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Need advice to find a new processor

Ady2009

Ady2009

Ady2009

Associate
Joined
4 Feb 2009
Posts
115
Location
Derbyshire
Hi

I'm in the middle of upgrading my system and picking a new processor and motherboard. I was going to go for the Core2Quad processor and a intel motherboard but am now confused about this new processor range from intel (i3, i5, i7). What does it all mean in the new range and which would be comparable to a Core2Quad ?. Would it still be better value to stick to the old range ?

I was also thinking about getting a Intel motherboard as I have one currently and it had only ever crashed about twice in 3 years so am pleased with it unless anyone can recommend any better ones ?

Thanks
 
Hi

I use my pc for a bit of everything really. I do a lot of professional CAD work and like to run flight simulator x as well as editing family videos etc. My budget is about £150
 
What are the specs of your current system?

Is the £150 for CPU and motherboard only or does it also cover RAM?

If it is £150 for CPU and mobo, I would suggest going for an AMD Athon II X4 and a cheap AM3 board. This usually beats a similarly priced Intel i3 system in multithreaded tasks like the ones you will use it for.
 
Is that a budget for just the CPU or for the cpu+ram+mobo?

Quick summary of i3/i5/i7:

i3 = dual core with hyperthreading
i5 6XX = faster version of the i3
i5 750 = quad core without hyperthreading (faster than i3/dual core i5)
i7 8XX = socket 1156 quad core with hyperthreading
i7 920-970 = socket 1366 quad core with hyperthreading
i7 980 = hex core with hyperthreading

The top end Core 2 Quad (Q9650) is similar in performance to the i5 750 when it comes to a lot of things.
 
Hi

Sorry, I didn't make it clear. My budget breakdown is,
- £150 for the CPU
- £80 for the mobo
- £50 for RAM
 
My current specs are,
2 Gb Ram
3.06 Ghz P4 processor
Intel mobo (not sure which)
Quadro graphics card

As you can see, an upgrade is long overdue
 
I was hoping to get by with 2Gb ram for the mean time and then put in another 2Gb when i've got a bit more cash. I would rather try and get the best components I can at the start and keep adding to it. I've recently added 2Gb to my old system but I doubt the RAM could be used in a new PC as the system is too old.

I was just looking at the Core i5 750. How does it compare to the Core2Quad Q8400 ?
 
Deffinatly worth going for the i5 processor then and at least the motherboard will be future proof for a while longer with the newer socket.

Just looking at mobos. What is the difference between the P, G and H chipsets ?. I'm also guessing to go for the highest number (45, 43 etc) you can afford.
 
The G chipsets are for the older s775 processors and are low end motherboards with a weak intel graphics processor built in.

The H chipsets are used in the lower-end nahalem motherboards. They don't support symetrical crossfire, but they usually overclock pretty well and are good value. The H55 and H57 support i3/i5/i7 s1156 chips.

The P chipsets are the mainstream chipsets. They do support symmetrical crossfire (x8x8) and SLI in some cases, are great for overclocking and generally lovely boards. The P35 and P45 boards are for s775 chips and the P55 is for s1156 (nahalem) chips (i3/i5/i7).
 
Thanks. That has cleared it up. The X chipset on the extreme mobos is then for the power hungry folks out there. It really is worth doing some digging around before you part with any cash.

To keep costs down, I was hoping to temporaraly reuse an IDE hard drive and DVD writer as I've seen that a lot of mobos have an IDE connector. I can then upgrade a bit at a time. Can you forsee any problem with this ?. They would both then be on the same IDE lead (would the hard drive be the master and the DVD writer the slave ?, I've normally had these on seperate IDE channels).
 
Using the IDE DVD RW will be no problem at all - so long as the board has the connector you will be fine. Also, the DVD read/write speeds are much lower than the speed of the IDE connection - so the older interface will not slow you down.

For a HDD, the if you are using PATA 133 then you should again not be limited by the interface when using a physical HDD. However, if you are using an old IDE drive then the performance will be significantly less than modern SATA and IDE Hard Disks.

That said, it will still work fine as a stop-gap measure and will allow you to spend more on crucial components now.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I've decided to go for the i5-750 processor and am now going to do some scooting around for mobos. It is deffinatly important to me to have an IDE connector as it also come in handy for retrieving data from my old laptops with the adaptor when they start playing up.

Just to clarify. The HD will be the master and the DVD writer the slave ?
 
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