I currently have a Core 2 Duo E6850, 4 Gb RAM, GT550Ti, about 2TB storage, including a 480Gb SSD in an Antec Sonata III case with it's stock 500W PSU. I want to upgrade the CPU, Mobo and RAM as it's a bit sluggish on boot up and even browsing the web is occasionally a bit slower than I'd like. I dual boot, but 99% of the time I'm running Linux Mint these days. I do a little light gaming, some programming and a lot of time wasting on it. It runs Civ5 reasonably well and I've played Left 4 Dead 2 on it previously as well.
My budget is not fixed, but I'd like to keep it cheap. I'm currently considering a few options in the $180-450 Canadian range. I'm in Canada, but I'd consider ordering off Aliexpress as well. The retailers in Canada that I've dealt with include Newegg, CanadaComputers, Amazon (Canada) and ATIC. Ryzen prices here have recently gone through the roof for no particular reason that I can see or I'd just go that route. The other than #1, the prices I'm listing are from atic.ca, a company I've dealt with as far back as 1992.
I'm currently looking at a few options:
1. Cheap, but interesting: Xeon e5-2689. About 180 CAD on Aliexpress including cheap Chinese mobo and 16gb ECC RAM. Biggest down side is being patient for it to get here. Strong CPU performance.
2. Not so cheap, but can be delivered quickly: i3-9100F Asus Supreme H110 motherboard and 16Gb RAM $337CAD
3. For a bit more: Ryzen 3 3200g, Asus Prime a320-k + 16gb RAM: $366
4. As #3, but Ryaen 5 3600: $470
5. As #3 but Ryzen 5 3400g: $471
My current thoughts are that #4 is a better plan for a Ryzen platform. Much better CPU and the integrated graphics on #5 aren't that much better than what I have. Besides, if I need, I can upgrade with a used video card later. Same for #3, really.
However, the Xeon is insane bang/buck. It's super tempting, especially since I probably won't outgrow it for more than 5 years (look how long I've had a Core 2, right?). I'm an older retired guy and it's unlikely I'll do all that much FPS or MMORPG gaming at all. I did the MMO thing back in the Everquest days and permanently burned out. I'm much more of a strategy and tactics guy in that regard.
Please let me know what you think of these options, especially if I've misinterpreted the benchmarks. I've looked at passmark for the cpus as well as the results on userbenchmarks (where the 9100F scored surprisingly high).
Edit to add: monitor is 1680x1050 native
My budget is not fixed, but I'd like to keep it cheap. I'm currently considering a few options in the $180-450 Canadian range. I'm in Canada, but I'd consider ordering off Aliexpress as well. The retailers in Canada that I've dealt with include Newegg, CanadaComputers, Amazon (Canada) and ATIC. Ryzen prices here have recently gone through the roof for no particular reason that I can see or I'd just go that route. The other than #1, the prices I'm listing are from atic.ca, a company I've dealt with as far back as 1992.
I'm currently looking at a few options:
1. Cheap, but interesting: Xeon e5-2689. About 180 CAD on Aliexpress including cheap Chinese mobo and 16gb ECC RAM. Biggest down side is being patient for it to get here. Strong CPU performance.
2. Not so cheap, but can be delivered quickly: i3-9100F Asus Supreme H110 motherboard and 16Gb RAM $337CAD
3. For a bit more: Ryzen 3 3200g, Asus Prime a320-k + 16gb RAM: $366
4. As #3, but Ryaen 5 3600: $470
5. As #3 but Ryzen 5 3400g: $471
My current thoughts are that #4 is a better plan for a Ryzen platform. Much better CPU and the integrated graphics on #5 aren't that much better than what I have. Besides, if I need, I can upgrade with a used video card later. Same for #3, really.
However, the Xeon is insane bang/buck. It's super tempting, especially since I probably won't outgrow it for more than 5 years (look how long I've had a Core 2, right?). I'm an older retired guy and it's unlikely I'll do all that much FPS or MMORPG gaming at all. I did the MMO thing back in the Everquest days and permanently burned out. I'm much more of a strategy and tactics guy in that regard.
Please let me know what you think of these options, especially if I've misinterpreted the benchmarks. I've looked at passmark for the cpus as well as the results on userbenchmarks (where the 9100F scored surprisingly high).
Edit to add: monitor is 1680x1050 native
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