bit, and then there's the devil (sorry i ment taxman ).

so a new case is a must (waitng for cm's new haf-x - when it eventually arrives on these shores) so other than that there is the following

e6750 with an h50, p5q-deluxe p45, 4gb geil ddr2 ultra pc6400, ocz evostream720, 320gb sammy f1 & an xfx 4870 1gb.

an adaquate(ish) set-up. if it had still been with my p35 board, then i would prob have jumped ship and returned to an amd set-up -(i only went c2d as old athlon x2 was getting on and amd had nothing new on the horizon). but my mobo is only just over 12 months old and never had an issue - let alone it's far off the price as i'd paid for it.

so for now i'm gonna stay 775. so what would we be looking at? from the quaddy point of view there is the 9400 @ £150 approx, that would be where i start looking. then from there there is the 9650, with 12mb cache as opposed to the 6 on the 9400 and it sits at 3ghz stock but with a £100 premium over it's sibbling.

down the duo route is the e8400 @ £140, or then top of the line e8600 which is exactly the same as the 8400 except it's 0.33ghz higher clocked for a premium of £80 - not exactly worth it in my book.


so what would you go for and why? and any other changes that u'd make? i do a fair bit of mp3/ipod ripping and burning of the proverbial dvd or two - and last but not least a fair bit of gaming bc2/mw2/MoH etc etc.



oh and now tax returns to - not sure if a quaddy would be able to do that maybe a hexacore is what's needed there

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get a secondhand Q6600 or Q6700 for under £100. The Q8000 series tend to have lower multipliers which make them harder to overclock and Q9000 are just priced too high for the performance you are getting.

You could a Phenom II X4 955BE and an AM2+ Asus M3A78-T for around £181:

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

The Phenom II X4 955BE is comparable to a Q9550.

The Asus M3A78-T was around £100 when released IIRC and is a decent motherboard:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/758/1/

[Skulltrail]

There's some nice OEM QX6700s on ebay for between £100 and £150. Should overlock nicely with the H50 to at least 3.6 if not 3.8GHz.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-E...ht_1086wt_1137

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-E...ht_1033wt_1137

[SuicidaL]

I would get a secondhand Q6600 or Q6700 for under £100. The Q8000 series tend to have lower multipliers which make them harder to overclock and Q9000 are just priced too high for the performance you are getting.

You could a Phenom II X4 955BE and an AM2+ Asus M3A78-T for around £181:

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

The Phenom II X4 955BE is comparable to a Q9550.

The Asus M3A78-T was around £100 when released IIRC and is a decent motherboard:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/758/1/

am seriously thinking now of gettin rid of the chip/mobo/ram and going back amd route - bang buck for (rearrange as you see fit) some of which could be offset by selling my bits. that 955 looks mighty good, allied to a decent mobo it could be quite tempting. another thing iron in the fire could be bulldozer - ok that would depend on when ti's going to make it's appearance. looking around nobody seems to have any concrete info on what they'd work on - i.e am3 or is it going to be like am3+ or an altogether new socket which would seem to restrict the upgrade paths - although i wouldn't be doing it to often, i wouldn't want to keep having to buy a new mobo all the time......if ya know what i mean guv'nor

There's some nice OEM QX6700s on ebay for between £100 and £150. Should overlock nicely with the H50 to at least 3.6 if not 3.8GHz.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-E...ht_1086wt_1137

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Intel-Core-2-E...ht_1033wt_1137

been had once before on the bay for a chip so dubious with cpu's (new or secondhand). and £100 for a used qx67** a bit on the cheap? what would be wrong with it for that? nearly all the q6600's seem to go for over a ton - and to my mind, why would you spend that for an unknwon secondhand job rather that pay a bit more for a brand spanker

and as for that new qx, is the seller even sure it's a cpu? described as a dual core - and then at the bottom they offer a professional fitting service for it, all you need to do is send them £30 plus..............................................your laptop

[Skulltrail]

I can't say a read the whole page! I think price wise it can be because either people don't think to search for QX parts either because they don't know of them or presume they would be too expensive.

It may well be better to go down the new AMD route, especially if you get a DDR2 board and then get a quad-core Athlon 2 for about £180 (CPU + mobo)

[Skulltrail]

Further to above:

Athlon II X4 635 - £84.17 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-95W-Retail)

It should go to c. 3.5GHz on stock voltage: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923

+

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX for £58.09

Total: £142.26

[WESSIE]

+1 from me on the Athlon II X4 635 - best value of the Quad-core chips at the mo IMHO..the phenom's only another £30 tho'..but then I'm AMD through and through

[SuicidaL]

well the thing is, is it really gonna be worth going with ddr2 for a bit or just bite the bullet and go am2? now it might be worth it depending on what is going to happen with the like of the bullydozer. if, and i mean if it does appear via am3 socket then it might make sence to look at going with an am3/890 board now plus the ddr3 etc etc. but if it's gonna be a new socket or refresh of am3 i.e. am3+ or am3r2, then it would make good sence to go with a
ddr2 board and keep the ddr2 going.

it's swings and bloody roundabouts again................something i hate

[SuicidaL]

Further to above:

Athlon II X4 635 - £84.17 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-95W-Retail)

It should go to c. 3.5GHz on stock voltage: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923

+

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-ATX for £58.09

Total: £142.26

+1 from me on the Athlon II X4 635 - best value of the Quad-core chips at the mo IMHO..the phenom's only another £30 tho'..but then I'm AMD through and through

not a bad price that, at the moment you can get the 955be for £120

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=39930

[SuicidaL]

well gonna be thinking about this for a bit - it's making my head hurt . as an example i can get the amd kit - 955be/crosshair III & 4gb g.skill ripjaw for £350. now an equivelent i7 kit would be nearer/just over £500 - so i could get the amd kit and the new case for same price as a bare bones i7.


the more i do look at things though the amd route is the more likely one that i'll take - unless i can get a stupidly priced i7 kit.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

On Aria you can get a Phenom II X4 955BE,4GB of G.Skill 1600MHZ DDR3 RAM and an Asus 890FX based motherboard for around £355 delivered:

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...t=superSpecial

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...t=superSpecial

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...t=superSpecial

The 890FX chipset can do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 16X/16X.

However, if you go for a cheaper 890GX which can do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X or an 870 based chipset which cannot do symmetrical Crossfire you could get the cost nearer to £300.

Using Aria branded parts you could get a Core i7 based build for around £414:

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=35938

https://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...roductId=40179

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...roductId=40249

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The other alternative is to get the Phenom II X4 955BE and an AM2+ Asus M3A78-T for £181 and re-use your DDR2 RAM. They are both on Scan Today Only this weekend.

[SuicidaL]

right, the more my brian hurts as i think it looks like a complete new rig either way - weather amd/intel i haven't quite got to that part yet, although it may take a few weeks more than anticipated.

so i know someone who may well need a pc shortly, so depending on how much they are willing to go i may let them make an offer. just want to guage a quick view on prices if i may. have been on the bay but prices are all over the show. so the following bit would be available. and if not complete (well almost) breakdown of bits will do

Asus p5q-deluxe - (still priced quite highly cosidering the model is now 2 years old - and mine 12 months)

E6750 - solid little peformer have had it upto 3.4ghz although it hasn't been past stock with the new board, and iirc was only second to the 6850 in the dual cores when released - feel free to flame me for being wrong.

4gb (4x1gb) geil ddr2 pc6400 - rock solid, never clocked (never felt the need to have to) when first built could only afford the 2gb kit. but then felt the need for a bit more shortly after.

OCZ EvoStream 720 - again never had an issue with this psu.

Samsung sp 250gb - stable drive, it's now used for storage as using an f1

Sony optiarc (sure NEC had something to do with them to) - not sure with this, very quiet drive, and yes drives are cheap as the proverbial chips but i have soft spot for this.

Thermaltake Armor jr case - midi case with lockable side panel. i would even rewire it to make it neater than it already is.

i've got my own ideas as to whats what, but just thought i'd ask.

the only things i'm not going to let go are my corsair h50 and my xfx 4870 r2. the h50 is only 5 months old and the 4870 only a couple of months - plus the fact only bolted an a/c accelero twin pro to it. i was gonna use it as back up/media rig for tv and transfering from v+ box, but if it can help soften the financial blow - then so be it.

[Skulltrail]

Maybe £300 to £350 (?) You could probably push that up to £400 to £450 if you chucked in a £50 used GPU

[SuicidaL]

Maybe £300 to £350 (?) You could probably push that up to £400 to £450 if you chucked in a £50 used GPU

got my old 8800gts 320 i could throw in, thought it was faulty. opened it up and mega dust in it (a good couple of years worth). so stripped down, blown out with an air line and gonna rebuild - just need some thermal pads for the heatsink or could just use some mx2 i got lying around.

just thought i should still have the stock intel hsf for the cpu in the cupboard somewhere, so it'd be all good




also, on a side note. can anyone explain why the p45 boards (not just my p5q-deluxe) can still command the price tags they do?

[Skulltrail]

also, on a side note. can anyone explain why the p45 boards (not just my p5q-deluxe) can still command the price tags they do?

I think because of a coupe of things:

The price of RAM is putting people off upgrading to 1156 or 1366 platforms because of the new DDR3 required. Accordingly they are trying to reuse their existing RAM and upgrade from an E6xxx to a Q9xxx for example but also want a nice board to get the most from it.

Also, board manufacturers are pushing new AM3, 1156, 1366 etc., so all P35 etc. are end of life and the few 775s they retain will be P45 models and possibly a few mATX G41s etc. for the ultra budget end.

I think on the second hand market it's a case of people seeing a higher number and presuming its better - which it is - but not always by the same margin as the price difference.