Christmas upgrade, suggestions wanted!

jamesgoss · 27 Dec 2009 at 11:48

I hope you all had a very good Christmas, and got all the PC bits and bobs you wanted!

With some additional cash from the festive season and some other change lying about, I'm tempted by a bit of an upgrade. My specs are in my sig, so you can go to town!

I'm pretty happy with my graphics card and PSU, so everything else is fair game.

Budget is around £500.

And GO!

Stupot_ · 27 Dec 2009 at 11:51

I'd either go i7 if you need the extra power, if not i'd blow it all on a sweet 24" ips monitor

dan7777 · 27 Dec 2009 at 11:58

+1 get yourself a 24" samsung T240 its awsome your love it mate. for your budget i would go i5 if your thinking of upgrading your processor.

jamesgoss · 27 Dec 2009 at 12:34

Oh a 24 incher would be awesome... space might be an issue though. Maybe a 22 inch? Hmmm...

An i5 is also about £150 cheaper than an i7. Do you really get £150 extra performance with an i7?

Biz.Kid09 · 27 Dec 2009 at 12:36

depends what you do but usually no....
I would say get either a i5 or Phenom II 965

jamesgoss · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:11

Mostly going to be used for web, will be doing some more gaming on the PC too than I have of late, it's really about time I bought Fallout 3

I've read that the AMD 965 gets trounced by the i5 in most benchies though, am I right?

Biz.Kid09 · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:20

Not really http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=102&p2=109
Well either 965 or i5 will do Fallout 3 e.t.c fantastically so you have to make the choice:Buy a cpu that is quicker than the 965 but is a dead socket or a cpu which gets slightly beaten but is future proof and AM3 will be what AMD's best socket gets released on...

Ast3r · 27 Dec 2009 at 15:21

Yes its true that the i5 would beat the crap out of a Phenom II 965 but in games the performance will be similar.

jamesgoss · 27 Dec 2009 at 16:32

Biz.Kid09 said:
Not really http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=102&p2=109
Well either 965 or i5 will do Fallout 3 e.t.c fantastically so you have to make the choice:Buy a cpu that is quicker than the 965 but is a dead socket or a cpu which gets slightly beaten but is future proof and AM3 will be what AMD's best socket gets released on...

Why do you say 1156 is going to be a dead socket? Is there absolutely nothing left for that socket that's significantly superior to the 750? I thought it had only just come out!

Ast3r · 27 Dec 2009 at 17:10

There will not be anything superior than the i7 870 for that socket as the only CPUs that come out for it will be the i3 and i6 so sk 1156 will be dead in a year's time.