Upgrades

[ExcaliburMM]

Dropping the following into the rigg I have in my signature:

ASUS EVO 758G (Have 10$ promo code.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398

G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2GB DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231303

Phenom II X4 955 C3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103808

Zalman CNPS10X FLEX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118056

Need advice:
Will my PSU cover this + some overclocking?
Is DDR3 1600 high enough to get a good OC? I've yet to use a DDR3 system.
The Phenom II is a C3 stepping. Guessing I need to update BIOS? I don't have a spare AM3 CPU around to update it with. What do I do?
CPU cooler's version with fans came highly recommended on Frostytech. AFAIK the Flex is the Extreme heatsink only. Am I correct and if not, do you know of a better CPU for an equal/lower price? I'll be using 2x Yate Loon 120mm high speed fans on it in push/pull with Arctic MX-2.

Working on a below 500$ budget including tax and shipping. If you want to suggest anything, be my guest.

 

[Markfw]

I don't want to derail this too much, but why not just add 2 gig of memory (or get 2x2 gig) and a Q9550 and put it in your motherboard ? It will be cheaper, and faster.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

I don't want to derail this too much, but why not just add 2 gig of memory (or get 2x2 gig) and a Q9550 and put it in your motherboard ? It will be cheaper, and faster.

I'm currently on a dead socket. I'd rather not be.

 

[toyota]

I'm currently on a dead socket. I'd rather not be.

its not like you are buying a brand new 775 setup so its only dead when you let it die. to me a dead socket is something like 939 where a decent cpu costs more and runs slower than just getting a modern platform(cpu,mobo,ram). really that phenom platform isnt going to offer you any more than just sticking 2 more gigs of memory and a Q9550 in your system. if you live near a microcenter then I would certainly go with the $159 Q9550 right now.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

its not like you are buying a brand new 775 setup so its only dead when you let it die. to me a dead socket is something like 939 where a decent cpu costs more and runs slower than just getting a modern platform(cpu,mobo,ram). really that phenom platform isnt going to offer you any more than just sticking 2 more gigs of memory and a Q9550 in your system. if you live near a microcenter then I would certainly go with the $159 Q9550 right now.

I don't live near a Microcenter or anything like it, and I refuse to pay a dime over 180$ for an LGA775 processor, be it Q9550, Q9650, or whatever. They have no business charging such an amount.

On topic please.

 

[Ben90]

But your willing to pay more for a slower processor... In 4 years when you feel like upgrading again, i doubt modern processors will even use AM3 anymore.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

But your willing to pay more for a slower processor... In 4 years when you feel like upgrading again, i doubt modern processors will even use AM3 anymore.

I'll be upgrading sooner than 4 years.

A DDR3 system is hardly slower than one using DDR2. I would imagine the 955 C3 alone is either equal or better than a Q9550, and if you're going to say otherwise, it is probably in theoretical benchmarking, which I do not give two shits about. OH LOOK MY RAR COMPRESSES A WHOLE THREE SECONDS FASTER! I don't do encoding/ect. This is a gaming machine.

BUT GUESS WHAT!
WE'RE NOT DISCUSSING THIS BECAUSE THIS ISN'T WHAT THE TOPIC IS ABOUT!

Could
We
Please
Stay
On
Topic?

Thank you.

 

[toyota]

I'll be upgrading sooner than 4 years.

A DDR3 system is hardly slower than one using DDR2. I would imagine the 955 C3 alone is either equal or better than a Q9550, and if you're going to say otherwise, it is probably in theoretical benchmarking, which I do not give two shits about. OH LOOK MY RAR COMPRESSES A WHOLE THREE SECONDS FASTER! I don't do encoding/ect. This is a gaming machine.

BUT GUESS WHAT!
WE'RE NOT DISCUSSING THIS BECAUSE THIS ISN'T WHAT THE TOPIC IS ABOUT!

Could
We
Please
Stay
On
Topic?

Thank you.

so you would rather waste money now for the off chance that you may not have to waste money in the future? lol.

 

[lopri]

Chances are the board will boot fine with C3 stepping, but the CPU may not be fully functional until BIOS is updated.

 

[lopri]

Also, DDR3-1600 is more than enough for AM3 CPUs. It has been noted many times in AT reviews that loose timings required for higher frequencies do not return favorable results on this platform. I'd try to tighten the timings at or below DDR3-1600 with lowest possible voltages.

 

[Ben90]

I would imagine the 955 C3 alone is either equal or better than a Q9550, and if you're going to say otherwise, it is probably in theoretical benchmarking, which I do not give two shits about. OH LOOK MY RAR COMPRESSES A WHOLE THREE SECONDS FASTER! I don't do encoding/ect. This is a gaming machine.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=49&p2=80

Oh look, it just happens to be faster clock/clock in every single game. Oh its also a cheaper platform, and uses less power.

What makes you think AM3 wont be a dead socket in 3 years?

 

[lopri]

So tiresome, isn't it?

 

[Rhoxed]

Go for the AMD, you will love it

the ram choice is fine as the diff between low latency 1066 and 1333 or 1600 isnt very big at all.

the CPU should be fine, maybe not a BIG OC but i would expect 3.6-38 easily attainable and 4.0+ if you decide to upgrade PSU for better vid card down the road or something.

about the socket choice, 775 has seen what its going to see as far as processors go, at the VERY LEAST with AM3 you can go Thuban next year for a 6core to hold off until another socket.

The CPU should boot in that board to atleast update bios.

as for the cooler, i have a zalman 9700NT from my S939 rig and i still love it (ever though there is much better) for the 40$ i would concider that a decent cooler, if you dont mind spending just a bit more (10-15$) you could spring for the Thors Hammer, TRUE, or Megahalems since you already have the fans - if your going for bang for the buck, i believe the Scythe MUGEN II is a better sink for less $, and still comes with a fan.


overall OP, i would say good choice!

 

[toyota]

Go for the AMD, you will love it

the ram choice is fine as the diff between low latency 1066 and 1333 or 1600 isnt very big at all.

the PSU should be fine, maybe not a BIG OC but i would expect 3.6-38 easily attainable and 4.0+ if you decide to upgrade PSU for better vid card down the road or something.

about the socket choice, 775 has seen what its going to see as far as processors go, at the VERY LEAST with AM3 you can go Thuban next year for a 6core to hold off until another socket.

The psu should boot in that board to atleast update bios.

as for the cooler, i have a zalman 9700NT from my S939 rig and i still love it (ever though there is much better) for the 40$ i would concider that a decent cooler, if you dont mind spending just a bit more (10-15$) you could spring for the Thors Hammer, TRUE, or Megahalems since you already have the fans - if your going for bang for the buck, i believe the Scythe MUGEN II is a better sink for less $, and still comes with a fan.


overall OP, i would say good choice!

yeah but he already has the 775 platform and the Q9550 will do everything and more than going with a completely different AMD platform will do. Thuban will be a lower clocked 6 core cpu that will offer nothing over a faster quad.

 

[Rhoxed]

with the current c3 stepping i would not be surprised to see a 3.0 Thuban by mid next year at 140W or less, which would smash any 775 in multi-threaded apps.

without a microcenter near by i dont see the q9** being price efficient if he plans to go ddr3 soon, even if he jumps board from AMD to intel *when* am3 goes the way of the do-do, he can still use the ddr3, making the next jump more affordable opposed to doing a full upgrade sooner to an expensive intel platform to "last longer"

most people visiting this site dont have hardware long enough to encounter EOL unless they bought it late in life.

 

[Arkaign]

So tiresome, isn't it?

Yeah, color me confused by this desire I like the PhII's, I'm running one overclocked nicely right now, but for someone with a nice EXISTING S775 setup, dumping the whole thing, and rebuilding to AM3 makes no sense to me. If you're going to dump a newer S775 (Q9550 capable) system, then the only thing that makes sense to go to would be Core i7.

A new build? Sure an AM3 makes sense. But yeah, clearly an overclocked Q9550 is more than a match for anything AMD has on the desktop at this point. Phenom II is really quite good, but IPC it's still a bit behind. I think a 3.6ghz Q9550 is equal or faster than a 4ghz PhII, which is about the air cooling limit AFAIK.

OP, not trying to threadcrap by any means. I own both platforms (S775 box is now my media PC), and can confidently say that while there are worse ways to spend money, this just doesn't make sense. If anything, get a used quad or lower end quad, drop it in with some extra ram, and then wait for better options to pop out next year, as I think you'll have much better timing for a major upgrade. S775 to PhII is right now just a sidegrade.

Best wishes and happy new year!

 

[lopri]

Will my PSU cover this + some overclocking?

I had a 450W PSU running overclocked 955 BE and a HD 4890 as well as 4 HDDs. I've upgraded to 620W recently because 1) I've already had it from prior builds, and 2) I've added 2 more HDDs and replaced the 4890 with a 5870.

ASUS EVO 758G (Have 10$ promo code.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131398

I have a mixed feeling with 785G/790GX. For a lower power, HTPC duties they are great. But if you're going to use a discreet GPU, you may be better off with a board without onboard GPU (790X/790FX). There is definitely some performance loss incurred by the system because those boards tend to reserve resources for the onboard GPU even if it's not used.

 

[yacoub]

I'm currently on a dead socket. I'd rather not be.

Seems irrelevant.

Knowing that there aren't new CPUs for your socket down the line does not magically kill your current system or prevent you from upgrading to an existing faster CPU for it. Your socket is only "dead" when it gets struck by lightning or your CPU fails and you can't find a replacement easily and cheaply. So it is not yet really dead, you're just being told to think that way by marketing. Get a cheap CPU upgrade and save up for a new rig sometime down the road. No reason to waste the money now.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

Okay, time to address some things:
If I lived near a Microcenter or anywhere that sold hardware I probably wouldn't be considering an AM3 setup. But I will not, repeat, will not, pay over 200$ for a 775 processor, the socket IS dead, there are no more CPUs coming out for it, and I challenge anyone to find me the slightest evidence to say otherwise.

Then, I'd need to spend another 90-95$ for DDR2 RAM since I'd be getting a new 2x2GB DDR2 1066 kit, piling on another 2x1GB kit would make 4 sticks, harder to get the OC stable, and my mobo already halts at 400FSB with just the 2 and a dual core. So I'm not sure I'd even be able to get a good OC off a 9550 with this board, so what then buy a new one? Then the cost goes up, and its STILL a 775 system.

The AM3 platform as I see it, is cheaper than the i5, and isn't dead as my current system is, so I wasn't left with a lot of choices. I wanted to do a 920 setup, but I don't have that kind of money, nor would I have it anytime soon.

In my mind this upgrade needs to happen in the next 3 months. AFAIK nothing new is going to be coming out that I should be considering. I'd love to be proved wrong though if anyone knows whats due out.

@lopri I'd like to know what 450w you had handling that kind of load. Had to be a Corsair or something.

 

[Lonyo]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=49&p2=80

Oh look, it just happens to be faster clock/clock in every single game. Oh its also a cheaper platform, and uses less power.

What makes you think AM3 wont be a dead socket in 3 years?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=50&p2=88

Wrong CPUs.
955 and Q9550 are pretty much bang on equal.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The AM3 platform is fine, but have you considered going 1156? You should be able to snag an i5 750, mobo, RAM, and heatsink (I recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212+) for under your $500 budget. Compared to a new AM3 build, your probably only looking to spend an extra $50 to go 1156.

 

[Ben90]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=50&p2=88

Wrong CPUs.
955 and Q9550 are pretty much bang on equal.

Yea I was doing an IPC check, since OP is overclocking. Im not 100% sure but I would imagine overclocking a 775 system would yield a higher % increase vs a AM3 because I know everyone complained about the FSB low bandwidth, but then again maybe not having a IMC would screw it over IDK....

 

[ExcaliburMM]

I'm actually considering asking my dad for a loan so I might be able to go the route of a 920 build. However I notice when OCing people trade HT for higher clocks, which effectively turns the 920 into a glorified quad core in my mind.

Is the trade worth it? Do we have an expectancy of how long DDR3 will remain used?

 

[Arkaign]

I'm actually considering asking my dad for a loan so I might be able to go the route of a 920 build. However I notice when OCing people trade HT for higher clocks, which effectively turns the 920 into a glorified quad core in my mind.

Is the trade worth it? Do we have an expectancy of how long DDR3 will remain used?

IMHO I think this is a great idea. Nobody can say for sure, but I for one think DDR3 will remain the standard for a pretty long time. DDR2 had a good few years and is still widely used even in a lot of new OEM systems, and I see no reason DDR3 won't do the same.

The 920 build will give you a way to drop in up to 24gb of ram (as prices drop), and at the very least : 6-core / 12HT processors. As for beyond that, it's anyone's guess. But it is the definitive high-end at this time.

The 920 overclocked to around 4ghz will definitely outrun any PhII or Q9000 on a similar air overclock. As for is the trade worth it, I think it seems to be for most home use scenarios.

 

[ExcaliburMM]

I found a used EVGA X58 Micro SLI for 150$, an OCZ 3x2GB 1600 CL7 kit for 104$, and am currently searching for a good deal on a guaranteed D0 920. I might just have enough money on my own.