Planning new build - is quad core and DDR3 now the way to go?

Restorer

Restorer

Restorer

Associate
Joined
11 Jun 2005
Posts
88
I'd appreciate your advice on a new PC I am planning which I want to be as future proof as possible. I have up to £500 for case, board, RAM, CPU and W7.

Just wanted to know if something like Phenomx4 with DDR3 is the way to go. Is it worth hanging fire for a few months for more choice in motherboards and/or more cores? Is there anything on the horizon I need to know about?
 
Well thanks a lot for all the advice. I am leaning towards the AM3 only really because I have always had AMD. But I may well be swayed towards i7. Is there much to choose between them in terms of ease of fitting or cooling requirements??
 
hp7909 said:
Notice you have an AGP GFX in your sig, guess you'll need a new PCI-E one squeezed into that budget?
Click to expand...

Hehe. Yeah sorry - ugraded that last year but forgot to change sig :D. Not ready for a new one just yet - more into HDTV than games these days :).

HangTime said:
Unless you plan on updating your system regularly I wouldn't be concerned about the discontinuation of i7. I mean realistically if you buy something high end now (i7) then it shouldn't need replacing for a couple of years at least, by which time any mobo willlikely be outdated anyway.

I've been building systems for over 10 years and I don't think I've ever had a situation where I wished I'd 'future proofed' in terms of socket selection (Slot 1, S370, S478, S939, S775). Ultimately you hit a point where you need to change socket to keep up and that's why I always buy mobos and cpus at the same time.
Click to expand...

Well I managed pretty well with the current board - which is why I'm asking really. Was able to take advantage of my (then) not-so-old AGP GPU for a while and upgrade last year to PCI-E and was just able to snaffle up a x2 4200 before they got expensive and in short supply.

The thing I did get caught out on was the sudden growth of DDR2 and rise in price of DDR which again is why I'm asking about DDR3.

Am I right that DDR3 seems to be a lot slower taking over than DDR2 was? There don't seem to be many boards supoorting it and likes of Dell etc are still not building systems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom