What to do?

personally i cant see what you would gain, from what you have described you usage, from spending £45 more on a SB setup, that, once intel decide they are bored with, will be completly unupgradable as they will launch a new socket completly, where as with amd, you can upgrade in stages.
 
If you do go down the new build route don't forget that Q6600 (if a G0 stepping) is worth £75-85 resale value. That could help with the cost of a new build.

Alternatively, pick up a used P5Q series motherboard off the bay for around £45 and clock the nuts off the Q6600.
 
I can completely see where you're coming from tbh. I'm in no rush to make a decision though (unless my HDD goes pop between now and April).

Bulldozer might come out and sweep Intel away, and as its due this quarter I should definitely wait really and see what the dealio is. Even if it means I could get a lesser CPU for less but with more than enough punch for what I need it for. And as you say, as AMD is upgradeable in stages I might find I can go with a relatively cheap AMD this year and upgrade a bit heavier next year.

Do you reckon bulldozer will be quad-channel? There's rumours about it.

EDIT: well to be honest, with the Q6600 I could leave that in the rig I've got, whack the old PSU back in it and buy a dirt cheap card (i.e. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-193-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=168) and sell the whole rig on on for £200 or so.
 
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J-FRO said:
I can completely see where you're coming from tbh. I'm in no rush to make a decision though (unless my HDD goes pop between now and April).

Bulldozer might come out and sweep Intel away, and as its due this quarter I should definitely wait really and see what the dealio is. Even if it means I could get a lesser CPU for less but with more than enough punch for what I need it for. And as you say, as AMD is upgradeable in stages I might find I can go with a relatively cheap AMD this year and upgrade a bit heavier next year.

Do you reckon bulldozer will be quad-channel? There's rumours about it.
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i really havent been keeping up with bulldozer as, and im not against this site i love it, but whenever bulldozer is mentioned, its quickly followed by, but intel are doing this or that, so i will just wait until its out and go from there. i was lucky, through work i got donated a cheap gigabyte AM3 mobo, X2 250 and 4GB DDR3 and reasonable psu. so i then bought a case and dvd drive and used that til i could afford a better mobo and gfx card. now i have those in, i have bought some new ram (2x4GB sticks) and will save for a new X6 1100T. by the time all of that is done, i can sell my X2 250, old mobo and ram, buy a new AM3+ mobo and stick my stuff on that and sell my ASRock mobo. with the money i get for the ASRock mobo and saving, buy a better gfx card, sell my gfx and with that money and saving, buy a bulldozer, sell my X6 and buy..... whereas with your skt 775 (or if you went SB) could you do the same? no it would be a case of sell everything buy everything, i can continually keep upgrading for very little costs.
 
If you are thinking of Bulldozer then you will need a complete new build anyway as it will only be on the new socket AM3+. Current cpu's should work in a AM3+ board but Bulldozer will not work in current boards.
 
pastymuncher said:
If you are thinking of Bulldozer then you will need a complete new build anyway as it will only be on the new socket AM3+. Current cpu's should work in a AM3+ board but Bulldozer will not work in current boards.
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but, the AM3+ will take a cheap AM3 chip, will the sandybridge mobo do the same?
im not against SB, i just think, like my last post tried to illustrate, AMD seem to have got their ideas right with the future upgrade road, but not ditching their sockets every 5mins.
 
A Q6600 when overclocked at 3Ghz+ is pretty much level with Phenom II CPUs of the same speed, which play pretty much every game perfectly fine.

Also there is as much point going for an AM3 DDR3 setup as there is going for a 775 DDR3 setup, for gaming both are limited to CPUs which run pretty close and the hex core AMD CPUs aren't any better for 95% of games either.

Going for a 'cheap' upgrade of decent 775 mobo, nice cooler (Eg Akasa Venom), and some DDR3 ram is a perfectly reasonable choice in my opinion.

Obviously if there is a sizable amount of money burning a hole in the OPs pocket, then Sandybridge is obviously the way to go, but the cheap upgrade shouldn't be overlooked just because it's 'old'.
 
I said in my previous post that AM3+ boards will take current cpu's. I just do not see the point of building a AMD rig now if it's going to be replaced with Bulldozer in a month or so. Who is to say that AMD will not use a totally new socket after Bulldozer that no current cpu's will work in. Who knows what Intels next round of cpu's will need. Socket 775 was around for years. Who can say what either company have up their sleeves in a year or so?
 
pastymuncher said:
I said in my previous post that AM3+ boards will take current cpu's. I just do not see the point of building a AMD rig now if it's going to be replaced with Bulldozer in a month or so. Who is to say that AMD will not use a totally new socket after Bulldozer that no current cpu's will work in. Who knows what Intels next round of cpu's will need. Socket 775 was around for years. Who can say what either company have up their sleeves in a year or so?
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no one, but, AMDs track record seems to be better than intels for not changing sockets.
there probably isnt much point upgrading to AM3 at the moment, but then are intel not releasing a new batch later in the year the 2011 skt? so why buy SB?
if you read my original posts, i stated i thought he would be better off getting a better mobo and oc'in what he had with DDR3 ram also and then making a decision from there if that didnt suffice.
i know, and like i said i was lucky with the parts i got given, that amd (atleast until bulldozer stops) is my perfect setup, as i can keep the upgrades rolling to fund other upgrades, where as my i7 was pretty much sell everything and start again.
 
2011 is not a replacement for 1155. It's Intels new high end socket replacing 1366. It is also likely to be considerably more expensive than SB. With any luck 1155 and 2011 will stick around for a while but again, who knows?

I also think that buying a second hand P45 board would be his bet move for the time being. If that's a G0 Q6600 then he should easily pass 3.2-3.4Ghz. Was'nt DDR3 on 775 higher voltage than what it is for 1155/1156?
 
pastymuncher said:
. Was'nt DDR3 on 775 higher voltage than what it is for 1155/1156?
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not sure on that one.
having never used SB i dont know if the hype is justified, but in real world terms, not benchmark scores, is there a huge difference in performance over a) his 775 OC'd or b) a phenom, IF his 775 not OC'd is coping without issue?
 
If you are upgrading in April, I would wait for April before making a decision :). Then AMD will have Bulldozer out, Sandybridge will be sorted, and both will do battle and hopefully we'll see a good old-fashion price war.

£500 is a little tight to get a good full system upgrade, especially if you have to factor in the cost of Win 7 if you have an OEM version with your Dell (most likely).

Your graphics card will bottleneck, but should still be good enough until you can scrounge £200 at Chistmas / summer and get a good high-mid range card (GTX 560 / HD 6950). The PSU however should be sufficient.
 
olivier renault said:
If you are upgrading in April, I would wait for April before making a decision :). Then AMD will have Bulldozer out, Sandybridge will be sorted, and both will do battle and hopefully we'll see a good old-fashion price war.

£500 is a little tight to get a good full system upgrade, especially if you have to factor in the cost of Win 7 if you have an OEM version with your Dell (most likely).

Your graphics card will bottleneck, but should still be good enough until you can scrounge £200 at Chistmas / summer and get a good high-mid range card (GTX 560 / HD 6950). The PSU however should be sufficient.
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Yeah I'll definitely wait it out til April to say the least. Just figure it's best to get in and start researching for my upgrade possibilities sooner rather than later.

I bought my window's 7 32-bit ultimate last June. My dell came with 32-vista home premium back in 2008 so I upgraded myself. Will have to burn it to disc before installing it on a new rig though, was one of download direct from the web jobs.

As for the graphics card, I think it'll be around christmas when I get a new one. I only bought the 5770 a couple of weeks back because my old 3870x2 died on me and the 5770 was in my price range at the time. So I wont scrap that just yet. And I got the modular OCZ at the same time too so that should be more than capable for a while as well.
 
J-FRO said:
Yeah I'll definitely wait it out til April to say the least. Just figure it's best to get in and start researching for my upgrade possibilities sooner rather than later.
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research is always good, especially as you are in no rush, so it gives you time to monitor prices and see how the newer technology fairs.
best thing to do is make a list of what you use it for now and what you might want to use it for. then its easier to spec the machine, if you do a lot of cpu intense stuff then you buy for that, if you do mainly gfx intense then spend more there etc.
 
J-FRO said:
Yeah I'll definitely wait it out til April to say the least. Just figure it's best to get in and start researching for my upgrade possibilities sooner rather than later.

I bought my window's 7 32-bit ultimate last June. My dell came with 32-vista home premium back in 2008 so I upgraded myself. Will have to burn it to disc before installing it on a new rig though, was one of download direct from the web jobs.
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hmmm ... Is this the retail or OEM version? Using Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit on a new rig sounds kind of a waste, plus if it is OEM, I'm not even sure the Windows Activation will work on a completely new system. The retail version should come with both 32 and 64 bit versions. Micosoft makes it so confusing...
 
olivier renault said:
hmmm ... Is this the retail or OEM version? Using Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit on a new rig sounds kind of a waste, plus if it is OEM, I'm not even sure the Windows Activation will work on a completely new system. The retail version should come with both 32 and 64 bit versions. Micosoft makes it so confusing...
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oem will work fine on another machine, aslong as you use the oem cd. the online activation might fail, but the automated phone one will work.

32 bit will limit you a bit with the 4GB max ram thing, but then 4GB should be ok for most current games.
 
Hmmm sounds like I may have the OEM version then. It's another thing for me to contemplate to be honest.

32-bit doesn't even give you the full usage of 4GB either. Apparently it's actually only 3.5GB!

So as it is now mines only running on 3.5 DDR2. If enough funds pop up, I may well just head for 64-bit. I don't even really need W7 Ultimate either really, lots of little additions that I'd never really use so Home Premium will probably suffice and at £81.98 on OcUK alone its not too shabby. Might even be able to get student discount elsewhere.
 
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