Upgrade Help Please

[popop]

I have ALWAYS owned AMD processors, first AMD I bought as a separate processor was the amazingly fast K6. Not relevant here I know, sorry. I have been out of the computer component world for a few years, not really keeping up with it like I use to. Now I am ready to upgrade my AMD 1055t and need some help.

I am looking to get the AMD FX-8350(guess it isnt out yet). That will require me to get a new motherboard for AM3+ socket. My question here is I have been looking at Intel also. It seems they have just surpassed AMD by far. Would it be worth it for me to go ahead and change over to Intel now? Is Intel about to release and new "big" technology cpu and I should wait? Just use the desktop for internet and games.
I will take all the info you guys are willing to offer.

Thank you for your time!!

 

[MisterMac]

I'd wait for haswell.

Ivy i7 would be a significant upgrade - but Ph2 was and is a very cool uArch.
If you feel it's massively slow in your games or browsing - id look at GPU or SSD.
If you haven't already that is.

From the realistic hype to the crazy hype - 15-30% over Ivy is what Haswell should deliver.

But that requires waiting for the new year

 

[popop]

I'd wait for haswell.

Ivy i7 would be a significant upgrade - but Ph2 was and is a very cool uArch.
If you feel it's massively slow in your games or browsing - id look at GPU or SSD.
If you haven't already that is.

From the realistic hype to the crazy hype - 15-30% over Ivy is what Haswell should deliver.

But that requires waiting for the new year

this is good info, I have never even heard of haswell. Ahhh now more options, gotta love technology these days!

 

[Durvelle27]

what's your motherboard as i would suggest a FX-6300 as it performs great for the price ?

 

[Hatisherrif]

The FX-8350 would be around the quad core i7 in performance most of the time, but certain games might run a lot better on the i7. Between the FX and an i5, I'd say the FX would beat it in almost everything but gaming.

That said, if you are a gamer, Intel is the way to go. If you want great multitasking performance and don't want to spend a lot of money, get the FX. If you want the best, get the i7, but don't expect it to be a cheap solution.

 

[Yuriman]

As Durvelle27 says, if your board will in fact support Vishera, the FX-6300 is a good value. Your X6 is actually faster per clock in most things than the FX but it will clock a lot higher.

If your board won't support the FX, it really depends on your budget but an i5 is the minimum I'd recommend if you want to buy in the near future. Haswell isn't exactly "right around the corner" but neither is your current chip very slow.

One thing you could do to hold yourself over is ti get a solid state drive and perhaps a RAM upgrade.

 

[Durvelle27]

AMD FX-6300 vs Phenom II 1055T

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=147

in gaming the FX-6300 outperformed the Phenom II quite a bit and it overclocks amazing

 

[ShintaiDK]

Wait till march and buy LGA1150+Haswell.

 

[popop]

I have a biostar TA880FXE which is am3, not am3+

 

[teh_pwnerer]

I've been out of the computer world for years but I have an X6? Seriously where do these kids come from?

First off the wait for Haswell advice is just stupid. That CPU won't be out for 6-7 months and it's only going to be 15% better than Ivy Bridge tops.

Any of the i5 cpus will be good for years to come. Haswell will be on a whole new board and by the time it's out i7 prices will drop.

 

[popop]

I've been out of the computer world for years but I have an X6? Seriously where do these kids come from?

First off the wait for Haswell advice is just stupid. That CPU won't be out for 6-7 months and it's only going to be 15% better than Ivy Bridge tops.

Any of the i5 cpus will be good for years to come. Haswell will be on a whole new board and by the time it's out i7 prices will drop.

kids? heh, I have been a member of this board for almost 8 years...

It was a quick decision upgrade. I said out of the component world, not computer

 

[frozentundra123456]

The FX-8350 would be around the quad core i7 in performance most of the time, but certain games might run a lot better on the i7. Between the FX and an i5, I'd say the FX would beat it in almost everything but gaming.

That said, if you are a gamer, Intel is the way to go. If you want great multitasking performance and don't want to spend a lot of money, get the FX. If you want the best, get the i7, but don't expect it to be a cheap solution.

The 8350 will be ahead of the i5 and very close to the i7 in heavily threaded benchmarks, except for a few highly selective ones where the 8350 is quite a bit faster. Either the i5 or the i7 will beat the 8350 in single or lightly threaded apps by far. Intel is also still ahead of the 8350 in games, some by a wide margin. The i5 or i7 will also use about 1/2 the power at heavy load.

Since it seems like you wont be doing any encoding, if you get a new motherboard, I would go with intel. I do not think it is worth waiting for Haswell, except that your rig now does not seem too bad, so it might be ok to keep for awhile.

 

[ShintaiDK]

The 8350 will be ahead of the i5 and very close to the i7 in heavily threaded benchmarks, except for a few highly selective ones where the 8350 is quite a bit faster. Either the i5 or the i7 will beat the 8350 in single or lightly threaded apps by far. Intel is also still ahead of the 8350 in games, some by a wide margin. The i5 or i7 will also use about 1/2 the power at heavy load.

Since it seems like you wont be doing any encoding, if you get a new motherboard, I would go with intel. I do not think it is worth waiting for Haswell, except that your rig now does not seem too bad, so it might be ok to keep for awhile.

To clear it up, AMD actually only really start to shine when you get to 7-8 threaded applications. In 4 threads and below they get utterly molested.

Not to mention the high running cost for AMD in utilities.

 

[Denithor]

What does the rest of your system look like? What GPU and resolution? What games do you play?

In many applications (notably games) Intel runs faster and consumes less power. But Intel chips also typically cost more. So it's somewhat a toss up.

 

[popop]

What does the rest of your system look like? What GPU and resolution? What games do you play?

In many applications (notably games) Intel runs faster and consumes less power. But Intel chips also typically cost more. So it's somewhat a toss up.

biostar TA890FXE
AMD 1055t
4GB (lowest grade) G.Skill ripjaws 1600 (PC3 12800)
Radeon HD 6870
750GB HDD
750w PS
1920x1200 res.


So what do you think I should do here?

 

[Durvelle27]

upgrade your gpu first like a HD 7870 or HD 7950 and get 8GB of RAM

 

[Denithor]

More RAM won't make that much difference. It's cheap though, so if you feel like it, it certainly won't hurt anything.

Two things I'd suggest for now:
1) SSD - pick up a good deal on a Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 or Intel 330 drive.
Keep your current 750GB for storage. This will completely change how your PC behaves (20-30 second total boot times, programs open immediately, whole system is more responsive).
2) GPU - upgrade to a 7850/7870 or GTX 660 (or Ti).
This will yield much better improvements in game fps than an increase in CPU.

Your current CPU isn't bad by any stretch, just upgrade these two parts and wait to see how Haswell looks (middle of next year).

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Upgrade the GPU and get a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and overclock that 1055t. 3.5 - 3.7GHz should be easy to attain.

 

[MisterMac]

a 1055t is definately still viable.


Always list all your components.



Now the haswell advice is alot more sound - SSD + GPU is your path tho.


If CPU starts necking - look at haswell in a half year.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'd go with a SSD and a GPU upgrade.

 

[bononos]

....

Not to mention the high running cost for AMD in utilities.

High running costs at stock settings? I don't think an extra ~$20/yr is going to put anyone off in the US where energy costs are cheap.

 

[frozentundra123456]

High running costs at stock settings? I don't think an extra ~$20/yr is going to put anyone off in the US where energy costs are cheap.

That is true, but over a few years it could offset any price advantage of amd. A more inefficient chip also will require a stronger power supply, especially if you over clock, where power use goes very high.

 

[inf64]

8350 @ 4.6Ghz on a very high end board(high power draw),with a GTX680 draws 197W on average,90W at idle and 301W at peak load in phoronix test suite(peak is MTed workloads that load a lot of cores and GPU). At stock the numbers are : 174W average,260W peak and 83.5W low(idle state). As can be seen you don't need "stronger power supply" since any 500W quality PSU will do just fine even with OCed 8350. It still draws more power than i5/i7 though so if power is your concern than it won't be the best choice.

 

[KingFatty]

I'd suggest going to Intel later, but for now, at least upgrading in steps, because you can get stuff now that will also be carried over to the intel build.

So you could start with a good SSD and GPU to give you a very noticeable boost right now while using the current AMD CPU/mobo. Also, couple that with overclocking your CPU to keep up with the SSD and GPU (so make sure to remember to overclock the CPU and also the CPU-NB to get good results, those are separate entries in the BIOS and overclocking the CPU-NB will really help games like Starcraft 2 and BF3).

Then, later on, you can still upgrade your motherboard and CPU to get Haswell or whatever, and just keep all the goodness of the SSD and video card that you transplant into the new system.

Also, not sure if you are using Windows 7, but if so, I know there is an easy way to tell Windows 7 to 'revert' to a virgin state, and then just swap the SSD to the new system, and the virgin Win 7 will then load the new appropriate drivers for the new CPU and motherboard etc., so that saves on hassles. I did that when moving from an old Athlon motherboard to an intel Wolfdale motherboard, and it worked great.

 

[popop]

Upgrade the GPU and get a EVO and overclock that 1055t. 3.5 - 3.7GHz should be easy to attain.

I actually have a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ on the cpu with the 2-120mm fans on it, I am just not familiar with overclocking so I have not messed with it. I know the basics of overclocking and how to navigate the BIOS, just never really tried to OC it. If someone would not mind pointing me in the right direction I would be willing to listen

Any difference in the 212 EVO and the 212+ ??? There is no need to change to an EVO for better OCing is there? Should be good?

I'd suggest going to Intel later, but for now, at least upgrading in steps, because you can get stuff now that will also be carried over to the intel build.

So you could start with a good SSD and GPU to give you a very noticeable boost right now while using the current AMD CPU/mobo. Also, couple that with overclocking your CPU to keep up with the SSD and GPU (so make sure to remember to overclock the CPU and also the CPU-NB to get good results, those are separate entries in the BIOS and overclocking the CPU-NB will really help games like Starcraft 2 and BF3).

Then, later on, you can still upgrade your motherboard and CPU to get Haswell or whatever, and just keep all the goodness of the SSD and video card that you transplant into the new system.

Also, not sure if you are using Windows 7, but if so, I know there is an easy way to tell Windows 7 to 'revert' to a virgin state, and then just swap the SSD to the new system, and the virgin Win 7 will then load the new appropriate drivers for the new CPU and motherboard etc., so that saves on hassles. I did that when moving from an old Athlon motherboard to an intel Wolfdale motherboard, and it worked great.

This is good advice, thank you. I was on 7 but changed over to Windows 8 pro 64bit.