Replace or upgrade?

manveruppd

manveruppd

manveruppd

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OK, sick of waiting for my mobo to die and having it not boot properly every other day, so I decided to sort it out.

So, the question is, just get another LGA775 mobo and keep running my E2180 (which I had at a stable 3GHz before my mobo problems started), or go the whole shebang and jump to another platform? System is mostly used for office work, gaming and the occasional light video editing, so don't need a monster, but it would be nice to move to a platform that'll give me a better upgrade path in the future, as, currently, the only viable CPU upgrade I could get on my current system is to go quad, which won't necessarily help for the kind of games I play (no CPU-hogs like Supreme Commander, no graphical beasts like Crysis, I mostly play RPGs and console ports).

So, if I choose to upgrade, which socket should I go for? Is Intel still the most overclocker-friendly, bang-for-the-buck platform, or should I move back to AMD? How little could I get away with spending if I'm to get a CPU with at least the same or slightly better performance than a C2D@3GHz on a motherboard that'll give me a better range of CPU options to upgrade to in the future?

OTOH, if I choose to just get another mobo, which should I go for? Heard good things about the Asus P5Q, people seem to be getting good OC's out of it - is there a better one about?
 
It would depend on whether you are strapped for cash. If it was me I would see as an excuse to upgrade, sell the bits you have that still work on the MM & put that towards a new system.
 
They all still work, I'm using them right now - but about once a week the mobo throws a hissy fit and refuses to POST! :p

To answer your question, while I can afford a full upgrade, I don't really want to spend more than I need to handle the games I play, in principle. It'd be nice to have a bit more oomph now, and it makes sense to have a platform that'll let me upgrade cheaply if I need to later (whereas staying on LGA775 might be wasting £50 on a motherboard with no future CPU upgrade potential), but if I can get that on the cheap, I will, simply because I feel like I should.
 
An Intel Pentium Dual-Core G6950 is £70 and very overclockable.

This Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 Intel H55 is £61 it works well with the above.

Corsair XMS3 4GB is around £76

That is around £200 odd?

Or AMD may be an option, certainly AMD and i5 can be cost effective if a Quad is required.

I used an OC'd E6300 with a P45 board for games such as Supreme Commander and such. I am still using S775 as for my uses the cost of changing platforms for the increased performance in benchies was ammusing.
 
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If your happy with your rig - performance wise - why don't you just pick up a decent used ASUS P5Q and continue onwards?

My second rig is socket 775 and I'm well happy with it as a general work horse rig :)

For a cheap upgrade - the Pentium G6950 upgrade posted by sastusbulbas is very good value for money :)
 
I'm not keen on going i3, although it does seem cheap. It seems like the only upgrade path I'd have would be i5, and they don't seem to be releasing any new CPUs for that socket!

That's also the reason I'm not too keen on staying on 775, even though I'm happy with my current CPU's performance (for now!;)). They're not releasing any new CPUs for the socket, so when I do eventually need an upgrade I'll probably need to buy one second hand and at a premium. Same thing happened with my Socket A gear, which I replaced with my current kit 3 years ago - a quick glance on ebay revealed I could've sold them all for about the same price I had bought it originally!

How's AM3/AM3+ these days? Seems to be the only platform with a bit of an upgrade path...

(Then again, why the hell am I worrying about futureproofing when, if my current dying, wheezing motherboard is anything to go by, something's bound to conk out and force me to upgrade before I need to anyway!:p)
 
None of the current sockets have a upgrade path. 1156 will be dead by the end of the year and replaced with 1155 when Sandybridge launches. The two sockets will not be compatiable.

1366 is to be replaced by 2011 in Q3 next year.

AMD's new Bulldozer cores will require a new socket, AM3+. AM3 cpu's will work in AM3+ motherboards but AM3+ cpu's will only work in AM3+ boards. These are due sometime around Q2 next year.

Personally i would get a second hand 775 board for now and wait until the dust settles after all of the new releases.
 
What RAM do you have DDR2 or DDR3?
If 2, stick with socket 775 and wait it out. If 3, upgrade to i3 and new mobo for £150.
 
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