Advice on a future upgrade

liamcrane

liamcrane

liamcrane

Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2007
Posts
2,553
Location
Essex
Morning all,

I am thinking of upgrading my rig sometime soon once i have some spare cash and i am just looking for some advice really on what i should be upgrading from my current setup. I would just like to point out that my rig is running amazingly well and i am really happy but the thing that is really bugging me is that I am using an am2+ board with ddr2 ram and im thinking i may have to make the switch to am3. I love my PII x4 955 and would like to stick with AMD but was not sure if i should look at the new 6 core CPU's around. I have mine currently running at 3.8ghz (c2) at 1.425v and the performance is very stable indeed.

My rig is in my sig, i guess the upgrade i would be looking towards is a new board AM 3 currently a m4a785d-m-pro AM2+, new memory as im using ddr2 and a possible new 6 core CPU. Do all AMD cpu's come with a 3 year warranty?

Budget

CPU- £200
Board/ram- £200

Hope you can help

Many thanks
 
I know where you're coming from feeling that upgrade itch, I got it too atm but I'll give you same advice I give myself when in sensible mode, your current rig is fine, save your cash
 
What is the rig used mostly for?

If it's just gaming then a hex core is gonna make lil odds. You can upgrade the mobo and RAM but i don't think you'll see a great deal of improvement for the money your laying out. (I have the same mobo btw with an X4 unlocked 555BE)

That said you could opt for a crosshair board and RAM and keep the 955 CPU. Use that CPU budget for an additional 5850 and go xfire (crosshair III/IV does dual 16X lanes). Then you'd see some improvement in performance if gaming is your cup of tea.

Just a thought ;p
 
I agree. I'm still running a Q6600 and runs everything fine. I have no desire to upgrade until at least Q1/2011 and in doing so skipping a complete generation.
 
95thrifles said:
I know where you're coming from feeling that upgrade itch, I got it too atm but I'll give you same advice I give myself when in sensible mode, your current rig is fine, save your cash
Click to expand...

I know mate i hate it when i get this feeling because wise words would say why change something thats not broken? but i do love the feel of opening up something new :D


Thanks honosuseri for that mate, i have looked into xfire with the exact board you mention it looks top draw!! Do you really see much performance boost with xfire? might sound silly but i know a lot of games dont support it. Im playing GTA 4 at the mo and its not so much GPU hungry but loves using my OC CPU i dont know if this is a general thing with certain games or if its just cos GTA was a bad kinda port i thought most would go for the power of the GPU.

What are these 6 core AMD's like? would i likely see a better FPS with one compared to my OC quad? wasn't sure if any game would actually utilize all the cores on the cpu

Thanks for all the responces
 
I have thought about upgrading to ddr 3 and have dissmissed it as the performance gains totally out-weigh the cost of upgrade. Im going to wait untill bulldozer is unleashed on us :)

Very few games use 4 cores ATM so 6 cores would be just a waste of time for gaming. Save your money you have a nice rig already.
 
Yip bulldozer is the new CPU from amd. I can't give a cast iron guarantee but i think it's a fair bet it will fit in the AM3 socket mobos (many AM2+ mobos will take AM3 cpus afer all).

On the xfire subject it's a funny ol' beast. Performance is down to firstly having a mobo that will do xfire properly and driver optimisation. The 5770 has proven popular as if run (properly) in xfire config it will match and in some cases pip the 5870 and workout cheaper too!

The reason i suggested the crosshair mobo is that wether you have the III or IV version they both run 2 express lanes at X16 (IV supports tri-fire 1X16 2X8), it comes with an excellent x-fi soundcard and the lil touches for overclocking make it an attractive mobo for the price.

If the money is seriously burning a hold in your pocket you could get the crosshair IV mobo and some decent DDR3 RAM. Wait and see what happens to the prices of the ati cards once the 6000 series is released later this year/start of next. This will make xfire more appealing pricewise and waiting a lil while gives time for the drivers to improve and more news on the "bulldozer" cpus is bound to be press released.

TBH you have a nice lil rig (i have something very similar) but if you have to scratch that itch the crosshair has plenty of features for you to "play" with and is opening up upgrade options for the future. You can have some fun tinkering whilst you wait for prices to drop and new CPUs to land.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks so much mate thats helped me a treat!! I will keep an eye on prices maybe save some cash to go spend at the start of the new year. Mr rig pretty much runs game flawless even GTA which is a mission in itself :D

Thanks for all your input mate
 
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