Needs advice in upgrading my 3 years old CPU

[umar3]

I mainly use my rig for gaming

My system:
Athlon II x2 245
MSI 7599 770-C45 Socket AM3
OCZ Gold 2GB 1066MHZ DDR3 (2 pieces)
WD 320GB 7200 RPM
Sapphire HD6870 1GB DDR5 (previous was Gigabyte GT240)
Cooler Master GX 550W
Cooler Master Elite 310
Samsung SyncMaster 2043sw 1600x900

I could see that my CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. I planning to upgrade the CPU with this two option.
1. AMD Phenom II x4 965 = $146 (no need to buy new MOBO)
2. Intel i3-2100 ($111) + ECS H61H2-M3 ($53) = $164

I live in Malaysia and that is the price at the nearest store to my house. Actually there are many more choices for the component but this is in my mind right now. I can fork out up to $200 and if can, I would like to pick the best in term of value per performance because I am on budget. Could anybody give advice on which option should I choose, or any other CPU or Mobo that is more valuable. And I am not into overclocking. Thanks in advance (sorry for any grammatical errors

 

[mocchan]

I would personally get the Phenom II X4 965...I would be more comfortable getting a quad-core CPU today, than getting a dual-core with hyperthreading. Granted the i3 may perform better in some applications, I just feel the quad would be more of a 'safe' decision? Plus you don't have to upgrade your motherboard

 

[randomkid]

I mainly use my rig for gaming

My system:
Athlon II x2 245
MSI 7599 770-C45 Socket AM3
OCZ Gold 2GB 1066MHZ DDR3 (2 pieces)
WD 320GB 7200 RPM
Sapphire HD6870 1GB DDR5 (previous was Gigabyte GT240)
Cooler Master GX 550W
Cooler Master Elite 310
Samsung SyncMaster 2043sw 1600x900

I could see that my CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. I planning to upgrade the CPU with this two option.
1. AMD Phenom II x4 965 = $146 (no need to buy new MOBO)
2. Intel i3-2100 ($111) + ECS H61H2-M3 ($53) = $164

I live in Malaysia and that is the price at the nearest store to my house. Actually there are many more choices for the component but this is in my mind right now. I can fork out up to $200 and if can, I would like to pick the best in term of value per performance because I am on budget. Could anybody give advice on which option should I choose, or any other CPU or Mobo that is more valuable. And I am not into overclocking. Thanks in advance (sorry for any grammatical errors

I'd go for the i3-2100. It performs better, consume much less power & still have an upgrade path in the future for more powerful processors should you feel the need. For the AM3 + Phenom II 965BE, it is pretty much it. Next upgrade means new motherboard anyway so might as well buy it now & enjoy better performance & power savings.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=102&i=2.5.3.4.6.25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39.40.41.42.43.45.46.53.54.55.60.61.62.63.64.57.56.50.49.48.47

 

[pauls3743]

I'd go down the Phenom II route. The next upgrade will involve a motherboard change anyway, especially as Intel has change sockets with nearly every new processor release in recent years. Ivy Bridge is the first range of processors to NOT have a new socket since the release of the Core2 processor some 6 years ago.

 

[umar3]

I'd go for the i3-2100. It performs better, consume much less power & still have an upgrade path in the future for more powerful processors should you feel the need. For the AM3 + Phenom II 965BE, it is pretty much it. Next upgrade means new motherboard anyway so might as well buy it now & enjoy better performance & power savings.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=102&i=2.5.3.4.6.25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39.40.41.42.43.45.46.53.54.55.60.61.62.63.64.57.56.50.49.48.47

I could see that the i3 is better than phenom in gaming. Some says that this is because most of the current games only use 2 cores and the performance per core in i3 is better than the phenom. But I also founds out that the phenom is better in games that can utilize 4 cores such as DragonAge & Battlefield. Could the number of games that utilizes 4 cores will be growing in the future since I don't plan to do the next upgrade in a year or 2.

 

[rds1220]

Even though the I3 is only a dual core (with hyperthreading, which really doesn't do anything for you in gaming) the I3 has a faster and more efficient architecture. If your main use is for gaming I would also say to go with the I3.

 

[umar3]

Even though the I3 is only a dual core (with hyperthreading, which really doesn't do anything for you in gaming) the I3 has a faster and more efficient architecture. If your main use is for gaming I would also say to go with the I3.

As for the MOBO, I dont plan to choose other than the H61 though. Is it power enough to run the game in 1920x1080 at max?

 

[randomkid]

As for the MOBO, I dont plan to choose other than the H61 though. Is it power enough to run the game in 1920x1080 at max?

The H61 is fine. It is not a factor in games performance. The main factors are the processors & predominantly the graphics card. Your 6870 is great for 1920x1080 but may not max in all games.

 

[rds1220]

The motherboard really doesn't play a role in resolution and FPS when it comes to games. It comes down to the CPU and the GPU you pair it with. You need an even balence of both or you'll create a bottleneck. An H61 board is IMO fine for gaming. I did a build for a person using a Micro ATX with an I5 2500k and a single Radeon 6970 and it games just fine.

 

[umar3]

Hello.Its been a while since my last post.Right now I am using the i3-2120 and Asrock H61M-VS R2.0. Bought them 2 month ago at $118 for the CPU & $49 for the MOBO. Overall I am satisfied with the performance. I also got myself a new display, ASUS VS239N for $157.I thought that I could play all games at max setting with smooth framerate.One example is Prototype 2 where sometimes the framerate can go to as low as 25 FPS.Is this issue concerning the GPU or the CPU? Is it worth to upgrade the GPU to hd7850/hd7870 since I do not plan on upgrading to a PCIe 3 MOBO yet?