My AMD64 died...new setup time!

Gamefreak501 · 2 Nov 2009 at 08:53

Hello everyone,

My rock solid AMD 64 died a grim death yesterday

It has been slowing down a bit over the last few days and then the heatsink just dropped off - when the case got moved. The zif has been failing recently, so it was only time!

I can normally bend the CPU pins back very slowly and carefully, but far too many were affected this time around when it fell off with the heatsink so I figured I'll just upgrade.

I'm thinking of this lot from the OcUK store:

Intel iCore i5 750 2.66GHZ £159.99
Gigabyte GA-P55 £93.99
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB £84.99

Which comes to around £338.

I have a 7950GT which my fiancee is giving me as well as my 600W Stealthstream, and my Lian-Li P60.

Any comments or critique?

Thanks in advance!

craptakular · 2 Nov 2009 at 09:35

Do you play games?

shinester184 · 2 Nov 2009 at 10:40

If you mostly game, you could go for a cheaper Phenom II rig and spend spare cash on a shiny new card...seeing as a Phenom II setup will cost around £200, that still leaves you with over a £100 for a GPU.

BigRazer93 · 2 Nov 2009 at 10:46

If you are going to game, your gpu will bottleneck the core i5 you have suggested.
I reccomend going for an amd build if you can't buy a decent gpu.

Also, If toy do stick with the core i5, I would change the memory to this. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-026-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
Low timings, they look stunning and also have better heat sinks.

craptakular · 2 Nov 2009 at 11:17

Do you already have spare ddr2 ram?

shadow_boxer · 2 Nov 2009 at 11:24

+1 for Patriot Sector 5 Viper memory, lots of good reviews and comments.

Gamefreak501 · 2 Nov 2009 at 12:46

Hey everyone,

You have all been a great help! Thanks!

I do game, I want to be able to play Assassins Creed 2, Left for Dead 2 and anything I fancy.

I want to use the 7950GT initially, just to get some use out of it, then save some money for a good one - maybe a GTX260 or 280 as I'll probably be required to work from home at times.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I sometimes make music on Ableton Live; so that requires a lot of CPU power. I once got my poor 3200+ AMD 64 to 110% utilisation somehow when I was compiling a song.

How does this look:

AMD Phenom X4 955 Black Edition: £136.99
Asus M4A79XTD Evo (Socket AM3): £84.99
Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz : £80.99

Comes to around £313

Plus it should *hopefully* run all my current games beautifully.

Unfortunately, I can't carry over my DDR memory!

Would an i7 be a possible candidate as well?

Thanks again!

craptakular · 2 Nov 2009 at 13:16

i7 and i5 would be a better upgrade if you need the power to decode! I don't do music production but I assume the phenom 2 wouls still be good enough for your music, i7 is better for decoding though but is more money