I believe my motherboard is shot, so it's time to get a new one. Should I just upgrade the processor and RAM while I'm at it? Current setup is this: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Athlon 64 4000+ SanDiego 2000MHz 2.41GHz 2 x 1GB Corsair XMS DDR400 GeForce 7600GT 256MB video OCZ ModxStream Pro 700 watt PSU I use my computer for the usual movies, music, internet, and also for occasional video editing, 3D rendering, and graphic design/editing. No overclocking... I could either keep everything and just get a new mobo, or I was thinking: 4GB RAM (DDR2 or DDR3??) CPU - Core 2 DUO, i5 750, Phenom II x4?...and then which variation of one of these? I was kind of hoping to stay between $150-200, but could go more if it's really worth it Motherboard - I guess that depends on the CPU As far as the CPU goes, what should I really be looking for? Processor speed? FSB? Still learning... Anyone have any recommendations? Thank you.
Yes, I would. You will struggle to find a replacement Socket 939 board for a reasonable price these days. It's this reason why I upgraded my fileserver from Socket 939 to Socket 775. Since this is a main system though, I'd recommend the new LGA1156 for the Core i5/i7. The i5 750 is $200 and is a fabulous CPU, I have just upgraded to one - my last CPU was a Core 2 Quad, a Q9550 E0, one of the best ones, which kept up with the very best Phenom IIs, the i5 is in a different league, nothing else can compete yet. I'd highly recommend 4GB of RAM in this day and age, judging from your past system you use reasonably demanding programs and play games, since your current setup is old, but high-end for its time. The motherboard is a little up to you, and whether you intend to overclock or not. Overclocking the Core i5 is stupidly easy, and while I wouldn't say everyone should overclock, if you can upgrade a PC's hardware, you're proficient enough to start overclocking. It took me two BIOS settings and a few seconds tops, to get my 750 from 2.66 to 4.12Ghz. Everything configures itself. The reason this is important is if you intend to overclock you should be buying a motherboard with the high-rated socket, and a big CPU cooler to keep temps in check. This isn't that much extra cost, but it's money wasted if you'll never overclock. The graphics card since it's PCI Express you can of course keep, but it will become a burden on your new hardware for games as it's very underpowered by comparison, so I'd strongly recommend you upgrade that too if you're looking for extra games performance. Draft upgrade (Non-overclocking vs overclocking) Core i5 750 CPU 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 1600mhz CAS9 RAM Gigabyte P55-UD3L / P55A-UD3 As far as graphics goes, this really comes down to your budget. You could up your games performance by a factor of 5 by buying a Radeon HD5670, or you could up it by a factor of about 20 by buying an HD5850. As far as the CPU power goes, the i5 750 is about 85-90% faster than your A64 4000+ per-core, so in total it has around 7.5x the processing power.
I read somewhere that another version of the i7 and the i9 would probably be coming out some time in the first half of this year. Do you think it would be worth waiting a few more months to see if the prices of the i5's and other i7's drop? I just found a place that had the i7 860 for 212. So is that better than the i5 750? And the i5 650 is $140 at the same place.
The i9 is a six-core version of the i7, which will clearly be more powerful for programs that can use six cores, but in most instances won't help that much to the average user. On top of this, the only i9 that is going to be released any time soon will be a $1000 extreme edition. It is going to be a long time before we see six core CPUs affordable for the average user. The six-core CPUs will only work on socket LGA1366, the original i7 socket, so if you're desperate to use one, then you should for the time being use an LGA1366 board and an i7 920 CPU instead. This is a lot more initial expenditure though, and it won't net you any benefits until you buy the six core CPU, which could be a long time away. I would suggest sticking to the LGA1156 board and i5 750. The i7 860 is a 750 with a higher clockspeed and hyperthreading available. This means it is marginally faster for workstation like software, such as video encoding and 3D modelling, but for most things it doesn't make much difference, the extra speed doesn't quite justify the extra price. The 750 is the better value CPU. The i5 650 is a dual core, so I would avoid that.
for video editing it's highly recommended to get a quad. I have a phenom 9750 and that finishes all my encoding jobs in almost half the time as my amd x2 4800. Even a low end quad will easily take you to the next level. I didn't spend more than 200.00 for my phenom/motherboard combo when I bought it last year. You pay a premium for the intel quads. This list shows the speeds of different cpu's. http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...pdate-1/Mainconcept-Reference-1.6.1,1385.html
Fortunately Phenoms have massively improved since the dreadful 9000 series of old. However, for video editing and 3D modelling work it's wise to check how well each CPU performs in each particular program. Some programs prefer intel CPUs, others AMD. It is likely you will be much better off with an Intel Core i5 CPU than an AMD, but this isn't the case for every program. In neutral programs where AMD CPUs and Phenoms perform equally, a Core i5 750 is likely to be 40-50% faster per clock than the equivalent AMD, so a 2.66Ghz i5 compares to a 3.6-4.0Ghz Phenom. Be advised that Core i5 CPUs can also be very easily overclocked (mine took only 10 seconds work and less than a dozen keypresses to get from 2.66 to 4.12), whereas this is more difficult with AMDs, and you will generally reach a maximum of around 4Ghz.
Thank you for all the help... Sam, you recommended these motherboards P55-UD3L / P55A-UD3. Why these? What exactly should I be looking for when choosing a motherboard, other than the obvious CPU matchup? Also, from what I've read in the forums, I should be sticking with Gigabyte, MSI, Biostar, or EVGA right? Thanks again
Since LGA1156 is a new platform, all the boards out there support all the CPUs fine at the moment, so it's easier buying i5 boards than older platforms at the moment. I choose Gigabyte as I find they tend to be among the more reliable brands out there. You read reasonably correct on the brands you should be using. The P55-UD3L is the cheapest full-size Gigabyte P55 board out there. The P55A-UD3 is the cheapest one with USB3, and with the Lotes CPU socket, which is much safer for overclocking than the Foxconn used on the vast majority of P55 boards including Gigabyte boards without the 'A' coding.
Sams right on. I have an i7 860, the big bro for the i5 750. I do more video editing then anything, so in my case, the extra features were more then worth the price. With a Core2Quad Q6600, it took me about 45 min to convert a 700 mb avi to DVD using ConvertXtoDVD, With the i7 860, I cut encoding times to about a third of the time as it now takes me about 10 minuets. So in your case, i think the i5 is no doubt the best bang for buck cpu. on the market.
Well, I couldn't help it...I went with the i7 860. It was only $199.99. I'm also going with the recommended P55A-UD3. For RAM, the Corsair is 1.65v. Should I go with something that is 1.5v for the i7 860? After some more research, I found people saying that it is recommended to be below 1.65v due to a possible risk of frying the CPU. With that in mind, I was looking at these: G.SKILL Ripjaws http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 G.SKILL http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 And if the 1.65v isn't an issue then Corsair is this choice as previously recommended: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260
That's quite a deal, the i7 860 is usually far more expensive than that. 1.65V RAM is fine for the Core i5, you just mustn't go over it.
Still trying to decide on some RAM... Sam, why CAS9? Is it not worth going with a lower Cas Latency or will I just probably not see the difference? Thanks.
CAS latency only really affects the performance of AMD CPUs, so for Intels it's not really that important. In the old days you'd buy good CAS RAM so you could overclock it, and up the timings to keep it stable, but with the advent of high speed RAM that's no longer necessary.
