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Recommended upgrade route

demonstag

demonstag

demonstag

Associate
Joined
18 Dec 2005
Posts
151
Location
Contin, Highlands
Hi Guys,

Could you suggest the best upgrade route from a Phenom II X2 550. Do I stay with AMD or cross over to the intel camp? Should I wait for the new processors from both camps due out in 2011????:confused::confused::confused:
 
Probably best to wait unless you know some special mystic seer that can peer into the future and show us all side to side benches and prices:) Will also depend on how much your willing to spend and exactly what you do with your PC.
 
My Current Mobo is AsusM4A79XTD EVO and is AM3. I am looking at abudget of approx £2500 due to damages award, which is due either before Xmas or just after. I have always used AMD but feel they are maybe starting to lag behind Intel in performance however Intel are still extreme priced for their extreme processors! I would be willing to listen to spec suggestions as the system will be mainly used for games and quite a bit of video encoding to and from DVD.

Cheers
 
Confused, the spec in your sig is different and if you have that board surely you would just buy the best AM3 CPU you can buy and save yourself a shed load of cash

Edit : ah, just seen your post. Still, pretty pointless in my opinion
 
THat was my initial thought, however a mate of mine has the i7 and it goes like stink compared to my setup. This was why I asked. If I stay with AMD I could always invest in a WC setup. How well can the current 1090T overclock?
 
For £2500 I'd go for a high end i7, buckets of RAM, crossfire 5870's and a pair of massive SSD's in raid 0 :D

If you've got loads of money to throw at it just sell what you have and start again rather than upgrading piecemeal.
 
a 3.8ghz quad from either camp is not to be sniffed at. I would wait and see what happens with the next gen stuff (sandy brdge/bulldozer) and sink your money into one of them.
 
I had thought in going for the following:

Intel I7 -980X
Asus Rampage III Extreme Intel X58
Patriot Viper 2 Sector 7 12gb 12800
OCUK watercooled Corsair 800D Case
OCUK watercooled Nvidia 480gx 1536Mb
OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 120GB
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB x 2
Pioneer BDR-205 12x BluRay RW
Corsair HX 1000W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Noctua NF-S12B ULN Ultra Low Noise 120mm Cooling Fan

Total: £2880

or as above with

AMD Phenom II x6 1090T
Asus Crosshair IV Extreme AMD 890FX
Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-16000C9 2000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Total for AMD Rig £2181
 
When you say your friend's i7 goes like stink compared to yours, what applications is he using it for that makes it seem so much faster? How does his graphics card compare to yours and does he have an SSD?

If you already have a 3.8GHz Phenom II in a 790X board then you already have the basis for a solid system. For gaming it is more power than you need and for video encoding it is pretty good.

If you want better performance in games - then a new GPU is the way to go. AMD's next generation top-end cards come out in two weeks and their dual-GPU monster should arrive near the start of 2011.

If you want better performance in video encoding then I would definiately wait for the Intel "sandy Bridge" to arrive on January 9th, these early benchmarks show that it will be formidable, especially considering the 980X will still be 3 times the price of the i7 quad SB versions when they arrive.
 
A Phenom II X4 at around 3.8GHZ will be fine with games for a while IMHO. I would probably wait until the end of next year or even until early 2012 for a platform upgrade especially since Intel Ivy Bridge and AMD Bulldozer will be released by then.

Out of interest what graphics card and PSU does the OP have?? The GTX470, HD5870 and HD6870 can be had for under £200 nowadays.
 
I currently have a Power Extreme 750W Psu & Gainward Gold Sample 8800GTS. However I am waiting to see what the ATI 6900 series performs like before I go for a more powerful card. I thank all posters who have replied to the riginal thread, the consensus appears to be wait until the new platform arrive before replacing entire kit - I think this will be the wise route, but I will replace the GPU once the new ATI cards are out.
 
Put your money in an ISA no point in upgrading most of your current rigg, although as mentioned worth checking out a SSD and / or graphics
 
Not over time, just in one go. Basically if they go they are more likely to take other components with them so at the moment if you have to upgrade get a new PSU, graphics card and SSD, then wait for new CPUs.
 
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