Should I count my losses or work with what I have?

[pantsaregood]

I have a Phenom X4 9750 lying around. It will run at 2.8GHz with a 2.1GHz NB. The motherboard I was using with it (Biostar TA790XE) blew its MOSFETs a few weeks ago. I RMA'd it to Newegg, but was forced to accept a refund instead of a replacement because they stopped stocking it immediately after I purchased it.

I'm now out a motherboard. I'm using my laptop plugged into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor at the moment.

I don't do any heavy gaming. Occasional gaming, perhaps, but nothing frequent. I plan on doing a lot of audio recording and editing, but I don't know that a newer CPU would benefit that.

Should I upgrade to the Sandy Bridge platform? If I did, I'd be using a Core i5 2500K and whatever the cheapest non-garbage P67 board was. I've noticed that SBs seem to reliably overclock to 4.3GHz or higher, so that would be nice.

It it worth it to throw down $400 for a CPU, RAM, and motherboard at this point, or should I just hunt an AM2+ board?

 

[eternalone]

If you can wait 1 month or so, you could probably get a good deal, You will have your choice of 3 platforms.

Bulldozer
Sandybridge with IGP
And LLANO with IGP.

Its up to you to see how long you can hang on the laptop. I would wait but you can be sure to have some leaks of BD performance soon, and Gigabyte just dropped the first Am3+ board so might be worth it to wait.

 

[pantsaregood]

Yeah, I forgot. Bulldozer could potentially outperform SB, or at least drive prices down.

I don't like the idea of SB with IGP because I can't overclock it. IGP doesn't serve a huge purpose, since I have an old 9500GT that overclocked pretty well laying around. It may be a crappy GPU, but it beats any IGP.

 

[mv2devnull]

I don't like the idea of SB with IGP because I can't overclock it.

Is that true for all SB chipsets?

 

[pantsaregood]

The IGP is disabled with P67, if I'm not mistaken. The IGP doesn't prevent you from overclocking, but using a board that allows the IGP to be used automatically prevents you from overclocking.

 

[Athadeus]

This sounds like one of the less common situations where Z68 will actually suit you well. I think 2500k with core and IGP overclocked on Z68 would perform as well as P67 + 9500GT and use less power.

 

[pantsaregood]

I'm assuming Z68 is going to be more expensive, though.

 

[mv2devnull]

That is among the "will be known soonish" category.

Getting DDR2-boards seems to get very difficult already, should you choose the "no upgrade" path.

 

[Idontcare]

The OP sounds like he's not in a happy place with his temporary computer setup, we should try and set his expectations a little more closer to reality.

Bulldozer was last reported to be planned for shipping the week of June 20, and Llano targeted for sometime in first week of July. Don't give him false hope by telling him he need merely wait another month or so. Realistically he's looking at a minimum of 2 months absolute best-case scenario to being able to order a BD rig, longer still to get Llano.

Remember release does not mean the guy can go straight from reading the review on Anandtech to ordering it on Newegg. And he needs to know when he can realistically expect to take delivery of the parts he needs to get away from his temporary rig.

(I've got a dying laptop I desperately want to replace w/Llano, so I'm watching this too)

 

[pantsaregood]

I want to see Bulldozer benchmarks more than anything. If its another K8 and beats anything Intel has by a mile, great. If it isn't, I'm hoping it is at least competitive. Driving down the prices of Sandy Bridge CPUs would be great.

Llano doesn't interest me, honestly. It has shipped, though.

 

[nyker96]

I have to agree with a previous poster, if you can wait another 2 months or so, the prices will be shaken up by the upcoming Bulldozer CPU line. If nothing else, you will have a lot more choices to play with. You might even find that BD cpu fits your better etc.

 

[Idontcare]

Llano doesn't interest me, honestly. It has shipped, though.

Not trying to be disagreeable, but rather just trying to be pragmatic about this.

AMD announced they were "shipping for revenue" Ontario/Brazos on Nov 9, 2010 but the systems weren't available for full reviews until Jan 27, 2011 (basically 3 months later) and weren't available for purchase by the consumer until later still.

AMD saying they are shipping Llano for revenue now puts them on track for reviews in June-July timeframe, consumer availability even later.

I'm grousing over this reality because I really wanted to have a Llano laptop at the start of summer, not Aug, but that looks to be how things are shaping up.

 

[Black96ws6]

I have a Phenom X4 9750 lying around. It will run at 2.8GHz with a 2.1GHz NB. The motherboard I was using with it (Biostar TA790XE) blew its MOSFETs a few weeks ago. I RMA'd it to Newegg, but was forced to accept a refund instead of a replacement because they stopped stocking it immediately after I purchased it.

I'm now out a motherboard. I'm using my laptop plugged into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor at the moment.

I don't do any heavy gaming. Occasional gaming, perhaps, but nothing frequent. I plan on doing a lot of audio recording and editing, but I don't know that a newer CPU would benefit that.

Should I upgrade to the Sandy Bridge platform? If I did, I'd be using a Core i5 2500K and whatever the cheapest non-garbage P67 board was. I've noticed that SBs seem to reliably overclock to 4.3GHz or higher, so that would be nice.

It it worth it to throw down $400 for a CPU, RAM, and motherboard at this point, or should I just hunt an AM2+ board?

Go buy this right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157204

/thread

 

[LucJoe]

Yeah, I forgot. Bulldozer could potentially outperform SB, or at least drive prices down.

I don't like the idea of SB with IGP because I can't overclock it. IGP doesn't serve a huge purpose, since I have an old 9500GT that overclocked pretty well laying around. It may be a crappy GPU, but it beats any IGP.

If you're going to wait for Bulldozer, Intel's Z68 sandy bridge platform will be out. Z68 will be the best of P67 + H67... overclocking with IGP enabled + quick sync + ssd caching.

 

[betasub]

AMD announced they were "shipping for revenue" Ontario/Brazos on Nov 9, 2010 but the systems weren't available for full reviews until Jan 27, 2011 (basically 3 months later) and weren't available for purchase by the consumer until later still.

AMD saying they are shipping Llano for revenue now puts them on track for reviews in June-July timeframe, consumer availability even later.

Revenue? As in receiving sales income?

 

[jiffylube1024]

I think you mean "cut my losses" - "count my losses" is not the expression!

-------

Regarding your problem, I'd say there's two good paths to take for a cheap tide-me-over:

1. look for a DDR2-supporting AM2/AM2+ motherboard from the Forums - ASUS and Gigabyte are good makers. I've picked up several for ~$50. Even a uATX board with integrated graphics should support overclocking and 95/120W CPU's.

You could also get something like the ASUS M4A785-M motherboard (supports DDR2 and AM2/3 processors) for $69.99 from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131595


2. Since your X4 9750 doesn't support DDR3, flip it plus the RAM on Ebay or the forums. You should be able to get $50 for the CPU easy on ebay, since its a good upgrade for a lot of older AM2/AM2+ motherboard.

Then, if you want a cheap upgrade, you can get something like an Athlon II X4 3 GHz for $100, an ASUS M4A78LT-M for $70 and 8GB of DDR3 for $80. After selling your old CPU and RAM you're getting the upgrade for ~$200.

 

[Tsavo]

I have a Phenom X4 9750 lying around. It will run at 2.8GHz with a 2.1GHz NB. The motherboard I was using with it (Biostar TA790XE) blew its MOSFETs a few weeks ago. I RMA'd it to Newegg, but was forced to accept a refund instead of a replacement because they stopped stocking it immediately after I purchased it.

I'm now out a motherboard. I'm using my laptop plugged into a keyboard, mouse, and monitor at the moment.

I don't do any heavy gaming. Occasional gaming, perhaps, but nothing frequent. I plan on doing a lot of audio recording and editing, but I don't know that a newer CPU would benefit that.

Should I upgrade to the Sandy Bridge platform? If I did, I'd be using a Core i5 2500K and whatever the cheapest non-garbage P67 board was. I've noticed that SBs seem to reliably overclock to 4.3GHz or higher, so that would be nice.

It it worth it to throw down $400 for a CPU, RAM, and motherboard at this point, or should I just hunt an AM2+ board?

Get the 2500K now, waiting sucks. As IDC noted, AMD has a recent history of long launch times.

SB at 4+ GHz will blow the enamel off your teeth.

 

[pantsaregood]

Okay, put it up on Ebay for just $0.99. Hopefully someone wants it. Looks like I'm either going SB or BD in a few months.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Go buy this right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157204

/thread

nvidia chipset. you just failed the thread.

 

[gevorg]

If I had X4 9750 now, I would just buy a cheap mobo to last until the end of the year when 8 core CPUs will be out and well reviewed (Bulldozer and SB-E). But if you're serious about audio recording and that is part of your business/studies, then buy SB now.

 

[Rvenger]

If I had X4 9750 now, I would just buy a cheap mobo to last until the end of the year when 8 core CPUs will be out and well reviewed (Bulldozer and SB-E). But if you're serious about audio recording and that is part of your business/studies, then buy SB now.

pantsaregood - I have a Biostar TF7025-m2 that has been running for me with no issues. PM me if you are interested. I just ripped it out of my older build because I have too many computers now. I am willing to help you out and give it to you cheap. I have plenty of references.



EDIT: The board I was talking about says its not Phenom compatible due to wattage being limited to 95watt. Strange because I was running a 105 watt Opteron on it with 0 issues!

 

[Black96ws6]

nvidia chipset. you just failed the thread.

What does that have to do with anything considering what he'll be doing with his system?

 

[Starcrosser]

Strange thread. Cutting your losses is usually done when you've actually lost something.

 

[aigomorla]

Strange thread. Cutting your losses is usually done when you've actually lost something.

well he's saying he wants to jump on a new platform, and ditch his old, cuz he lost his board.

So it would be in a sense cutting his losses.

In all honesty tho OP, if u dont see yourself requiring anymore cpu power then what u had, id rather invest it in a faster IO, after a board upgrade, then jump platforms.

I think you would honestly be happier staying on AMD, and getting a SSD as your root drive to speed up your IO, over going sandy bridge.

From what i read it seems you really dont need anything which sandy brings, over your current AMD.

 

[Starcrosser]

I see what he's saying, just an odd way of articulating it.