8350 BUILD (Recommendations Please)

[ukez]

I'm currently using my old Foxconn BlackOps Motherboard, 0verclocked Q6600 @ 3.6 and 8GB DDR3 Ram (compliments of overclockers) is that i3 you're suggesting going to be much of an improvement over that?

I love me old processor it's served me well but if I'm going to upgrade I'd like to notice a difference to warrant the upgrade. I don't want to be upgrading again in 12 months, I had a really good innings with my q6600.

 

[ukez]

Overclocking would be a waste of electricity, I think Office won't use more than 10% cpu power at stock.

ASRock H87M-ITX Intel H87
and
Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz

£240

2 monitors is always better than one when working, no matter what the resolution is.

You're right about the i3 though. He doesn't need anything higher and onboard graphics is more than enough.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x ASRock H77M-ITX Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ITX Motherboard £82.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £79.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1002FAEX) HDD £76.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G160C9K) £49.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £39.95
Total : £506.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Thank you for your help by the way ..

 

[new numa hey]

I'm currently using my old Foxconn BlackOps Motherboard, 0verclocked Q6600 @ 3.6 and 8GB DDR3 Ram (compliments of overclockers) is that i3 you're suggesting going to be much of an improvement over that?

I love me old processor it's served me well but if I'm going to upgrade I'd like to notice a difference to warrant the upgrade. I don't want to be upgrading again in 12 months, I had a really good innings with my q6600.

I'll be honest it won't be a huge upgrade but an upgrade nevertheless. The best thing you're going to see in your build will be the SSD. Whenever I'm not encoding or gaming my SSD comes into play more than my 2500K which I underclock to 1.6GHz.

If you are still having second thoughts about the i3 then go with the 3470. That is the best choice imo.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3470 3.20GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £155.99
Total : £165.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Or you can always go with Neocons solution. Both are great.

 

[OliverDavis]

For CPU power, this will be enough for your needs. The motherboard supports 2 screens. The onboard GPU is one of the best on the market, so when you require that bit of extra graphics grunt for unknown reason you will not be brought to tears with the HD2500...

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A10-5700 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD5700OKHJBOX) £95.99
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-ITX AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £71.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Magma Orange £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £69.95
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £49.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x OcUK Value 2m DVI Male - Male Monitor Cable (DV-106) £4.99
1 x OcUK Value 2m DVI to VGA Cable (DV-104) £4.79
1 x OcUK Value DVI to HDMI Video Adapter (DV-005) £2.99
Total : £448.09 (includes shipping : £17.10).



I have included the cables and adapter to allow you to use 2 screens. No SSD because for Office based tasks they are pointless. Most programs are -700mb so on a mechanical HDD it will only take just a few seconds to load at most!

The 7660D is what is in the APU I specced. The HD2500 is in the i5 spec above.

Higher resolution game; (Note the 6550D is here, the 7660D from the A10-5700 is 15-25% more powerful.)

I am aware you are not going to be gaming much, if at all, but this is to give you an idea of the graphics grunt of these chips!

 

[ubersonic]

I am aware you are not going to be gaming much, if at all, but this is to give you an idea of the graphics grunt of these chips!

That idea being that all of them have more than enough graphics grunt for what you want. A A10-5700 is hardly going to be a noticeable improvement over a 3.6GHz Q6600. Of course you can clock the 5700 up but paying £95 for whats basically a side grade out of the box is a bit /meh.

I second the Intel idea, an i3 3220 is cheaper than a A10-5700 and performs better in office type usage.

 

[OliverDavis]

That idea being that all of them have more than enough graphics grunt for what you want. A A10-5700 is hardly going to be a noticeable improvement over a 3.6GHz Q6600. Of course you can clock the 5700 up but paying £95 for whats basically a side grade out of the box is a bit /meh.

I second the Intel idea, an i3 3220 is cheaper than a A10-5700 and performs better in office type usage.

You cannot unfortunately clock a A10-5700. Not a K series.

As for PC performance, I doubt it was his old CPU holding him back, more just the OS bloating + hardware slowing.

 

[kaku]

I would still argue that even for 'office' usage an SSD would be very noticeable.

General responsiveness in Windows and startup/shutdown times all contribute to that 'snappy' feeling.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I would still argue that even for 'office' usage an SSD would be very noticeable.

General responsiveness in Windows and startup/shutdown times all contribute to that 'snappy' feeling.

Also not to forget when writing/copying things to, scanning the HDD, it would practially close to bringing the PC to a halt...

For just office work, get something like a £40-£45 IvyBridge Pentium G2020 and the rest of the CPU budget to SSD I say.