Upgrading from 939 to Intel

[SkyBum]

I'm not sure I really NEED an upgrade right now as my rig is still more than adequate for most gaming but I have the money to do it now and I might as well take advantage of that.

Anyhow, what's got me stumped at the moment is whether to take advantage of the lower prices on a Core 2 rig or skip the platform entirely and go with an i7 (I don't mind spending some extra money on mobo and memory as long as it makes some sense to do so).

I was initially considering an E8600 but now that i7 920 looks interesting as well. Just wondering what considerations I should take into account as far as the platform.

One last thing, as a baseline comparison, I'm curious what Core 2 chip would be similar in performance to an FX-60?

SB

 

[DaveSimmons]

but I have the money to do it now and I might as well take advantage of that.

INGDirect.com ? Earn a little interest while prices continue to fall.

(I don't mind spending some extra money on mobo and memory as long as it makes some sense to do so).

Unless you are buying the fastest of everything I don't think paying $200 extra for an i7 motherboard makes sense yet.

For the price of just the i7 motherboard you could get a nice P45 s775 motherboard and an E8500 dual-core processor.

If you're thinking "I need i7 for future proofiness!" then since you don't need a new system at all yet why not wait 6 months and let motherboard prices drop $100?

 

[SkyBum]

INGDirect.com ? Earn a little interest while prices continue to fall.

In that case I think I would rather grab a few Gold Eagles.....

For the price of just the i7 motherboard you could get a nice P45 s775 motherboard and an E8500 dual-core processor.

That's actually what my gut is telling me to do. I assume that an E8600 will be a pretty decent upgrade from an FX-60 and that the difference from an E8600 to a 920 would be negligible. It does make sense, though skipping an entire platform has some appeal as well.

As far as waiting goes, I've held off on a complete upgrade for the better part of a year now, I just upgraded my 1800XT to a 4870 and I'm upgrading (depending on your viewpoint) to Vista in a couple of weeks. Now just seems to be a perfect time for an upgrade.

 

[Blain]

"Price" isn't the only factor you should consider.
The other issue is what you mainly use your PC for. If it's mainly "gaming", then a fast C2D is your best bang for the buck.
If you mainly work in media editing, then the Core i7 may make sense.

 

[wwswimming]

i got an E6700 core2Duo, 2.66 GHz dual core, with a Seagate 320 boot drive.

from an Opteron 175, which is 2.2 GHz dual core. that one had a Raptor 74 GB boot drive.

for 3D Max, i can't say the Core2Duo was faster. The Opteron system seemed just as fast,
and maybe harder to crash with a high mesh count or particle effects or something extra
CPU & video intensive.

 

[DSF]

Whatever you decide to do an E8600 is the wrong choice. The E8500 is just as good (especially considering that it will reach the speed of an E8600 with a very mild overclock) and costs signficantly less.

Either way, if you don't need an upgrade I'd wait. As a rule the price of computer components goes down over time. Any money you spend right now buys you less of a computer than it would in four to six months, guaranteed.

 

[Denithor]

Sell your FX-60 on eBay: there are four of them there right now with bids ranging from $142-$240. For that kind of money you can get a nice C2D system that will run circles around your FX.

 

[jEnus]

I'm in the same boat - looking at selling my opty 170 build to upgrade to a e8500 build

 

[imported_harlanpepper]

Core2 is a great deal right now. I just retired my socket 939 3800+ X2 (A8N SLI premium) for a E8400 & Gigabyte UD3P. My motherboard, CPU and 4GB 1066 RAM cost under $300, which seemed reasonable. I'd get either an 8400 or 8500, depending on your overclocking needs. My E0 8400 does 3.5GHz with 1.1v.