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Computer Fried, Need some help for a New CPU, MoBo & RAM

daveyg

daveyg

daveyg

Associate
Joined
17 Jul 2006
Posts
126
Location
Bristol, UK
Hi Folks, I'm sure there are loads of similar threads, but I'm in a tight spot and need some help. My computer has totally died and I suspect Mobo/CPU as PSU is still powering Case Fans and GFX fan, but MoBo powered fans do not start and I get no beeps, post, etc and it makes no difference if i remove my GFx card. Rather than start trying to replace one or the other I 'm just going to get a new CPU/MoBo as a minimum and rebuild from there.

Having looked about I am totally confused with the latest Intel/AMD offerings, as my knowledge is rather out of date (I caught the early Core 2 Duo wave).

My Old System
E6600 C2Duo
P965 Gigabyte DS4 board
4x1Gb DDR2 533 ram (old & slow)
G8800 GTS 512
Intel 160gb SSD
OCZ MODXSTREAM PRO 500W SILENT S
plus HDD, DVD, DVD-RW.
20" 1680*1050 Monitor.

Whilst it wasn't up to date it was pretty good, and have no trouble playing 2009 games.

Needs
I game mostly, at 1680*1050, don't do very much movie editting or ripping, some photo editting, plus the usual surfing & office.

I don't want to step backwards from where I am and want to maintain 4gb RAM.

Budget
I don't really have a budget, becasue I don't understand what I am buying. I want something better than my Core 2 Duo. I guess I have between £200-£400 to spend, as that seems about right for a mid range system.

That said, if £20-£50 gets me a much better component I'm happy to stretch myself.

I wasn't planning on replacing my 8800 GTS (yet) and ideally I'd keep my 500W PSU as it is only a 8 months old. If I could get much better perfromance than my 8800 GTS for a modest outlay I'd be interested, but I'm not sure I can.

If I can keep my RAM, great, but I don't know how much I am limiting myself by doing so.

Questions / Comments
I don't see much difference between an i7 920 and a i5 750, but equally don't undertand the other 2 core i5s.

The AMD line up is very confusing, although I have been recomended a X4 955, as a good alternative to a i5.

I take on board what other threads have been saying about the intel sockets going out of date next year, but I am not likely to update my processor until both that and my Mobo are obsolete.

I can't afford to wait as I have no home PC at the moment.

Any recommendations, help, advice and combinations would be great.

Many Thanks,

Davey G
 
I'd say an I3 + Gigabyte MATX board + 4GB of DDR3 isn't a bad option for 300 or so, it'll clock to 4GHZ plus.

There's also price slashes happening in late aug, but then I'm pretty sure you don't want to wait from your comments. So I'd say you could either go for an I3 or possibly an I5 750, AMD have a few nice options - the 965 or even the 1055T if you want 6 cores.

Just about any recent CPU will be fine with games now.

BTW - off topic, but your sig also breaks the 4 line rule on the forum! :p
 
Thanks for the help. Is the i3 man enough becasue it has been overclocked or becasue its simply quick enough for what I want to do? Overclocking is not something I have done before as I am a bit of an 'afraid to break it' whimp.

The i3 bundle OCUK sells - when you say pre-configured does that mean the bios has all been set for me? Also does it just sit at 4Ghz all the time or is it something I have to turn up and down so I don't always load it to 4GHz?

I don't want to be having to mess about. My wife uses the computer also and i just need it to 'work' for her and be man enough for me to game on.

Do you think there is any benefit looking into the AM2+ world, or is my RAM to old anyway?

Thanks,

Dave

(With a 4 line sig)
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Be expecting people from the AMD camp to charge in a recommend a AMD alternative soon :D
Click to expand...

*charges in*

450upgrade.png


In most new games and multi threaded applications the AMD 955 will be faster than the i3. :) It's at the top end of your budget of but the 5770 is a great card, still you don't _need_ to upgrade that atm if you don't want to. ;)
 
not when most modern games use more than 2 cores, dual core has barely any life left where as 4 cores will still last for awhile
 
arknor said:
not when most modern games use more than 2 cores, dual core has barely any life left where as 4 cores will still last for awhile
Click to expand...

As said, it's Hyper Threading so acts as 4 cores.

Plus, the CPU is so cheap, even if in 6 months its not good enough, you can pop in a new chip.

I'd be amazed though if it struggles with any game TBH - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/03/overclocking-intel-core-i3-530/9 (pretty sure I'm okay to link to them) Look at the overclocked score - it's stupid easy to get 4GHZ on a stock cooler.
 
Dark_Angel said:
As said, it's Hyper Threading so acts as 4 cores.

Plus, the CPU is so cheap, even if in 6 months its not good enough, you can pop in a new chip.

I'd be amazed though if it struggles with any game TBH - http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/03/overclocking-intel-core-i3-530/9 (pretty sure I'm okay to link to them) Look at the overclocked score - it's stupid easy to get 4GHZ on a stock cooler.
Click to expand...

acts as 4 cores while only have 2 physical cores.

doesnt mean it has 4 cores... what is hyperthreading maybe 20-30% at best.

dont even come this fairy tale bs that intel cpus have magical stealth unicorn cores

do people claim 930 is 8 cores? do trhey claim 980 is 16?

anyway i said modern games terran conflict is over 2 years old

i3 is what celuron were to pentium
 
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arknor said:
acts as 4 cores while only have 2 physical cores.

doesnt mean it has 4 cores... what is hyperthreading maybe 20-30% at best.

dont even come this fairy tale bs that intel cpus have magical stealth unicorn cores

do people claim 930 is 8 cores? do trhey claim 980 is 16?

anyway i said modern games terran conflict is over 2 years old

i3 is what celuron were to pentium
Click to expand...

I'm aware, but it does handle 4 physical threads. It makes it a hell of a lot faster. As for 20 - 30 percent, it depends entirely on the application.

Redmint said:
We're talking £100 vs £129, if it was half the price of the Phenom then yeah I'd say 'omg it's so cheap!'. :p
Click to expand...

No, it's not "cheap as in free" but it's pretty damn cheap as a way to buy in to DDR3.

Also, remember that games currently don't use more than 2 cores really.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2901/12

Several games are listed there, with a 4GHZ overclock it would easily be more than enough for 12 months plus.

Of course, I'm not saying it's the best solution, or the only solution, but it's a pretty nice solution. Especially since by sep the prices would've fallen for certain CPU's, he could buy a new CPU (if needed). But for a bit of rendering, a bit of image editing and gaming (which is GPU anyways) I don't think a cheap I3 would be a bad deal.

Especially since everything is being replaced next year in terms of sockets, (for intel).
 
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i3-530-processor-review/17

http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i3-530-processor-review/18

The I3 isn't huge behind the I5's it seems.

Once again though, it's a difficult choice... I'd say right now from my personal stand point either the I3 or the I7 9x0 are the best in some ways, for opposite reasons.

I3 because it's a cheap buy in to DDR3 (the boards are just under 70) and the I7 1366 because of Tri channel, and it'll be the last of the 2 intel sockets to be replaced.. (I think)
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Only applies to people with graphic card of 4870x2/5850/5870/GTX470/GTX480 level.

That won't happen for people with 5770 or slower cards.
Click to expand...

Most of the time, people aren't going to want a 10000 fps anyways.

I (personally) will just bump up AA / AF and other eye candy if I've got spare FPS. There's very few times (my own home CPU is a Q6600) where my CPU has really been the limit... it typically comes down to the GPU.
 
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