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That time again: Hardware Upgrade Advice

C

Cyraxx

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
4,144
Hey folks :) Been a while since I've posted here, but I haven't been keeping up with my hardware reviews as much :eek:

Anyways, heres my current specs. I'm mainly calling for an upgrade because I'm getting random crashes that I'm assuming are motherboard related. I've run memtest, hard drive tests, and I don't see how it can be my processor.
Motherboard: EVGA 780i SLi
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 9300
Memory: 2x2GB Corsair Dominator
Videocard: 8800GTX

So here is what I am thinking of starting with:
Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188054

Processor: Here is where I am clueless. My current processor isn't bad, but if I am changing sockets I obviously need an upgrade. Can anyone here reccomend something that will boost my performance to the max, while still keeping it at the budget level? My debate is below:
Core i7-860 - Customers choice award, LOTS of positive reviews, LOTS Of sales... Looks promising: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...115214&cm_re=intel_860-_-19-115-214-_-Product
Core i7-870 - Same price as the 860 for some reason, but .13 ghz faster? I don't understand... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115213
Core i7-875k Unlocked - I do like an unlocked proc for some nice safe OCing to take advantage of: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116368&cm_re=875k-_-19-116-368-_-Product

Videocard: Same as processor. I feel my videocard is in need of an upgrade, but I just don't know where to start.


Any help is appreciated :)
 
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First of all,

1. What is this upgrade for? Gaming mainly?
2. Is your Q9300 Quad cpu overclocked?
3. What's the full specs of your current rig?
4. What size monitor/resolution do you have?
5. What's the max budget on this upgrade?
 
HardwareGuru said:
First of all,

1. What is this upgrade for? Gaming mainly?
2. Is your Q9300 Quad cpu overclocked?
3. What's the full specs of your current rig?
4. What size monitor/resolution do you have?
5. What's the max budget on this upgrade?
Click to expand...

I appreciate the help :)

1. Gaming to a certain extent. Starcraft 2 is running shitty, but I am by no means as much of a hardcore gamer as before. I'm still a computer enthusiast though. Basically when it comes to my choice, I simply want "the most bang for my buck". What will give me the biggest numbers for the lowest price.

2. Slightly overclocked I believe, running @ 7.5x unlocked I believe? I can't remember it's been so long. The main annoying part is crashing to be honest.

3.
EVGA 780i SLi
Core 2 Quad Q9300
EVGA 8800GTX
OCZ 2x2GB PC-6400 Memory (Also going to upgrade this, definitely going with corsair dominators)
WD Raptor 150GB (Eventually an SSD when they drop way low)
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750w (I believe, very nice PSU)

4. 24" Dell LCD 1920x1600 dualed with a 20" Dell LCD 1600x1200

5. Like I said, no real "max" just most bang for the buck. Between a Motherboard, CPU, Videocard, and Memory I'm hoping it to be significantly below $1000, but I'm willing to go "up there" if need be.


By the way - I just had one of those crashes. My computer locks in it's current screen, the speakers / headphones immediately turn to a BUZZZZZZZ and just hangs. No BSOD or anything. This time I waited it out and 5 minutes later it resumed.

One other thing: For memory I'm going to obviously need an upgrade for DDR3 - but 4GB just isn't enough. 6GB is going to be the minimum I need. Is Dual Channel still a big deal or would running 3 sticks make no difference?
 
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I would say this would be a sick ass upgrade for the money.

GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB + GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 both for $334.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.480693

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz for $194.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 for $91.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193

Total: $621.96.

This should give you a nice well balanced upgrade. You could go with an AMD Phenom II X4 955 cpu build for a cheaper cost but, it won't show substantial gain over an overclocked Q9300 quad cpu. Your overclocked Q9300 can pretty much match the performance of the Phenom II X4 955 at 3.2ghz. The Intel Core i5 750 however, will definitely be faster. As far as the 1GB GTX 260, it will obviously show an improvement over your 8800GTX video card. On top of this, this o/c GTX 4610 1GB card will come close to the performance of a Radeon HD 5850 at a cheaper cost of $230 vs $290. As far as the memory goes, 4GB of DDR3 is plenty for gaming already. You don't need 6GB
 
HardwareGuru said:
I would say this would be a sick ass upgrade for the money.

GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB + GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 both for $334.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.480693

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz for $194.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 for $91.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193

Total: $621.96.

This should give you a nice well balanced upgrade. You could go with an AMD Phenom II X4 955 cpu build for a cheaper cost but, it won't show substantial gain over an overclocked Q9300 quad cpu. Your overclocked Q9300 can pretty much match the performance of the Phenom II X4 955 at 3.2ghz. The Intel Core i5 750 however, will definitely be faster. As far as the 1GB GTX 260, it will obviously show an improvement over your 8800GTX video card. On top of this, this o/c GTX 4610 1GB card will come close to the performance of a Radeon HD 5850 at a cheaper cost of $230 vs $290. As far as the memory goes, 4GB of DDR3 is plenty for gaming already. You don't need 6GB
Click to expand...

The reason I think I need more memory is simply because SC2.exe runs ~3.1GB. When I run a music app or something in the background it nearly kills it. Especially if I want to run @ 1920x1600

Thank you for the suggestions, it all looks great. I'm trying to avoid all the fucking SLi Motherboards because I have absolutely no desire. I did that with 6800GT's and it was useless when the 8800 came out. I lost all faith in SLi as far as being worth the money unless you can afford top of the line all the time.

Any addition to speed/quality as far as the memory goes? I just remember loving my Dominators when it came to DDR1/DDR2
 
Hmm....you already mentioned you have issues with your existing setup. Those Nvidia 780i as well as the older 680i chipsets run hot. For now, stick with 4GB DDR3 and see how it goes. You can always pop in more RAM later on.

Stick with the 1.5V G.Skill Rams.

This build will surely give you an upgrade over your current setup. CPU, Mobo chipset, Video card and RAM.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Hmm....you already mentioned you have issues with your existing setup. Those Nvidia 780i as well as the older 680i chipsets run hot. For now, stick with 4GB DDR3 and see how it goes. You can always pop in more RAM later on.

Stick with the 1.5V G.Skill Rams.

This build will surely give you an upgrade over your current setup. CPU, Mobo chipset, Video card and RAM.
Click to expand...

Sounds good thank you thank you! I was debating on an EVGA board that had a 40$ mail in rebate (which would have equaled the exact price w/ gigabye), but after reading reviews the Gigabyte was the definite winner.

Last question really: Will that i7-750 give me that much of a performance gain over my Q9300? Or should I opt to plump down a little more for the i7-860? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214&cm_re=core_i7-_-19-115-214-_-Product
 
It sure will.

As far as the Core i7 860 cpu at 2.80 ghz, it's priced at $289.00. It is definitely not worth it for your needs. Note that the Core i5 750 line does not have HT or Hyperthreading support. However, you won't be needing it for your needs anyways. If you encode videos and programs that support HT, then you'll benefit. But, if it's just gaming, stick with the Core i5 -750. Also, the Core i5-750 consumes low power. You can overclock this to 4.0ghz speeds.
 
Cyraxx said:
Last question really: Will that i7-750 give me that much of a performance gain over my Q9300? Or should I opt to plump down a little more for the i7-860? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214&cm_re=core_i7-_-19-115-214-_-Product
Click to expand...

Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz 50 bucks cheaper then the i7-860, only lacks in Mhz.. Feature wise it still has HT & all the rest that the i5-750 is missing.. & Since price wise its right in between the 2 I believe it fits best bang for buck.
 
HardwareGuru said:
It sure will.

As far as the Core i7 860 cpu at 2.80 ghz, it's priced at $289.00. It is definitely not worth it for your needs. Note that the Core i5 750 line does not have HT or Hyperthreading support. However, you won't be needing it for your needs anyways. If you encode videos and programs that support HT, then you'll benefit. But, if it's just gaming, stick with the Core i5 -750. Also, the Core i5-750 consumes low power. You can overclock this to 4.0ghz speeds.
Click to expand...

Nice articles! That is a close call between all those, yours is definitely the bigger bang for the buck. Thanks a ton, I'm going to be ordering soon. I'm glad this upgrade will make such a good difference.

bastage said:
Intel Xeon X3440 Lynnfield 2.53GHz 50 bucks cheaper then the i7-860, only lacks in Mhz.. Feature wise it still has HT & all the rest that the i5-750 is missing.. & Since price wise its right in between the 2 I believe it fits best bang for buck.
Click to expand...

Interesting too - anyone else have a word of advice on this over the i5-750? Maybe one is more OCable than the other? Disadvantages to it being a server processor?
 
Cyraxx said:
Interesting too - anyone else have a word of advice on this over the i5-750? Maybe one is more OCable than the other? Disadvantages to it being a server processor?
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't OC as high as the i5 750. And it's singlethreaded performance is a little lower than the i5 750 IIRC. Still a good choice over the i5 750 IMO.
 
Though the i7-930 at $200 is a good deal, you also have to factor in the overall cost of going with an Intel X58-based system. A good X58 board (the i7-930 is a Socket 1366 processor, not 1156) costs over $200 and a 3x2GB DDR3 tri-channel kit costs around $150 (if not more) in many cases. Add the cost of a good third-party CPU cooler, and you could easily spend around $600, if not more, on those four components alone.
 
just a thought, since he wants 'bang for the buck'....of which an X58 setup would be due to it being somewhat future-proof at least for a while. Spend another $80 on a motherboard but it lasts an additional two years...just my $0.02 ;-)
 
The X58 platform on its own doesn't offer that much of a performance boost when it comes to gaming. In fact, unless the OP insists on either SLI or CrossFire, he'd be better off going with either an AMD AM3- or Intel Socket 1156-based build.
 
tiraides said:
The X58 platform on its own doesn't offer that much of a performance boost when it comes to gaming. In fact, unless the OP insists on either SLI or CrossFire, he'd be better off going with either an AMD AM3- or Intel Socket 1156-based build.
Click to expand...

Man that is a toughie... I mean, on one hand I want to be ready for another upgrade and would hate to have to buy a new board and everything.

On the other hand, those motherboards are fucking expensive, and I have no intentions of going SLi / Crossfire. I'm probably going to go with what HardwareGuru recommended with the i5. I figure by the time I want another upgrade the socket 1366 might be just as dead.
 
Cyraxx said:
Ya sure? There's a shitload of new cpu's coming at the end of 2010. I mean, I CAN hold out if it's worth it :D
Click to expand...

Franky put, not sure if it's worth it. Second, those CPUs are using the new socket LGA 1155. Which means that there will be a slight price premium for those motheboards.

Look the best advice I can give you is this: Wait until you can no longer wait. Then upgrade.
 
Danny Bui said:
Franky put, not sure if it's worth it. Second, those CPUs are using the new socket LGA 1155. Which means that there will be a slight price premium for those motheboards.

Look the best advice I can give you is this: Wait until you can no longer wait. Then upgrade.
Click to expand...

Ohhhh you :p Wait until you can no longer wait ;) No such thing.

I read a lot of this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2096965

It looks like theres a lot of weary people, especially since Sandy Bridge CPUs have Integrated Graphics. People are concerned that the processors will be locked and unable to OC. I keep going back to thinking this is the best deal, but something always comes up heh.
 
Look, if you're ready to build something now, build something now. You act as if the entire Intel Socket 1156 line-up is obsolete, yet the Core i5/i7/P55 combo beats out most anything that AMD has to offer. Until Sandy Bridge arrives and the 1156 line reaches end-of-life status, nothing is obsolete.
 
Danny Bui said:
Well it doesn't OC as high as the i5 750. And it's singlethreaded performance is a little lower than the i5 750 IIRC. Still a good choice over the i5 750 IMO.
Click to expand...

They are still Impressive Oveclockers.. 3.61Ghz seems to be the number almost everyone with them hits, which is just over 1ghz over stock. I know the i5-750's are supposed to hit close to 4ghz, so yes there a little faster, But not enough to use that as a disqualifier IMHO.. Of course YMMV on either one though.
 
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