Thinking of going AM3 or i5

[Nocky24]

The i5 750 looks like a great cpu and the motherboard i was thinking of getting (asus pro p55) are both on offer at the moment, problem is the am3 platform seems sturdier in the long run for future high end upgrades, whereas intel's high end upgrades will only be on the x58 mobos won't they? I really just need something for gaming and give me a good upgrade path for upgrades (particularly cpu upgrades)

Heres a couple of specs (only need cpu/mobo/HDD):

AMD Phenom II 965
Gigabyte UD4P
WD Caviar Black 500GB

i5 750
Asus P7P55D Pro
WD Caviar Black 500GB

 

[Nocky24]

That helps lol, but yeh both are good platforms

 

[Nocky24]

AM3 for CPU upgrades, OP is right in his first post about the intel upgrade path, with AM3 you get the chance to drop a 6 core cpu in later on...

Cheers yeh i heard about the 6 core and that was what i was thinking.

 

[Nocky24]

I think there are probably a lot of people in the same boat, 2 months ago the choice was easy in this price bracket, AMD. Now the i5 has come along its not so clear cut, both I think will serve you well if its gaming and the odd media encoding etc. As far as upgrades, I reckon by the time the 6 cores come along a lot more apps will be making better use of multi threading, but by then some otherplatform may well be taking your fancy. I had an AMD system in the basket for about a month just waiting for the price to fall a little, but then tried my luck at the MSI 55% MB discount offer on the i5 launch day and got one. Now I'm going i5, but part of me wants to ebay the MSI and go AMD.

Thats exactly it to be honest mate. I've currently got a q9550/4870 1GB system at the moment, but the old family pc is due for an upgrade so i've taken the opportunity to upgrade my own with newer hardware and give them my old parts for some money to put towards the new spec. Question is what though? I'm mainly a gamer and AM3 seems good but for whats out on the platform at the moment im not sure im going to be seeing much of a benefit over my 775 q9550 setup am i?

 

[Nocky24]

i5 beats the AM3 option for gaming but I would go for the i7 920 while its still around. LGA1136 shows improvement over AM3 especially in multi graphics set ups. How many games use four cores never mind six? You can only future proof so much but by the time hexacore is desirable AM4 will be out.

Yeh thats a very good point. Now i really don't know what to do lol. What would be a good cpu/mobo upgrade over my current q9550 for gaming?

 

[Nocky24]

Phenom 2 955 Just built one and love it.

Would i see much of an improvement over a q9550 though? I've got the opportunity to change my current spec as i'll be handing down some of my pc components to upgrade our old family one. I'd like to see an improvement over what ive got though.

 

[Nocky24]

By the sounds of it I don't think AM3 or an i5 750 will really show you a big difference. Most likely be a benchmark difference, but not very noticeable when actually playing.

I presume you are ignoring RAM as both boards are DDR3 so would be needed for both or already have one of the DDR3 775 boards.

In terms of future upgrades, there will still be a 1156 i7 series providing quad core upgrades from the i5 series.

AM3 will also have faster CPU's released to compete with faster i5/i7 however they will also be launching the 800 series chipset, then again there is already talk of the P57 chipset for 1156. At that point are you going to want to change your MB anyway.

Personally with your rig I would just get a new 58x0 series card and keep the Q9550, unless you simply must do an upgrade because you want new parts.

Yeh again this was what i was thinking, the market seems to be changing a lot and hasn't settled down yet so i don't really i know what to do for the best especially with die shrinks and new chipsets coming up. Either way the old pc needs an upgrade so i might just upgrade it with an am3 dual core setup maybe, either that or go for a full blown oc'ed i7 upgrade.

 

[Nocky24]

There is also another option: you could go for a cheap AM2+ upgrade to keep the existing DDR2 RAM on the old machne (I'm assuming it's DDR2) then put in either a 955BE quad (a steal at £135ish if you know where to look) or if the southbridge is SB710 or SB750 then you could take a chance on unlocking the extra two cores on an X2 550BE... and either way there is a future upgrade path for future AM3 CPU's including possible six cores next year.

Well its actually a ddr3 775 mobo with 2 sticks of 2GB Corsair xms3 1600mhz (a waste i know but hey it was prebuilt when i got it). So yeh going am3 isn't a problem or any more expensive to me as i'll just use my current memory for now.