Best upgrade bang for my buck $300

[chevmaro]

No microcenter. Probably have to get from Newegg no good local stores.

And I dont mind going AMD or Intel. I was actually thinking a A10 or new I3 would be faster then what I have. If $300 doesnt cut it i'll just wait until I can spend a little more for a Core i5. I just didnt want the wife getting mad lol. And I still think it would be worthwhile to upgrade my video card.

 

[crashtech]

I personally would not get anything below an 8320 from AMD right now, but maybe that will bring down the righteous wrath of the AMD crowd on my head. That, paired with a decent mobo and memory will probably exceed $300, imo, same with the 3570K.

The OP's setup was pretty fast for its time, I can't see why settling for a middling upgrade would be a positive step. For just a bit more the performance delta becomes dramatic, and will not seem pathetic in a year's time.

 

[tweakboy]

Well if he's got a microcenter near him he can get an awesome deal......if not

And seriously a single stick 4 gig Com? No one does that for an upgrade you want dual channel.....you need to be realistic on there and and at least another 28 - so you're total isn't 332 its 360......

AMD's side

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157280
84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113286
139.99
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113285
179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231468
59.99

With the 6300 - total is 284.99 - will it be as fast in lightly threaded stuff as Intel? No; will he see a major difference? No; will it be nice upgrade from what he has? Specially if he decides to overclock Yep and under budget with possible room for SSD.....

If he went with 8320 - its 324.97 Which is slightly over like yours; dual channel and will give him a nice boost to gaming......

Is the 3570k better chip? Some ways yes; some ways no - better in lightly threaded stuff; in heavery and mutlithreaded.....its Not; and many times falls behind.....

Will either be a damn good upgrade for him? Yes......now if he lives by micrcenter best bet is to go into there and find the best deal for himself....if he can get a 6300 with MB for 120 deals that are going on......Awesome..

There are some deals for on 3570k and 3770k there to but they are more.....with that 120 deal he could get ram ssd along with the upgrade....

3770k @ 4.0Ghz without touching voltage. gl

 

[MeldarthX]

6300 is extremely nice chip - though A10 with Richland could be very interesting but those are about a month or so away......

6300 give him a very good upgrade and later on can just drop in new Piledriver or *possibly * Steamroller CPU.....Its under his budget; *which keeps the wife faction happy*.......

Its a lot faster than what he has......but if he's willing to wait and save; its one of those Richland around the corner; so is Hasnwell and then Kev from AMD......lol

if I was upgrading right on a budget; I'd look at the 6300

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Thank you Anony The EVO is a great cooler 6300 Would be a very nice set up for him.....

I saw the boost you got in SC2. Very nice!

No microcenter. Probably have to get from Newegg no good local stores.

And I dont mind going AMD or Intel. I was actually thinking a A10 or new I3 would be faster then what I have. If $300 doesnt cut it i'll just wait until I can spend a little more for a Core i5. I just didnt want the wife getting mad lol. And I still think it would be worthwhile to upgrade my video card.

Without a MC, you'll be pushing $300 with a $140 6300, but I definitely wouldn't step down to an A10 or i3 to save any money.

This is what I recommend:
FX 6300 $133.79 + Free Ship
ASRock 970 EXTREME3 $84.99 + Free Ship
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) $52.99 + Free Ship
Total $271.77 + Tax

 

[crashtech]

AMD FX-8150 This is just $22 more!

 

[Vic Vega]

If you plan on gaming then anything other than at least a 2500k or 3570k should be avoided.

This is a laughable statement.

 

[chevmaro]

You know, I am not dissapointed in my previous setup at all. I bought the Q6600 the first day it was in stock so I have owned it that long. Its still a decent computer. I think I am going to hold out another month and buy a $400 upgrade combo to see if I can get the same longevity. Thanks for everyone's input.

Does anybody know when the Q6600 was first released? I'm trying to think how old my computer is. Seems like 5 years ago?

 

[Vic Vega]

January 2007... so I'd say you got good life out of it. One of the best CPUs made in my opinion.

 

[AtenRa]

You know, I am not dissapointed in my previous setup at all. I bought the Q6600 the first day it was in stock so I have owned it that long. Its still a decent computer. I think I am going to hold out another month and buy a $400 upgrade combo to see if I can get the same longevity. Thanks for everyone's input.

Does anybody know when the Q6600 was first released? I'm trying to think how old my computer is. Seems like 5 years ago?

Then wait until June for Haswell release.

If you will like to have the same longevity go for an i7. More and more Apps and games are coded for multithread.

 

[crashtech]

You know, I am not dissapointed in my previous setup at all. I bought the Q6600 the first day it was in stock so I have owned it that long. Its still a decent computer. I think I am going to hold out another month and buy a $400 upgrade combo to see if I can get the same longevity. Thanks for everyone's input.

I think this is a wise decision.

And I don't necessarily think you need to wait for Haswell, not with a $400 budget, which will get you either typical combo with the 8350 or 3570K.

 

[Headfoot]

You know, I am not dissapointed in my previous setup at all. I bought the Q6600 the first day it was in stock so I have owned it that long. Its still a decent computer. I think I am going to hold out another month and buy a $400 upgrade combo to see if I can get the same longevity. Thanks for everyone's input.

Does anybody know when the Q6600 was first released? I'm trying to think how old my computer is. Seems like 5 years ago?

Here's the deal. I'm sure you've enjoyed your Q6600 purchase (especially if you got it at release). In fact its probably one of the best computer part investments you could have made in the era. It was a heavy hitter and lasted a long time.

Haswell will be the Core2Quad of this generation. It will have very solid single threaded performance and it will have all the new extensions, quite a few of which might catch on and become mainstream in the next 5 years. Further, if you get Haswell you are getting the new socket and motherboard platform. If you buy a current Ivy Bridge Core i5 you will never be able to upgrade your CPU without upgrading your motherboard. If you wait for Haswell, you will be able to upgrade just the CPU in time if you want.

Basically the Haswell upgrade will most certainly last you another 5 years like your Q6600 has, whereas an AMD set up will be vastly outgunned 2 years from now and you wont be able to upgrade in the same socket that Ivy Bridge uses.

Starting putting a little money away each month for the Haswell and then your wife won't know how much it comes out to when the time comes

If you've really got the upgrade itch and can't hold off until Haswell, then go with the Ivy

 

[crashtech]

A lot of people seem so sure of themselves with this Haswell deal, when from experience we should know that not all first-generation hardware of a particular design is all that great, or that it will even have good forward compatibility. I would not expect the first Haswell mobos to be compatible with the Broadwell die shrink, why not wait until this new tech settles in a bit instead of making unsubstantiatable claims?

 

[Headfoot]

A lot of people seem so sure of themselves with this Haswell deal, when from experience we should know that not all first-generation hardware of a particular design is all that great, or that it will even have good forward compatibility. I would not expect the first Haswell mobos to be compatible with the Broadwell die shrink, why not wait until this new tech settles in a bit before making unsubstantiatable claims?

You have no reason to believe that, whatsoever.

45nm Core2 worked fine in 65nm boards with bios updates. 22nm Ivys work fine in Sandy boards. Sure, maybe some crappy low end boards didn't work right, but the key is not buying a shitty board in the first place and you'll be fine with a BIOS update.

On the other hand I can say, FOR CERTAIN, you won't be able to put Haswell into a Z77 board. You're saying "oh maybe on some off chance the boards released with Haswell wont work with Broadwell, maybe, and I have no sources and no links."

Besides, rumor has it BCLK overclocking, or some other kind of overclocking improvment is coming with Haswell too. It might literally be the return of the q6600 style low end quad clocked up to the top end quad

 

[crashtech]

Since you want sources, where is your link guaranteeing "Haswell will be the Core2Quad of this generation?" Haswell may be more like the Conroe of this generation, which is an exceptional enough claim, yet still speculation.

It's ALL speculation at this point, which is why I question the advisability of this whole "wait for such-and-such" business, which has been going on ever since before I got into this business 20 years ago.

 

[Homeles]

Since you want sources, where is your link guaranteeing "Haswell will be the Core2Quad of this generation?" Haswell may be more like the Conroe of this generation, which is an exceptional enough claim, yet still speculation.

Which is why he used the word "may," buddy.

Now let's go back to what you wrote:

when from experience we should know that not all first-generation hardware of a particular design is all that great

This isn't first generation hardware. It's building on top of an already stable foundation. The P6 microarchitecture has easily passed the test of time. You're acting as if Intel's attempting a radical change; they're not. These are very conservative changes.

or that it will even have good forward compatibility.

The word "Broadwell" does not come up until you mentioned it. Try to not use straw man arguments.

 

[crashtech]

Which is why he used the word "may," buddy.

I quoted him verbatim, my friend.

 

[crashtech]

@Homeles, I'm not going to belabor your defense of Headfoot's remarks, but re my supposed strawman, I was addressing this:

If you wait for Haswell, you will be able to upgrade just the CPU in time if you want.

That is not a provably true statement right now. Contrary to your initial post directed at me, Headfoot's assertions regarding an unreleased product were all constructed as statements of fact, which they obviously cannot be at this point.

At any rate, I think the OP has enough information (as opposed to speculation) to go on for now, which is the real point of this exercise.

 

[loccothan]

Hi i have screen of My Memory Test ( AMD friendly ;-)
Cuz there is a lot of ( Intel Friendly Tests out there i have some proof)

As you can see i have 43 GB/s Physical Read in this test and about 15 GB/s Write (so AMD and Intel is Good but AMD is cheaper ;-)

 

[jaqie]

and thus another mindless war thread has been born...

Seriously, look at what you want in a computer and either hold off for that thing thats just always over the horizon or upgrade now and be happy now... because after all now is all we have. I got this phenom ii and I am very happy with it, and for the money I spent I can upgrade sooner when it won't run something fast enough for me. Don't worry, be happy, just get what you can afford now and worry about upgrading later when the newer stuff is out.

I bought a socket 939 dual core when they came out, and it lasted until the core 2 was out and established, as a good gaming system. Then I got a core 2. Now I have a phenom 2, and next who knows? but seriously getting something powerful now will last a good while, usually with just a video card upgrade (if you get a healthy amount of ram now while current ram is cheap). I am really happy with my ~5 year computer upgrade and ~2 year video card upgrade cycle, and honestly with your current system you probably will be too. Get the best you can afford, and be happy. Don't get caught in the upgradability trap that people with faster upgrade cycles can use, it's useless to us.

 

[crashtech]

All the advice here is worth the price, methinks. I don't think you can recommend a CPU that is almost 3 years old to someone and hold yourself blameless in the starting of controversy department.

 

[jaqie]

for under $100? that still runs top flight games perfect? and fits in brand new gaming mobos? what controversy, we all know the phenom II x6 can hold it's own when overclocked and is still one heck of a deal.

this is just 3.4ghz and I think before I kicked the ram up to 1600 9-9-9-24, and before I bumped up the hypertransport speed. not bad for under $100 in the cpu IMO.

the title of this thread "best bang for the buck" has nothing about the age, just the best performance for dollar spent, and IMO for low budget which is how this thread started it's a sure bet. Things are different now, of course, with $400ish being the target, and IMO that's when things begin to get interesting and also time to drop the idea of phenom II and start looking at the very best amd has to offer and also look at some i5 stuff.

 

[Hubb1e]

Everyone focused on the CPU, but his CPU is actually not that bad for games today. It's not great and the 4GB of RAM is holding him back, but it's certainly not slow like a 3ghz core 2 duo would be.

Go get a $250 video card. Something like an AMD 7870. This will work well for a month or two while you save up for a new CPU. Then you'll upgrade to an Ivy 3570k, an inexpensive Z77 board, and 8GB of RAM. Or, maybe you'll be able to wait long enough for Haswell.

Haswell will be at most 10% faster than Ivy which can be overcome with an aggressive overclock on Ivy. But, you'll also get on the new socket which will be nice for upgradablity, but you WILL pay more for it because the motherboards will be priced high initially. The CPUs don't move much on price, but the motherboard makers will try to get an early adopters tax out of you. But, when this comes you can deal with it.

Basically, get a GPU now (I used a 7950 with a 3ghz Q6660 8GB and it was fine for awhile) and then you'll be able to drop in the new CPU next month. I think you'll find that an overclocked 3570k will last a very long time just like your Q6600 did.

 

[jaqie]

They said they wanted a memory upgrade, and I agree. Upgrading ddr2 is just not a good idea right now. your idea of getting a video card first is a very good idea, if the OP is agreeable with staying with the limited ram for now, but in the OP they didn't seem to want to do that.

 

[crashtech]

for under $100? that still runs top flight games perfect? and fits in brand new gaming mobos? what controversy, we all know the phenom II x6 can hold it's own when overclocked and is still one heck of a deal.

this is just 3.4ghz and I think before I kicked the ram up to 1600 9-9-9-24, and before I bumped up the hypertransport speed. not bad for under $100 in the cpu IMO.

the title of this thread "best bang for the buck" has nothing about the age, just the best performance for dollar spent, and IMO for low budget which is how this thread started it's a sure bet. Things are different now, of course, with $400ish being the target, and IMO that's when things begin to get interesting and also time to drop the idea of phenom II and start looking at the very best amd has to offer and also look at some i5 stuff.

I think the PhII X6 is a great CPU, especially when there is already a mobo in place to accept it, but it may be considered controversial when it is advocated in 2013 as part of an entire system upgrade. I think it was shown that a solution using the 6300 could be had for well under the target budget.

Honestly I appreciate where you are coming from, I tend to use parts that are a generation or two (or more) myself, but I try to refrain from recommending it to others.