Upgrade Mobo/CPU? Or wait?

[jcamel24]

Approximate Purchase Date (if I do): Next two weeks

Budget Range: $500 after rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, video encoding, internet, etc.

Parts Not Required: Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, case, video card, RAM?

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, Microcenter for CPU/Mobo combo if it saves me more than $30

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: Definitely not MSI (bad prior experiences)

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Not for now

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: Parts I already have:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220570 (Got it for $32 AR, didn't work well with my current x6 OC)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820220570 (Just a sweet looking case!)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131378 (Just picked up for $140 AR)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233204
(Got for $110 AR)

So I was going to sell my current rig to a friend at the end of October and start from scratch. Currently have an x6 1055t Oc'd to 3.7 Ghz with no graphics card, 2x1tb Spinpoint F3's in RAID0, 4Gb RAM, 620W PSU. Looking for opinions on whether I should sell the old system, or use my old CPU/mobo combo in the new case with the video card and SSD.

I must say, after reading the Bulldozer reviews today, I'm not at all impressed and if I build new will probably go the i5/2500k route. Let me know what you think!

 

[FinneousPJ]

If you have the extra cash and can fetch a decent price for your AMD rig, go for it. I wouldn't though, your current system should run anything. The X6 even beats the i5 in encoding benchmark (every now and then). I'd run it for another year or so and update to a more powerful chip then.

 

[jcamel24]

I do like the fact that my current system does pretty well on encoding. However, I don't do very much of it.

Here is the lowdown on my current setup:

Phenom II x6 1055t processor
Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H motherboard
4GB Mushkin DDR3-1600 RAM
2x1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F3's in RAID0
Rosewill 620W PSU
Rosewill Challenger case
LG DVD burner
Card reader
CM Hyper 212+
Windows 7 OEM

Told my friend I would sell it to him for $400. Paid ~$700 for the parts about a year ago (back when that RAM was $80!). Could probably build the same system now for ~$500 with more RAM. So I thought it was a fair price and he agreed. Now I feel like I'm kinda stuck cuz he wants it.

OTOH, I love building new stuff and was looking forward to having something new to play with! So I'm not at all opposed to building new if I can do it for not too much over the $400 I'll get for my new system. Ideas/thoughts?

 

[FinneousPJ]

Well, it's your call obviously. I just wanted to point out your current system is very capable, you're not in NEED of updating... WANT is a whole 'nother story

 

[jcamel24]

I think that it would be a good opportunity to upgrade. It wouldn't make sense to build him basically a clone of my system, because then I would still have a year old system!!!

I will talk to him tonight about it, but I'm pretty sure he had his mind made up that he wants the system I have now except the HDD's reconfigured to RAID1.