i3-530, i3-540, i5-750, or AMD

[yellowplum]

I need a new PC, mines old and starting to get quite slow. So I started looking around to see what to buy. I have seen reviews of the i3-530 and 540 and found that the 530 is an excellent chip that can be overclocked quite easily.

The 750 is a better performance chip for gaming, however £150 (ish) is a bit of a stretch (can't justify it) at the moment considering I don't use the machine for gaming at all these days.

I was looking at AMD also because people still state that life exists in these chips yet.

I have been an AMD fan for years, but I am not sure I want an AMD again. What would people recommend?

(USE: General Business Use, some photoshop, accounting etc. and I want to make sure it can play Diablo when it comes out - Will get 4GB DDR3 and windows 7 x64 Ultimate)

 

[yellowplum]

If there's any way you can afford it, go with i5 750. It's far superior to the Phenom 2 and i3 5-series

I really didn't want to go that far, but I keep looking back at it myself. Although an overclocked 530 does fair quite well.

What mobo would you suggest for either?

 

[yellowplum]

Do you mean the gigabyte one? That is on offer, can't find an Asus one on offer. That is what I was thinking take the i3 overclock it and then if you want to you can replace it in six to twelve months time with something even better.

 

[yellowplum]

About £100 mobo, £90 ish 4GB, £100 CPU, £60-80 Graphics - the rest I will deal with separately if I require them. I am only really concerned with the three elements I am unsure on, GPU, CPU and Mobo

Oh and I was looking at this board Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 as it had USB3 and Sata6/GBs not sure if it is worth it though.

 

[yellowplum]

I would agree either it's a cheap system that can be upgraded or it's not. Because you end up having to upgrade things here there and everywhere. Coming from an SKT939 X2 4400 with 1.5GB anything would be better.

I was actually thinking, since I am not going to play anything on it for the moment I will stick with the built in GPU and see how it goes. I haven't upgraded my monitor as yet and probably won't for a while - I do quite like this one I have, again probably wont until the game is out and I start playing more.

What is the difference between H55 and H57 - What do you think of Biostar boards? Or Evga? I note MSI isn't reviewed as well any more, any reason?

 

[yellowplum]

To be honest it depends what I get out of the processor if I upgrade or not, if it functions ok then I will stick with it for longer than needed. I only tend to upgrade when the CPU etc has run its course. Henceforth I need to upgrade now - DDR and an Athlon X2 has run its course.

If I use the i5-750 I will have to purchase a separate GPU, whereas if I stick with the i3 then I don't. That was my plan to begin with over the i5-750. Also when I have seen tests of the 530 against the 750 it does catch up in most instances in an overclocked environment. Hence the interest in it...

Just have to pick the board now...Gigabyte, Asus - Seen an Asustek that was interesting also but again not sure about them (know what you mean about Biostar, I had a Biostar 200P Shuttle thing, one was great build the other was a crock of ****)

Decisions Decisions....I know I don't want to get the separate graphics to begin with, hence i3, but it's the board that I am not sure now.

 

[yellowplum]

The socket 939 X2 processors fetch a decent price secondhand on a famous auction website.

If this build is not primarily for gaming has the OP considered an Athlon II X4 630 or 635??

Anyway the OP should check this comparison tool to get a rough estimate of what processor will be best suited to their needs:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?b=2&c=1

All components will be on the 'famous' auction site when I upgrade

I will stick with the i3-530 but now it's which mobo

 

[yellowplum]

Not going to convince me for AMD at the moment lol

 

[yellowplum]

Right motherboard hunting for a shortlist this evening I think....

 

[yellowplum]

No problem! . . . I wasn't trying to convince you, I was showing you what £250 would get you!, Built in graphics (IGP), fast quad core, upgradeable, why would you spend a penny more!

I can only imagine your getting overloaded by technical babayaga and have "throttled" your selection in the same way a processor "throttles" it's speed when it gets too hot! . . . . give us a shout if you change your mind!

I stand corrected, I didn't realise that it had built in graphics. Now you really are confusing me...AHHH

 

[yellowplum]

Ok let me twist it another way then - just to confuse things even more - If I was to get a i5-750 what mobo would you get with it? Would it be a P55 based mobo? What graphics card would you recomend to go with it?

 

[yellowplum]

This question has already been answered in this thread.

Either take point on the response,accept the advice or move on.


No need to ask again....Just read the thread again.

You didn't quite answer it in full as I was asking above, I was trying to obtain a cost comparison to see how much more you would spend on an i5-750 unit compared to an i3-530 that you have also recomended.

I heeded your point of only buying a H55/H57 board for the i3 and not over spending because of the difference in the processor is only around £50-£60 however you didn't specify what type of GPU you would place it in.

and this is my concern....

because you will end up spending a great deal more. It isn't just the different Mobo, CPU but it also means spending out on a GPU at an increased cost so the £50 more becomes £150-£200 more.

On a slight different note, RAM -

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-180-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-181-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

 

[yellowplum]

neither. look for some stuff called G.Skill ECO 12800

Any reason why you dismissed them so easily

 

[yellowplum]

I ordered the Asus H57 based bored (P7H57D-V EVO) in the end, with the i3 530 and a new WD 640GB Sata 6Gb/s HD.

Counting down the days for the board to arrive...

Still not sure about the RAM I have since it is end of line and the board isn't supposed to officially support it.

 

[yellowplum]

To be honest, I think you should spend £50-£65 extra and get a i5 750 CPU instead.
Sure i3 530 is a nice and fast CPU that can overclock quite nicely, but in the end it is still a dual-core CPU not Quad.

More and more games are taking advantage of using the extra cores, and I would hate to see a 5870 get bottlenecked by a dual-core in some heavy geometry/terrain or CPU dependent games.

A i5 750 on that motherboard can overclock to 4.13GHz:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2010/02/01/asus-p7h57d-v-evo-motherboard-review/3

I only paid £79 for the i3-530 so it's a bit more to spend to £150 for the i5-750

 

[yellowplum]

Ah...that's a great deal.

Anyway, what graphic card you gonna be getting?

Unknown as yet, sticking with internal graphics for the moment until Oblivion comes out, don't really play many games

The only concern is that the RAM will work with the board.