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AMD or Intel for my next upgrade?

Marvin

Marvin

Marvin

Soldato
Joined
27 Nov 2009
Posts
3,869
Location
Maidstone, Kent
I'm planning on upgrading my CPU/Motherboard combo, as well as a general overhaul, as I'll be off to university soonish, and want something fairly future proof, as I'll have no money as a student for upgrades. I am going to do a masters degree in Computer Systems Engineering (have got offers), and so will be using CAD programs, and will be doing programming, probably using an IDE.

Current spec:
CPU: E8400 @ 4.05GHz
Motherboard: ASRock P45XE
Graphics Card: Powercolor 4890 PCS+ (will be either getting a second 4890 for CF, or will look at CF 5770s (up to 3 in total) or a 5850/70)
Memory: 8GB Crucial DDR2 800mHz, 6-6-6-22, at 890mHz (will be fine to upgrade this too, and I don't need 8GB)
Power Supply: Antec 550W, though will be upgrading to an 850W+ Modular PSU, like a Coolermaster, OCZ or Corsair.
Case: NZXT M59, with as many fans as physically possible.
Cooler: Artic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev2
HDD: Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black


I'm open to pretty much any brand, as I haven't been doing this long enough to build any bad experience/prejudice barriers yet.

Thanks in advance

Simon
 
Oh, yeah, a budget does help...

I'd be looking at around £600 including all my other upgrades.

I guess that £100 will go to the PSU, £150ish to the GPU and so that leaves £350 for the new motherboard, processor and memory (if required).
 
You might want it now but I would hold off; your system is already really good! You have one the best mainstream dual cores, an excellent gpu

AMD launch hex cores next year. Intel release thier 32nm range (someone correct me). 5 series will fall in price and we might even see fermi launched form nV!

So much on the horizon and I am not sure you are going to see a massive performance gain by upgrading.
 
Id re-use your existing gfx card, psu etc for now, just do the cpu, mobo and ram, for £600 i7 is very achievable, your gaming experince isnt going to change but youre going to have much more processing power for your other uses
 
Really? Is CAD really that demanding?

Hmm, I guess that processors are updated with big improvements less frequently than graphics cards, so it'd be worth doing most of the upgrading in this area.

What CPU, motherboard and memory would you suggest?

I won't be buying until the new year, (hopefully make use of some January sales), so I guess prices may be slightly less than at the moment.

But, at the same time, I have conflicting opinion from jms198, should I get an AM3 board and stick it out waiting for the 6-core processors? Though of course this should also work with the i7 LGA1366, since 6-cores are on the cards there as well...
 
I think the intel hex cores are going to be rediculasly expensive; the AMD ones will be definately cheaper; how much so, no idea. I am not confident that an AM3 system as it stands will support bulldozer in two years and the performance of the hex cores is really going to be determined by multicore support.

I vote stick; I would wait and see how the software you are going to use performs. Your choice though! One article maybe of interest is this from xbitlabs at 4ghz you're pretty much GPU limited in games anyway (ok apart form a few multi core supported games).
 
jms198 said:
I think the intel hex cores are going to be rediculasly expensive; the AMD ones will be definately cheaper; how much so, no idea. I am not confident that an AM3 system as it stands will support bulldozer in two years and the performance of the hex cores is really going to be determined by multicore support.
Click to expand...
AM3 system will support the 6 core next year...
 
gareth170 said:
should still be backward compatible, like the am3 chips backward compatible to am2/am2+, and am2+ chips backward compatible to am2
Click to expand...

True but with the completely new chip architecture I'm not sure it will be fully functional. Like running an AM2+ chip in a AM2 board cuts back on hyper transport. Not taking any bets though:p
 
I'm sorry, are Bulldozer and Thubans like Wolfdale and Yorksfield for Intel - architecture? I'm not that clued up on AMD in comparison to Intel.
 
Marvin said:
I'm planning on upgrading my CPU/Motherboard combo, as well as a general overhaul, as I'll be off to university soonish, and want something fairly future proof, as I'll have no money as a student for upgrades.

  • E8400 @ 4.05GHz
  • Artic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev2
  • ASRock P45XE
  • 8GB Crucial DDR2 800mHz, 6-6-6-22, at 890mHz
  • Powercolor 4890 PCS+
  • Western Digital 500GB Caviar Black
  • NZXT M59
  • Antec 550W
Click to expand...

Well that looks like a really kicking system you have their, certainly I can't see that causing a problem? I wonder though have you considered whether or not you want a tower while at UNI or a uATX style Cube (shuttle ish), not sure how big student rooms are these days but it may be an advantage to make something that takes up less space? . . .dunno just a thought! :p . . . thats what I would do if going to uni, tiny mighty cube and a big **** off LCD screen, and a big bed and a big cupboard to store beer, job done! :D

Marvin said:
I am going to do a masters degree in Computer Systems Engineering (have got offers), and so will be using CAD programs, and will be doing programming, probably using an IDE.
Click to expand...
What's an IDE?

In your boots what I would do is fire off an email to the university or who-ever is running the courses and enquire about what software is used, is it multi-threaded, DO you need an OpenGL card etc etc. It wouldn't take long but you may get some useful information and then build a custom machine for the upcoming workload . . makes sense yeah? ;)

Marvin said:
I'm open to pretty much any brand, as I haven't been doing this long enough to build any bad experience/prejudice barriers yet.
Click to expand...

Haha thats good, wonder how long you'll last before you become a forum zombie ranting about ATI Drivers or terrible ASUS board etc etc! :cool:
 
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Well, I prefer ATI to Nvidia at the moment (have done all the work with my brother's computer, which uses two 9800GTs, and I don't really like the Nvidia Control Panel).

Rooms are actually (surprisingly) quite spacious, so I don't think that a desktop will be an issue - probably...

I'm off for a visit/tour to all the unis I've applied to (got 2 offers and 3 interviews :D), which will be more in-depth, and no doubt I'll get an idea of the programs used then.

The main reason I want to upgrade is to future-proof (as much as possible) my system so I have a PC that's also still fairly capable with games in 4 years - where Quad Core will be far more widespread and game-utilised than it is now.

I know my current system is nice, but as with everything it the PC world, it's only nice for a short time - until the next thing comes along.

What board would people suggest if I went with AMD (almost fancy a change from Intel anyway - try something a bit different!). I'd want AM3 (for future hex-cores), at least 2 PCIE2.0 x16 slots, a good overclocking board, and something else, but I can't remember. (A what was I saying moment! :rolleyes:)

Conversely, what board would people suggest if I went with Intel? Both LGA1366 and LGA1156 boards, and same criteria as the AMD above.

I guess that doing computing at university must require some decent hardware, as at Southampton they use server motherboards, with up to 48GB of DDR3 RAM, some with dual processors in their workstations. Obviously, they are a tad overspecced, but you get the idea.

Oh, and an IDE is an Integrated Programming Environment - essentially a program that helps you program in a higher level programming language, they often include translators (translating each of your commands into machine code), and offer programming help.
 
Hey Marvin, good post, lots of useful info there! :)

There's something I'm curious about which you haven't mentioned and thats . . . . have you just got your first sniff of a student loan? :D

I'm not sure but I have a feeling you maybe gonna blow to much wonga on a pimp uni machine! ;)

apart from that you made some other points we can discuss, this term you speak of called Future-Proofing isn't something I subscribe to but through reading what other people are like I understand now there are some folk who don't care to tinker with their PC and just get it built and tested and leave it be for another three years or so . . . I used to call this Feast & Famine building but now I think of it more like a Desert-Island build, its almost like your going to be cut-off from the rest of the world and need the very best tech possible to see you through . . . . seems funny to me! :p

Anyway if thats what you want then that's what you should have, gonna cost an arm and a leg £££££ and you will have to stuff a chassis full of premium high end components!!!!

With Technology moving fast atm its very hard to say what hardware will be like in two years, what I do know is that there will be plenty of next gen hardware around then that will do a better job than any hardware we can splurge on today . . .

I think you have a nice base system atm but I understand if you have owned it sometime it has become a bit boring and maybe you fancy something new, some may argue you should ride it out with what you got and swap your dual core out for a quad core down the line when you need it, it's not what I would do though! ;)

If you did wanna get a fresh build for 2010 then you could reclaim some reasonable funds from selling off your older components, you may have already done something like this but if not its food for thought . . .

I think more input is needed, we need to work out a realistic budget for the build, we can then come up with two variations for your consideration, one value spec & one Cool-Kid spec . . .

Marvin said:
Oh, and an IDE is an Integrated Programming Environment - essentially a program that helps you program in a higher level programming language, they often include translators (translating each of your commands into machine code), and offer programming help.
Click to expand...
That's right over my head but it sounds awesome, I hope we can get you a spec thats fits the bill perfectly without costing a packet! £££
 
Aha, no, this isn't because a student loan has just been cleared (shame...). Been saving for this for a while.

I'm watching some auctions on that auction site right now actually to see how 'my stuff' should do on there. An E8400 is going for about £45, and it's got 2 days to go!

Overall budget I think should be about £600 - though that's for the complete overhaul - depending on whether I get another/new graphics card, and therefore the power supply to go with it - it's tempting.

Of course, if I get some decent sales on that auction site, then the budget could go up :), although, conversely, it could also go down :(.

But yeah, the Desert-Island build is what I'm going with. I would love to tinker - but I don't think that'd be a great use of money over things like food and heating when at uni (though I could overclock the processor enough to heat my room...:D).

I understand that technology is moving fast, but, you have to buy at some point - can't just say, 'Oh I'll wait another 6 months, the xx from xxx will come out then'. Anyway, I'd really like something to stick my teeth into in the new year - I like system builds, particularly seeing whether I can get it neater than the last one - I've seen some very neat cases around, and I'm a little jealous...
 
You can check the completed auctions on the auction site too. Keep an eye on the fees too as they are going to be at least 10-15% of the final value.
 
jms198 said:
You can check the completed auctions on the auction site too. Keep an eye on the fees too as they are going to be at least 10-15% of the final value.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it :rolleyes:, just sold some stuff on there, sold for (not including postage) £50, I receive about £45 by the time Paypal and Ebay take their respective slices - and that doesn't include the £2 listing fee...
 
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