Need Advice with choosing a new CPU and Motherboard

[Gridlock]

Hey,

as the title claims, I'm having some difficulties picking out a suitable CPU/motherboard. Some of my parts are aging and I suspect that my CPU is bottlenecking my GPU. Here are my current specifications. Some of these are taken from Everest, so it might cause some confusion.

■CPU - Dual Core Intel Pentium D 915, 2,8 GHz
■Motherboard - Asus P5LD2 (3 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN)
■Memory - 2048 MB (A-DATA DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)
■GPU - Sapphire HD 4850 512MB
■PSU - Chieftec 650W

Here are the parts that I've selected out so far. Note that the links I provided are in Estonian, but more detailed specifications are under the title. Converted prices for convenience.

CPU:

■AMD Phenom II X4 965 3,4GHz 6MB Black Edition ~160€/~230$
■AMD Phenom II X4 955 3,2GHz 6MB Black Edition ~144€/~207$

Motherboard:

I've been getting stuck here, mainly because I don't know much about motherboards. Take into a consideration that I do not overclock. I'm looking for a motherboard with an AM2+ socket, so I could use my current RAM. I'm also not interested in using Crossfire.

■Asus Socket AM2+ M3N72-D ~81€/~116$
■Gigabyte Socket AM3 GA-MA770T-UD3P ~71€/~102$

Additional information:

System Usage: Gaming, photo editing in Photoshop, surfing the web, watching movies and possibly video editing in the future.
Purchase dates: Possibly the following months (motherboard in the first month and the CPU in the next or just all together).
Monitor resolution: 1280x1024 (might change in the distant future)
Budget: Up to ~320€/~460$.

Just ask if any more information is needed and I'll see if I can provide. Thanks in advance!

 

[erikjansson]

Hi Gridlock!

You are able to run the DDR2 memory on this motherboard that is actually very cheap and has good performance and supports even up to Quad Cores. The Socket is 775 if you want to know. The motherboard supports PCie, so check if your graphics card is PCie and not AGP. Here is the link to newegg to the mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131393&cm_re=asus_motherboard_ddr2-_-13-131-393-_-Product


Now for the CPU, for a mid ranged price and a good gaming performance I recommend at lease a dual core CPU but in the future quad cores will rule the world so here are two links to two diffrent CPUS that run on your mobo, one is dual core and one is quad core.

Dual-Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115056
Pros: Good CPU and good clocks(2.8*2 = 5,6Ghz)
Cons: Dual Core
Quad-Core: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115207&cm_re=core_2_quad-_-19-115-207-_-Product
Pros: Good CPU and Good clocks(2.5*4 = 10Ghz)
Cons: Not as cheap as the Dual-Core but not expensive at the same time



Erik Jansson

 

[MadAdmiral]

@erik: Quad's already rule the world.

@OP: You're getting kicked in the pants for those prices. In the US, the 955 is $166 (115 euros), the 965 is $185 (130 euros). Might want to check other sites.

Between the two CPUs, I personally prefer the 955. It's what I'm using. I don't particularly think the extra little bit is worth it, especially if you plan to overclock the CPU.

I would suggest just going ahead and building with DDR3. Usually, you can get 2x2 GB 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 sticks for $100 (70 euros).

This is the board I currently like to recommend for non-Crossfire builds: ASUS M4A77TD It's $70 (50 euros).

 

[Gridlock]

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I'm aware that the prices here are a lot higher than in the US, but these are just grim circumstances I am forced to deal with. I could order from Finland, but the prices won't be that much different, there are only a few local shops here that actually offer reasonable prices and one of them doesn't sell parts separately.

And when comparing the local prices of AMD quads to that of Intel's, then prices of the former are just great (if judging by local pricing). I thought about going for the AM3 & DDR3 RAM build, but even a 1x1GB setup would cost up to about ~77€/~111$ + for the board. I'll just have too keep on looking.