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Take on my upgrade proposal

hotshot6198

Junior Member
Hello All, I am new to the forum and currently own a Phenom II x3 @ 2.8 (all stock) running on an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO mobo. Now i want to go intel and i do game quite a bit, so i was thinking a i7-2600. i wasnt really worried about the "k" because i dont usually overclock and i have an addon graphics card so the additional graphics you get with the 2600k isnt needed. I was just looking for some of your input thanks!
 
Get a 2500K if you're a gamer. That's the best price-for-performance deal going. The 2600K doesn't add anything from the gaming perspective. Plus, saving the $100 isn't bad, and if you suddenly decide to take some extra CPU cycles off the table (2500Ks can do 4.5G pretty much in their sleep) you'll still get a boost in gaming as well.
 
another option is looking a similarly clocked sandy-bridge xeons. You can drop them onto a desktop 1155 board(no ECC mem or overclocking), but cheaper

believe the xeon e3-1220 is equivalent to an i5 2500 (4 cores) with slightly lower clocks. e3-1230 equivalent to 2600 (4 cores + HT) with slightly lower clocks.

if you're close to a microcenter, it's even cheaper... 2500k for $180 + mobo discounts

but first, try to unlock your x3 or overclock, see how much longer you can get out of your current build
 
Welcome to the forums. Another vote for the i5 2500 processor and a decent motherboard. I personally would go with the 'k' series. You can bump up the multiplierwhen ready and get a free boost without any headaches. One other upgrade you should consider is a ssd drive if you don't have one already.

I never seen another member from RI, what town do you live in?
 
i5 2500 (the 2600/2700 are not worth it for Gaming)

The "K" edition is usually only $10-15 more and can Seriously O/C by 1 GHz by changing 2 things in your bios 9/10 times. (Multi and small bump in cpu voltage). It's hard to pass up the "free" performance boost.
 
Thanks All for the quick replies. To Speedtester i am located in Coventry. And thanks for the insight on the i5-2500k my buddy has been telling me the same thing but i was ignoring him thinking the 2600k was much better. What is the best north bridge they have for the 1155
 
probably the Z68 chipset is what you want... you can overclock, use the IGP and quicksync*

*some Z68 are crappier (cough gigabyte doesn't implement IGP video-out on this particalr board)
 
Cool thanks this whole new build with some new better ram and dvd-rw drive is still 50 dollars cheaper. how much do you all think i can overclock this badboy with a coolermaster hyper n 520? its an awesome heatsink/fan combo. currently my amd cpu never gets over 75degrees farenhiet!!!!
 
Cool thanks this whole new build with some new better ram and dvd-rw drive is still 50 dollars cheaper. how much do you all think i can overclock this badboy with a coolermaster hyper n 520? its an awesome heatsink/fan combo. currently my amd cpu never gets over 75degrees farenhiet!!!!

you mean celsius?... 75deg Fahrenheit = 25 celsius ... unless your room temp is really that cold (10-15c).... oh welll

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic173830.html

. I put a CoolerMaster Hyper N520 on it (what I think is a better cooler), and it still idles in the 30c area and goes as high as 42c under Prime95 (all stock settings).
 
Yea my room is usually about 19c and i can play something along the lines of BF3 for a couple hours and it will peak at about 27-28c. When i sleep my computer at night it goes down to about 9c (48f) when in sleep mode at its lowest.
 
Yea my room is usually about 19c and i can play something along the lines of BF3 for a couple hours and it will peak at about 27-28c. When i sleep my computer at night it goes down to about 9c (48f) when in sleep mode at its lowest.

48f? Lol, You sleeping in meatlocker? Something isn't right there. Your idle temp can't be 10 degrees lower than your ambient temp with an aircooler
 
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Hello All, I am new to the forum and currently own a Phenom II x3 @ 2.8 (all stock) running on an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO mobo. Now i want to go intel and i do game quite a bit, so i was thinking a i7-2600. i wasnt really worried about the "k" because i dont usually overclock and i have an addon graphics card so the additional graphics you get with the 2600k isnt needed. I was just looking for some of your input thanks!

What video card do you have what resolution the monitor?
 
if gaming is your thing, I suggest dump most of cash into upgrading the graphics card, your cpu should be fast enough to eek out 30+ fps, you not going to feel the difference between 30-40fps v. 130fps. your graphics card is probably the bottleneck in most games anyways. e.g. a DX11 card v. DX9 card will give you much more eye candy during gaming. Also a stronger gcard you can turn up the detail/texture level etc to make the game look that much better. When it comes to gaming, the best bang for buck is still at gcard upgrade.
 
Well I dont have heat in my room and up here in the northeast its a bit nippy at night. I only havve a space heater that i turn off when i go to sleep. But my graphics card is an Sapphire 6870 so i dont think my graphics card is bottlenecking me. Oh and i run my monitor at 1920x1080 its a ASUS 23.6"
 
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