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Upgrading my CPU - £320 Budget - Help? :)

Sharpy42

Sharpy42

Sharpy42

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2010
Posts
40
Hi there guys, I've finally managed to put together some cash and am looking to upgrade from my 2ghz AMD2 to an AMD3 3ghz+ and put together the following:

Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) £143.98

Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £107.99

Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3)
£55.99

£307.97 Total

How does this look to you guys? I can probably manage +£40 more if need be if something better can be found.

Thanks for taking a look and giving me peace of mind before I order!
 
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £159.99
(£136.16) £159.99
(£136.16)
MSI P55-CD53 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard MSI P55-CD53 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £96.98
(£82.54) £96.98
(£82.54)
Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) £82.76
(£70.43) £82.76
(£70.43)

Total : £339.30


This system is faster

Will overclock to 4ghz

And destroy that Phenom II
 
You need to add some DDR3 RAM to the build.

I would look at these components instead:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £122

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Asus M4A79XTD Evo ~£86

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

Does symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X,has an 8+2 phase VRM with cooling and all solid capacitor construction.

Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler ~ £33

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-TI

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £85

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

The total comes to around £326 excluding postage.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
You need to add some DDR3 RAM to the build.

I look at these components instead:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £122

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM

Asus M4A79XTD Evo ~£86

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

Does symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X,has an 8+2 phase VRM with cooling and all solid capacitor construction.

Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler ~ £33

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-TI

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £85

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

The total comes to around £326 excluding postage.
Click to expand...



Why would you advice a slower PC than the one I suggested for the same cost?:confused:
 
easyrider said:
Why would you advice a slower PC than the one I suggested for the same cost?:confused:
Click to expand...

Its only slower in some apps, in others the Phenom II is better, in others they are about the same.
Factor in the overclock he's planning (or should be planning) and they run about the same in most things with the Phenom beating it in a good few cases - and all for a cheaper price.
Besides, he said he would quite like an AM3 system :P
 
Im just after the fastest for games. If that Intel is better for games and more stable, id go for that. I just want gaming FPS and crossfire support on the MB.
Ive just been an athlon guy for about 8 years now! Scary to move! :O

Oh, do you need cooling for the Intel? or is that built in like my last Intel had? (Intel 2!)

Oh oh, I moved back to windows XP from 7 because of game performance, which chipset is better for the respective OS?

Sorry for all the questions, but it gives you all a chance to flex that computer knowledge muscle!
 
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All the P55 motherboards under £120 on OcUK do asymmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 16X/4X as opposed to PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X.

You should read this article about the cheaper P55 motherboards:

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/p55-motherboards-crossfire-sli-performance-problem/

All the AMD 790X motherboards such as the Asus M4A79XTD Evo do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X like the more expensive Intel P55 motherboards.

If you move onto the 790FX motherboards these do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 16/16X although the 790FX motherboards are priced a bit too high IMHO but are a similar cost to the higher end P55 motherboards which cannot do Crossfire at this speed.

The cheapest P55 motherboard available on OcUK which can do symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X/8X is the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-208-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

Both the Intel and AMD processors come with a cooler. Only get an aftermarket cooler if you intend to overclock or want a cooler with quieter fan.
 
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Thanks I gave that a read but am still a little confused over which is the faster and more stable system on xp/win 7.

I will keep researching.
 
Heh yes, I just wondered if the athlon was faster for gaming under windows xp and perhaps the intel was faster for editing software under windows 7 ;)
 
Are the two pci-e x16 slots listed for this P55 Asus just a blatent lie then?

I'm pretty certain that for any given task, which ever processor is quicker will be the quicker in either operating system
 
JonJ678 said:
Are the two pci-e x16 slots listed for this P55 Asus just a blatent lie then?

I'm pretty certain that for any given task, which ever processor is quicker will be the quicker in either operating system
Click to expand...

Yep, that board does 16x/4x :p I remember checking it out in disbelief after I spent 110 on my Gigabyte which does 16x/4x and thinking 'why didn't I go for that one?' :D You have to spend a lot to get 16x/16x on 1156.

To be completely honest though, I'd MUCH rather just go for 1 more powerful card rather than 2 less powerful ones. Crossfire is far from perfect and you're relying on games supporting crossfire and scaling well more than anything. It also introduces annoyances like stuttering in games and more power usage, heat and noise. Crossfire is more of an e-peen extender than anything IMO. Considering how much faster the i5 is over the AMD P2, I think the tradeoff is worth it.

EDIT: Bought my i5 system for 335, that's a P55A-UD3, an i5 750 and 4gb of 1600mhz XMS3. My equivalent AMD system, also with a gigabyte board. (only real difference was proper crossfire on the 790 board) would have cost me 333. I guess you should go for the Phenom II system if you're dead set on Crossfire and you want to keep it cheap, or for more performance from the CPU for about the same price, but losing out on symmetrical Crossfire, go with i5 :)
 
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I agree with ghop. Rather than going AMD P2 for the sake of Crossfire which you might or might not use in the future, it's much better to go i5 750 and get the extra performance now.

Same as ghop, I'm no big fan of Crossfire as they are only as good as the supports they gets for the games. It's always better and less hassle to use single card and just upgrade them when your existing one not up to the job.

The AMD PII 965 BE is a very good CPU, very close to i5 750 at stock...but still a tag slower. The gap becomes even more apparent when it comes to overclocking, when we compare AMD PII 965 BE 3.4Ghz->3.99GHz vs i5 750 2.66Ghz->4.15Ghz.

Tests using 4GB Corsair 1,600Mhz DDR3 RAM and HD5870...

Crysis (DX10, 64-Bit, High) 1680x1050
i5 [email protected] (stock)=20-50fps
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=23-46fps
i5 [email protected]=33-57fps
965 BE (C3)@3.99Ghz=29-52fps

X3: Terran Conflict 1680x1050 4xAA
i5 [email protected] (stock)=43-93fps
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=41-87fps
i5 [email protected]=60-126fps
965 BE (C3)@3.99Ghz=49-103fps

Muti-tasking score:
i5 [email protected] (stock)=1,140
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=1,046
i5 [email protected]=1,627
965 BE (C3)@3.99Ghz=1,263

Handbrake H.264 Video Encoding score:
i5 [email protected] (stock)=1,937
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=1,720
i5 [email protected]=2,852
965 BE (C3)@3.99Ghz=2,007

Cinebench R10:
i5 [email protected] (stock)=14,114
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=14,370
i5 [email protected]=20,675
965 BE (C3)@3.99Gh=16,496

GIMP Image editting:
i5 [email protected] (stock)=1,290
965 BE (C3)@3.4Ghz (stock)=1,112
i5 [email protected]=1,689
965 BE (C3)@3.99Ghz=1,311



(Info source: Custom PC Issue 078 March 2010, p41)
 
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