Replace My AM2+ Setup For Around $500

[geokilla]

I'm looking to spend up to $500 to replace the CPU and motherboard in my PC during the Christmas holidays. Everything else will be reused as there is no point in replacing the other parts. Plus I don't game much anymore, as I spend more time now just playing SC2 and/or watching TV shows while talking to friends. In short, I guess I place multitasking over gaming now. I also have a Kingston 8GB DDR3 RAM kit here as it was on sale and well, I don't really see it dropping much more in the future.

Should I go for a AMD Thuban, AMD Bulldozer (very cheap now

), or Intel Core i5 setup? I feel that going from quad core to quad core won't give me a good boost in multitasking performance, and a Core i7 setup is overkill.

Of course, SSDis an option, but I don't think it'll speed up my PC's performance by a huge margin. Plus it's very expensive.

 

[Googer]

AMD Socket FM1
AMD A3850 (or 3870 if you wish to wait a few more weeks) ($135)
ASUS F1A75-V EVO (same as pro, but with extra PCI-e) (about $120-130)
8GB DDR1600 RAM ($50)
Hitachi 7k1000.D, 160MB/s READ SPEED! (I paid $50, price is higher now due to Thailand Floods)
Stock AMD Cooling sucks now. It's not like the old days when you got a nice chunk of shiny copper. So I have a Noctua Cooler ($75.)

Total: $440

DDR3 prices are expected to fall in 2012. 16GB Dual Channel Kits to be the norm.

You could go LGA1155; but the cost would break your budget, that is unless you went with a low end single or dual core chip for $70 or less. You would also need to set aside cash for a graphics card, so tack on another $90-100. Also consider, Ivy Bridge will be released shortly after you make your purchase. So if you can, consider holing out an extra month or three.

 

[fffblackmage]

I'd go for an i5-2500K, Z68 mobo, and an SSD.

 

[mikeymikec]

The spec looks good enough to play SC2 well, why are you looking to upgrade it?

 

[GoStumpy]

You could go LGA1155; but the cost would break your budget, that is unless you went with a low end single or dual core chip for $70 or less. You would also need to set aside cash for a graphics card, so tack on another $90-100. Also consider, Ivy Bridge will be released shortly after you make your purchase. So if you can, consider holing out an extra month or three.

lol, what? He has a GTX460.. That's better than "tacking on another $90-100." He also said he has 8GB of Kingston DDR3 Ram. Reading comprehension?

i5-2400k + Z68 motherboard is the obvious choice, especially considering OP is willing to spend up to $500 on CPU/Mobo. There's no better option for that than it-2400k, a cooler, and a good Z68 Mobo.

Gigagbyte GA-Z68M $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128523

Intel i7-2600K $320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070

Well under the $500 budget, and it will last for many years to come!

I didn't list the i5-2500K since it shows out of stock... But i5-2500k and a solid SSD is your best bet. You don't know how much faster your computer is with a SSD until you try it. Platter HDD's are the bottleneck of EVERY computer.

 

[sandorski]

The spec looks good enough to play SC2 well, why are you looking to upgrade it?

this


Just get a SSD and/or better Monitor and call it a day. It really doesn't sound like you need more Performance.

 

[Googer]

lol, what? He has a GTX460..

I overlooked that.

 

[Googer]

Only when prices are as high as they are and when you have a deep need for IO. When 1tb drives settle back down $50, I'll pick up 10 1tb hard drives for the price of one puny SSD.

RAID 0
160MB/s x 10 = 1600 MB/s and a respectable IO count.
Realistically:
Raid 0
160MB/s x5 = 500-800MB/s, $250. No SSD can touch that in terms of performance per dollar.

 

[ShreddedWheat]

Your cpu/mobo seems fine to me, especially since you said you don't game much anymore? I would definately look at upgrading to a SSD and then re-evaluate. I think you will be surprised at the difference with SSD!

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Plus I don't game much anymore, as I spend more time now just playing SC2 and/or watching TV shows while talking to friends. In short, I guess I place multitasking over gaming now.

It looks like you already have a system that meets those needs but if you feelin the upgrade itch it's hard to do better than blackmage's recommendation

I'd go for an i5-2500K, Z68 mobo, and an SSD.

 

[GoStumpy]

Only when prices are as high as they are and when you have a deep need for IO. When 1tb drives settle back down $50, I'll pick up 10 1tb hard drives for the price of one puny SSD.

RAID 0
160MB/s x 10 = 1600 MB/s and a respectable IO count.
Realistically:
Raid 0
160MB/s x5 = 500-800MB/s, $250. No SSD can touch that in terms of performance per dollar.

Why resist SSDs? You only need 1 SSD for your OS/key programs... Everything else isn't speed sensitive and can be on platter drives.

Once you see the instantaneous opening of programs, installing, turning on and shutting off of the system, load screens of games eliminated, load screens of everything eliminated... Seek times are eliminated, and I'm sure opening programs it will be doing more than 1 seek.

Everyone will come around eventually and realize SSD for boot drives just make sense. Sure you *can* live without one, but if you like speed, why the hell would you ? Nobody needs more than 120GB for a OS drive, and those can be had for ~$140 right now...

 

[geokilla]

How would a SSD work when your motherboard like mine doesn't have TRIM? I also read that you have to limit the amount of writes you do on your SSD.

If I do invest in a SSD, I got no clue how to set it up. Some people say use it as C: while others say use it for cache. I also need to change browser settings and make sure downloads go to the non-SSD drive because of again, the limited writes, etc.

 

[fffblackmage]

Limited number of writes isn't an issue because your rig will be useless and slow before the SSD dies.

TRIM is not a hardware feature. It is software. I'm not aware of any SSD today that doesn't support it, and all you need to do is ensure TRIM is enabled (which should be on by default if you freshly install Windows 7 on it) and you're using the right IDE/AHCI driver (the default Windows driver will work).

You don't necessarily need to do anything special to set up the SSD. You just use it like any other HDD. I would recommend disabling hibernation, because you can boot just as fast anyways (this is optional and you probably won't use hibernation anyways).

 

[GoStumpy]

How would a SSD work when your motherboard like mine doesn't have TRIM? I also read that you have to limit the amount of writes you do on your SSD.

If I do invest in a SSD, I got no clue how to set it up. Some people say use it as C: while others say use it for cache. I also need to change browser settings and make sure downloads go to the non-SSD drive because of again, the limited writes, etc.

Basically, treat the SSD as any normal hard drive. I did nothing special, nothing except enable AHCI in the BIOS. I have SSD's in 3 builds now, all are working flawlessly. DO NOT WORRY about # of writes etc, the only thing you should worry about is putting the large files on a different harddrive, like your music collection, movies, tv shows, etc..

Windows 7 does TRIM automatically. (afaik, it does on my 3 builds anyway!)

 

[mfenn]

Only when prices are as high as they are and when you have a deep need for IO. When 1tb drives settle back down $50, I'll pick up 10 1tb hard drives for the price of one puny SSD.

RAID 0
160MB/s x 10 = 1600 MB/s and a respectable IO count.
Realistically:
Raid 0
160MB/s x5 = 500-800MB/s, $250. No SSD can touch that in terms of performance per dollar.

That's all well and good, but sequential access speeds don't matter when it comes to system responsiveness. IOPS are what count. With a 10 drive RAID0, you will be lucky to be doing 1500 4K IOPS. A single M4 128GB drive is good for 20000.

 

[mfenn]

lol, what? He has a GTX460.. That's better than "tacking on another $90-100." He also said he has 8GB of Kingston DDR3 Ram. Reading comprehension?

i5-2400k + Z68 motherboard is the obvious choice, especially considering OP is willing to spend up to $500 on CPU/Mobo. There's no better option for that than it-2400k, a cooler, and a good Z68 Mobo.

Gigagbyte GA-Z68M $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128523

Intel i7-2600K $320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115070

Well under the $500 budget, and it will last for many years to come!

I didn't list the i5-2500K since it shows out of stock... But i5-2500k and a solid SSD is your best bet. You don't know how much faster your computer is with a SSD until you try it. Platter HDD's are the bottleneck of EVERY computer.

i5 2500K's show as in stock for me right now. I agree that something like the following is the best way to increase overall system performance and responsiveness for ~$500.

i5 2500K $220
ASRock Z68 Pro3 $100
Samsung 830 128GB $200

 

[geokilla]

Limited number of writes isn't an issue because your rig will be useless and slow before the SSD dies.

TRIM is not a hardware feature. It is software. I'm not aware of any SSD today that doesn't support it, and all you need to do is ensure TRIM is enabled (which should be on by default if you freshly install Windows 7 on it) and you're using the right IDE/AHCI driver (the default Windows driver will work).

You don't necessarily need to do anything special to set up the SSD. You just use it like any other HDD. I would recommend disabling hibernation, because you can boot just as fast anyways (this is optional and you probably won't use hibernation anyways).

Basically, treat the SSD as any normal hard drive. I did nothing special, nothing except enable AHCI in the BIOS. I have SSD's in 3 builds now, all are working flawlessly. DO NOT WORRY about # of writes etc, the only thing you should worry about is putting the large files on a different harddrive, like your music collection, movies, tv shows, etc..

Windows 7 does TRIM automatically. (afaik, it does on my 3 builds anyway!)

Ok I'll keep that in mind when I get a SSD later on. How do you guys treat your programs and games though? If I install them on another drive, say D: for example, then when I format in the future I'd have a huge headache trying to get programs to work properly right? Because programs and registry has to like work together and stuff like that?

I also read that if I get a 60GB SSD, then it's better off to just set it up as a cache drive. Dunno if my mobo allows it, and same goes for TRIM as I mentioned earlier because AMD was late to the SSD party. Maybe HWC didn't update the SSD thread, but they did mention that Windows 7 has TRIM built in. It's just that the AMD 7XX chipsets don't have it.

 

[poohbear]

AMD chipset drivers support TRIM since last year. Just install em as part of the Catalyst suite & ure set.

 

[Googer]

AMD chipset drivers support TRIM since last year. Just install em as part of the Catalyst suite & ure set.

Also, it's best to be running Windows 7.

 

[Googer]

That's all well and good, but sequential access speeds don't matter when it comes to system responsiveness. IOPS are what count. With a 10 drive RAID0, you will be lucky to be doing 1500 4K IOPS. A single M4 128GB drive is good for 20000.

Well, I'm talking value here; which no SSD will be able to touch for at least a decade. Another option is to wait Seagate's second generation desktop hybrid Hard Drive. Or mount a few of their smaller 2.5 inch Momentus XT.

 

[sm625]

Yes if you've never used an SSD you should go with that. You have enough cpu power. It is surely the HDD that makes your system feel slow. You can install the SSD in your system as the new boot drive without reinstalling windows. You just need to make your partition small enough to fit onto an SSD. For example if you buy a 64GB SSD then you want to reduce your partition to around 54GB max (to be safe, trust me you dont want to screw this up). Now in order to get your drive down that small may take some work. You can uninstall your big games. You can copy any movies/music onto an external/usb flash drive. I use easus partition manager to shrink my partition.

Once it is shrunk I use the standard windows 7 backup to back up my drive. You'll need ~60GB of free space somewhere to do this btw. You can make a new partition on your old HDD and put the backup there. I use acronis true image home to do this on XP. Acronis is nice because I keep my boot drive under 28GB, which acronis can make fit onto my 16GB thumb drive.

 

[geokilla]

In that case, I guess I'll get a SSD before upgrading the CPU and mobo. Any SSD that you'd recommend? The Vertex 3 is overkill and I heard that there's lots of problems with the drive dying.

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

Only when prices are as high as they are and when you have a deep need for IO. When 1tb drives settle back down $50, I'll pick up 10 1tb hard drives for the price of one puny SSD.

RAID 0
160MB/s x 10 = 1600 MB/s and a respectable IO count.
Realistically:
Raid 0
160MB/s x5 = 500-800MB/s, $250. No SSD can touch that in terms of performance per dollar.

now figure in the raid card, and add another 200 on to the cost.

 

[RavenSEAL]

now figure in the raid card, and add another 200 on to the cost.

Don't forget the HDD rack or the full ATX case while you're at it.

 

[geokilla]

Well I'm getting a lot of talk over at HWC that AMD + SSD is a bad idea, especially due to the lack of TRIM. AkG is saying that even though the OS and drivers have TRIM, it may not get passed over to the SSD. Any clarifications on this?