Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

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Dr. kitteny berk
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Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

This is most certainly at the point of I wonder if...? right now. But then, all good ideas start like that.

Right now the Gonk is as it has been for many years, and I feel like it might be getting close to upgrade o'clock.

CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3.2ghz
Ram: 6 Gig, I think
Graphics: AMD 7800 something or other
HDD: An old spinny one.
PSU: Enermax galaxy 1kw (seriously, best purchase ever, this thing just keeps going)

Anyway, I'm thinking a mobo/cpu/ram upgrade might be in order, but I have no idea if it's even worth doing, has the architecture improved enough in the last 6 years to make it worthwhile? What's good for a minimal budget?

Also, as an aside, how does the onboard graphics stuff handle games? thinking wow, playdate and dota for the woman, who's currently using an 8800gtx, I think.
buzzmong
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by buzzmong »

I'd wait for another month or so on the graphics front. AMD are supposed to be bringing out new stuff this month, which'll obviously knock prices down on all their existing cards.
Dr. kitteny berk
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

My intent would be:

Upgrade Mobo/CPU/Ram in gonk > apply old bits to shibari (wifey's machine), then maybe upgrade both to SSDs, and probably then shibari to new gonk spec, then graphics last, as that always seems to be the fastest moving part of the deal.
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by FatherJack »

I thought the Q6600 was 2.4GHz, I know mine is, but I guess there were maybe others or it's a good overclocker. I'm still using it, as the barrier to upgrading (to presumably at least i5) is pretty high for not a massive boost. My GTX560 is hanging on and I haven't found anything I can't play (which used to be the issue when previous rigs became outdated) but it's the Q6600 that's the real hero - I really can't believe how long it's remained viable - it's survived two GPU updates, two RAM upgrades and a PSU swap.
Dr. kitteny berk
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

It started at 2.4ghz, but it overclocks like a champ, has been up as high as 3.6ghz and stable, down to 3.3 in its old age.

It is a proper workhorse, but it's kinda getting on a bit now.
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Wiggy »

Don't forget I'm sending you a graphics card this weekend, or is that for the child?
Dr. kitteny berk
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

I dunno actually, I suspect the child has decided it's his, and the woman can have his for now.
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

Right, here's the plan as I think it might go (once I whore myself out for a few quid):

Upgrade Mobslug's machine (currently a 2.8ghz prescott, no ram and an amd 5000 series gpu) to Q6600, 4gig ram.
Upgrade Wifey's machine (E2180, 6gb, 8800GTX) to the GTX260 from mr wiggy.
Upgrade Wifey's machine to have more storage, she's bitching about raptors, silly woman.
Upgrade Gonk's guts to AMD thing listed below.
Upgrade Wifey to Gonk's Q6600, maybe more rams.
Upgrade Wifey's Graphics and then mobo etc to something comparible to new gonk™
SSDs all the way down!
Buy new waterblock for the gonk, overclock the shit out of CPU

Anyway, Pleasantly affordable upgrade specs;

I prefer the looks of the AMD spec for the money, all being equal the cpu appears to have more bang for the buck, and I quite like the sounds of the relatively decent overclockery, compared to the nightmare of haswell heat dissipation, especially as I can't really afford to watercool immediately.

I know the memory is on the low end of acceptable these days, but it's one of the easiest upgrades to make down the line, and the prices shouldn't get any higher for a while yet.

CPU: AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz £125.99
Ram:Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB)£65.99
Mobo:Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A £50.99
Total:£252

Or

CPU:Intel Core i5-4430 £131.99
Ram:Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) £65.99
Mobo:MSI B85-G43 Intel B85 £61.99
Total:£260

Anyone current enough with hardware to be constructive on the AMD vs Intel thing?
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by FatherJack »

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Anyone current enough with hardware to be constructive on the AMD vs Intel thing?
http://google.co.uk/search?q=amd+8350+vs+i5+4430 suggests it's a close-run thing, with the AMD ahead in all categories except in single-core performance.
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:CPU: AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz £125.99
Ram:Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB)£65.99
Mobo:Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AMD 970A £50.99
Total:£252

Anyone current enough with hardware to be constructive on the AMD vs Intel thing?

So yeah, I ended up with

CPU: AMD FX6300 (overclocked to 3.76 so far)
Ram: Corsair 8gb (1x8gb stick)
Mobo: Asrock 970 extreme4

CPU isn't as fast as I'd like, but it's a rather decent upgrade nonetheless.

Rams allows for more capacity over time for less money down now. 65 quid a stick don't hurt.

Mobo is a bit of an odd one, it has more than one long PCI-E slot at proper speed, so my sata controller will work at decent speed, but I do rather like asrock hardware anyway, given they're mental.
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Re: Hypothetical upgrade conundrums.

Post by FatherJack »

Just ordered something pretty similar (sans fancy memory) for my Dad's upgrade:

http://www.ebuyer.com/675964-motherboar ... -7260-7005
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