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Rate my upgrade

Hello there. I am planning on doing a major upgrade to my system in anticipation of the slew of video games that we will see this fall (Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, whatever Call of Duty gives us). I originally planned to upgrade only once these games came out because I'm not too sure I even need the upgrade, and if I do the price of the parts that I need will inevitably fall by then.

However, an opportunity I dont want to explain has arisen, and I can only upgrade these parts now.

So, Right now my computer consists of

-Intel core 2 duo E8400

-4GB of DDR2-800

Gigabyte G31-ES2L

and I wanted to upgrade to:

-Biostar A770E3 AM3

-AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition

-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

So I have a few questions

1: Is that a decent motherboard? it has what I think I need, multi-core support, DDR3, PCI-E 2.0. What else should I look for?

2: Is there any feature that the Phenom Black edition has over the regular 3.2Ghz Phenom x4 doesn't have besides the unlocked multiplier? I ask because I've never overclocked my hardware for the sake of longevity.
16 answers Last reply
More about rate upgrade
  1. 2GB was doable for gaming rigs so if u want to free up funds for a more beefier GPU upgrade

    Reuse your perfectly fine working 4GB of DDR2:

    965BE + MSI 785GT-E63 AM2+/DDR2 mobo $159.99 (basically free mobo lol)
    http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html
  2. ^+1
    1) that is a budget motherboard but is fine if it has all the features you need.
    2) Only the higher Clock speed over other Phenom II 9xx CPU's 8xx series have less L3 Cache and there is a new one out with no L3 (basically an Athlon II in disguise).
  3. I would not get the Biostar board super Cheap. Get Asus or Gigabyte. I used a few Biostar board for customer builds and they crapped out with in a year.
  4. Bro this "upgrade" makes no sense at all with the i5 2500K out...
    save a little more money and get any of the sandy bridge processors
    The best being the i5 2500K which overclocks ridiculously well and has similar gaming performance to the 980x (intels $1000 cpu)

    Don't waste any money on this in my opinion

    Ive updated myself on prices, and you'd end up having to pay around $150 more for a sandy bridge i5-2500k system, but if you can afford that much, in my opinion the speed, and much better longevity of the system will be worth it.

    Also if you are going with intel , the updated sandy bridge mother boards haven't arrived yet, but I think they should be here in less then a couple of weeks
  5. rolli59 said:
    ^+1
    1) that is a budget motherboard but is fine if it has all the features you need.
    2) Only the higher Clock speed over other Phenom II 9xx CPU's 8xx series have less L3 Cache and there is a new one out with no L3 (basically an Athlon II in disguise).


    Yep having built with the AM2+ Biostars for clients from '08 that board would be fine for stock/light OC but if TS nabs that Microcenter deal :D

    Correct PhenomII X4 840 is a 3.2ghz Propus really
  6. I completely agree with amirp. Upgrading your PC to last generation hardware is pointless. You'll just have to upgrade again even sooner. If I were you, the i5 2500k or the i3 2100 would be my best bet for your budget. Intel's Sandy Bridge lineup is a good 3 generations ahead of the Phenom II lineup. Don't go AMD till they release Bulldozer, since you're just throwing your money away.
  7. While I'd like to upgrade to current or next-gen hardware, the recommendations here put me over 100$ beyond my budget, and it is pretty fixed.
  8. And where can I find an LGA 1155 motherboard? Is newegg even selling any or are they not available to builders for some reason?
  9. Hi, I found another motherboard that I think will fit my needs much better. I also found 50$ lying around which will go to my budget

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130235

    Now the box says "SLI Ready", but I'm wondering if the two PCI-E x16 slots will still have 16 lanes each, or if it drops to 8 lanes in SLI.
  10. It will run at X8 in SLI it will barely affect any cards.
  11. So what about a GTS 450 or GTX 460?
  12. The will run fine on that board! Here is an article that shows the different PCIe speeds http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html minimal loss going to X8
  13. You really should wait until you can afford the next generation then,
    your upgrade isnt much of an upgrade, and saving an extra $150 will get you the i5-2500K build, which is incomparable to the amd build.

    Wait a month for the new motherboards to be in stock, and by then maybe youll save up some money, itll be worth it for sure

    the computer will last much longer
  14. amirp said:
    You really should wait until you can afford the next generation then,
    your upgrade isnt much of an upgrade, and saving an extra $150 will get you the i5-2500K build, which is incomparable to the amd build.

    Wait a month for the new motherboards to be in stock, and by then maybe youll save up some money, itll be worth it for sure

    the computer will last much longer


    The only way to save up the 150$ is to forgo a Desktop for a couple months.
  15. still worth it because the one you have now can easily last a couple months longer, youll have new mobo's out, and the i5 2500k is so much better than the phenom II build that it will certainly last longer

    also , if you are buying a new gpu as well, you could buy that now if you want, and wait until you can afford the rest. You will see that your cpu right now is enough to run games smoothly for now at good enough settings on a ~$200 graphic card like a gtx 460 or 6870 or something...
  16. migkillertwo said:
    So what about a GTS 450 or GTX 460?



    Since u tight for cash and this is for games not render/encode:

    Budget/no frills mobo = ok compromising on GPU = not ok so I would hit the GTX 460 or better :D
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