new AMD / ATI build to replace my Q6600

[severard]

If he was worried about speed he would have been getting a Core i5 and Core i7 and if you read the OP he already has used Core i7 and knows about their performance.

If you also read he wasn't impressed by Intel and the i7 therefore the Bulldozer or a Phenom X6 would suit him well. The Phenom X6 is cheaper and has great performance.

Also if he's willing to spend an amount for a good m'board, why not spend a little bit more for that extra PCI-e slot? at least he then has the option for Crossfire rather than scrimping on price and potentially missing it later when he wants to upgrade.

[shaithis]

The thing is, if an i7 "doesn't excite" him, what exactly does any other CPU bring to the table that would excite?

Having to turn AA (and potentially other eye-candy) off in certain games unless the CPU is overclocked to within an inch of it's life and potentially unstable?.....can't really say I find that exciting....but to each their own!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you also read he wasn't impressed by Intel and the i7 therefore the Bulldozer or a Phenom X6 would suit him well. The Phenom X6 is cheaper and has great performance.

Also if he's willing to spend an amount for a good m'board, why not spend a little bit more for that extra PCI-e slot? at least he then has the option for Crossfire rather than scrimping on price and potentially missing it later when he wants to upgrade.

Yes, and you missed the first CPU I linked to which was a 95W Phenom II X6 1045T for £103. I used it in this build recently:

http://forums.hexus.net/2214293-post15.html

My mate does not overclock but looking at the 95W Phenom II X6 1055T,it should be quite decent even with a locked multiplier. The second CPU is the 95W Phenom II X4 960T. This is based on a Phenom II X6 and has a unlocked multiplier. Quite a few people have good luck unlocking them to a Phenom II X6 and even then it overclocks well. Even as a quad core it has a larger die than a normal Phenom II X4,meaning it runs cool and hits a decent clockspeed. It also has the bonus of the stronger Phenom II X6 IMC!

The other two CPUs are slower but cheaper but are lot of fun to tweak but as I mentioned in the beginning its better to wait for Trinity and Piledriver if you want an AMD CPU.

The thing is, if an i7 "doesn't excite" him, what exactly does any other CPU bring to the table that would excite?

Having to turn AA (and potentially other eye-candy) off in certain games unless the CPU is overclocked to within an inch of it's life and potentially unstable?.....can't really say I find that exciting....but to each their own!

To put it blankly,the Intel CPUs are too easy to overclock which does put off some people. However,with the AMD CPUs,there is more tweaking required to get the maximum performance out of them. There are people who like these sorts of things.

OTH,since I am a SFF PC fan I find low TDP relative to performance quite interesting and hence IB for me looks ideal as an upgrade for my purposes.

[severard]

You're right - I did miss that link. That's a good CPU right there. However,

To put it blankly,the Intel CPUs are too easy to overclock which does put off some people

is simply not true. AMD CPUs are easy to overclock too these days - but the Intel CPUs in my experience and perhaps captianpie's have never shown a great increase in performance. Bottom line is, there is no need for him to spend a ludicrous amount on an i5 or i7 when a Phenom X6 will do just fine.

[captainpie]

moose - I chose the 6100 due to 6 unlocked cores at a decent price, hoping to push it into the higher realms, I'm not against going for a higher model or waiting on piledriver. Also, like I said in the original post, recent Intel builds I've done with friends hasn't always yielded great results on the stability side. . . but that might just have been earlier i5's and i7's being iffy and a benchmark not being optimized for them

the crossfire is more of a future proofing measure I have found useful in previous builds, when I can just slot in an extra card to bring the pc up to speed

shaithis: its not that an i7 isn't an admittedly great performing cpu! I think that the Q6600 has jaded me a bit against intel, in that it was very OCable but never really felt like when I pushed an Athlon to its limits! But thats probably me just being an oldie!

[captainpie]

moose - I'm running an X6 1090T in my work PC atm and it runs sweet as pie prob another reason why I'm leaning towards AMD again this round.

[captainpie]

sorry CAT-THE-FIFTH!! I keep calling you moose and I have no idea why! I think I read stock clocked moose and it stuck in my head . . . that and the picture of a moose :/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You're right - I did miss that link. That's a good CPU right there. However,
is simply not true. AMD CPUs are easy to overclock too these days - but the Intel CPUs in my experience and perhaps captianpie's have never shown a great increase in performance. Bottom line is, there is no need for him to spend a ludicrous amount on an i5 or i7 when a Phenom X6 will do just fine.

The point still holds and this what people have told me. The Core i5 2500K overclocking for example simply means wacking up the multiplier,checking the voltage is enough,stability testing it and then done. Overclocking is almost exclusively down to the multiplier with the newer Intel CPUs. Any other tweaking makes very little difference. There are people I know who find it all rather pedestrian even if the CPU has great performance.

OTH,look at overclocking a Phenom II. You get to muck around with so many more variables when overclocking,from multiplier,CPU-NB speed,etc to get the best possible performance and many have the core unlocking possibility. For some its much more fun doing this(a challenge) and to others its too much effort.

moose - I chose the 6100 due to 6 unlocked cores at a decent price, hoping to push it into the higher realms, I'm not against going for a higher model or waiting on piledriver. Also, like I said in the original post, recent Intel builds I've done with friends hasn't always yielded great results on the stability side. . . but that might just have been earlier i5's and i7's being iffy and a benchmark not being optimized for them

the crossfire is more of a future proofing measure I have found useful in previous builds, when I can just slot in an extra card to bring the pc up to speed

shaithis: its not that an i7 isn't an admittedly great performing cpu! I think that the Q6600 has jaded me a bit against intel, in that it was very OCable but never really felt like when I pushed an Athlon to its limits! But thats probably me just being an oldie!

This thread might be worth looking through:

http://forums.hexus.net/cpus/217881-...at-choose.html

There are some reviews for the FX6100 in there and the chap whos started the thread got an FX6100(he did a few benchmarks).

Regarding the graphics card,I would definitely wait until the full AMD and Nvidia ranges are launched. This should happen by the summer.

Now,Trinity should be out before Vishera. Trinity has no L3 cache but it should give you an inkling of how Piledriver will perform.

I still think your Q6600 has some life in it still so should tide you over easily IMHO.

My Q6600 at around 3GHZ was fine with an HD5850 1GB although YMMV.

sorry CAT-THE-FIFTH!! I keep calling you moose and I have no idea why! I think I read stock clocked moose and it stuck in my head . . . that and the picture of a moose :/

Its,OK! Plenty of people call me this.

[shaithis]

Unstable i7 build?

I've built a ton of machines in the last 6 months....a 50:50 split of Phenom IIs and i5s.....all are solid as a rock.

I would question the builders, the overclocking setting, the integrity of the component etc before calling an entire platform unstable!

[captainpie]

I'm not calling the platform unstable, just my experiences with it! And I haven't really played with the more recent iterations of it, and true, the builders are every 3/4 yrs build new system style with a tweak or two whilst building

[captainpie]

cheers for the link "CPU Help? What to choose?" CAT-THE-FIFTH, interesting to read mikeo01 go for the the 6100 when his original choices were phenom and athlon x3's! Seduced by the FX branding perhaps!

yeah, was going to see how gfx card prices changed with more parts and competition from NV.

re: the 6600, I just feel like it has served its time. the graphics are definitely not able to keep up, and the mb is stuck on skt 775 and ddr2, so update the whole system time , and in a way I kinda want a project for myself!

::edit

actually i like calling you moose! easier to type than CAT-THE-FIFTH!

[captainpie]

having a look at going 1155 socket, for an Asus MB (I like Asus, never had a bad board from them) around the same price all I can find is m-atx or u-atx sizes, and unless I'm going for a small form factor case I'd rather go full size ATX board. It's that extra 20 - 30 quid that for a motherboard feels like too much! Although I have only checked overclockers so far, so price differences may be less than I think.

Also even the cheapest i5 processors are £30 - £40 more expensive again . . . and locks me into 1155 socket if i wanted to do a midlife upgrade

[jim]

Have you been looking at Z68 or P67?

[shaithis]

Also even the cheapest i5 processors are £30 - £40 more expensive again . . . and locks me into 1155 socket if i wanted to do a midlife upgrade

Whichever way you go your "locked in". I'd rather be locked in to the system that eats it way through current content faultlessly and also has a significant successor on the horizon.....rather then the system that currently has a few gaming weak spots and nothing particularly groundbreaking on the horizon.

It's about "horses for courses" and a high-end gaming card justifies a high-end gaming CPU to me.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

having a look at going 1155 socket, for an Asus MB (I like Asus, never had a bad board from them) around the same price all I can find is m-atx or u-atx sizes, and unless I'm going for a small form factor case I'd rather go full size ATX board. It's that extra 20 - 30 quid that for a motherboard feels like too much! Although I have only checked overclockers so far, so price differences may be less than I think.

Also even the cheapest i5 processors are £30 - £40 more expensive again . . . and locks me into 1155 socket if i wanted to do a midlife upgrade

The K series CPUs(Core i5 2500K and Core i5 2550K) are the only Core i5 CPUs which are fully overclockable as overclocking is done via the multiplier only(the base clock can be increased a tiny amount but is not a good idea from what I gather). So you are looking at around £160 to £170 for a Core i5 2500K. The non-K series Core i5 CPUs have a few extra multipliers which means you can extend Turbo Boost and the base clock a small amount. Core i3 CPUs are fully locked. The standard Core i3 and Core i5 are fast enough at stock clockspeeds though so still should be good enough for most games.

You can get capable Crossfire and SLI capable Z68 motherboards which are similar to the AMD 990X based motherboards for around £120.

[captainpie]

snootyjim - had a quick look at both z68 and p67, like I said, only a quick look during work but if you can recommend a decent board that would be great!

shaithis - the problem is Intel will get bored of 1155 soon, whereas am3+ is still new which should mean more forward compatibility in terms of upgrading the proc. So if I did skimp on the cpu now there is more of a chance of getting a better one later still being compatible with the mb. Please tell me if i'm wrong but being on skt775 has left me dry after a couple of years of use, aside from buying the outrageously expensive q9650!!

moose - the 2500k alone is 40 - 50 more expensive than the fx6100 . . . which would probably mean I would have to delay the graphics card or go lower spec. I would like something that can be OCed, as its something I have always done in previous years and quite enjoy the fun of pushing it.