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Should I upgrade to Sandy Bridge?

Chaotic.Wolf

Chaotic.Wolf

Chaotic.Wolf

Associate
Joined
1 Jan 2011
Posts
9
Hi, I'm seriously considering switching to Sandy Bridge,I never had a Intel System except for a Pentium 3 many many years ago.

System:

CPU:AMD Phenom II X4 [email protected](will overclocking it to 3.5GHZ make a difference in Starcraft 2?)

RAM:8GB DDR2@800MHZ (I heard ddr3 is much much better for gaming,correct?)

Videocard: ATI XFX 5870

O/S:Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit


However this AMD CPU is slow in many games I play, Starcraft II,Metro 2033 and GTAIV to name a few.

Now if I wait which Is getting harder and harder I can get the performance CPU from Intel around July as opposed to mainstream model this January.

IS it worth upgrading from my CPU and Ram? which of course means I need a new MOBO.


Or I can somehow wait until April and see what AMD Bulldozer does,however waiting until April is really hard and waiting until July is pretty much a no go for me.

If anyone can shed some light on my dilemma and see if I should upgrade or overclocking my current CPU will be any good for Starcraft II and other CPU intensive games.

I would very much appreciate it, thank you.
 
I think its all about cost. If you don't mind spending £300+ on a new mobo, cpu and ram then it could be worthwhile, but I don't think Sandy Bridge is going to be streets ahead ofthe current i3/i5 generation. It all depends on how much more it is, and how much the old stuff ends up being priced at.

Keep a keen eye on the market and you'll know when the right time is.
 
I would wait, and overclocking it to 3.5ghz will definetly make a difference. I would try for 3.6ghz though. It will last you for a good few years.

DDR3 RAM is cheap now but as long as your RAM is running in dual channel, you won't really see any significant performance gains. If you have 4 sticks of RAM, you could try removing 2? That will allow a better overclock on the CPU as it will relax the memory controller more, and for gaming you don't need more then 4gb.
 
i would see what Sandy bridge and bulldozer have to offer and see if you think its worth the ££££ to do so.
 
Personally I will be upgrading when sandy bridge gets released whether to that exactly or i5 will depend on benches.
My CPU is now years old and like yourself I do notice it struggle with games like starvraft and arma and really my mobo is slowly packing in (has really dodgy sata connections) so would be nice to just upgrade the lot to the current tech.

I have resisted for years so saved myself a lot of money to upgrade now when it feels right for me not so I can have an epenis....and that's the crux of the argument really. If you genuinely believe you will be better off with a new CPU etc then get one, but if your only getting it to grow your epenis by an inch forget it.
 
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Sorry for the late response guys, due to Time difference between the UK and Australia, I was extremely busy.

Cost is always taken into consideration, however I personally don't feel happy with my PC, it just feels off.

So if I upgrade to Sandy Bridge, I'm going all out no shortcuts, only thing I'm keeping the same is the Videocard, maybe my Optical Drive.(Maybe)

The Hard-Drives are definitely not being transferred, I'll use my current PC as a backup, not to mention my internal HDD's are slow.

So my budget will be $2000-2500AUD which equates to 1,640.68 GBP.(If I use up my whole budget)


If I keep waiting something new will come along and then I'll be waiting again, not to mention I've always went for mid-range.

I want to go for something powerful this time, I mean sure the i7 2600K is not as powerful as i7 980x however it is getting there.

I mean it beats most of the cpu's out there and in some tasks only slightly falls behind the 980x at a price point of $400AUD compared to $1200AUD for the i7980x.

I'm just waiting a few weeks for the stock to settle down and see which Motherboard is best when it comes to overclocking as well as SLI/Crossfire.


However if the Bulldozer chip truly will deliver and rise AMD to power yet again, I might wait even if It will be painful.

Price might be important, however I want performance even if it costs extra $100-200.

There has been something wrong with my PC for a while, not sure what, I've done testing and everything under performs except the card.
 
^^^
Yeah I know it would help but years is pushing it, oh well I decided to upgrade in March it is when all the new games are coming out anyways.

Hopefully by then we will get a release date for Bulldozer, which would hopefully be early April.
 
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