Possibly making the switch from AMD to Intel.

[exar333]

Welcome to AT OP!

The 2500k with a solid Z-MB is a great choice. You can get a decent OC from the stock fan, or if you want a better OC on a budget, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a great deal for ~$20. 4.2ghz+ is very easy on these chips.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Welcome the board and welcome to the Intel® Family. I think you are going to be very happy with the Intel Core® i5-2500K and with a good Z68 board you are find a whole new world of performance upping up for you.

 

[Denithor]

My suggestion: read up on overclocking a bit more, it sounds to me like you aren't reducing your RAM ratios correctly and that's causing your instability. OC your PhII 920 to >3GHz (free upgrade) and then spend some of your cash on a new GPU (GTX 560 Ti 448-core or HD 6970 likely best choices today). If that doesn't fix your gaming experience, in a few months Ivy Bridge is supposed to launch, same performance as today's Sandy Bridge chips at lower power consumption.

 

[Cyrus9008]

Welcome to the forums Cyrus9008! :thumbsup:

Thx man 8)

 

[Cyrus9008]

The best chip on the market is Sandy Bridge, for per-clock performance. Overclocking your 920 is a good idea, but won't put you within striking distance of the 2500K. The 2500K is essentially a 4.2Ghz chip (ie. it runs that speed with stock voltage). At stock settings, the 2500K is like an 8-core Phenom 920, you'd have to overclock your 920 to 5Ghz to match, and that isn't realistic. So just get the 2500K. Your 920 will still sell well.

At stock speeds, with similar video cards you'll see a decent framerate increase moving to the 2500K.

All that said, your 920 would still push a better video card, so you may want to try a new GPU first.

Thanks for advice, I'm starting to get a better picture of these chips. I am going to upgrade my vid card as well but maybe a month or so after my computer upgrade most likely.

The 2500k with a solid Z-MB is a great choice. You can get a decent OC from the stock fan, or if you want a better OC on a budget, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a great deal for ~$20. 4.2ghz+ is very easy on these chips.

Definitely NOT going to go with a stock fan hahaha. I was looking at coolers last night and decided on ZALMAN CNPS7X LED 92mm.

 

[Cyrus9008]

My suggestion: read up on overclocking a bit more, it sounds to me like you aren't reducing your RAM ratios correctly and that's causing your instability. OC your PhII 920 to >3GHz (free upgrade) and then spend some of your cash on a new GPU (GTX 560 Ti 448-core or HD 6970 likely best choices today). If that doesn't fix your gaming experience, in a few months Ivy Bridge is supposed to launch, same performance as today's Sandy Bridge chips at lower power consumption.

One problem though, my ram was rated stock @ 4-4-4-12. But came out of the package at 5-5-5-12? All I did was go into the bios to change it back to what it was supposed to come as.

Welcome the board and welcome to the Intel® Family. I think you are going to be very happy with the Intel Core® i5-2500K and with a good Z68 board you are find a whole new world of performance upping up for you.

Thanks Intel rep 8)

 

[monkeydelmagico]

5-600 $ might not get everything you want/need on a 2500k build. What can you salvage and/or part out? Willing to put up with ebay-ing some old parts to offset costs?

You also have some room to improve current setup for alot less. The phenom in my sig sells at microcenter for $50.- I grabbed a 5870 off bens outlet last night for $140 shipped. Less than $200 not including anything you might get off ebay for old parts.

 

[Denithor]

One problem though, my ram was rated stock @ 4-4-4-12. But came out of the package at 5-5-5-12? All I did was go into the bios to change it back to what it was supposed to come as.

You understand the basics of overclocking, right? On your chip the multiplier is locked so you have to increase the fsb to make the cpu operate at a higher speed. Thing is, RAM speed (among other things) is also based on fsb speed so if you don't lower your RAM multiplier you can easily push it above its tolerance and run into instability.

Excellent guide here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=267708

Note that the PhII Black series and the K-series chips from Intel are multiplier unlocked meaning you simply turn up the multiplier on the cpu itself without affecting any other components.

 

[Cyrus9008]

You understand the basics of overclocking, right? On your chip the multiplier is locked so you have to increase the fsb to make the cpu operate at a higher speed. Thing is, RAM speed (among other things) is also based on fsb speed so if you don't lower your RAM multiplier you can easily push it above its tolerance and run into instability.

Excellent guide here: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=267708

Note that the PhII Black series and the K-series chips from Intel are multiplier unlocked meaning you simply turn up the multiplier on the cpu itself without affecting any other components.

Unfortunately I am an extreme newb when it comes to overclocking, I have rarely messed with CPU and RAM timings because I haven't really had the need to do it. The only OCing I have really done was change my video card GPU and RAM speeds in the CCC. I have read quite a few articles on overclocking but have little experience when it comes to hands on, possibly because I was worried about damaging my hardware. I understand most OC lingo but haven't really applied it to my computer.

I don't really any problems when it comes to playing my video games, my frame rates are good but I more or less just want a better and faster computer. My video card might seem a bit old having a 4790 but it is a pretty damn solid video card, it's the best of the 4xxx series, single GPU card.

Thanks for that article Denithor, it's very informative!

5-600 $ might not get everything you want/need on a 2500k build. What can you salvage and/or part out? Willing to put up with ebay-ing some old parts to offset costs?

You also have some room to improve current setup for alot less. The phenom in my sig sells at microcenter for $50.- I grabbed a 5870 off bens outlet last night for $140 shipped. Less than $200 not including anything you might get off ebay for old parts.

What else could I need for a 2500k build? I picked the CPU, RAM and Mobo. I have everything else I want for a computer, video card... tower... X-FI sound card etc. I don't know if I'm willing to go on ebay to buy any parts because you really can't be 100% sure to what you're getting.

 

[Cyrus9008]

I'm trying to overclock my CPU right now but hit a complete brick wall, I guess my bios on my motherboard will not doesn't really support any overclocking what-so-ever. I'm trying to use AMD overdrive and I can't move any of the slider to increase clock frequency. I can move the multiplier slider but only down from 14. This sucks I can't overclock my CPU at all unless I buy a new motherboard.

 

[richierich1212]

If you're having trouble overclocking then don't get the 2500k, but a regular sb chip then.

 

[Puppies04]

A few questions, could I use that 1866 Ram at that speed with that processor? and would this be a big upgrade from my current system? thanks. Cyrus9008 is offline Report Post

Don't worry about 1866mhz ram you get a stunningly small perfomance increase by increasing ram speed with SB. You OC with the multiplier and the bclock stays at 100 so any decent branded RAM is fine. Also take the advice of people here and go for the 2500. If you mainly want this for gaming you will be wasting money "upgrading" to the I7 and will see very little benefit for it. Hell if you pick up a decent deal you might even be most of the way towards a new GPU with your $600 limit.

 

[Cyrus9008]

If you're having trouble overclocking then don't get the 2500k, but a regular sb chip then.

Wait I don't understand what you mean? I'm trying to OC my Phenom II just for fun I guess and it's not really working, so I shouldn't buy the 2600 bc I can't OC my current computer?

Don't worry about 1866mhz ram you get a stunningly small perfomance increase by increasing ram speed with SB. You OC with the multiplier and the bclock stays at 100 so any decent branded RAM is fine. Also take the advice of people here and go for the 2500. If you mainly want this for gaming you will be wasting money "upgrading" to the I7 and will see very little benefit for it. Hell if you pick up a decent deal you might even be most of the way towards a new GPU with your $600 limit.

Oh yea I am definitely going to buy a I5 not the I7, way to much money for my lieking. In probably a month I'm going to buy the CPU/RAM/MOBO and a month or 2 after that get a new GFX Card possibly a MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti. What do you think about this GFX card?

 

[alyarb]

I think you would be pairing a high-end CPU with a midrange gaming card. If your primary focus is cost effective gaming you need to realize the relative importance of the CPU and GPU to this end. It's too easy to find a used Deneb 945/955/965 BE that can do 3.6+ GHz even on the crappiest AM2+ board. For $125 new or ~$90 used you can completely modernize your system with Deneb without spending $400+ like with a sandy bridge system. Spend all the money you can save on the GPU because that's where it will matter for you. A Phenom II with a 7970 or GTX 580 will always beat a sandy bridge with 560 Ti, so if your budget forces you to choose, why choose sandy bridge?

 

[richierich1212]

Just because a processor is unlocked does not mean it's easy to overclock. Everyone says, "Buy a 2500K" like it's the easiest thing to overclock. Having an unlocked multiplier helps, but if you don't have any experience messing around in a BIOS you'll need lots of help. You'll still have voltages and other options to mess with. That's why I recommend just going with a non-K version of SB if you want to upgrade.

You can't just increase the multiplier on the 920 to overclock. It has a locked multiplier. You have to increase the HTT (FSB) speed to overclock. Stock is 200. Bump it up to 220, and lower memory divider by 1 for starters.

 

[tweakboy]

Hey everyone, I am currently debating whether I should make the transition from AMD to Intel. I need some help whether or not I should do this. I use my computer for alot of gaming applications.

I am running an AMD Phenom II x4 920 @ 2.8GHz with 6gb of Patriot DDR2 6400 and a AMD 4890 GFX card.

For days now I have been making different combos or the FX series chips more specifically the 4 core one not the 8. But I have read many places on the internet that said it would not be worth the upgrade to do that. So I then looked at the 8 core cpus but I have been reading that the whole FX series is a bit flawed so far. I am on a bit of a budget meaning I can't spend 1000 on an intel chip either.

I don't really know anything about intel and I have been reading all the info I can but am running into trouble deciding if an upgrade from my current system would be worth it considering my budget. What would be a good combination of a CPU/MOBO/RAM I could buy that's intel that won't break the bank(CPU must be no less than 4 cores and no less than 8gb of RAM), but will greatly outperform my current system. Also I am currently not looking for a new video card, that's going to come later. I am willing to spend around ~5-6 hundred dollars

Thanks guys

You already have a quad core, and your video card goes perfect with it. If you get a new Sandy your going to be bottlenecked unless you buy a new video card. Stick with what you have,, I bet you never used all CPU usage,, hang in there,, wait for Haswell 2013 , and the 23.fps bug fixed finally! and 22nm 6Ghz wow,,

 

[beginner99]

You already have a quad core, and your video card goes perfect with it. If you get a new Sandy your going to be bottlenecked unless you buy a new video card. Stick with what you have,, I bet you never used all CPU usage,, hang in there,, wait for Haswell 2013 , and the 23.fps bug fixed finally! and 22nm 6Ghz wow,,

this. Spending 300$ on SB does not make much sense unless you also spend another 300$ on a new video card.

 

[tweakboy]

You will not see a difference in gaming.

You will get high framerates with a new video card then a new CPU. you already haveh a quad,, your fine for games,, upgrade your video card,,,,, no need for sandy upgrade, Wait for Haswell 2013 this chipset has many bugs including the 23.fps bug,,

 

[Denithor]

If you simply want a faster system, here's what I would buy right now:

Asrock Z68 motherboard (PCIe 3.0 + Ivy Bridge support) $125-$10MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157271

Intel i5-2500K (better resale value than the non-K chips) $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072

Patriot 2x4GB DDR3-1600 (Cheap - get two sets if you like) $30-$10MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220570

Total bill even without rebates is $375, well below your target of $500-600. Actually, enough below that you could easily buy a decent new GPU with the leftover cash (GTX 560 Ti or HD 6950 appeal currently). I would though suggest waiting for a few weeks on the GPU though as the next generation AMD is launching on January 9 and may push down prices on some current models.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Definitely NOT going to go with a stock fan hahaha. I was looking at coolers last night and decided on ZALMAN CNPS7X LED 92mm.

That's not a great HSF. You would get much better performance from a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for less money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

or the new Evo version for $5 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103099

 

[Ken g6]

Definitely NOT going to go with a stock fan hahaha. I was looking at coolers last night and decided on ZALMAN CNPS7X LED 92mm.

That's not a great HSF. You would get much better performance from a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for less money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

or the new Evo version for $5 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103099

These are good options for new cases. If you insist on using an old case that's not big enough to support a 120mm fan, like I do, then I suggest a Xigmatek Loki, like the one I have. Just $9 AR!!!

 

[Joseph F]

Welcome the board and welcome to the Intel® Family. I think you are going to be very happy with the Intel Core® i5-2500K and with a good Z68 board you are find a whole new world of performance upping up for you.

[as Marlon Brando] Don't ever disrespect the family, Cyrus.

 

[Cyrus9008]

These are good options for new cases. If you insist on using an old case that's not big enough to support a 120mm fan, like I do, then I suggest a Xigmatek Loki, like the one I have. Just $9 AR!!!

I have a full size tower no need for a bigger case

[as Marlon Brando] Don't ever disrespect the family, Cyrus.

Hahahahah nice