CPU/Mobo died during the night, looking for "upgrade" today!

mrk

mrk

mrk

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Looks like my CPU fan has failed overnight causing the CPU (Q9550 E0 @ 4GHz) to overheat and most likely die. I smelt a burning electrics smell in the morning and noticed the CPU fan was off but case fans were on (PC stays on 24/7) so I powered down and noticed the top of the Lian-Li was so hot I could not keep my hand on it. Lucky it's heat transfer capabilities are excellent otherwise it could have caused massive damage or maybe even a fire :eek:

The Ultra120 cooler almost burnt my finger too, it scalded it a bit :eek:

The PC powers up but there is no display, no confirmation beep from POST so looks like the CPU and/or 775 socket has gone. I think I will use this opportunity to "upgrade" so to speak so have had a quick look at possible upgrades and this is what I'm looking at, just wanted to know if you guys reckon it would be at least on a similar level or better than my late-setup? I've checked some reviews and while they show the Intel setup beating the AMD, the AMD does have 6 cores and I do Photoshop/Lightroom a lot.

I game most nights but am not a heavy gamer, I have a GTX460 and play L4D2 at the moment and gave up on the others but will play BF3 and DNF when they're out as well as some other action titles on the way this year.

I'm not too fussed about overclocking any more but it would be nice if I could OC mildly. Nothing extreme needed as these new chips appear to be meaty out of the box anyway. I need 8xUSB ports at the back with potential for expansion so this narrows down mobo choice but my max budget is around £280 really right now.

Deceased:
Q9550 @ 4GHz
8GB DDR2 @ 1:1
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P v1.1

Upgrade Potential AMD:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
Corsair XMS3 4GB 12800-C9 (will get another 4GB after selling my existing DDR2)
Asus M4A79XTD EVO/USB3 AMD 790X
£282

Upgrade Potential Intel:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1GHz (Sandybridge)
Corsair XMS3 4GB 12800-C9 (will get another 4GB after selling my existing DDR2)
Asus P8H61 Intel H61
£261

I'm leaning toward the i5 build as reviews suggest it is excellent for gaming as well, better than the 1090T anyway, what do you guys reckon?

Will be buying at lunch.
Cheers!
 
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What is your max budget? My reasoning behind asking is that you could drop a few extra pounds towards your i5 setup and go for the 2500k and a p67 chipset mobo to allow you to overclock up to about 4.5Ghz safely on air.
 
Ideally around the above proposed figures, I'm really not too fussed about overclocking that high any more - especially looking at the sandybridge stock performance. I could always upgrade mobo down the line I guess but if this can hold me until Xmas/new year then I can plan a nie upgarde with an SSD included. I imagine i7 will be cheaper then too.

Shame none of these mobos under £100 have 10x USB ports on the back panel like my UD3P has. I use them all!

All I'm after is stock upgrade comparable (deally better) performance than my Q9550 OCd setup I guess.
 
if you want something thats cheap that will tide you over till christmas, is there any reason not to just get a replacemnt Q9550?

that would give you a lot more towards your big christmas upgrade
 
Reaper 392 said:
if you want something thats cheap that will tide you over till christmas, is there any reason not to just get a replacemnt Q9550?

that would give you a lot more towards your big christmas upgrade
Click to expand...

Believe it or not but Q9550's are still very expensive, probably similar to the new i5's in Cost.
 
Br4d said:
Believe it or not but Q9550's are still very expensive, probably similar to the new i5's in Cost.
Click to expand...

would be cheaper than new processor + mobo + ram though?

if you are planning on changing the processor temporarily, go with a sandybridge one, just so you dont have to change mobo again at christmas
 
I've had a thought and to go i5 2500k + Gigabyte P67 mobo (has all the connectivity I need too) + 2x4GB PC3-12800 G.Skill would cost just under £400, I suppose I could stretch a little bit more and that will do me for the next 2 years. 775 has lasted me 2 years easily until today.

I need to think this over cheers folks!
 
RIP Q9550, legendary chips :(

If you do decide to go Sandybridge then its definitely worth the little extra for a 2500K over slower, non-overclockable chips. Setup you mention in the above post would be very tidy and last you 2 years+
 
It replaced another legendary chip, the Q6600 but that was sold on hehe. I think I will showcase the Q9550 in a little glass box, just to be extra nerdy ¬_¬
 
Ok I've decided to go the k root!

On the way home I am picking up:

Core i5 2500K
GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD3-B3
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-12800
Zalman CNPS10X cooler

£391 in total a bit over budget but what the hell!

Thanks for persuading me to spend more monies ¬_¬ :p
 
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