Which CPU too go for?

moonbeep · 12 Dec 2011 at 06:52

Hi Folks

Time has come to replace my Q9550 and I was looking at the FX-6100 as a replacement.Would I see much of an improvement over the Q9550?

I know some will say the i5 2500k would be the way to go but want to spend about £200 on CPU & MOBO..Im not a gamer,mainly just browse ,emails,few videos etc

Probably be fine with what ive got for the things i do but wanted a change but wonder what £200 would get me for an upgrade...

Any help appreciated.... :confused:

SeraphX · 12 Dec 2011 at 07:00

I'd avoid the bulldozer tbh, if all you do is browse, emails and a few videos, a 6 core chip would be a complete waste.

Personally i'd suggest a nice little Sandybridge i3 dual core
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-367-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671
and a nice mobo to go with it
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-179-MS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1965

Which would leave a little money over to spend on some Ram
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-104-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

as for performance, the i3 will give a little increase in most things over the 9550 apart from thread intensive action ( gaming, Vid encoding etc etc}
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/50?vs=289

cmndr_andi · 12 Dec 2011 at 07:12

If your budget is a hard cap of £200 for the CPU and motherboard then the H61 board Seraph suggests is a good one. However, when using a board like this (£47) you could still afford a sandy bridge i5 quad core. You won't be able to get a 2500K (unless you look second hand), but something like an i5 2300 or 2400 is well within reach and will offer you the benefits of a sandy bridge quad core with turbo boost. When using a H61 board overclocking isn't available, but turbo boost will work fine and you get the benefits of a very quick CPU - even at stock speeds.

MOOGLEYS · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:06

For what you use your pc for I doubt its worth upgrading tbh...

m not a gamer,mainly just browse ,emails,few videos etc

Marine-RX179 · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:09

For what you use the PC for, you'd be better off spending that money on a SSD.

Going from a Q9550 to a FX6100 would be a pointless "sidegrade"...considering vast majority of the application won't take advantage of the two extra cores, and on per core performance, the FX6100 is hardly faster than the Q9550, if not slower.

MOOGLEYS · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:17

Marine-RX179 said:
For what you use the PC for, you'd be better off spending that money on a SSD

+1 you will see noticeable gains with this.

IvanDobskey · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:35

The q9550 is still a very good chip! The only reason im swapping mine out for a 2500k is the gf wanted something to get me for xmas and it was all i could think of

No way id go swapping it for any dual core chip anyway. Either go 2500k or keep what you have. As suggested above, an ssd would probably give you the most noticeable boost given what your useage is.

goodl · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:48

totally agree on the solid state + RAM, gives a real kick in the pants performance upgrade to any system, far more noticable for day to day computing than any CPU upgrade

IvanDobskey · 12 Dec 2011 at 09:55

Grab yourself a 128gb crucial M4

d_brennen · 12 Dec 2011 at 10:00

An SSD and / or just reinstall of Windows would do just nicely and give a better upgrade tbh. When browsing the net there is barely any perceivable difference between an Athlon dual (what, £40?) and a monster £800 extreme edition Intel hex core

Threepwood · 12 Dec 2011 at 10:41

Agreed.

The first thing anyone should think about when wanting to increase thier quality of life is to aquire an SSD if they haven't already. It's pure quality of life.

sxndy · 12 Dec 2011 at 12:22

I upgraded from a Q9550 to a 2700k and I notice a big difference, OC'd at 4.6 its twice as fast if not more at coding video.

I don't think anything under a 2600k would be worth an upgrade for your needs tho.

barrymcd · 12 Dec 2011 at 13:19

Buy an MSI mother board for am3 processors with core unlocking features and buy a new AMD sempron processor 2.7 ghz then unlock it in the bios .. it wil become athlon X2
total spend £60 . the processor scores 6.7 in windows 7 index .

IvanDobskey · 12 Dec 2011 at 13:38

Just keep the q9550

Martini1991 · 12 Dec 2011 at 13:40

barrymcd said:
Buy an MSI mother board for am3 processors with core unlocking features and buy a new AMD sempron processor 2.7 ghz then unlock it in the bios .. it wil become athlon X2
total spend £60 . the processor scores 6.7 in windows 7 index .

Worst advice ever.
OP will be on SATA II won't he? A shame, it'll hamper the SSD a little.

Gashman · 12 Dec 2011 at 14:03

Martini1991 said:
Worst advice ever.
OP will be on SATA II won't he? A shame, it'll hamper the SSD a little.

he's browsing the web, looking at e-mails and stuff. why the person is even considering an upgrade is beyond me, for that sort of activity recommending a cabbage would be worthwhile since it'll probably still be as fast as a top end processor for web browsing. can't understand why people are recommending an Solid State Drive for web browsing?! be honest there is only so fast one can load a web page or a video, fair enough a Solid State Drive will do it a bit quicker but who cares about fractions of a second?! use standard hard disks personally and cannot understand for one second what the benefits would be for the sort of use in question, I double click 'Chrome' icon and the window is open, there is no delay, no 'holy hell this is taking forever...' moments.

would say OP take a serious long hard think about what the situation is, any upgrade from the system you are currently using will give almost no obvious benefit in the work you do, sure a Solid State Drive would speed things up a bit but be honest, how fast do you need to load a page? on the processor side of things, you could buy a £600+ Intel Extreme Edition and get no improvement over your current experience, so why 'upgrade'? :confused:

Martini1991 · 12 Dec 2011 at 14:11

Well, someone was suggesting he go from a Q9550 to a single core AM3 chip, with the possibility of "unlocking a core".
That's the worst advice ever regardless of the OP's situation.
SSD's are a good upgrade for general usability.

IvanDobskey · 12 Dec 2011 at 14:34

I sniggered at the AM3 advice i have to admit

Alternatively keep the q9550 which is 10 times better than any sempron and save £60. Just lol.

Marine-RX179 · 12 Dec 2011 at 15:04

That single core AM3 recommendation and the talk of WEI made me seriously loled

Gashman · 12 Dec 2011 at 15:34

yeah crazy, why would you wanna go from a perfectly good quad-core Intel to a single core Sempron, I know he is only doing light work but that is just going too far!

true SSDs are good all round, but for the type of work is he really gonna notice that much difference?