Decent low cost upgrade from 6800GT on a Pent. 3.2

[alkemyst]

He doesn't want to OC...would 4 cores at 2.6 be better than 3 cores at 3.0 except anything but certain games?

He may upgrade his LCD to a 1680 or 1920 22-23".

 

[yh125d]

I'd pick up a 5770/5750 and then ASAP get like an i3/H55 or athlon II/785g combo. Frys often ahs them $100 or less if you're near one

 

[NoQuarter]

He doesn't want to OC...would 4 cores at 2.6 be better than 3 cores at 3.0 except anything but certain games?

He may upgrade his LCD to a 1680 or 1920 22-23".

I'd go 3 cores at 3 Ghz, even the games that are very multi-gpu friendly barely see an improvement going from 3 cores to 4 cores so 3 is the optimal right now for clock speed vs core count while remaining economical.. the Phenom II 720 BE is a great cpu.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I've got 9600GT that I need to sell if you're interested. Although Far Cry might be pushing it a little even at 1280x1024.

 

[alkemyst]

I'd pick up a 5770/5750 and then ASAP get like an i3/H55 or athlon II/785g combo. Frys often ahs them $100 or less if you're near one

Why 785G and not 770 or 870 with Sata III?

 

[alkemyst]

I'd go 3 cores at 3 Ghz, even the games that are very multi-gpu friendly barely see an improvement going from 3 cores to 4 cores so 3 is the optimal right now for clock speed vs core count while remaining economical.. the Phenom II 720 BE is a great cpu.

I am running a 720, he'd be going with the X3 440, faster base speed but no L3 cache.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

He doesn't want to OC...would 4 cores at 2.6 be better than 3 cores at 3.0 except anything but certain games?

He may upgrade his LCD to a 1680 or 1920 22-23".

It depends upon how long he's going to be keeping it. Short term its better to go for higher clock speeds/less cores, but if he is still using the P4, i'd go quad at the very least. I would actually suggest he get the 1055T if he doesn't upgrade very often.

As applications become more parallel in nature, they will run quite better on many core systems. Four cores at 2.6 is always going to be much more powerful than three cores at 3.0. We are already seeing that in multimedia creation and trans-coding. Certain games are already there too in GTA4 and most RTS games. Despite the x3 having a 400mhz advantage, it absolutely cannot make up for another core. In some games now the x3 might be a little bit faster, but even that will be negligible while paired with a mid range (or less) video card.

Just get as many cores as possible. He obviously doesn't upgrade very often.

 

[alkemyst]

He has upgraded other machines. My mom's mostly (she's on a C2D). Just recently he started using his more since he is home now.

He plans on keeping more current. Probably the 6 core 1055T when it drops to $100.

What I have read is for the most part a higher freq. x3 is better than x4 at a lower one except in transcoding stuff...even most games. Are there some more current benches out there?

I still think a $75 processor now and a $100 processor in a year is better than $130 now (x4 at 2.9 to 3.0).

 

[yh125d]

Why 785G and not 770 or 870 with Sata III?

SataIII doesn't matter to the majority of enthusiasts, and won't for some time. I doubt it's necessary for someone who upgrades so rarely to buy into bleeding edge tech

The specific chipset doesn't matter, just any AII X2/3/4/PHII X2/ + mobo combo

 

[CurseTheSky]

Another vote for HD 5770. Just powerful enough to give a good gaming experience (even at 1680x1050), relatively inexpensive, and low heat / power consumption.

 

[f4phantom2500]

5770 is perfect for 1680x 1024.

Any new Far cry type game will utilize 4 cores. At this time it's a must.
Here is one for 95$,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706

Usb 3.0 & Sata 6.0? You can buy add on cards later if you need it.

5770 is perfect for 1680x 1024.

Any new Far cry type game will utilize 4 cores. At this time it's a must.
Here is one for 95$,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103706

Usb 3.0 & Sata 6.0? You can buy add on cards later if you need it.

The Athlon 630 (2.8GHz) and 635 (2.9GHz) are a mere $1 and $4 more expensive, respectively. They also come with free stuff; the 630 includes a $10 gift card (presumably a newegg gift card?) and the 635 comes with a 10 foot HDMI cable.

I concur that the 5770 will run games more than excellently at 1280x1024 and should be able to for quite some time. A phenomenally huge upgrade from his current video card...of course as others have said it will be bottlenecked in his current system. However, it will just be that much better when he goes to upgrade the rest of the system, so don't worry about that. It's something of an investment, really. Your father will be getting the best possible performance within the context of the rest of his system now, while already having a very solid video card in place for a future upgrade. Remember, though, that at that resolution, you will likely be more CPU-limited than GPU-limited, even with the aforementioned Athlon II CPUs. This is not a bad situation to be in, though, as the combination of a 5770 with an Athlon II X4 will be crazy good at 1280x1024. I, personally, would go with the X4 635 over the X3 440, especially if this is going to be a long-term upgrade. Considering the meager speed difference of 100MHz, the extra core will have a more significant impact in the long run. Of course, it does cost about $25 more, if this is of any concern to you.

 

[0roo0roo]

It depends upon how long he's going to be keeping it. Short term its better to go for higher clock speeds/less cores, but if he is still using the P4, i'd go quad at the very least. I would actually suggest he get the 1055T if he doesn't upgrade very often.

As applications become more parallel in nature, they will run quite better on many core systems. Four cores at 2.6 is always going to be much more powerful than three cores at 3.0. We are already seeing that in multimedia creation and trans-coding. Certain games are already there too in GTA4 and most RTS games. Despite the x3 having a 400mhz advantage, it absolutely cannot make up for another core. In some games now the x3 might be a little bit faster, but even that will be negligible while paired with a mid range (or less) video card.

Just get as many cores as possible. He obviously doesn't upgrade very often.

other factor is the weirdness of power consumption with amds, the x3's use basically the same amount of power as the x4's

 

[evolucion8]

The Pentium 4 3.20GHz will bottleneck any card that is faster than the X800PRO, but getting the HD 5770 will bring you nice performance, specially once you upgrade the whole system. My GF has the Athlon II 635 and works like a champ, great gaming performance and low power when idle. I think that AMD thermal envelope is measured differently compared to Intel. In real life, I doubt that an X3 will consume the same power as similar clocked X4.

 

[tweakboy]

You can wait for nvidia to release a new chip to your liking and pricing.. gl

 

[alkemyst]

Final build...debating $15 for the 955 over 945 though vs the extra 30W dissipation...

MSI 870A-G54 + x4 945 $224.98 free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.408085

Ram
4gb GSkill 4GB PC12800 109.99 free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193

Video
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB $149.99 After $10.00 MIR free ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ech-_-14102868

Harddrive
Spinpoint F3 1TB $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX $89.99 free ($20)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...;20CMPSU-750TX

 

[tweakboy]

Grab a 1950x AGP

Fastest AGP card in world alto 7900GS AGP ,, let us know,, gl

 

[tweakboy]

Try going to Costco and buy a ready built system for a good price,,, dig it.. thx

 

[f4phantom2500]

Final build...debating $15 for the 955 over 945 though vs the extra 30W dissipation...

MSI 870A-G54 + x4 945 $224.98 free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.408085

Ram
4gb GSkill 4GB PC12800 109.99 free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193

Video
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB $149.99 After $10.00 MIR free ship
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ech-_-14102868

Harddrive
Spinpoint F3 1TB $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX $89.99 free ($20)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...;20CMPSU-750TX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-016-_-Product

I have that PSU powering my rig, which has an Athlon X3 435, Radeon 4870, and 2 Caviar Green HDDs on a 785G chipset. It should be plenty for what you need and is an extremely quiet modular PSU. Regarding reliability, I had this thing running BOINC projects at 100% load on the CPU and GPU for days at a time without any issues at all, while having both the CPU and GPU overclocked. FYI, the 4870 consumes about as much power as a Radeon 5870.



I honestly think you should reconsider the Athlon II X4 635. You'd be hard pressed to notice the difference between that and the Phenom processors you listed, especially at 1280x1024. That resolution is remarkably low and all of these components will more than fly on that setup. Coming from a P4 I don't think you understand exactly how much faster these processors are. The difference between an Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4 will be extremely negligible, and both will be leaps and bounds ahead of the P4. No matter what you buy your father will be extremely satisfied. Hell, even the slowest, cheapest processor that you can buy on newegg today (Celeron 430 from Intel is a single-core Conroe at 1.8GHz for $41, Sempron 140 is a single-core Athlon II at 2.7GHz at $33) is going to straight up murder the P4.

Here's a combo deal with the 635 and the same motherboard you selected:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.394162

If you're considering anything higher end than that processor, I really think you should just bite the bullet and go for the X6:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.397503

Interestingly enough, going with the PSU and Phenom X6 deal that I listed will cost about the same as the PSU and Phenom X4 deal that you listed. Or you could save $100 and get the Athlon X4.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Nice build alkemyst, I like my 940. That'll be a phenomanol upgrade over a P4.

At work I have a dual core P4 3.0HGz (I think a 6 series, can't remember for sure, might be a 5 series). I was encoding an ~55 minute long video for my Droid, it was a ~1.5 hour job on the P4 system at work, it was ~11 minutes on my 3.6GHz PhII at home. I imagine an overclocked i7 would make my eyes bleed it'd be so fast. ;P

 

[alkemyst]

Final build...switched the RAM and PSU slightly (netted only $59 on the PSU)....

CPU/Motherboard
MSI 870A-G54 + x4 955 $239.98 free
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.397502

Ram
4gb GeIL 4GB PC3 10660 109.99 $2.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820144264

Video
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB $174.99 free ($10.00 MIR + 15 instant code EMCYTYZ39)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ech-_-14102868

Harddrive
Spinpoint F3 1TB $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-185-_-Product

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W $89.99 free ($20 + $10 instant code EMCYSNV26)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Faster than my machine probably (x720 @ 3.6, Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P, OCZ OCZ3P1600LVAM4GK @ 1333 Cas6, OCZ Modstream 520W, Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721075KLA330, 750GB, 32MB Cache @ 7200RPM, MSI R4890-T2D1G OC @ 925/2200).

 

[0roo0roo]

The Pentium 4 3.20GHz will bottleneck any card that is faster than the X800PRO, but getting the HD 5770 will bring you nice performance, specially once you upgrade the whole system. My GF has the Athlon II 635 and works like a champ, great gaming performance and low power when idle. I think that AMD thermal envelope is measured differently compared to Intel. In real life, I doubt that an X3 will consume the same power as similar clocked X4.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2861/9
Its why i went x4. At idle the x3 uses more, the x4 uses slightly more at full tilt. but in no case does the missing 4rth core lead to the expected 25% reduction in energy. in that benchy you see at full tilt the 630 x4 uses only 6 more watts for a full 4rth core and the x3 only has a 100mhz speed advantage over it..which is effectively nothing.

 

[evolucion8]

Grab a 1950x AGP

Fastest AGP card in world alto 7900GS AGP ,, let us know,, gl

Fastest AGP card in the following order:

HD 4670
HD 3850 512MB
HD 4650
HD 3850 256MB
X1950XT AGP
X1950PRO AGP
7900GT AGP
X1950GT
7800GS+
7900GS
7800GS

Final build...switched the RAM and PSU slightly (netted only $59 on the PSU)....
<snip>

Nice build you put there, if the CPU price difference is too small you could get away with a Phenom II X6 1050T (2.80GHz)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2861/9
Its why i went x4. At idle the x3 uses more, the x4 uses slightly more at full tilt. but in no case does the missing 4rth core lead to the expected 25&#37; reduction in energy. in that benchy you see at full tilt the 630 x4 uses only 6 more watts for a full 4rth core and the x3 only has a 100mhz speed advantage over it..which is effectively nothing.

Probably because of the L3 cache which the Phenom X3 has that the Athlon II X3 lacks making the chip smaller, plus newer stepping.

 

[alkemyst]

Coming from a P4 I don't think you understand exactly how much faster these processors are.

I have been running an x3 720 @ 3.6 for a while now. He really wanted the Phenom once he started looking at the comparisons. I did explain that any of the Propus chips at about $80 less would probably not be differentiable using them.

The video card is overkill definitely, but it was $40 different than anything else.

He is going to understand the speed a lot more by next weekend. I was trying to push the savings into a 23" LCD vs his 19" (4:3) VP912b LCD

 

[0roo0roo]

Probably because of the L3 cache which the Phenom X3 has that the Athlon II X3 lacks making the chip smaller, plus newer stepping.

? i'm excluding the phenoms from this comparison as they use more and are in a different price range. the athlon x3 vs athlon x4 is what i'm comparing. and it just seems the x3 really saves almost nothing, and sometimes uses more. the consumption of the x3 is slightly bizarre.

 

[f4phantom2500]

I have been running an x3 720 @ 3.6 for a while now. He really wanted the Phenom once he started looking at the comparisons. I did explain that any of the Propus chips at about $80 less would probably not be differentiable using them.

The video card is overkill definitely, but it was $40 different than anything else.

He is going to understand the speed a lot more by next weekend. I was trying to push the savings into a 23" LCD vs his 19" (4:3) VP912b LCD

I see. I actually think that a new LCD would provide the biggest, most noticeable step up in regards to user experience when considering the cost of upgrading to any modern hardware, especially since, as you pointed out, the level of hardware that you're looking at is overkill for a 1280x1024 monitor. In regards to the performance difference of a Phenom II and Athlon II, with a 5770, it's an extremely moot point; either one will be more than enough at that resolution. But, he can always get a new monitor later.

Well, good luck with the build, whatever you do; you can't really go wrong with AMD's current lineup.