upgrade uncertainty, seeking advice!

Sidneylopsides

Sidneylopsides

Sidneylopsides

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Joined
2 Sep 2003
Posts
211
Location
Leeds
I've currently got a Phenom 955, 8GB 1333MHz G.Skill ram, Asus M5A78LM USB3, Asus 6850 and Crucial 256GB SSD. I'm looking at new CPU/motherboard upgrade.

I do some gaming, Skyrim, Max Payne 3, TF2, nothing seems to be much trouble for the machine at the moment.
I'm also getting into making short films, so started editing a lot on Sony Vegas, and learning 3D rendering too, I'd read the AMD FX 8 core processors were good for rendering, but also that it's not actually mmuch bbetter than a Phenom.

Would there be any point upgrading to the Asus Sabertooth 990 and FX 8120, or would I be better off looking at an i5? I could build an i5 2500 and mobo for 250ish assuming my ram would work, but as I've been away from Intel so long I'm just getting confused trying to work out the motherboards.

So, gaming and video editing, motherboard and processor, for under £300, AMD or Intel?
 
Prepare for a flame war. :)

Seriously the 8150/8120 is good for video editing, though not much better than the i7/i5. The i7 is better than the i5 due to hyper threading.

Though if you were to overclock the i5 you'd see very little difference between that and the 8150/8120 in the video editing side.

Gaming, Intel all the way. It has a big advantage over the FX series here.

Intel motherboards.

H61 (sandybridge) - No overclocking, no sataIII, no USB3
P67 (sandybridge) - Just generally outdated
z68 (sandybirdge) - Good features for Sandybirdge CPU's
Z77 (ivybridge) - All top of the range features and supports Ivybridge CPU's and PCI-e gen3.

I'd do Z77, even if you do end up with a sandybridge CPU. Though Ivy is a bit better than sandy.

You should get a CPU cooler too..

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G45 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £104.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.12
Total : £303.10 (includes shipping : FREE).



EDIT: motherboard specced supports Xfire and SLI, if you don't need that option something like this will be grand.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £24.12
Total : £273.10 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
Last edited:
Awesome rreply mate! Thanks!
Looks like I'll move to Intel, seeing as the gaming difference would be more than the editing.
First bundle looks good, I was thinking Xfire as a second 6850 will be cheap.
 
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