Upgrade Thoughts

WarChild007 · 24 Oct 2011 at 23:49

I'm looking to upgrade my system to a reasonable standard, not got much to spend but do have some specific brands I would like to stick to, I want it mainly for gaming both online and off.

Current Spec

Win XP Pro
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 2.6ghz (http://products.amd.com/en-gb/Deskt...2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&f12=)
2.5GB DDR PC3200 Crucial ram
XFX 250 GTS Core Edition 1024MB DDR3 PCI-E 2.0
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_939/A8NSLI_Premium/#specifications)
Thermaltake 750w Toughpower
HDS722516VLAT80 160GB 7200rpm 8MB cache

I would like to stick to AMD, Asus, Crucial or Corsair and was wondering about the below spec for greatest gains at reasonable cost.

Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X (Socket AM3+)
AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+)
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B)

Is it worth me changing to a solid state HDD and Windows 7?

I was looking at the AMD Quad core's but the L2 cache is 512mb, my current is 1024. In the past I have always improved every specification stated by the manufacturer so wasnt really wanting to reduce this, although the overall ghz etc would be better.

Any thoughts on the above?

Thanks

J-FRO · 24 Oct 2011 at 23:58

My thoughts on the above are that you're far too fussy and should instead do this by how much you've got to spend and not by the brands you like.

EDIT: Oh, and welcome aboard.

numatic.nathan · 24 Oct 2011 at 23:59

How much have you got to spend?

fowler002 · 25 Oct 2011 at 00:03

hope you're happy in the slow lane rather then the fast lane

WarChild007 · 25 Oct 2011 at 00:55

Thanks for your replies

J-FRO said:
My thoughts on the above are that you're far too fussy and should instead do this by how much you've got to spend and not by the brands you like.

EDIT: Oh, and welcome aboard.

I've tried and tested the above brands and like the performance and reliablity of them, I dont want to cut corners and say I have £200 to spend when if I spent £250 I could get better quality (quality doesnt always mean expensive) components. I've bought budget parts in the past and they dont last. oh, and thanks, been shopping with OCuk for years but just signed up to the forum.

numatic.nathan said:
How much have you got to spend?

As much as I want but I dont see much point in spending loads when tech changes so quickly and performance improvements fall out of line with costs, usually £100-£150 for a processor, £70ish mobo, £50ish for ram.

fowler002 said:
hope you're happy in the slow lane rather then the fast lane

but seriously the intel sandy bridge wipes the floor with the amd bulldozer, you'll also want to upgrade the graphics card and get win 7 if you want to run dx11 games.

cpu http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

mb http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-364-GI

ram http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-311-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

cooler http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-GD&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

graphics card http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-040-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1866

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-HS

or if you're a nvidia fanboy

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-114-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1341

I know you said asus but the gigabyte is cheap and chearful, no sli support(says xfire support but the 2nd pci-e x16 slot is actually x4 so its going to hold back the 2nd card) so if you want future sli/xfire http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-368-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1990

Thanks for your reply (I've followed your links and will read in more detail later) but I do like AMD, I'm sure the Sandy Bridge does wipe the floor with the Bulldozer, but then I'd hope so for something thats twice the price.

I've tried Gigabyte and HIS Ice Q before and wasnt happy with them, the HIS stopped working within a few months and the replacement kept crashing the PC. I used to have Radeon's but found Nvidia more stable and just generally nicer to use. As I said I'm fussy...

Why do you choose Intel over AMD?

I suppose my main query is Dual, Triple, Quad or Hex cores? For the same sort of price range how would something like "AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz" compare to "AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 975 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.60GHz"? In what circumstances would you notice the difference between the two?