- Jul 23, 2013
- 6
- 0
- 18,510
My old system has been going for quite some time, but it's starting to limp. It's an old core2 duo on a p35 board. It's maxed out at 8GB of DDR2, and honestly I think the SATA controller is starting to fail.
(But I've put a total of maybe $1500 into it over 5 or 6 years and it's been a solid gaming system all this time, so I think I did ok).
My last upgrade was a Radeon HD 6970, which is still a serviceable card, though certainly not amazing. The CPU has been holding the system back for ages but I couldn't see the point in upgrading the CPU to get a few more months of life out of an architecture that's simply at the end of its upgrade path.
So clearly my next upgrade needs to be a new motherboard and CPU, so basically a whole new system. I'll carry my graphics card and hard drives over, but mobo, processor, and RAM will need to be new.
I'm thinking getting a motherboard with an onboard radeon will maximize the benefit I get from my 6970 through the dual graphics mode. But It's been 6 years since I followed chipset and processor specs, and even then I was looking at intel rather than AMD, so I'm more than a little lost looking at the current AMD offerings.
So, what chipsets would I be looking for to accomplish what I'm thinking of, and what would be the pros and cons of such a solution? What's the current "best" AMD CPU architecture, and which chipsets work with it?
As you can see from the way I built and gradually upgraded my current system, I try to build a new system with longevity in mind, so upgrade potential is a big deal.
Any advice would be helpful, thanks!
(But I've put a total of maybe $1500 into it over 5 or 6 years and it's been a solid gaming system all this time, so I think I did ok).
My last upgrade was a Radeon HD 6970, which is still a serviceable card, though certainly not amazing. The CPU has been holding the system back for ages but I couldn't see the point in upgrading the CPU to get a few more months of life out of an architecture that's simply at the end of its upgrade path.
So clearly my next upgrade needs to be a new motherboard and CPU, so basically a whole new system. I'll carry my graphics card and hard drives over, but mobo, processor, and RAM will need to be new.
I'm thinking getting a motherboard with an onboard radeon will maximize the benefit I get from my 6970 through the dual graphics mode. But It's been 6 years since I followed chipset and processor specs, and even then I was looking at intel rather than AMD, so I'm more than a little lost looking at the current AMD offerings.
So, what chipsets would I be looking for to accomplish what I'm thinking of, and what would be the pros and cons of such a solution? What's the current "best" AMD CPU architecture, and which chipsets work with it?
As you can see from the way I built and gradually upgraded my current system, I try to build a new system with longevity in mind, so upgrade potential is a big deal.
Any advice would be helpful, thanks!
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