Is this a sensible upgrade?

Snubber · 11 Oct 2011 at 17:44

Need a sanity check on an upgrade for just gaming, in particular BF3 and Skyrim.

Current rig - Q9550 o/c'd to 3.4GHz, Gigabyte P35C-DS3R, Radeon 5850, 4GB DDR2. Had this setup for 2 years. Game at 1920x1200.

Can sell the above CPU, mobo and memory for £200

Buy the following:

i3-2100 £90
Asus X58 Sabertooth £140
8GB DDR3 memory £40
CPU cooler £25
2nd 5850 for x-fire £100

Net outlay = £195

Or I could just sell my current 5850 for say £85 and buy a new GTX570 or 6970.

I think it's a no brainer...I appreciate the i3-2100 is slightly inferior to the Q9550 (although apparently it still runs BF3 beta well...even though it does not have 4 real cores). Getting the X58 mobo also opens up future upgrade path.

Any thoughts/advice gratefully recieved. My budget is a strict £200 plus anything I can get from selling my existing CPU, Mobo, memory, GPU.

Snubber · 11 Oct 2011 at 17:51

Add the following into the mix instead of the Intel i3:

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE £80
Asus Sabertooth 990FX £150
8GB DDR3 memory £40
CPU cooler £25
2nd 5850 for x-fire £100

Net outlay = £195

Ginger-Menace · 11 Oct 2011 at 17:57

i3-2100 wont fix the x58 board, x58 is socket 1366 whereas the i 3 is socket 1155 ( sandy bridge)

setter · 11 Oct 2011 at 17:57

The x58 mobo and i3-2100 arent compatible, the x58 is a socket 1366 motherboard that takes the i7 900 series intel quad core cpu's, the i3-2100 is a socket 1155 cpu.

shadow_boxer · 11 Oct 2011 at 18:05

Wait for Bulldozer release and see how it compares to Sandy Bridge i5.

Snubber · 11 Oct 2011 at 18:06

Doh...

scrub the X58 Sabertooth and replace with Asus P8Z68 1155 mobo...which is cheaper at £132.

I think the main point is whether it is sensible to take a sideways step in terms of CPU gaming performance whilst opening up opportunity for SLI/X-Fire and future Socket 1155 CPU upgrades.

Cheers,

stulid · 11 Oct 2011 at 18:06

If you wait till tomorrow you will see how well Bulldozer does.

Plus a i3 2100 is a faster gaming cpu than a Phenom955BE - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100_5.html#sect0

This motherboard does SLI/Crossfire at 8X/8X - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-368-gi&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990 - review here - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/z68xp-ud3-dz68db,review-32228.html

But to overclock you need to have a "K" cpu such as a i5 2500K

cmndr_andi · 11 Oct 2011 at 18:11

Hi there,

As the guys above say, the i3 doesn't work in the X58 board (you would need a s1155 board). Also, the i3 is a dual core CPU (albeit a fast one) and can't be overclocked, so compared to your 3.4GHz Quad core (core 2 design) it would be a side/downgrade in performance.

The Phenom II X4 system would be a similar story - this CPU is not as fast as a 3.4GHz Core 2 Quad.

The cheapest option is probably to find a cheap second hand s775 board that overclocks well and supports crossfire: ASUS P5Q Pro/Deluxe/Pro Turbo boards regularly sell for £50 or under. Then add in a second 5850 in crossfire, so long as your current PSU is up to it (a corsair HX 620W will be fine).

If you want a real upgrade in CPU power then I would suggest going for a sandy bridge quad core that can overclock (ie the i5 2500K) and a P67 or Z68 board that is good for overclocking and supports crossfire at x8x8 speeds. You would also need a set of dual channel DDR3. That said, this would be well over your budget.

AMD are also about to release their new bulldozer CPUs very soon (possibly tommorrow) so it may be worth waiting to see how these chips turn out.