Best Current Value vs. Potential for Future Upgrade ?

[alternate_UK]

Looking to build a value system to last the next couple of years. Good all-round with media capabilities but not really high end gaming etc. Planning to keep it stock initially with potential for basic OC in the future.

I have always used Intel but the fact that AMD seem to stick with a socket design for longer does appeal.

So I was wondering would you buy a spec that is regarded as good value at this point in time and replace the board, RAM and CPU when it becomes dated or one that is more overkill for what I want now but has more potential for future upgrading.

e.g. LGA775 has a rep for good value atm and borrowing a spec from another thread a possible build would be

Asus P5QL Pro Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.98

£64.98

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail

£52.99

Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5C) £33.99

£33.99

Total £151.96 inc VAT

Or say a AMD Phenom-2 x3 with a DDR3 board and RAM - dearer but with more lastability?

e.g.
AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail

£97.99

Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

£70.99

Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600C9DHX Twin3X (TW3X4G1600C9DHX)

£65.99

Total £234.97 inc VAT

How much more performance and potential options does that extra not quite £100 buy me?

cheers

 

[spacedskunk]

Personally I would go with the phenom 550, its cheap and I am playing games on max quality (obviously with aid from my GPU though) but excellent CPU. I do photoshop editing and watch films on there, its sufficient. Good thing is you'd be spending that much on the CPU while at the same time leaving it open to get a better one in the future.

Mobo choice is a good one, the new AMD ones around £75 are awesome!

Obviously you'd want DDR3, but in all fairness it isn't that expense...4GB will be future proof.

 

[Hades]

The Intel S775 is good value and quick. But it is end of life so you won't be able to upgrade much in the future. So I'd vote for the AMD setup. Of those, the 720BE is probably the best bang-for-buck although the 550BE is fantastic value and if you are lucky you may be able to enable the disabled cores or clock it to very good speeds. So either would be good.

 

[Yurihyuga]

The Intel S775 is good value and quick. But it is end of life so you won't be able to upgrade much in the future. So I'd vote for the AMD setup. Of those, the 720BE is probably the best bang-for-buck although the 550BE is fantastic value and if you are lucky you may be able to enable the disabled cores or clock it to very good speeds. So either would be good.

I agree with this because when the i5's come out which is very soon c2d and c2q will phase out very quickly.

 

[D D Danneh]

I'd go with the AMD setup. The Intel one will cost you more when you come to upgrade, as you'll need a new motherboard and RAM, and the AMD setup will give you more performance now.

 

[alternate_UK]

The Intel S775 is good value and quick. But it is end of life so you won't be able to upgrade much in the future. So I'd vote for the AMD setup. Of those, the 720BE is probably the best bang-for-buck although the 550BE is fantastic value and if you are lucky you may be able to enable the disabled cores or clock it to very good speeds. So either would be good.

I would pay £50 for the x2 550 and take a chance on unlocking it but at only £25 more for the x3 and not having to OC it straight out of the box, I think that might be better for me.