Should I upgrade Phenom IIx4 980 BE

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Dreconic

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My last PC build was in summer of 2010. I have a budget of ~1k-1.5k, and while i have the budget to rebuild a whole new PC I would like to keep it as low as possible and still meet my needs (keeps the wife happier) I also need to get a computer able to run basic games (nothing major) and internet etc. for my brother in law (he is getting what ever I don't need, plus what ever i may need to buy)

My Current Rig:
Case - Cool Master Mid Tower Case
Mobo -GIGABYTE 880GMA-UD2H AMD 880G
CPU - Phenom IIx4 980 BE
RAM - Patriot ddr3 1333 8gb
GPU - EVGA 01G-P3-1460-K1 GeForce GTX 560
HDD - 1 tb WD 7200 RPM
PSU - 550 Corsair something or another. My 750watt PSU went bad, father had this one un opened so been using it.
Extra's - Corsair liquid cooling h80 I think?

Now I know ^^^^ Is pretty much over kill for what my brother in law needs now but I am hoping to bring him over to PC gaming and this might help him do it :D.

My future rig
Case - Raidmax Vampire full tower case - Already bought for $119.99

Mobo/CPU - If I can get a good enough performance upgrade from AMD FX-9370 or maybe a AMD FX-9590 I would upgrade the CPU and MOBO - Looking at about $380 - $520. So is the upgrade really worth it?

RAM - I do some graphic modeling, 3d world building etc so will go up to 16 gigs of 1600 DDR - About $150

HDD - Not so worried about upgrading this, i have a spare 500gb I can give Bro-in-Law. However i would like to get at least a 120gb-240gb SSD as I have it in my budget. so looking at $100 - $150 for SSD

GPU - This i will be upgrading, while the 560 is still doing pretty good, most newer games are being played on low-medium with a 1920x1080 resolution. So looking at a 270x at about $300 or a 770 at $350.

PSU - 750watt to 1200watt, I know 1200 is overkill but down the road i will want to be able to add a second GPU, Overclock the CPU and add more HDD. About $120 - $250.

Extra's - If i upgrade my CPU/Mobo i will probably go with a full 280 liquid cooling kit, i really dont like the sound of fans and would like to keep the system quite.

So If do a full upgrade i am looking at about 1300 - 1750, might be able to get them cheaper if i buy parts when they are on sale. With in my budget.

If I decide not to do a mobo/cpu upgrade i would need to buy my bro - in - law a CPU/Mobo kit and would get either an i3, or a mid range A6. CPU + Mobo about 150 bucks, saves me 250 - 400 on my over all build.

SO TLDR: Is spending $380 - $520 to upgrade my Phenom II x4 980 BE worth it giving the performance improvement I may see. I ask because looking at the new FX's and i7's the improvement does not seem that great...
 
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lmaonade200
where are you finding that the improvements over your Phenom are not great? A Haswell i5 would completely crush your Phenom as it is, though I would say your CPU is not bad in its own right, any newer processor today could easily outpace it.

I would say yes, you could easily get an i5 4670k + a high quality Z87 mobo for around 400 dollars and overclock the crap out of it.

On another note, do not go for the R9 270x if it's at 300 dollars, a GTX 770 would completely destroy it in gaming performance, it used to be that the R9 280x competed well with it at 300 dollars, but now that AMD cards have been rising in price, they are no longer worth it for a gaming build, they still have their uses in work builds though, so if you're looking at...
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lmaonade200

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where are you finding that the improvements over your Phenom are not great? A Haswell i5 would completely crush your Phenom as it is, though I would say your CPU is not bad in its own right, any newer processor today could easily outpace it.

I would say yes, you could easily get an i5 4670k + a high quality Z87 mobo for around 400 dollars and overclock the crap out of it.

On another note, do not go for the R9 270x if it's at 300 dollars, a GTX 770 would completely destroy it in gaming performance, it used to be that the R9 280x competed well with it at 300 dollars, but now that AMD cards have been rising in price, they are no longer worth it for a gaming build, they still have their uses in work builds though, so if you're looking at things like AutoCAD and any OpenCL/OpenGL accelerated applications then AMD cards are still better. But for the most part, Nvidia cards are more cost effective these days
 
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Dreconic

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I know the improvement is there. But is it worth a 400-500 improvement when really the 980 BE is still a good CPU and only in second tier of Tom's CPU Hierarchy guide




If I did go intel this is the way I wold go. and for a CPU+Mobo tobe at 400 that is right in my price range for those two items.



Yes, I have noticed this also, and the 770 is the way I was looking if i did go with NVidia and Intel.
 
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Dreconic

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Thanks, i look at both those charts a lot, and the phenom is in a tier 2 over all, top tier for AMD. Makes my decision a bit harder. But after doing further research and yours and lmaonade200 responses pretty sure I will be going with an intel, nvidia build :D

 
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lmaonade200

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well, that's really up to you to decide, I mean they list first generation i7's in the 2nd tier too, and those are definitely elderly gentlemen in the world of CPUs.

hardware wise the i5 is definitely more powerful, it has nearly double the transistors of your Phenom X4, in terms of real world gains you should see probably a increase in speed of 20-25% in regular single thread tasks, like unzipping files or encoding and such. And while that sounds impressive at first, if your Phenom can, say, unzip a file in 5 seconds, then the i5 will do it in 4 or 3. (crude example I know)

It's significant, and at the same time not. You could always wait for newer processors though, Intel with their tick-tock policy pumps out new processor lines every 2 years, if you think you want to hold on for a better processor, do it.

And as for AMD, they don't really compete on performance (not since the Phenom days, which is why Phenom processors are still top of the line for gaming), but rather with price. Keep in mind that this is a gaming hierarchy, and the vast majority of games are still single process tasks, so they take advantage of single core power more than anything, which is why Phenoms are ranked evenly with the FX's, AMD took a lateral step with the FX chips to make them run multithread processes better.
 
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Dreconic

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I never understood why they went with APU's i guess for some people (business, schools?) it makes since but no gamer is going to buy an A series CPU, but at the recent gaming convention I went to there reps where pushing A's as this great thing for gaming... sorry no....

 
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clutchc

clutchc

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AMD is not going to complete with Intel for the high-end gaming market anymore. They are after the high volume small energy efficient chips for laptops, tablets, etc.
And also the server market with their 8, 12, and 16 core Opterons. Gaming PCs are but a small portion of the microprocessor market. In fact, Intel may soon go the soldered-in CPU on motherboards.
 
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lmaonade200

lmaonade200

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it's great for the entry level people, great for PC manufacturers, after all they sell those i3 + gt 630 computers all day long, AMD is trying to penetrate this particular segment in the market. Their APUs are great for low powered solutions, but they don't scale as well as they claim they do is the problem for enthusiasts. In the recent review of the new kaveri APUs, the big winner was in fact the low power 65W one, which had about 80-90% the power of the A10 7850k the entire time, that says a lot for being an entry level, all-in-one, consumer chip.

for most high end gamers Intel will likely be the way to go in terms of CPUs.
 
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