Should i upgrade to a quadcore?

[LW07]

Alright, been thinking of moving to socket AM2 so i can get a Phenom II 920 for both the bang for the buck and the better upgrade path than the LGA775 platform. However, with me starting off in college this fall, i probably won't be gaming as much, so will i still need the power of a quad-core CPU?

Or should i just go LGA 775 and get an E8400?

Gaming and basic usage is what i do, i don't encode videos or photoshop or anything of that sort.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

AM2 doesn't really have any better upgrade path than LGA775 does. AMD is moving to AM3, which means new cpu, mobo, and RAM.

If I've learned one thing after 10 years of building my own PC's, it's that I should just concentrate on getting what I need *now*, and upgrades and upgrade paths will take care of themselves. You can't go wrong buying anything that's relatively current. IE AM2+, LGA775, or i7. Just buy what you need to do what you do now.

 

[LW07]

So even an E8400 would be good if i wouldn't do heavy gaming?

Edit: I guess i'll go for a Q6600 with a Zalman 9700 build so i can OC it. 3.0ghz is pretty much guarenteed on the Q6600 from what i hear, and even at stock i probably won't lose much in single-threaded tasks while having a lot more power in reserve for future games.

 

[eternalone]

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
AM2 doesn't really have any better upgrade path than LGA775 does. AMD is moving to AM3, which means new cpu, mobo, and RAM.

If I've learned one thing after 10 years of building my own PC's, it's that I should just concentrate on getting what I need *now*, and upgrades and upgrade paths will take care of themselves. You can't go wrong buying anything that's relatively current. IE AM2+, LGA775, or i7. Just buy what you need to do what you do now.

Exactly and always try to get the most for your money.

 

[daveybrat]

And the best part is that if you part out your old system, an X2 939 4800+ will fetch a handsome price on ebay! 🙂

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: eternalone

Originally posted by: LokutusofBorg
AM2 doesn't really have any better upgrade path than LGA775 does. AMD is moving to AM3, which means new cpu, mobo, and RAM.

If I've learned one thing after 10 years of building my own PC's, it's that I should just concentrate on getting what I need *now*, and upgrades and upgrade paths will take care of themselves. You can't go wrong buying anything that's relatively current. IE AM2+, LGA775, or i7. Just buy what you need to do what you do now.

Exactly and always try to get the most for your money.

Its a good thing AM3 processors will be backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards then now isn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_AM2%2B

So really, the AMD upgrade path is slightly better then the intel upgrade path as you (hopefully) just have to plop the new CPU into your old mother board. No MoBo, Ram, update needed.

right now a PII in a socket AM2+ board is tempting.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

While the AMD might offer more upgrades in the future, is AMD going to release a chip that wil be faster than something like Intel's Q9650? As far as I know I don't think they will for the AM2/AM3 platform.

So from a performance standpoint, LGA775 and AM2+ will last about the same length of time.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

hahaha...I was debating this in July. I halfway wished I had waited until now to buy, I could've got the same parts for $500 less.

Honestly I would go with an LGA775 system, AM2+ may have compatibility with AM3, but I imagine there'll be a hardware limitation capping the benefit of a processor upgrade.
That and Q6600's are dirt cheap. Using a Gigabyte P45 mobo a friend got 3.4Ghz stable with one, and I think he was RAM limited. He's doing alright with temps on his Zalman 9700, though the fan is on high and it's noisy.

I think you'd do better with the Xigmatek S1283, AC Freezer Xtreme, AC Freezer 7 Pro, or for about the same price as the Zalman: Noctua NH-U12P. Any of them are good, the Freezer 7 Pro is a favorite for its price/performance ratio, I use the Noctua and dig it so yeah.

I also think total cost for what you're getting is better on the LGA775 platform currently, especially with the Q6600 in the mix.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Originally posted by: Cogman
...
right now a PII in a socket AM2+ board is tempting.

This, IMO, is about the only option that presents a viable "upgrade path" and I'm considering doing it for my wife's computer when/if we get a good enough tax return to upgrade our computers. But only if I wait and get one of the AM3 Ph2's.

With an AM3 Ph2 in an AM2+ mobo I'll be able to upgrade her once DDR3 proves to provide a paradigm shift in performance (right now it's marginal, so *no* reason to move to it unless you're going i7) by upgrading her mobo and RAM and reusing the CPU.

The above seems overly costly, though, considering I can just buy her a nice X2 system for really cheap, or go C2D for not much more and then just upgrade her again in a couple years for a low end amount like I would be doing now. No sense spending a lot when a little suffices, and in the future (2 years?) when that budget system is performing marginally, I can just upgrade her again at the budget end of things and again not spend that much.

[EDIT: the above kind of ignores i7, since it's leading edge and represents as-good-as-it-gets in regards to "upgrade path". When AM3 is fully here, then that will be the equivalent on the AMD side of things.]

 

[RallyMaster]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
And the best part is that if you part out your old system, an X2 939 4800+ will fetch a handsome price on ebay! 🙂

Last I checked, an X2 4800+ 939 goes for $250 or so on eBay which will completely cover the cost of a quad up to a Q9400.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: LW07
Alright, been thinking of moving to socket AM2 so i can get a Phenom II 920 for both the bang for the buck and the better upgrade path than the LGA775 platform. However, with me starting off in college this fall, i probably won't be gaming as much, so will i still need the power of a quad-core CPU?

Or should i just go LGA 775 and get an E8400?

Gaming and basic usage is what i do, i don't encode videos or photoshop or anything of that sort.

It sounds like you definitely have no need for a quad-core anything at any GHz for any amount of low-pricing. No doubt a dual-core will suffice, and probably no need for a fast one anyways.

Seriously if you only plan on email, web, office apps, and the occasional game then I can't see any reason to upgrade what you already have. That dual-core chip you have is plenty and the GTX260 is plenty.

Am I missing something?

 

[RallyMaster]

Ehh...I disagree. GTAIV runs much better on my Q6700 with 4850 than my friend's E8400 with 8800GT. I'm running a stock 2.66GHz vs his mild 3.2GHz OC and the fact that he has 1MB of cache more per core than I do.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: LW07
Alright, been thinking of moving to socket AM2 so i can get a Phenom II 920 for both the bang for the buck and the better upgrade path than the LGA775 platform. However, with me starting off in college this fall, i probably won't be gaming as much, so will i still need the power of a quad-core CPU?

Or should i just go LGA 775 and get an E8400?

Gaming and basic usage is what i do, i don't encode videos or photoshop or anything of that sort.

It sounds like you definitely have no need for a quad-core anything at any GHz for any amount of low-pricing. No doubt a dual-core will suffice, and probably no need for a fast one anyways.

Seriously if you only plan on email, web, office apps, and the occasional game then I can't see any reason to upgrade what you already have. That dual-core chip you have is plenty and the GTX260 is plenty.

Am I missing something?

When I replaced my X2 @ 3 Ghz with a Phenom @ 2.75, my Far Cry 2 benchmark avg went from 38 to 53. 1680x1050, DX10, Very High settings, no AA.

All other components were the same.

 

[DTess17]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster

Originally posted by: daveybrat
And the best part is that if you part out your old system, an X2 939 4800+ will fetch a handsome price on ebay! 🙂

Last I checked, an X2 4800+ 939 goes for $250 or so on eBay which will completely cover the cost of a quad up to a Q9400.

$250?
wow. I just sold a opteron 170 for like $40, and I was happy.
Why so much?

 

[faxon]

as soon as AM2 came out, amd completely stopped fabbing new 939 CPUs, so as soon as stores sold out on them supplies completely dried up. some companies that have old hardware still and dont want to pay extra to upgrade when something dies will pay a price premium for things like this if the end result is as little profit lost as possible, despite the obvious lack of bang for your buck. i myself got caught in this one myself. no less than 9 months after i got my s939 4000+ single core i was looking to upgrade, and no one had anything left for sale except old FX chips which were going for as much as original launch prices still. for $700 today that some stores want for their old s939 FX chips you could probably build an i7 system

 

[RallyMaster]

Originally posted by: DTess17

Originally posted by: RallyMaster

Originally posted by: daveybrat
And the best part is that if you part out your old system, an X2 939 4800+ will fetch a handsome price on ebay! 🙂

Last I checked, an X2 4800+ 939 goes for $250 or so on eBay which will completely cover the cost of a quad up to a Q9400.

$250?
wow. I just sold a opteron 170 for like $40, and I was happy.
Why so much?

You got massively lowballed on that Opteron 170. I sold my Opteron 165 last month for $75.

 

[DTess17]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster

Originally posted by: DTess17

Originally posted by: RallyMaster

Originally posted by: daveybrat
And the best part is that if you part out your old system, an X2 939 4800+ will fetch a handsome price on ebay! 🙂

Last I checked, an X2 4800+ 939 goes for $250 or so on eBay which will completely cover the cost of a quad up to a Q9400.

$250?
wow. I just sold a opteron 170 for like $40, and I was happy.
Why so much?

You got massively lowballed on that Opteron 170. I sold my Opteron 165 last month for $75.

Wow, good to know. I have another one in my current system. I'm looking to get a few more things for an upgrade then part that other one out. A few extra $ in my pocket is welcomed.

 

[SickBeast]

I personally find that my Opteron 165 overclocked to 2.6ghz is plenty fine for everything I do with my computer, including gaming.

IMO you would have to be doing some really intensive stuff to require an upgrade to a quad core.

I don't see an E8400 as a worthy upgrade. Sure it will be faster, but you're still stuck on 2 cores, and if you are going to upgrade I would definitely go for a quad.

I think you should wait for the new tri-core Black Phenom II that will cost around $150. I'm pretty sure it's coming out tomorrow.