Should i dump this motherboard?

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PurpleSlug

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May 21, 2015
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Hey there fellow experts,

I need some help with a mobo/CPU dilemma. I'm not very informed about PCs structure and all.

I use my PC to toy with games (mostly rpgs.and 4X), but i'm not a huge gamer. I also work on it for simulations in matlab, solidworks, comsol and other programs. Sometimes i occasionally program C++ and watch movies.

Currently, i run on a pretty old CPU which honestly feels terrible today: AMD FX 4100. I'm really determined to upgrade it. Thing is i have this motherboard: N68C-GS FX, which i've bought some years ago. And judging some opinions and reviews, it has poor performances. I've read somewhere about it's hypertransport which is 1000 MHz, and it's not enough and potentially can bottleneck a CPU etc.

Now I'd like to know is it true, that this motherboard bottlenecks performances, and how badly?

1) If so, instead of buying a more powerful AMD CPU (which will be slowed by this hypertransport stuff on mobo anyway), i'd prefer to invest on a new INTEL mobo and an I5 CPU. Which of course will cost me much more.

2) If not, I'll just go ahead and buy a better AMD CPU on same mobo and save money?

What your advice would be?
 
Solution
AdviserKulikov
Your motherboard is at the end of its useful life anyways. It was a DDR2-3 transitional board, only supporting 8GB of RAM. It uses PCI-e v1.1, which is slow enough to bottleneck some cards. It's not capable of overclocking a newer FX to be competitive with Intel (few motherboards are even with a good cooler, really)

This board isn't going to last long enough to be worth buying a new AM3+ CPU, get an Intel and you'll be good for at least 5 years, probably more considering how slow CPU development is getting. The i7-920 was released in 2008, and is still a relatively potent little CPU, advances are getting slower unless something changes in material sciences to get us away from Silicon chips.
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AdviserKulikov

AdviserKulikov

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Jan 13, 2015
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Your motherboard is at the end of its useful life anyways. It was a DDR2-3 transitional board, only supporting 8GB of RAM. It uses PCI-e v1.1, which is slow enough to bottleneck some cards. It's not capable of overclocking a newer FX to be competitive with Intel (few motherboards are even with a good cooler, really)

This board isn't going to last long enough to be worth buying a new AM3+ CPU, get an Intel and you'll be good for at least 5 years, probably more considering how slow CPU development is getting. The i7-920 was released in 2008, and is still a relatively potent little CPU, advances are getting slower unless something changes in material sciences to get us away from Silicon chips.
 
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Solution
Onus

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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^Agreed. The FX-4100, the lowest of the Bulldozer CPUs, is not a great performer anyway, and the board will indeed limit the buss bandwidth that would be needed to get the best out of a newer chip. It is also likely that the board may not support the power requirements of a heavily loaded 8-core CPU. It is time for an upgrade. Unless specific benchmarks relevant to you favor an AMD FX, then most likely an Intel i5 (or even i7) will be the better choice.
 
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James Mason

James Mason

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Jan 2, 2014
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Yeah a cheap i5 setup isn't too costly and would perform nicely:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($39.60 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Rosewill RANGER-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.88 @ NCIX US)
Total: $595.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-21 17:31 EDT-0400

This won't have any issues with 4x, and RPG is too broad in terms graphical fidelty, but this can still handle the witcher 3 just fine.
 
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Onus

Onus

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Jan 27, 2006
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I'd prefer a 2x4GB RAM kit to get dual-channel mode, but otherwise, for the money, that's not bad for the stated purposes. You might choose a more robust mobo (e.g. more SATA ports and features like RAID) if you like, or a better PSU, but as little stress as this system will put on it, the chosen unit is fine.
 
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PurpleSlug

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May 21, 2015
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Thanks a lot guys. I think the route is clear now ;).

I think i'm going with the I5-4590, now going to do some research to chose the right mobo for him.



Heh, unfortunately hopes are small imo. Silicon is good, we just hit fundamental physics barriers. But who knows?
 
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