Help with making move to Quad Core

G

Guido02

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 17, 2006
Messages
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I have been looking for a short time now, and I'm wanting to upgrade to at least a quad core, but I'm not sure which direction I should take. It seems that the AMD chips are pretty good, and obviously the ix series are great as well. What is an affordable way to make the move? Another question I have is should I move up to quad core, or is the 3rd core that AMD offers good enough. I have also been looking at the 6 core AMD chip, is that overkill? I do some video editing and some gaming. With the video editing is encrypting various video files, and backing up my Blu Ray discs to my home server for my HTPC's.

Thanks for the help.
 
Guido02 said:
What is an affordable way to make the move?
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You're gonna have to define what is "affordable" to you. For some, $300 is affordable. For others, $800 is affordable. So yeah, please define what is affordable to you.

Also, what PSU do you have? Case?

Guido02 said:
Another question I have is should I move up to quad core, or is the 3rd core that AMD offers good enough. I have also been looking at the 6 core AMD chip, is that overkill? I do some video editing and some gaming. With the video editing is encrypting various video files, and backing up my Blu Ray discs to my home server for my HTPC's.
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I say go quad-core all the way if you can afford it. For your described needs so far, the X6 CPUs are a tad overkill.

Also, are you planning to overclock?

It would help if you could answer these questions in addition to the above ones:
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
 
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. But I have answers for you. For starters lets talk about what I will be doing with this computer. I want to start playing games on the PC again, with that being said, I have always played FPS taht seem to be pretty graphic intensive. I might also start to play EVE and WOW again, but I'm not sure if I will have the time for that. I also want to be able to play the newest games that have amazing graphics because I am a video guy. I love great picture quality. I also do lots of web surfing, sometimes more than 20 tabs open at a time. I will also use this for video and picture editing with more of an emphasis on photo's than video (not the priority of this machine). I will be overclocking it because I find that fun. I will also use this to encode/encrypt videos(i'm not sure which it is) backup videos and replay on HTPC's. I think that is all for now.

I have 3 different PSU's available to me
1. Antec Neopower 650
2. OCZ 600SXS
3. OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W

So I'm not sure which to use in this particualr build. #2 is in my current build, which is pretty much garbage, and the other two are new in box still.

The case I plan to use is:
SILVERSTONE PS05-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
I also have this New in box on hand.

Where do I live?
I live in Tucson, Az

What exact parts do you need for that budget?
I will need RAM, MoBo, CPU (obviously), Pssibly SSD, see HDD notes below, CPU heatsink(possibly, I plan to overclock this computer), I can't think of anything else atm. Video Card <---- I forgot about that

If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
I have 2 new DVD Multi drives, one is a Sony customer choice award winner, second is an LG. I have those PSU's listed above. I have a 1 TB WD Black HDD (keep as main driveor SSD?), I have 3 or 4 samsung spinpoint F3 1 TB HDD's, I also have a 1 TB Hitachi deskstar, and finally a 2TB WD Gren drive. (Most of these will be for my server that I will be putting together.) I think that is all for this ?

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
It would be great if the mobo were a bit futureproof. eSATA, ability for 6 DIMM's of ram, if it could RAID, that would be great.

I guess in regards to this build, can you tell me what it would take to build this PC, and then I can figure out if that works financially. I would love to spend less than $1000 bucks on this not including the cost of parts I already have. I may also want to upgrade my monitor, but I don't think we should include that in these prices.
 
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

Oh and the only consumer motherbaords have 6 DIMM slots available belong to the X58/socket LGA 1366 motherboards. So basically you're looking at 4 DIMMs. So far, it looks like the Phenom II X6 1055T would be just right for you.

And you're definitely reusing the Antec in this build. Neither of those OCZ PSUs I would trust in a gaming PC worth more than $300.
 
My old computer still lives in Michigan, it hasn't moved to Tucson yet. Part of the reason for that is it wouold be very expensive to ship my monitor. I have the Dell 30" monitor there, which was paired with my old gaming pc. That computer has the first E6400 Dual Core proc, the 8800GTS had just come out, that is in it as well, but I figure most of those parts are probably not worth a damn except the 4GB of ram and the Corsair 650W PSU, those might still have some value. The monitor I currently use is an Acer H233H 23", but I wouldn't mind upgrading to a better monitor, or maybe even bigger, possibly 27" or more.

So let me respond to some of the things you have said.
the only consumer motherbaords have 6 DIMM slots available belong to the X58/socket LGA 1366 motherboards
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so that means that 3x2GB ram sets times 2 totalling 12GB of ram would only work on this type of mobo/CPU?

Why do you say the Phenom would be just right? What makes it better than an i5 750 or i7 930? I still am not sure on how the technology compares to eachother. Dont hesitate sending me to another article/thread to help me determine a bit of the differences.

Thanks again
 
Guido02 said:
So let me respond to some of the things you have said. so that means that 3x2GB ram sets times 2 totalling 12GB of ram would only work on this type of mobo/CPU?
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Pretty much

Guido02 said:
Why do you say the Phenom would be just right? What makes it better than an i5 750 or i7 930? I still am not sure on how the technology compares to eachother. Dont hesitate sending me to another article/thread to help me determine a bit of the differences.
Click to expand...

Phenom is just right. It's better than the i5 in that it's cheaper and that has a higher chance of a CPU upgrade path than socket LGA 1156. The i7 930 is not a good choice for a gaming PC since it's only 2-5FPS faster than the $150 to $200 cheaper (platform costs) Core i5 750.

However the Core i5 750 is faster than the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T in games and is especially faster once you OC the i5 750. But unfortunately no upgrade path.
 
Meaning Intel doesn't have much future plans for 1156 socket. It wasn't originally on the road map to begin with.
 
Guido02 said:
What do you mean by upgrade path? I dont understand that
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Ok, I mean CPU upgrade path. Basically, in a few months, Intel is releasing a new CPU and socket that's totally incompatible with current Intel sockets and CPUs. In addition, it looks like Intel will not be releasing worthwhile CPUs for socket LGA 1156 in the future. So basically, once you get the Core i5 750, that's it.

With AMD however, there's a chance that their future CPUs will work in the current AMD socket AM3. As such, there's a CPU upgrade path for AMD
 
OK, I understand, thanks. So do we already know what intel has in store for us?
 
Guido02 said:
OK, I understand, thanks. So do we already know what intel has in store for us?
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Intel's new CPU line is codenamed "Sandy Bridge". It's due sometime later this year for the socket LGA 1155 version and next for the socket LGA 1207 version. It's suppose to be faster than the Core i7 CPUs out now. So definitely gonna dominate AMD more or less in that aspect. Prices are unknown. Exact release dates are also unknown.

EDIT:
Here's a prelim AMD setup BTW:
$353 - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T CPU + Asus M4A89TD PRO/USB3 AMD 890FX ATX Motherboard
$92 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$230 - Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PCI-E Video Card
--
Total: $705 plus shipping
 
How does that processor compare to the black version? Should I go after the black version instead?
 
What lt_shiro said is correct. The 1090T is not worth it at all unless you're one of the hardest hardcore overclocker who uses liquid nitrogen.
 
Whats the significance behind recommending the GTX460 over one of the ATI series GPU?
 
its best price to performance card on the market right now.

4 ghz is very possible with 1055t.
 
Guido02 said:
Whats the significance behind recommending the GTX460 over one of the ATI series GPU?
Click to expand...

Again, what lt_shiro said is correct: Simply put, the GTX 460 is one of the best bang for the buck cards out now for your resolution of 1920x1080 and in general. ATI's HD 5830 is slower than the GTX 460 1GB but doesn't cost that much less to justify the costs. The ATI HD 5850 is certainly faster than the GTX 460 1GB on occasion but is just a tad too expensive at $30 more. The HD 5770 1GB is reasonably priced at $145 to $160 but is not good enough for 1920x1080.
 
I'm hoping to get at least 3.8GHz out of whatever this setup might be. How do the 6 cores improve performance over just 4 cores? or is it a situation where nothing can take advantage of the 5 and 6th cores so they are insignificant.

We also haven't talked about RAM really, in my current system I have 4 GB of corsair DDR2 XMS, should this new build be bumped to 8 GB?
 
depends on what you are doing. in most games extra 2 cores are meaningless but with cpu physics engines.
 
Guido02 said:
I'm hoping to get at least 3.8GHz out of whatever this setup might be. How do the 6 cores improve performance over just 4 cores? or is it a situation where nothing can take advantage of the 5 and 6th cores so they are insignificant.

We also haven't talked about RAM really, in my current system I have 4 GB of corsair DDR2 XMS, should this new build be bumped to 8 GB?
Click to expand...

For gaming, zero increase. However gaming + multiple apps running in the background will be easier and faster with a six-core CPU.

RAM wise, start off with 4GB of RAM first and see if you actually run out of RAM during your use. Then buy more RAM if needed.
 
Danny Bui said:
Again, what lt_shiro said is correct: Simply put, the GTX 460 is one of the best bang for the buck cards out now for your resolution of 1920x1080 and in general. ATI's HD 5830 is slower than the GTX 460 1GB but doesn't cost that much less to justify the costs. The ATI HD 5850 is certainly faster than the GTX 460 1GB on occasion but is just a tad too expensive at $30 more. The HD 5770 1GB is reasonably priced at $145 to $160 but is not good enough for 1920x1080.
Click to expand...

One of the things that was said here is that the GTX460 is a good card for the resolution, but what about for my 30" monitor? The resolution it runs at is 2560x16 something i think. I will have this monitor within the next 2 months.
 
for a 30" onless you can get sli gtx 460. a single gtx 470 or 5850/70 for 30" display
 
Specs in my sig:
I am so freaking happy I went with the Phenom x6 over an x4. Mainly because I'm building this as a SCCM lab machine. However, the x6 at stock speeds is great, has good OC potential and I believe will last me a long, long time.

Don't be like me and re-use a previous Gen video card. The 4850 is a lovely piece of hardware, but a 5850 or 460 would be really nice :D.

How much ram will you need? How big do you want your e-peen to be?

As Danny said above: Start with 4 then move to 24 and win the internet.
 
Ok, so I just saw that Tiger Direct has a deal on a Corsair H50 for 59.99. Should I get this for this future build? It seems that no matter which direction I take, this will be a good fit?
 
We still haven't gotten on the topic of going to a Solid State drive or not
 
Guido02 said:
We still haven't gotten on the topic of going to a Solid State drive or not
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If you feel like you need it, go for it. Do note that you will need Windows 7 to take full advantage of a SSD. In addition, it has to be a fresh install in order for the SSD to perform right.

Personally I recommend Intel SSDs since they're a bit more reliable:
$115 - Intel SSDSA2MP040G2R5 2.5" 40GB SSD
$200 - Intel SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SSD
 
I dont necessarily want an ssd, I was asking if I should get one over the WD black or samsung F3 drives? And if SSD is out, then which of those 2 HDD's should I use
 
Guido02 said:
I dont necessarily want an ssd, I was asking if I should get one over the WD black or samsung F3 drives? And if SSD is out, then which of those 2 HDD's should I use
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Really depends: Do you want a snappier OS or not? If not SSD, go with the Samsung. It's faster than the Black.
 
I need to recap because I am getting ready to buy and I just want to clarify exactly where I'm at with this purchase. There are still some wholes but things are really coming together. I'm going to list the things I have, the things i need, and the wholes that still exist. If there is an opinion about something I should change in the list of things I have just let me know.

Currently Own:
Case: SilverStone PS05
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
PSU: Antec NeoPower 650W
ODD: Pick One Sony Optiarc AD-7241S or LG GH22NS40

What I need:
CPU: AMD x6 Core 1055T Phenom
MoBo: See Below
GPU: See Below
RAM: See Below

We have mentioned all of these once, but there was never anything more said about them
G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156


GPU: Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PCI-E - Now what are my options for a 30" monitor? I will have my Dell 3007 in November, so I want to keep this in mind, but with that said, I still want to be concious of the budget.

Thanks for everything guys, I am very excited for this PC.
 
Guido02 said:
We have mentioned all of these once, but there was never anything more said about them
G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
Click to expand...
Well really nothing more needs to be said about them. That RAM set has been recommended hundreds of times here in this subforum. We rarely get any complaints about them. They just work.

As for the Coolermaster HSF, again if you search around this subforum, that's the most common best bang for the buck HSF out there now.

As for the Asus motherboard that I recommended, it was given a gold star in a HardOCP review. Not to mention that's widely acknowledged as a great overclocker. That combo deals drops the price of that motherboard down to $155. That's a bloody steal at that price.

Guido02 said:
GPU: Gigabyte GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 1GB PCI-E - Now what are my options for a 30" monitor? I will have my Dell 3007 in November, so I want to keep this in mind, but with that said, I still want to be concious of the budget.
Click to expand...
The problem is that you're gonna have to spend a significant chunk of change for gaming at 2560x1600. Assuming that you're sticking with an AMD platform, that means Crossfire.

Option A: Two HD 5850 1GB in Crossfire + new 750W PSU
Option B: HD 5870 1GB + new 750W PSU.
Option C: Get a cheap placeholder card (HD 5770 1GB probably) capable of low to mid settings at your monitor's current res and then get the new ATI HD 6xxx series card when they're released. Unfortunately no word whether or not the new cards will require a larger PSU.
Option D: GTX 480 + new 750W PSU

Option A would be the better bang for the buck option now. Option C is a tad risky. Option B and D are not cost-effective. Yeah you're pretty much looking at a new PSU for all the options. If you want to be able to reuse that Antec PSU, that pretty much means switching to an Intel Core i5 750 setup + GTX 460 1GB SLI. But socket LGA1156 has caveats as mentioned earlier in this thread.
 
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How old is the NeoPower? How often have you used the PSU during that time? Assuming that you're sticking with one video card for the time being -- if you're even thinking about CrossFire or SLI in the future, you might as well buy a new PSU now -- it may or may not be able to handle a high-end card.

If you want to take advantage of your 30" monitor in gaming, the GTX 460 SLI setup is the best bang-per-buck option available right now. However, as Danny alluded to earlier, that means that an Intel LGA1156 system is the better approach. While it has practically no further upgrade path, a well-maintained system (any well-maintained system, for that matter) can easily last you years.
 
The neopower is brand new, unopened. I could always get another PSU, I just had a few on hand, so thats why I threw that out there. But I still want to work within a reasonable budget of course.

In regards to that case I mentioned, do you guys think that it is good enough or should I look into something else?

For the heat sink, the corsair H50 is on sale right now for 59.99 I think, is that a better option?

I can definitely hold off on using the 30" monitor for a bit, but I will definitely want to use it in the future.
 
Guido02 said:
In regards to that case I mentioned, do you guys think that it is good enough or should I look into something else?
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That case is good enough for most single GPU video cards. However for any kind of Crossfire or SLI setup, I'd recommend getting a new case like this:
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II ATX Case

Guido02 said:
For the heat sink, the corsair H50 is on sale right now for 59.99 I think, is that a better option?
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It's a good option.
Guido02 said:
I can definitely hold off on using the 30" monitor for a bit, but I will definitely want to use it in the future.
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Ok, then, reuse your current PSU, go for the GTX 460 1GB and then replace it once you actuall get that 30". Hoepfully by then there will be a single GPU video card capable of providing accepatable performance at 2560x1600 and still be powered by a 650W PSU.
 
So What will I do with the 460 in a couple months when I start to use m DELL? I think I need to get something that would accodate the dell now, I dont think I want to get a new vid card in a few months. What would the cost of a setup PSU/GPU cost for the Dell?
 
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