Need a recommendation for cpu, motherboard, and memory.

[Siddhartha]

I am upgrading to Windows 7\64. I plan on replacing the mb, cpu, and memory (~8 gig) with a budget of ~$600.

I use my computer for everything except gaming.
I will not overclock.
I can go with AMD or Intel and I am not religious about mb or memory brands either.

Any help wil be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Siddhartha

 

[DaveSimmons]

By "everything" do you just mean a browser, videos and Office?

An i3-2100 or even a Pentium is going to be fine for that, though with a $600 budget you could step up to a quad-core i5 just for the heck of it.

A quad-core i5, motherboard, and 8 GB should only be about $350 so you can easily afford to add a 120 GB SSD boot drive to the mix.

Do you live near a MicroCenter for getting their loss-leader CPU + mobo combos?

 

[Siddhartha]

By "everything" do you just mean a browser, videos and Office?

An i3-2100 or even a Pentium is going to be fine for that, though with a $600 budget you could step up to a quad-core i5 just for the heck of it.

A quad-core i5, motherboard, and 8 GB should only be about $350 so you can easily afford to add a 120 GB SSD boot drive to the mix.

Do you live near a MicroCenter for getting their loss-leader CPU + mobo combos?

I mean video and audio file processing, music studio, etc. I have a Quad Core 660 cpu now and I am looking to get as much power and speed I can get for my budget. I just do not need multi gpu systems.

I do not live near a MicroCenter.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[ElFenix]

please answer the questions in the sticky

if that's an i5-660, that's a dual core processor.


video processing needs cores. a 2300 is the minimum i'd recommend. even the fastest dual core sandy isn't any faster at video recoding than a 660 (check out the x264 coding on bench), unless you're using quicksync.

 

[Ken g6]

OK, the way I see it, you should get:

CPU: i7 3700 (no k) $320
Mobo: Biostar Z77, $80AR (if it fits in your case!)
SSD : Crucial M4 128GB: $125
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600: $44, and potentially get another set when you have the money.

Total: $569AR

 

[DaveSimmons]

> if that's an i5-660, that's a dual core processor.

Probably a 2.4 GHz Q6600 core 2 not an i5.

The i7 / Z77 kit above should be a very nice increase in speed:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=551

 

[denis280]

I agree with Ken g6

 

[Siddhartha]

> if that's an i5-660, that's a dual core processor.

Probably a 2.4 GHz Q6600 core 2 not an i5.

The i7 / Z77 kit above should be a very nice increase in speed:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=551

I have a 2.4 GHz Q6600 system.

 

[Siddhartha]

OK, the way I see it, you should get:

CPU: i7 3700 (no k) $320
Mobo: Biostar Z77, $80AR (if it fits in your case!)
SSD : Crucial M4 128GB: $125
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600: $44, and potentially get another set when you have the money.

Total: $569AR

Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[mfenn]

OK, the way I see it, you should get:

CPU: i7 3700 (no k) $320
Mobo: Biostar Z77, $80AR (if it fits in your case!)
SSD : Crucial M4 128GB: $125
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600: $44, and potentially get another set when you have the money.

Total: $569AR

Another :thumbsup: to this. If your goal is to make the best upgrade you can for $600, this comes pretty close.

 

[lehtv]

Agree with the above fellas.

 

[Siddhartha]

OK, the way I see it, you should get:

CPU: i7 3700 (no k) $320
Mobo: Biostar Z77, $80AR (if it fits in your case!)
SSD : Crucial M4 128GB: $125
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600: $44, and potentially get another set when you have the money.

Total: $569AR

I am going to order the components on this list today. I have a question, what is the difference in terms of performance, between the Intel Core i7-3770 and I7-3700K?

I have put time in looking for this information but I have not found any difference besides cost.

Thanks
Siddhartha

 

[lehtv]

I have put time in looking for this information but I have not found any difference besides cost.

Intel CPUs marked with the 'K' suffix have an unlocked core clock multiplier, which means they can be overclocked. Since you're not into that, there's no point buying the K version.