Upgrading from Phenom II X6 1055T, need advice

[dharmil007]

Hi Guys,
My current config
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Gigabyte 880GM-UD2h
1TB Black
6GB DDR3
ViP 400R SMPS

As the Phenom is using too much power and generating too much heat, so i am planning to change.

My budget is around $200/Rs. 12000
CPU : Intel i3 4130/AMD FX 6300
MOBO : Any Compatible
PSU : Antec BP300P

Rest seems fine enough. No need to replace them.

I will use it just for Browsing, just few small games, watching HD Videos, Video Transcoding & sometimes like a server (keeping it running for few days continuously for downloading).


So i need you suggestion, do i need to upgrade this or not ?
if yes, is this the good configuration ?

 

[AtenRa]

A8-7600 or A10-7850K

 

[dharmil007]

A8-7600 or A10-7850K

Not available in India

 

[AtenRa]

A10-6700 ??

 

[dharmil007]

A10-6700 ??

No
No i dont think any AMD APUs are available in India
Then too, let me find out.
But are they good compared to i3-4330/4310 ?

 

[dharmil007]

According to this review :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-6700-a10-6800k-richland-review,3528.html

i3 3rd Gen almost outperforms A8, A10 on major things.
also A8, A10 have higher Power Consumption then i3.

 

[weez82]

For your useage the I3 will be better. I just went from a phenom II x4 965 to an I3 4150 and couldn't be happier. I gained a little bit of performance (in most things) while lowering the power draw by over 100 watts

 

[R0H1T]

OR maybe wait for the new year & see what that brings, i3 will only be a sidegrade & in fact a downgrade in heavily threaded apps, especially after considering its (Phenom II X6) overclocking potential.

 

[RussianSensation]

If heat is a concern, i3 is a decent bet. However, you can drop a 5960X in there, your system will never feel snappy/fast in general tasks like browsing, emails, opening documents/apps, without an SSD. People don't believe me but a Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz system with a 128GB SSD will feel faster than a Core i7 with a mechanical drive in general system tasks. You should consider getting an SSD for the OS for your new build.

 

[mikeymikec]

If heat is a concern, i3 is a decent bet. However, you can drop a 5960X in there, your system will never feel as snappy/fast in general tasks like browsing, emails, opening documents/apps, without an SSD.

FTFY

Plenty of systems "feel" snappy/fast with HDDs in, SSDs just improve on that; SSDs remove a lot of delays, for instance when some programs are loading, but I think a lot of SSD users forget about what they considered to be perfectly fast/adequate before they upgraded to an SSD, furthermore, HDD systems aren't just suddenly inadequate because SSDs exist.

For example, just because I wouldn't want to go back to a 1280x1024 monitor after having a 1080p monitor, it doesn't make 1280x1024 inadequate for everyone else.

Furthermore, I built an i7-2600k system with a WD Black in for a customer. I've seen it run rings around systems with lower processors and SSDs in particularly with Windows Installer routines (which I think are generally single-threaded and very processor intensive). I wouldn't be surprised if that i7 system also runs rings around my current typical PC build (for customers) being an i3-4330 with an 850 PRO 128GB SSD for other things like Windows updates.

Having said all of this, I have an SSD myself and it has removed a lot of small delays (with a HDD, LibreOffice would sometimes take 4 seconds to load, sometimes say 8-12, with the SSD, it's probably taking a maximum of 4 seconds), I wouldn't want to go back to a HDD-boot system either I don't know what I would do in the hypothetical scenario of "choose a lower class processor or an SSD for my new system" though, because I also do a bit of gaming.

In conclusion, SSDs provide some great benefits and I steer customers to them at almost every opportunity (including basic usage scenarios), furthermore, I think they'll be more reliable that HDDs in the long term, but for the basic uses of a computer, pairing a decent processor up with say a WD Black will result in a system that one can be happy with.

----

If heat/power is a concern (it surprises me a bit because a system with a Ph2 in running at stock and no discrete graphics shouldn't be a power hungry heat monster), then the OP may want to consider a U-class Intel CPU, despite the performance trade-off of the lower clock frequency. What sort of figures has the OP seen in terms of heat/power usage? Or is it more about noise level from the cooling system?

Furthermore, if power usage is a concern, then the OP may want to look for the 1.35v DDR3 modules rather than the standard type.

 

[frozentundra123456]

OR maybe wait for the new year & see what that brings, i3 will only be a sidegrade & in fact a downgrade in heavily threaded apps, especially after considering its (Phenom II X6) overclocking potential.

He said the problem with the phenom was heat and power use. Overclocking would only make that worse.

An i3 would definitely be an upgrade in lightly threaded tasks like the majority of normal use, and would use less power and generate less heat. I don't see the FX6300 as a useful upgrade. It will still consume a lot of power and not be that much faster. Also, the FX will require either a dedicated video card, adding more heat and power usage, or force you to live with motherboard audio. Edit: meant video.

That said, I am not sure the upgrade is worth the cost. If the phenom system is running fine and does what you want, it depends on how badly you want to decrease power usage and heat generation.

 

[frozentundra123456]

FTFY

Plenty of systems "feel" snappy/fast with HDDs in, SSDs just improve on that; SSDs remove a lot of delays, for instance when some programs are loading, but I think a lot of SSD users forget about what they considered to be perfectly fast/adequate before they upgraded to an SSD, furthermore, HDD systems aren't just suddenly inadequate because SSDs exist.

For example, just because I wouldn't want to go back to a 1280x1024 monitor after having a 1080p monitor, it doesn't make 1280x1024 inadequate for everyone else.

Furthermore, I built an i7-2600k system with a WD Black in for a customer. I've seen it run rings around systems with lower processors and SSDs in particularly with Windows Installer routines (which I think are generally single-threaded and very processor intensive). I wouldn't be surprised if that i7 system also runs rings around my current typical PC build (for customers) being an i3-4330 with an 850 PRO 128GB SSD for other things like Windows updates.

Having said all of this, I have an SSD myself and it has removed a lot of small delays (with a HDD, LibreOffice would sometimes take 4 seconds to load, sometimes say 8-12, with the SSD, it's probably taking a maximum of 4 seconds), I wouldn't want to go back to a HDD-boot system either I don't know what I would do in the hypothetical scenario of "choose a lower class processor or an SSD for my new system" though, because I also do a bit of gaming.

In conclusion, SSDs provide some great benefits and I steer customers to them at almost every opportunity (including basic usage scenarios), furthermore, I think they'll be more reliable that HDDs in the long term, but for the basic uses of a computer, pairing a decent processor up with say a WD Black will result in a system that one can be happy with.

----

If heat/power is a concern (it surprises me a bit because a system with a Ph2 in running at stock and no discrete graphics shouldn't be a power hungry heat monster), then the OP may want to consider a U-class Intel CPU, despite the performance trade-off of the lower clock frequency. What sort of figures has the OP seen in terms of heat/power usage? Or is it more about noise level from the cooling system?

Very well said. I have an i5 with a hdd and it feels very fast to me. An ssd might cut off a few seconds here and there, but I am totally satisfied with my system, except I would like a faster video card, but that is another issue.

 

[R0H1T]

He said the problem with the phenom was heat and power use. Overclocking would only make that worse.

An i3 would definitely be an upgrade in lightly threaded tasks like the majority of normal use, and would use less power and generate less heat. I don't see the FX6300 as a useful upgrade. It will still consume a lot of power and not be that much faster. Also, the FX will require either a dedicated video card, adding more heat and power usage, or force you to live with motherboard audio.

That said, I am not sure the upgrade is worth the cost. If the phenom system is running fine and does what you want, it depends on how badly you want to decrease power usage and heat generation.

Of course I wasn;t asking him to overclock his rig, just that the i3 was a sidegrade at best & in fact more of a downgrade when taking into account highly multithreaded apps, also the fact that the X6 could still be overclocked (when looking at pure performance) was something that couldn't be overlooked IMO.

The only reason why he would ever want to go to an i3, from an X6 phenom, would be for greater need of single threaded perf & not power consumption IMO, since he can disable a few cores & get it within acceptable limits.

I doubt anyone in their right mind would wanna spend 15~20K rupees just to save on his/her monthly energy bills.

 

[AtenRa]

No i dont think any AMD APUs are available in India

Yes they are, just took me less than a minute to find an Indian online store that has AMD APUs.

A8-6600K in Amazon.in

http://www.amazon.in/AMD-A8-Series-...qid=1419681700&sr=1-21&keywords=amd+processor

 

[R0H1T]

Yes they are, just took me less than a minute to find an Indian online store that has AMD APUs.

A8-6600K in Amazon.in

http://www.amazon.in/AMD-A8-Series-...qid=1419681700&sr=1-21&keywords=amd+processor

Most of the latest gen(Kaveri) aren't readily available here & even if they are you'll find them grossly overpriced, also the highly venerable A10-7800 & A8-7600 are nowhere to be found online

 

[Abwx]

As the Phenom is using too much power and generating too much heat, so i am planning to change.

My budget is around $200/Rs. 12000

I will use it just for Browsing, just few small games, watching HD Videos, Video Transcoding & sometimes like a server (keeping it running for few days continuously for downloading).

So i need you suggestion, do i need to upgrade this or not ?
if yes, is this the good configuration ?

If it wasnt for games a 30$ AM1 MB and a 50$ Athlon 5350 would fit perfectly your other tasks, as already pointed an SSD is what makes the difference.

 

[dharmil007]

FTFY

If heat/power is a concern (it surprises me a bit because a system with a Ph2 in running at stock and no discrete graphics shouldn't be a power hungry heat monster), then the OP may want to consider a U-class Intel CPU, despite the performance trade-off of the lower clock frequency. What sort of figures has the OP seen in terms of heat/power usage? Or is it more about noise level from the cooling system?

Furthermore, if power usage is a concern, then the OP may want to look for the 1.35v DDR3 modules rather than the standard type.

Power is not that of a major concern, but heat is.
The cooling is stock, and yes i have not overclocked my CPU.
But tempratures are just too much, around 60-65C under normal conditions, like while watching a movie or browsing.
This type of heat with having 4 120mm fans+Stock CPU fan.
My RAM, MOBO, HDD everything gets too hot (dont know this is cause of CPU or it normally gets that).
Temprature had risen to such an extent that there were burnt marks on my 2x2GB RAMs, which i replaced recently.
There is little or no noise from the CPU.
See ScreenShot :

 

[dharmil007]

He said the problem with the phenom was heat and power use. Overclocking would only make that worse.

An i3 would definitely be an upgrade in lightly threaded tasks like the majority of normal use, and would use less power and generate less heat. I don't see the FX6300 as a useful upgrade. It will still consume a lot of power and not be that much faster. Also, the FX will require either a dedicated video card, adding more heat and power usage, or force you to live with motherboard audio.

That said, I am not sure the upgrade is worth the cost. If the phenom system is running fine and does what you want, it depends on how badly you want to decrease power usage and heat generation.

Of course I wasn;t asking him to overclock his rig, just that the i3 was a sidegrade at best & in fact more of a downgrade when taking into account highly multithreaded apps, also the fact that the X6 could still be overclocked (when looking at pure performance) was something that couldn't be overlooked IMO.

The only reason why he would ever want to go to an i3, from an X6 phenom, would be for greater need of single threaded perf & not power consumption IMO, since he can disable a few cores & get it within acceptable limits.

I doubt anyone in their right mind would wanna spend 15~20K rupees just to save on his/her monthly energy bills.

Its not about power, its more about Heat.
As u can see the screenshot in my previous post, this processor generates a lot of heat.
and yes processor is perfectly fine, i think its motherboard which is not in good condition.
One of the local dealer is giving me around Rs. 4000/70$ for my Mobo+CPU
and adding just Rs.6k/100$, he would throw :
i3 4150+Gigabyte H81 (some cheaper model) {Brand New}
So i think this is a good deal, considering i would get a new system.

What say guys ? is it a good deal ?

 

[Magic Carpet]

OP, Thuban is one of the coolest running CPUs I have ever had. Your temps look abnormal to me, even with the stock cooling. Try replacing thermal interface and undervolt it a bit. No reason to change this CPU just because of the heat concerns. Undervolted at stock, you can save quite a bit of power. Your Vcore is way too high. I have mine @ 1.035v @ 2.6 Ghz. Never goes above the 50c mark with stock cooling (my undervolted Haswell i7 runs way hotter with a quality Noctua HSF). Power consumption is less than stock 4770K. The only reason to change would be for performance and or features reasons.

2) Personally, I wouldn't replace a Thuban with anything less than an i5.

3) Replacing CPU is easy, finding the right mainboard is much harder.

 

[Gikaseixas]

OP are you using the pc in air conditioned room? I know that you can get very high temps in India.
If heat is the only thing making you spend money on a side grade try cleaning your case, cpu cooler and case fans. Also put new paste because it degrades over time.

 

[mikeymikec]

If that ~70C reading is definitely the CPU (confirm in BIOS) that is definitely wrong IMO. The vcore looks normal for stock, I just suspect that the HSF needs a cleanout.

What's the room temp, approximately?

My 960T at worst (ie. summer in the UK) with the stock HSF when idle was about 50C IIRC. These days I use an Arctic Freezer 13 HSF which knocked about 10C off the CPU temp.

Can you confirm the CPU frequency with a program like CPU-Z as well? www.cpuid.com
I just wonder whether CnQ is disabled or Windows is set to the stupid 'high performance' power profile or something similar.

 

[dharmil007]

If that ~70C reading is definitely the CPU (confirm in BIOS) that is definitely wrong IMO. The vcore looks normal for stock, I just suspect that the HSF needs a cleanout.

What's the room temp, approximately?

My 960T at worst (ie. summer in the UK) with the stock HSF when idle was about 50C IIRC. These days I use an Arctic Freezer 13 HSF which knocked about 10C off the CPU temp.

Currently in Winter the room temp should be around 25C
In Summer it should be around 30C

 

[R0H1T]

If that ~70C reading is definitely the CPU (confirm in BIOS) that is definitely wrong IMO. The vcore looks normal for stock, I just suspect that the HSF needs a cleanout.

What's the room temp, approximately?

My 960T at worst (ie. summer in the UK) with the stock HSF when idle was about 50C IIRC. These days I use an Arctic Freezer 13 HSF which knocked about 10C off the CPU temp.

Can you confirm the CPU frequency with a program like CPU-Z as well? www.cpuid.com
I just wonder whether CnQ is disabled or Windows is set to the stupid 'high performance' power profile or something similar.

^^ This, also when was the last time you cleaned the inside of your case, mainly the (stock?) heatsink & the area around the CPU on the mobo. Plus you should look at undervolting the processor & disable a core or two if you still feel the system is sucking too much power. As has been mentioned previously anything less than an i5 will be a downgrade in terms of absolute performance & as such is not worth spending any amount of money IMO, this just might be a case of dust building up in your case &/or replacing the TIM, perhaps get an aftermarket cooler as well.

 

[dharmil007]

OP, Thuban is one of the coolest running CPUs I have ever had. Your temps look abnormal to me, even with the stock cooling. Try replacing thermal interface and undervolt it a bit. No reason to change this CPU just because of the heat concerns. Undervolted at stock, you can save quite a bit of power. Your Vcore is way too high. I have mine @ 1.035v @ 2.6 Ghz. Never goes above the 50c mark with stock cooling (my undervolted Haswell i7 runs way hotter with a quality Noctua HSF). Power consumption is less than stock 4770K. The only reason to change would be for performance and or features reasons.

2) Personally, I wouldn't replace a Thuban with anything less than an i5.

3) Replacing CPU is easy, finding the right mainboard is much harder.

i Know my CPU is good, but it heats too much.
Moreover, i think there is a problem with my MoBO also.
So mobo wont last for another 6 months or so.
and i need to replace the mobo.

There is pecular problem which i mentioned in my other thread :
I cannot start my Computer immediately after shutdown and i cannot also restart my computer.
Whenever i restart or start the pc immediately after shutdown, all the fans roate and there is power in CPU but there is no signal on the screen.
If i keep it that way for another 30-40secs then there is burning smell from the inside of the CPU, so i am forced to cut the power.
Then after say 10 mins it starts normally again.

 

[R0H1T]

i Know my CPU is good, but it heats too much.
Moreover, i think there is a problem with my MoBO also.
So mobo wont last for another 6 months or so.
and i need to replace the mobo.

There is pecular problem which i mentioned in my other thread :
I cannot start my Computer immediately after shutdown and i cannot also restart my computer.
Whenever i restart or start the pc immediately after shutdown, all the fans roate and there is power in CPU but there is no signal on the screen.
If i keep it that way for another 30-40secs then there is burning smell from the inside of the CPU, so i am forced to cut the power.
Then after say 10 mins it starts normally again.

I take it you're new to replacing/upgrading components? I think you should get someone you trust & let him examine your system, to see where the fault lies, also that PSU seems inadequate for an X6. You can try opening up the case (OR cabinet as it's called here) & troubleshoot the system yourself but do this only if you're confident in handling the components properly & not get electrocuted in the process.