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Battle Pope

Battle Pope

Well-Known Member
There's been some pretty good info threads the last couple weeks on upgrades, and I've been looking over the links provided with some success. With tax returns coming within the next few weeks, I'm looking at upgrading my board and processor to get more power behind my geforce GTX295.

I'm hoping some of you that are more familiar with current processor tech can help me out with some tips on what to look for.

I'm looking to go to a quad-core, with the best board I can get for less than $250. If I can spend closer to $200 that would be best since it looks like I'm going to have to buy more new memory also (just bought 4gb of ddr2 800mhz and it looks like all the quad core boards I'm seeing are ddr3 only)

If anyone has any insight I'd appreciate it, I get pretty lost between the Core i series and the phenom 2 and all the available chipsets these days. I long for the days when all you had to look for was nForce 2.
 
for performance, AMD phenom ii is faster for the money (price point). however, clock for clock, the intel core 2 quad is still faster eg after overclocking. so if you dont want to deal with overclocking or anything, the AMD is much faster at stock for the money. plus, AMD AM3+ chips can be used with DDR2 or DDR3 motherboards and if you get a new AM3 board, it will most likely support the new 6-cores rolling out later in the year.

However, the Core i7 750 is an ass kicking processor too. But it starts at $200 and all Core Ixx uses DDR3.

IRC, you have an older AMD system. I would check to see if the MSI board you have supports the Phenom II X4s.

Anyway for quad-cores:

AMD = Sub $200
Intel = $200 and above.

For motherboards, P55 for Intel and 785g/790gx/790fx for AMD.

Lastly, my favorite phrase as of late "check fry's if you can," or a relative/friend to do it for you. =)
 
Although most of my systems are Intel based... AMD does pack one hell of a value for each dollar spent.
 
I have always had AMD systems, simply because they were cheaper for the same speed processor. I know Intel really pulled away in the last 5 years or so but AMD is still holding it's own from what I can tell.

Endless: Yeah, I've got an Athlon X2 6000+ with an MSI AM2 board. It doesn't even support AM2+, and I'd like to get a board with better SATA port placement anyway.

I bookmarked that Fry's thread on slickdeals, BUT, the closest Fry's to me is 4 hours away. Unfortunately the only friends in the area don't have vehicles, either, so I can't really ask any of them to buy and ship for me. I could make the drive, but that would add roughly $40 to the cost of the components.

I'll check around on newegg and see if I can find anything comparable.

EDIT:
Looking around newegg it looks like I am going to be looking for either a Phenom II 965 or a Core i5 750, both are around $200, and roughly equivalent in performance. I'd love to get a Core i7 and delay another upgrade for longer but with money as tight as it is I am really straining to even manage this upgrade. It also seems like that will push my budget up to just over $300, assuming Fry's doesn't come up with a combo deal with a good board. The last few they have put up with the Phenom and i5 have had questionably-egged boards.

Also, regarding chipsets, I take it nVidia is basically done with the nForce line? Sadface.
 
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i wouldnt trust the newegg reviews; most of their "high level" techs are geek squad flunkies. id ask proper tech forums and read reviews. And as with any thing, good brands and bad brands will have good batches and bad batches, hopefully the good brands will have more good batches ^_^

with that said, the current top 3 motherboard brands are: ASUS, Gigabyte and slowly MSI, in that order. I would say EVGA too but their boards are 1337 and painfully expensive.

if youre going to spend around $200 on a cpu, id definately choose intel over amd. but around $150-160, Id get AMD. Both offer good boards around $100. And nvidia basically lost the chip race when their 7xx series had a magnitude of problems and intel and amd started making great chipsets themselves.
 
The other thing I like about the Core i5 is that it uses way less power than the Phenom.

What I don't like is that people are saying that LGA1156 is a stepping stone and will be phased out whereas AM3 will be supported well into the 6-core generation.

I guess either one will last another 2 years at which point there will probably be a new socket config regardless.

I guess what it's boiling down to is based on gaming performance and hardware longevity, which would you buy - the i5 750 or PIIx4 965

Also, are the AMD 790gx chipsets comparable to the intel p55?

It would probably be easier just to talk on IM or something, I have more questions the more I research.
 
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Battle Pope said:
I bookmarked that Fry's thread on slickdeals, BUT, the closest Fry's to me is 4 hours away. Unfortunately the only friends in the area don't have vehicles, either, so I can't really ask any of them to buy and ship for me. I could make the drive, but that would add roughly $40 to the cost of the components.
Click to expand...

Then don't drive it either- the super deals at Fry's will typically be gone within 4 hours, especially if you're looking at the sub-$100 ones.

nVidia is still in the chipset game- and you'll want to use theirs if you're going all out on an SLI setup- but for single graphic card systems, the AMD and Intel chipsets are once again the best (they weren't for a while).
 
Yeah I've pretty much written off Fry's at this point, and narrowed things down to the i5 750 and one of the two boards linked above. A lot of parts guides are listing the ASRock P55 Extreme as their preferred board for the performance to dollar ratio, and there have been relatively few reliability complaints. However, the gigabyte I linked for about the same price has USB3 and Sata3 support, but I couldn't find any reviews for it online - probably because it's newer.
 
Honestly, Gigabyte is probably the top brand right now for components choice and reliability along with performance. They ate up Asus a while back too.

Watch out for the Newegg combo deals too- they tend to be pretty good, and typically ship for free.
 
After reading a few glowing reviews of the Gigabyte P55 UD3 (UD3R specifically) I am more strongly considering it as a contender... ugh, this is a hassle.
 
OK, config I am looking at right now:

i5 750
Gigabyte P55A-UD3
G.SKILL DDR3 1600 C7 4gb kit
Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme CPU cooler (jury is still out on this, but I have read a lot about how easy it is to get the i5 to 200x20 speeds with a good air cooler and this one is supposed to be the shit, so...)

Also, I'm on a 2-week-old Win7Ultimate x64 install and would rather not have to redo it, I have read that Win7 will take a board change without needing a reinstall... has anyone had any experience supporting this?
 
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well if youre changing cpu+mobo, then im pretty sure thats a reinstall. but i would still back everything up before you start unplugging everything just in case.

as for coolers, the tuniq tower is good, but there are a few other choices that would be cheaper if youre not going to push it. and as for king of mountain, there are a few contenders:

Top Tier:
-Prolimatech
-Thermalright Ultra Extreme
-Noctua D14
-Corsair H50 (self contained single cpu water-cooled heatsink)

Budget:
-Cogage True Spirit (Same company as Thermalright)
-OCZ Vendetta 2
-Cooler Master Hyper 212
-Xigmatek H1283
-Sunbeam Core Contact (makes the Tuniq Tower)

The thing I have against the top tiercoolers is the sheer price and the size. Also most often then not, they dont even include the fans. For $60-70, I much rather invest in a better board or video card and with the extra savings I get from a "budget" cooler. Or maybe because Im cheap :p
 
Placed my order earlier, for the stuff listed a couple posts up but I went with a prolimatech megahalems instead of the tuniq tower 120. I'll get some pics up of the parts and installation, when it comes together. Should be over the weekend.
 
hey op, sorry i didnt reply too your im. i leave my notebook on to torrent and ive been sick (took today off work) so i havent had a chance to reply.

but good selection on the components. as for the heatsink, those big towers love 2 high cfm fans in push and pull config. id add a fan controller on them so you dont have turbo jets on all day. for fan choices, seems like most people like sanyo denki for performance and scythe gentle typhoons for quietness.

but other than that, im excited for you. keep us posted.
 
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