Sobstitute an MSI H61 with an Asus P67

[psygnosis]

Hi all,
the office I've worked for, will be close in a month, and just for kindness ('cause it will be trashed) they offer me to take a Desktop with these specs:

• i7 2600k
• Asus P6P67 (i don't remember the rev)
• 2 banks of Hyper X blu 4gb 9-9-9-24 1600mhz
• 2 banck of Corsair XMS 3 8gb 9-9-9-26 1600mhz

(i don't care of video card I'll explain later why)

At my home I have a:

• i3 3220
• MSI PH61-P33
• 2 banks of Geil 4gb 9-9-9-24 1333mhz

I have also an ATi Radeon R7 265 and a CM Hyper T4 Cooling system and an Asus DGX Sound card.

In first place I though to take just the cpu and install the i7 on my msi mobo (cause someone tells me that even if my i3 is based on ivy bridge, the i7 on sandy brige is more powerful).
But after some search about ram and chipset I found out that maybe the P67 chipset is better than the H61 and even the ram are better...

Do you think could be a good thing change the entire system (mobo+proc+ram)? or I can just take the CPU and 2 banks of RAM? and keep my MSI board?

I wouldn't like to format my PC...that's another "problem"....

Thanks all of you in advance for your advice.

 

[lehtv]

I'd just take the CPU & RAM - avoids having to reinstall Windows.

Although I wonder if you actually have use for the extra CPU power and RAM capacity?

 

[Yuriman]

I'd probably use the whole PC as it is, assuming you need the extra power. Otherwise, most of those parts still have pretty good resale value.

 

[psygnosis]

I have to admit that I don't need extra power...I play everything with my actual configuration...BUT
if that i7+mobo+ram are someway better why sell them? if I could sell my i3?

so if i install also the P6P67 i need to reinstall windows for sure?

some friend tells me that the whole pc is better then mine...
RAM has more freq (1600 vs 1333)
P67 chipset is better than H61
i7 sandy is better than i3 ivy

 

[Yuriman]

Windows installations are *generally* tied to your motherboard/chipset. If you move your hard drive to another motherboard, Windows may require that you reactivate, and possibly may not boot and require a reinstall. However, Microsoft is forgiving about this and they'll almost certainly reactivate it for you for no charge if you give them a call.

Keeping your video card and selling the rest of the i3 system is a reasonable move. The only reason I can see to keep it might be if you are extremely concerned with power consumption and noise, but Ivy Bridge only brought small, incremental improvements in these areas.

 

[psygnosis]

U right! For what I've read Ivy's power consumption is negligible if contrast with sandy's...
Btw windows activation it's not a problem I've already call them

 

[mfenn]

Moving a Windows installation from one motherboard to another in the same family should be fine. However, you will need to reactivate. That won't be a problem if you have a retail key, but it might be an issue if you used an OEM one.

Assuming you have a retail key, I would probably move the storage and GPU over to the i7 system since that's less work than moving the CPU+mobo+RAM.

 

[psygnosis]

Assuming you have a retail key, I would probably move the storage and GPU over to the i7 system since that's less work than moving the CPU+mobo+RAM.

I don't have time problem mfenn for me it's fun. I'd just want to know if was better substitute only cpu or cpu+mobo+eventually ram

(For win as I said up, I've call them and they tell me that won't be a single problem for the license, also if the operator advice me to wipe everything)

EDIT: wait a minute! but my i3 support 1600Mhz ram and the i7 not? so if I use the corsair or the hyperx with that i7 the freq will be setted down tro 1033????

 

[bononos]

The 2600k will run the memory at ddr3-1333 speeds, the cpu freq will not be affected and its not tied to memory speed because of async timing which is standard from way back to P3 I think. Very little performance loss.

 

[maddogmcgee]

Take the entire PC and sell your old one after you have wiped it. It's a much much faster system. If you are interested, you could spend 50 bucks on a new CPU fan and have a over-clocked CPU that is faster than anything you can buy for gaming/very good at every thing for a long time. The only disadvantage to the new pc would be higher power but if your not stressing it this wont be very different anyway. An SSD before you install windows would make it fly (but cost a decent chunk of what you will get for your old PC). Oh and with a p67, you can up the ram to 1600, 1866 etc if the ram will take it.

 

[mfenn]

The 2600k will run the memory at ddr3-1333 speeds, the cpu freq will not be affected and its not tied to memory speed because of async timing which is standard from way back to P3 I think. Very little performance loss.

Sandy Bridge will run at 1600 Mhz and over just fine with XMP profiles. It's technically "overclocking" because they only support 1333 MHz JEDEC profiles, but in reality it will work fine.