What is the current best bang for buck quad core setup?

Hooa · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:06

Friend of mine wants to upgrade from an e2200 which is coupled with a measly 2gb of ram, he also believes his current motherboard is on its way out.

He is does not have much money but ultimately I think he wants the best bang for buck quad core setup (cpu/mobo/ram). It will only be used for gaming andcoupled with mainstream cards i.e. not GTX580 in sli

I also get the strong impression he would rather not be overclocking if possible (think he has had bad experiences with his e2200) and would rather spend a little more to have a stronger core at stock coupled with a cheaper basic mobo.

Please spec away

Brian8bit · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:14

AMD Phenom II X4 840 (actually an Athlon II). £80
AMD Phenom II X4 955 £105

Only difference is the 955 has L3 cache and there's a 95w and 125w version.

SeraphX · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:38

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit £39.98

Reaper 392 · 15 Mar 2011 at 16:49

i would go with what seraph has said, however, replace the ram for whichever is cheapest out of these:
(one of them is almost always on special offer. currently its the platinum)

OCZ platinum 4GB (2x2GB) 1600Mhz dual channel kit: £29.99
OCZ special ops 1600Mhz 4GB (2x2GB) dual channel kit: £35.99

both of these are faster than the G.skill, but cost less

Ch3m1c4L · 15 Mar 2011 at 17:59

+ 1 for seraph's

and agree with reaper, the one set of the OCZ is always on offer so just pick whichever is best value at the time.

Hooa · 15 Mar 2011 at 18:34

What does the L3 cache do? Does it matter in games?

He currently has 8800gt in SLi. I am think that £25 saving could go towards a single better dx11 card?

Really need to find out a budget I guess

Reaper 392 · 15 Mar 2011 at 19:36

Hooa said:
What does the L3 cache do? Does it matter in games?

He currently has 8800gt in SLi. I am think that £25 saving could go towards a single better dx11 card?

Really need to find out a budget I guess

budget would really help. given a few minutes, a budget and a list of what you need, most of the regulars round here could spec you the best computer your gonna get

Ch3m1c4L · 16 Mar 2011 at 09:18

L3 cache helps a lot in games,8800gt SLI isnt that bad tbh, unless your at very high res.

powelly · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:12

Hooa said:
What does the L3 cache do? Does it matter in games?

He currently has 8800gt in SLi. I am think that £25 saving could go towards a single better dx11 card?

Really need to find out a budget I guess

is he going to use his 8800 sli or buy a new gpu? because these boards people are speccing with pehnom 2's cannot do sli

Luke_Bowman · 16 Mar 2011 at 16:38

The phenom II is a good start point but the mobo and ram could all depend on what offers are on when your actually purcahse them. Just keep checking

Ch3m1c4L · 16 Mar 2011 at 18:06

powelly2010 said:
is he going to use his 8800 sli or buy a new gpu? because these boards people are speccing with pehnom 2's cannot do sli

good point, it could increase the cost of upgrading considerably (at least % wise) :/

cjgardens · 16 Mar 2011 at 20:18

Bang for buck will always be amd but if you have the cash then its Intel all the way

hybrid572 · 16 Mar 2011 at 21:11

Ch3m1c4L said:
L3 cache helps a lot in games,8800gt SLI isnt that bad tbh, unless your at very high res.

Anandtech's benchmarks put the FPS difference between a similarly clocked Athlon II and Phenom II (i.e. the benefit of the L3 cache) at 10-15% on average, with Fallout 3 showing no difference and Far Cry 2 showing a massive 20% difference (link).

For the £25 difference between the X4 840 and the X4 955, raw frames per second per £ favours the 840, although the 955 is obviously a Black Edition so an overclocker would want to go for the latter. Of course, the real question is how powerful a processor you truly need- framerate is generally limited by the GPU anyway, so I'd be one to argue that the 840 would be enough, if you're not a GTX 580 kind of guy.

Hooa · 20 Mar 2011 at 01:47

Thanks for the help so far.

I now have got a budget. He has approx £330 to spend... am I right in thinking this is now Sandy Bridge territory?

Ps he is happy to use 1 8800gt till he has enough for a better gpu

Surveyor · 20 Mar 2011 at 02:33

A lot of Sandybridge motherboards are SLI certified so your friend would be able to use both graphics cards if you go down that route.

infernox · 20 Mar 2011 at 02:58

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Sub Total : £287.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £59.39
Total : £356.36

Free game and a K series chip, clock to your hearts content.

support for Dual GPU's also

Free shipping will bring it closer, but that should be a cracking set of goodies.

So many edits : What psu has he got, it hurts me inside to see kit like this on a qtec or worse psu

MikeHunt79 · 20 Mar 2011 at 03:09

2nd hand Q6600

drunkenmaster · 20 Mar 2011 at 04:47

Any AMD setup people have suggested but buy a X555be(or whatever the version out now is) and unlock it to a quad core for £60-70.

You really can't beat a £64 chip(how much I paid) that unlocks to a quad core with basically one bios button press, one more press auto overclocked it stably to 3.6Ghz and 4 seconds extra work and its find and dandy running alone quietly with a big cooler at 4Ghz.

4Ghz, quad core, £64, that is pretty much the best value chip ever released to date.

Hooa · 20 Mar 2011 at 10:00

infernox said:
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £179.99
(£149.99) £179.99
(£149.99)
MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £129.98
(£108.32) £129.98
(£108.32)
Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Sub Total : £287.47
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £59.39
Total : £356.36

Free game and a K series chip, clock to your hearts content. support for Dual GPU's also

Free shipping will bring it closer, but that should be a cracking set of goodies.

So many edits : What psu has he got, it hurts me inside to see kit like this on a qtec or worse psu

He has an old psu but it is a good one as I remember recommending it to him years ago, it's a 650w Seasonic S12.

The mobo looks really good on paper but I think I should probably be recommending him a 'b3 revision' one to be on the safe side?

infernox · 20 Mar 2011 at 10:53

Hooa said:
He has an old psu but it is a good one as I remember recommending it to him years ago, it's a 650w Seasonic S12.

The mobo looks really good on paper but I think I should probably be recommending him a 'b3 revision' one to be on the safe side?

i spent ages editting my post changing mobos to support dual gpu i didnt notice it wasnt b3