Upgrade from AMD system or not?

Borealis

Borealis

Borealis

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17 May 2013
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My dad wants to take advantage of the free Win 10 upgrade before the offer expires. He's currently got an AMD system I built for him in 2013 (prior to this he was running a Socket 939 system I built him in 2007):

CPU: FX-6300
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
RAM: 16GB 1600MHz
Graphics: HD 7950 (my old card)
SSD: 240GB
HDD:1TB
PSU: EVGA G2 650W

If we do the Win 10 upgrade I believe that locks the Windows serial to the motherboard? Meaning that Win 10 will be locked to an obsolete AMD platform!

I've looked at upgrading to an FX-8 CPU and although it'll take an 8350, I don't see much point in upgrading old hardware for more old hardware. The 8350 is probably a bit power-hungry for the board too. He doesn't game (mainly uses Photoshop and MS Office) so the 7950 is very much wasted in that system – I’m considering dropping in a spare 750Ti I have.

Barring a CPU, I've got enough bits lying around to build an Intel Z87-based system. If I were to get hold of a 4970K (new or used), would this CPU be good enough to make a system to last him for another 3-4 years? I'll probably mildly OC it as well.

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks for the inpu. I was originally thinking of an i5, maybe a 4690K. The price on those new, is reasonable at the moment although I'm open to getting one used. I agree the i7 is overkill for what he needs, but let me explain my logic.

The thing is he's currently got a "6-core AMD". He'll probably see the i5 as a downgrade as it hasn't got as many physical/logical cores! Even if it wipes the floor in benchmarks. The i5 doesn't boost as high as the FX-6300 either without OCing. We both know that that means nothing, the i5 is newer and better.

For someone who looks at it from a stats point of view in terms of raw clock speed and core numbers though - the FX-6300 can look better on paper.

I haven't mentioned anything to him about upgrading because it's going to be a surprise anniversary present for him and my mum. She uses it for family history using Family Historian, which is just as lightweight as Office.

Thinking about it, I might just do the upgrade on his system and build this unit in secret, after all Windows is only £90-110 depending on the version. I can easily migrate the rest of his software onto a new system.

I think I might even do a build log as he doesn't come near the forums.
 
Mate, the upgrade would be completely unnecessary and mostly a waste of money for his usage. There's way better things you can get them than that for the money.
 
The only thing I'd need to buy is a CPU, the rest I have in various boxes cluttering up my shelves.

I suppose my main thought is that the motherboard is a little flaky and sooner or later it's going to grenade on me! I'm fairly sure one of the PCI-E x1 slots is dodgy and I've already had to re-tighten the VRM heatsink because it was coming loose. This way,they get a new system and I de-clutter...

I'm scratching my head here, because they don't actually need anything so coming up with gift ideas is awkward...
 
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