Board & CPU Upgrade

[choliscott]

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of upgrading the machine my son currently uses (he mainly plays games). While I could do an upgrade to that machine, I was tempted to pickup a cheap board & cpu & put that in my HTPC & put what I am currently using in my HTPC & put that in the setup my son uses.

The cpu in my son's setup is a AMD X4 635 & the board/cpu in my HTPC is AMD 1090T & Asus M5A88-V EVO.

On my HTPC, I have 3 extenders connected & a total of 3 people do use it. I also run comskip in the background & possibly going to start running Media buddy also.

I had thought about getting an FX-4100 or 6100 & a cheap $50 board to throw in the machine my son uses, but I thought maybe I could get something cheaper that would work with no problems in my HTPC.

Thanks

 

[Soulkeeper]

both those systems sound relatively modern to me

why not wait for ivy bridge and piledriver/trinity to come out ?

If you are just looking to get something spur of the moment for a cheap/fun upgrade, I'd say just get whatever barebone deal the local pc place has.

 

[BD231]

Just give your son the 1090T and use his x4 for your HTPC. 1090 has plenty of cache for gaming and a mild overclock will have him set for years to come. No sense in buying another lackluster CPU.

 

[LoneNinja]

What does he have for a video card in his computer? Athlon II X4 is still fine for gaming unless you've got a high end video card set up. I own an Athlon II X4 640 and Phenom II X6 1090T and there is honestly zero difference in terms of game performance paired with a 6770.

 

[SickBeast]

The Athlon and the Phenom will perform about the same in games but a 2500k will be better in certain games like Starcraft 2 which are very CPU heavy.

OP, depending on your budget you can get a 2500k bundle at Microcenter or else a 960T bundle. The 2500k will cost about $100-150 more but it's worth it IMO.

 

[choliscott]

At the moment, he's using integrated (AMD HD 3000). I am going to be putting in a 6850.

What does he have for a video card in his computer? Athlon II X4 is still fine for gaming unless you've got a high end video card set up. I own an Athlon II X4 640 and Phenom II X6 1090T and there is honestly zero difference in terms of game performance paired with a 6770.

 

[Arkaign]

1090T + 6850 would be a great gaming setup, far better than the Athlon II X4. Seems the lack of L3 cache really makes a difference.

I'd do the swaparound, you won't notice any lack of HTPC capabilities in the X4. Then perhaps when IB-based 22nm Pentiums come through, you could consider switching to one of those (real USB 3, newest SATA, super low power in comparison), or .. just let it ride.