Need advice in upgrading a Dell 9200

[PhoenixUK]

By the time 955 @ 3.8 - 4ghz will start to struggle with games u'll be able to pick 8-12 core CPU for 70quid.

Don't try to future-proof, it's not worth it ; ).
And even 15-25% difference isnt that big in real world performance, once the PII will start to struggle, the i5 will do as well or 2-3months after that. It's not like 50-100% difference where PII will pull off 30FPS and i5 will do 60FPS, by the time PII gets to 30fps, the i5 won't do much better either, and the difference you've saved could most likely get you new, faster CPU by that time.

But yeh, i5 is decently priced so it's not a bad option either but on the other hand I wouldn't spend more than you need to. It's best to upgrade CPU every 1-2yrs nowadays.

---------------
Either way, i5 or PII will be much better choice than i3 so whatever you choose will be fine.

 

[jnr]

Had a word with the man at CoUK and he give some good advice same as sum of you have give and said I best going i3 and buy the best card I can, my son who doing software engineering at Uni has said similar, my son said he can’t see game manufacture moving towards making more games to run on quads in the near future, something to that effect.
Other thing I did not mention was I wanted to run my games on my LG 50” plasma and if I go down that rout I have been told ill need a good card , so a i3 machine running ether 2 cards or one big card ill need a 700w PSU for 2 cards or more this should work out around the same budget as the Titan Onyx,
Cards will be any thing around the GTX460 or Ati cards, single card could be the GTX 470 or 480 or Ati 5870.

 

[PhoenixUK]

Spend the little extra and get i5 or PII quad.

50" plasma has 1920x1080 res so a card with 1gb mem would be usefull, however I'll still wait for new GPUs before buying any.

The 6770 looks promising and if it comes at right price around 150-170 it might be great choice.

And games use quads already, also as I've mentioned before, windows uses quads just fine, so even when a game doesn't use quad, windows will distribute the rest of the workload to other cores therefore leaving the other 2 just for the game and providing smoother experience overall.

The saving is not worth it, we're talking here about 30-40quid max ?

If you want to save, go for cheaper athlonII x3.

 

[Marine-RX179]

By the time 955 @ 3.8 - 4ghz will start to struggle with games u'll be able to pick 8-12 core CPU for 70quid.

As I mentioned before, the main reason I'm recommending overclocked i5 bundle/system over the 955BE is because jnr won't be overclocking, and the 955BE overclocked bundle/system that OcUK is doing is at only 3.60GHz on a cheap and old 760 chipset board (with no USB3.0 or SATA6Gbps port), which is simply not attractive. I have always wondered why can't OcUK do a decent 955BE 3.80~4.0GHz overclocked bundle/system on a decent 8xx chipset board with USB3.0 or SATA6Gbps ports...

And no...Athlon II X3 is only worth considering for people that are on tight budget...it is only on par with the G6950 winning some, losing some (on the overclock vs overclock, the X3 lose most of it):
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/06/24/intel-pentium-g6950-cpu-review/3
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/06/24/intel-pentium-g6950-cpu-review/4
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/06/24/intel-pentium-g6950-cpu-review/5
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/06/24/intel-pentium-g6950-cpu-review/8

So a overclocked Athlon II X3 is not really on par with a i3 530 overclocked to like 4.40GHz.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Other thing I did not mention was I wanted to run my games on my LG 50” plasma and if I go down that rout I have been told ill need a good card , so a i3 machine running ether 2 cards or one big card ill need a 700w PSU for 2 cards or more this should work out around the same budget as the Titan Onyx,
Cards will be any thing around the GTX460 or Ati cards, single card could be the GTX 470 or 480 or Ati 5870.

One thing you need to bare in mind is that the i3 530 4.40GHz system that OcUK is selling does not support Crossfire/SLI properly, so dual-card is out of question. The i3 530 4.40GHz would be able keep up with graphic card up to GTX480 level, any higher you would need more more CPU power/extra cores to no bottleneck the graphic card.

So you basically got the following options:
a) Get the i3 530 4.40GHz system and get a GTX480 or ATI 6000 equivalent card and a branded 600W PSU, and then upgrade the whole system or just the CPU to a cheap 2nd hand 1156 Quad core and the graphic card to a faster single card in may be 3 years~ time

b) Get the i7 4.0GHz overclocked bundle/system and get a a GTX470 or ATI 6000 equivalent card and a branded 750W/850W PSU, and then get a 2nd card to SLI/Crossfire when you need to, or upgrade to a different single card if prefered

c) Ask OcUK if they could do the i5 760 4.0GHz overclocked bundle/system on a board that can do 8x/8x SLI/Crossfire (which would work out cheaper than going i7). If they can, do the same for graphic card and PSU same as b)

 

[PhoenixUK]

If his son is doing software enginering, he shouldn't have a problem of putting PC up together.

Why not build one yourself?

I'm not saying that ocUK bundles are bad, but as any shop, they gotta make money and some of the setups are more oriented towards higher margins than optimum setup at the budget.


Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £151.99
(£129.35) £151.99
(£129.35)
Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W Power Supply £90.99
(£77.44) £90.99
(£77.44)
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £87.98
(£74.88) £87.98
(£74.88)
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £70.49
(£59.99) £70.49
(£59.99)
Silverstone SST-PS03B Precision Midi Tower Case - Black Silverstone SST-PS03B Precision Midi Tower Case - Black £42.99
(£36.59) £42.99
(£36.59)
Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3) Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366/AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £35.99
(£30.63) £35.99
(£30.63)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £31.71
(£26.99) £31.71
(£26.99)
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £12.98
(£11.05) £12.98
(£11.05)
Sub Total : £446.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £80.18
Total : £538.35

+GPU of choice.

 

[jnr]

I wont build one as I have a mean clumsy streak in me when it comes to building pc, and my son to far from home to pop over and do it.
And OcUK do make a machine with the i5 overclocked bundle in.
You have a point in that I can save money by doing it my self if i did go that way then the i5 overclock bundle would be ideal, it some thing ill sleep on might even wait and see what's ATI is bring out in the 6000 range.
I do have a friend that could build it but I don't like asking.
But I have learned a lot from you all and am greaful for all the help you have given.

 

[Marine-RX179]

PhoenixUK, jnr already expressed his most likely not going to build the system himself nor is he going to have someone to do it for him...and even if he does, he definitely won't be overclocking.

Sure OcUK do charge a premium for overclock (usually around £30), but we are talking about extra 42~50% CPU speed and covered by warranty. That is actually very good for people like jnr who don't don't have knowledge on overclocking, and simply don't want the hassle...hell, even for people people who are familiar with overclocking, their time could worth more than spending at least half a day playing with bios settings and running stability tests for the sake of saving £30.

 

[Marine-RX179]

And OcUK do make a machine with the i5 overclocked bundle in.
You have a point in that I can save money by doing it my self if i did go that way then the i5 overclock bundle would be ideal, it some thing ill sleep on might even wait and see what's ATI is bring out in the 6000 range.
I do have a friend that could build it but I don't like asking.
But I have learned a lot from you all and am greaful for all the help you have given.

I think you might have missed or not understood what I said about the i5 build. The motherboard that OcUK use for the overclock i5 bundle/system doesn't support SLI/Crossfire properly (as the 2nd PCI-E x16 will only run as x4), which is why I said you should ask OcUK if they can do the overclock bundle/system on a 1156 board that will do SLI/Crossfire at x8/x8 instead. However, if you are not fussed about SLI/Crossfire, then you can leave it as it is.

Updated:
For just under £710, systems you can go for:
a) £704.99: Phenom II X4 955BE overclocked from 3.20GHz to 3.60GHz (12.5% overclock) with MSI GTX470 with a motherboard that has no USB3.0 or SATA 6Gbps port (getting a PCI-E to SATA 6Gbps ports card would cost around £40)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-033-OP&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1713

b) £709.98: i5 760 overclocked from 2.80GHz to 4.00GHz (43% overclock) with OcUK Value GTX460 with a motherboard that as 2xUSB3.0 and 2xSATA 6Gbps ports
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1712

Neither system support proper Crossfire/SLI. Which one to go for depending on the priority of CPU power and GPU power. The i5 760 overclocked system can however be upgrade to better graphic card but at extra cost.

Also, it's worth waiting for the launch of the AMD HD6000 series graphic card to see how they perform, if you are not in a hurry to buy the new system.

 

[PhoenixUK]

Proper CF bla bla bla....

Do you even know the difference between PCI-E x16 and x4/x8 ?
Do you think it's 2 or 4x slower? You'll be lucky to see 1-3% performance drop when playing at 2560x1440. We're talking here about jump from 100fps to 98.5fps IF any at all.


I'm outta here.
Have fun and goodluck with the build .

 

[Marine-RX179]

Proper CF bla bla bla....

Do you even know the difference between PCI-E x16 and x4/x8 ?
Do you think it's 2 or 4x slower? You'll be lucky to see 1-3% performance drop when playing at 2560x1440. We're talking here about jump from 100fps to 98.5fps IF any at all.

You probably just read a few examples from reviews where x4 didn't impact on performance and thought it represent all, but the truth is some games do take huge performance hit on PCI-E 2.0 x4.

COD Modern Warfare 2 probably represent the worse case scenerio:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696-5.html

If unlucky enough to run into games that get huge performance hit by PCI-E 2.0 x4, and the games just so happen to scale poorly with SLI/Crossfire as well, then it could end up slower than the single card running at the PCI-E 2.0 at x16.

Sure not all games would be hugely affected by PCI-E 2.0 at x4, but the risk is there and you can't deny it.

And I don't even know why you are trying to snipe what I said about Crossfire/SLI, when it is generally agreed it is not a good idea to run Crossfire/SLI on X4...ask almost anyone here on the forum they would confirm that.

Besides 'trying' to show off being "more knowledgeable" than me for your ego's sake, have you really bothered to listen to what the OP is saying/asking instead of shoving what you already decided to be best course of action onto him?

Sure buying parts and self-building (or asking friend to help building) the PC would save money, but the OP has clearly expressed he has no attention to do so, and reading between his lines it is easy to pick up that he is not a overclocking person and he would most likely not be overclocking (which he himself later confirmed). So getting a pre-build overclocked system will be like killing two birds with one stone for him.


Sign...I don't know why so many people here on the forum are so obsessed with winning arguements, and not focusing their attention on what the person seeking for help is saying nor considering his circumstances...