WHAT TO DO NOW?

mdaw

mdaw

mdaw

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18 Apr 2013
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606
Hi all,

I have just been informed that my old Asus P5QL motherboard has gone wrong.

So my options are to either source a new LGA 775 motherboard thats not been abused or ran to its limits for years and likely to end up like my own in a little while, (although mine was never overclocked). New ones can be found but not sure how good they are? Especially from ebay.

Or I will need to buy a whole new core of motherboard, ram and cpu. If i do this then the question is what? I dont like buying low end stuff even if it suits my needs at this time as it will be out of date and unable to cope with anything that gets released in the future and will be so painfully slow you end up replacing much more often. I know future proofing isnt really possible as we never know whats round the corner but I like to buy stuff that will last around 5-6 years at a reasonable level. What i have now is 5 years old from when i bought it. Really i was hoping it would last another year as i didnt want to be in the situation im in now where im stuck with ddr2 when ddr3 had just been released. Now i may well be in a similar situation in a few months if i buy ddr3 stuff and then in 3 months haswell-e comes out with ddr4 ram and motherboard. Catch 22 situation.

Advice please people.
 
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It largely depends on your available funds. Just a quick note though..DDR3 hasn't 'just come out'; it's been out years already, becoming mainstream in around 2009 / 2010 ;)

If I was in your shoes (and up until very recently I was), I'd bite the bullet and buy new kit. Intel i5 / i7, 8gb ram and suitable Z87 motherboard will suffice, although if you can, stretch to a SSD drive of at least 120gb capacity.

As I said already though, depends on the funds you have available.
 
Even if DDR4 and all the other fancy stuff comes out next month, it will be a few years before current stuff is *really* unable to cope. Depends on whether you want über high-end performance all the way, or not.

Many people are still gaming on dual-core 775 rigs, according to Steam. I only very recently ditched my own Q6600 and with the rig I have now I don't believe there is a single game out there I cannot play. I may not get über-Ultra settings on everything, but even games as recent as Tomb Raider 2013 run smooth-as on pretty high settings.

Personally, I'd abandon the Q6600 and get something 'decent enough' without breaking the bank. It will be a good 2-3 years before enough people own the high-end stuff that you'd really feel the need to upgrade and probably a couple more years before you start having problems running things.
 
Just so some of the above know. It was when i bought the current computer just over 5 years ago that ddr3 had come in along with the first i7 processors and i opted to go cheaper with the core2quad and ddr2 as it was still very good at the time. Although its not listed i have got a samsung 840 evo ssd 120 gb.

I will probably go down the ddr3 route but with high mhz model. Probably 2100mhz or above.

I reckon i'd look at the i5 4670k or go i7. Reason being AMD have concentrated on apu processors and for me they are more for lap top use. Plus i have a half decent gpu so i dont really care for in built graphics.
 
If you have the budget for Intel, go for it. Don't make the mistake of discounting AMD as inferior products though, the Piledriver architecture is very good for the cost and is supremely clockable.
 
In your situation id personally just get another socket 775 board. Your Core 2 Quad is still decent enough and being an top end processor I reckon you could get the £50 or so you spend on a board back by selling your board and cpu when you come to upgrade later on.
 
Maybe the cost of a new board is the best way forward for now. As you say its still a decent processor that doesnt appear to be struggling.

I have seen my processor selling at good prices on ebay and wondered whether it would be a good idea to cash in now while prices still seem good on it.

I would never write off AMD. Only thing for me is that they have not rolled out steamroller to anything but the apu processors which im not interested in. I was really hoping they would have brought out a successor to the piledriver 8350 in steamroller form but that doesnt appear to be in AMD's plans any time soon, maybe ever from varying reports. I know they brought out the 9590 5ghz (at turbo) version but thought id read that it runs very hot and even with a decent heat sink i would always be worrying about those temps. Also I've never really looked at overclocking as im too worried about messing things up and not being able to put it right.

Any recommendations on a good quality LGA 775 board?
 
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I have found a motherboard on ebay which is a asus p5e3. It supports ddr3 upto 1800mhz (oc). Does that mean i can put 1800mhz ddr3 ram in there or i will i need 1333mhz ram and then oc that to 1800mhz?
 
if the mobo supports up to 1800mhz it means you can put 1333mhz ran in and it will run at that, or if its able to be overclocked then you obviously can.

Equally you can put in 2400mhz ran but the most its going to run at is 1800mhz.

There is little point buying 1333mhz ran as usually higher speed ram can be bought for less.
 
Hi all, after looking around quite extensively it appears theres only a few motherboards you can buy brand new from msi and asrock which are ddr2 and 3 compatible. Theres the msi G41M-P33 Combo which im quite interested in but im a bit reluctant to buy because its a micro atx board and with my graphics card being relatively new and large plus i was told my heatsink is fairly large and heavy that i may struggle to fit these on a small board of this size.

What do you think?
 
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