Upgrading i7-860 with 2500k/1100T/ etc,

[CaptZ]

I have been reading the discussions on the forums and I am not sure which would be the best way to go for what I am looking for. I don'twant to hijack another thread so...

I have a i7-860 Gateway that I would like to run dual hd5770 gfx cards in so I need to upgrade the Mobo at the very least but in looking at the 1156 chipsets it seems the options for reliable boards is dwindling and service issues are rising... I am looking to do gaming as well as production software like CAD-CAM and multi-media productions. A few SATA conections should be all I need, but overclocking will be a priority.

So that leaves me to go one of two ways, stick with Intel or go AMD...


I am considering one of these combos but I really would like to keep my DDR3 10600 RAM for use with the new board, but I might be persuaded to uprgrade that possibly.

Here is the Intel 2500k combo;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.775240 This shows DDR3 1333 as RAM. Just a CPU update once the new Intels Ivy cores come out is tempting...

Here are the AMD options I have been considering...;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.778342

And the FX-6100;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.764109

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.764108

I could not find a cpu/ Mobo combo reasonable for the 81xx series....

So what should I do? Any options I haven't thought of would be great!

 

[farrengottu]

im a pretty big amd fan but the 2500k is a better deal than anything amd has. it outperforms anything amd has (overall) and in some cases for less money.

your i7 860 is still a pretty good processor.you could wait till ivy bridge to replace your processor. its like 4 months away. maybe more. by spring is the clearest thing ive seen for availability date. i dont use cad-cam so i dont know if you want the crossfire for that or not, but if you only want the dual 5770s for gaming you might want to get a better card and upgrade the cpu/mobo later.

I personally am waiting for the radeon 7970 to come out. then later when ivy bridge comes out im upgrading my processor/mobo. i upgrade every other generation.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

I have to agree with farrengottu the Intel® Core™ i7-860 is a very nice processor for the time being. I would said wait for a bit or if you really want to improve your performance start by upgrading items that can be carried over to a new build. Adding something like the Intel SSD 320 120GB as a boot drive can give you faster boot and access times.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[rmpumper]

i7-860 is about the same as 1100T and faster than bulldozer (as Phenoms are faster than bulldozers as well) so there's no point in going with AMD.

Upgrading to SB i5 is not worth is as well since in multi-threaded apps old i7s perform about the same as SB i5s.

And, since CF HD5770 performs about the same as single 6850/6870, I would suggest to get either of these for now and be done with it if you are on a tight budget. If you can wait a bit, keep your 5770 until AMD released 7000 series.

 

[CaptZ]

So far I like the idea of going to the better card... I like the idea of a 256-bit card in place of 2x 128-bits. (Less energy useage and better performance)

I looked at the 6850/70 and the 6950/70 and I am thinking that I should sell the card that came in the tower and the new powercoler hd 5770 I just bought and get something along the lines of a hd 6950.

I could go with the 6850/6870 if the 6950 won't work in this board for some reason. The 6950 is at the top of my budget so I could spend the little extra I have in my budget and get a cood CPU cooler for the 860 so I can overclock that a bit better.

Which is really a value?.

Then if I decide to go bigger later with the ivy chips I could always pick up another card...

 

[CaptZ]

I found a good deal on a 2Gb HD 6950 Dirt 3 card. This would be going into a 6840-03e, any forseen problems or should I jump on it?

 

[CaptZ]

Best answer selected by CaptZ.