Buying new hardware

[m16si]

Last week my old graphic card 4850 radeon died.

I immediaetly bought radeon 6850, its a good graphic card.

but i think my processor and motherboard bottleneck the whole system (E8200 and GA-P35C-DS3R 775lga motherboard). am i right that this system bottlenecks my graphic card???

i was looking to buy new motherboard, ram and processor. since my budget is low i was thinking about... 4gigs ram corsair (2x2gb), and i3 550 processor.

About the motherboard i don't have a clue what to buy, i was looking noumerous motherboards but there so much of this stuff on the market.

I "think" i want a 1156 socket (is it good or another one), but the stuff complicates about chip set i looked at motherboards and they have i57, h57, i67,... and lots of other chipsets...

Which chipset is the ?Fastest? or i don't know gives most performance???? and i would like to buy modern tech chipset not some 1,2 year old board with old chipset...

Please help me make a decision

thank you all for helping....

m16si

[puntoMX]

Your CPU is a core2duo based CPU at just 2.66GHz, I don't know if you tried to OC it but I think you do as you are pointing to a i3 550 that should be excellent for OCing as well.

What is your budget, what will be the usage?

If you are on a budget than just look at an AMD X3 or X4 based system with 2x 4GB DDR3 1600 or so, with an AMD 8xx or 9xx chipset, WITH SB850 soutbridge (SATA 6Gbps and USB3, PCI-E 2.1, note that PCI-E 3.0 is out soon).

[CoffeeFiend]

For gaming, the i3 550 would get you about 20-something percent more FPS on average (sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the particular game) over your E8200. You could get most of that by OC'ing your existing CPU. Then again, you could OC the i3 too...

I "think" i want a 1156 socket (is it good or another one)

Socket 1156 has already been replaced by Socket 1155.

The i3 2100 has a pretty decent lead over the i3 550 in some games and the price between both is identical too. It also uses the new socket 1155.

Like PuntoMX said, AMD has some inexpensive options too. However:

-the low price point is all they have left these days IMO

-they don't offer very fast CPUs anymore and speed is typically why we upgrade

-their single threaded perf is pretty lacking (basically no improvement at all in the last few years, just more cores): the $125 Intel i3 2100 destroys the $140 AMD A8-3850 -- the AMD chip also loses badly in the games listed on that page

-the "entry level" $125 Core i3 2100 is faster than the $150 Phenom X4 970 (one of their most high end chips) in almost all games

-they've pretty much ditched their socket compatibility which was nice for cheap upgrades (then again, most of their new CPUs aren't much of an upgrade over your old one)

-the days of their tech advantage (like introducing 64 bit, higher IPC than netburst and so on) is very much over, and seemingly their only way to somewhat compete now is bumping the frequency up like Intel was doing back with Netburst... Their 3.7GHz Phenom II X4 gets pwned by a i3 with half the cores at 3.1GHz in most tasks. I've even seen benches where the i7 was up to 60% faster than the Phenom II X4 clock-for-clock (single threaded perf)...

-they don't really compete that well based on price anymore either (unless you don't buy a GPU and want a entry-class CPU, in which case it's almost a tie anyway)

-their new GPU in that A8 chip isn't even good enough for a HTPC either, much less for gaming

and I can't say I care for the direction they're taking with their Bulldozer chips: more slow cores that will sit idle 99% of the time, along with a shared FPU between them? Ow. I don't think this will solve the problem at all. It's sad because I'd hate to see them go out of business.

If you have the budget for a Core i3 2100, it's a very good choice IMO

[puntoMX]

If you have the budget for a Core i3 2100, it's a very good choice IMO

I do agree on what you said, however, the i3 2100 is "locked" and can not be OCed as the 550, so, when it comes to OCing the 2100 isn't an option. Only the K series (2500k and so) can be OCed WITH the right board as not all boards will let you OC those CPUs.

Again, all depends on budget but the OP got a HD6850 for a reason (looks like he is on a budget and tries to find the right balance;)).

I just got a Phenom X4 830 (OEM, L3 cache) used from ebay for 57USD shipped and that one I will kick to some 3.6GHz or even a bit more, you can't beat that for the price. There are also cheap LGA1156 mobos on ebay but CPUs are still above 100USD...

The new, eight cored, AMD CPUs are indeed... not what you would expect these days from a CPU.

[m16si]

i think i will be able to afford CORE I5-2500K... because i will buy it in december not sooner...

Please paste a few links, with some "good" motherboards.

must i buy ram and processor with same FSB (mhz) i don't really understand FSB or those mhz?

Thank you

[gUiTaR_mIkE]

Here's how I would tackle an upgrade... there's more (and better ways) to compile the necessary information I'm sure

Make sure your existing case (and PSU) are a good fit for your new hardware, do you have an adequate PSU (power and connectors)? I would add new case fans to my list, now's the time to replace em while the case is empty.

I would look at ASUS and Gigabyte for a motherboard (using the CPU and socket as search criteria), this is a good start. Your board will list the available RAM and speeds, then I would simply download a user guide and have a look at the setup of the board, it is a good idea to have a dry run before you start removing hardware for real. Does Intel have recommended motherboards for particular CPUs, there are numerous reviews for the i5 2500K as well - what boards were used, were there additional boards (and RAM recommendations)? It shouldn't take you too long to get familiar with the basic selling points of the available chipsets - I take screenshots of the various pages and create a single image for a side-by-side comparison - it's much easier than going back and forth - see my attachment for an example.

You may need more than stock cooling, I would look at after market coolers as well, there was talk of OCing, this CPU already runs a bit hot from reviews I read - be safe and keep it cool, if you plan on leaving it at stock settings the stock cooler may be enough.

I would check the usual sources, Newegg, Intel, etc for options - begin making a list.

Do it right (the first time) and you'll be a happy camper I just wonder if you need all this CPU, you didn't mention what your most CPU-intensive work will be...? If you're sticking with a 32-bit OS there's no need to go more than 4GB of RAM either. I would always mention these things (OS, software used most, future plans etc) in the first post, it helps with the decision-making process.

[puntoMX]

Do you OC?

Answer that first so we can help you better.

Now, talking about motherboards, there are now 3 brands that bring good motherboards these days: ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte, most can be found in the 150USD range and have the latest features, are easy to OC and will last considerably longer than a 90USD board. Check out the H67 range at some webshop.

For RAM, something like G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM.

Check out the local prices at www.tweakers.net.

[CoffeeFiend]

@gUiTaR_mIkE: Hmm, perhaps that's not the picture you meant to attach, or I must be missing the point of it (AM3 boards for a i5?)

But yeah. The Core i5 2500k is a great pick if you can afford it. Chipset wise, there is H57 with the onboard video (which won't cut it for gaming) and more basic boards overall, or P67 which is the one which OCs and tends to have fancier boards. The P67 can also use 2 video cards (at x8 each). IMO a P67 board from the OEMs PuntoMX mentioned is your best choice. If you're on a budget I'd pick MSI. If you can afford it then ASUS or Gigabyte have some fantastic boards (just compare the featuresets and prices when the time comes to buy)

[puntoMX]

Actually, the MSI "Military Class II" motherboards are nice and not a budget board at all. I would not be surprised if my next board would be a MSI (MSI P67A-GD65 or so) and not a Gigabyte . I'm just not sure about the BIOS.

[gUiTaR_mIkE]

@gUiTaR_mIkE: Hmm, perhaps that's not the picture you meant to attach, or I must be missing the point of it (AM3 boards for a i5?)

Well, maybe just a bit, it is an example only of a side-by-side comparison of like items, that's all - the items could be anything You didn't really think I was recommending these boards for his i5 did you

This is one reason to get some of the info from Newegg, you can select your items to compare and do a nice side-by-side. Anyway, I like it, your mileage may vary.

This is what I wrote...

I take screenshots of the various pages and create a single image for a side-by-side comparison - it's much easier than going back and forth - see my attachment for an example.

...just an example of how I compared 2 motherboards way back when. I apologize to the OP if this is confusing, I'll remove the attachment of it's unclear.

[CoffeeFiend]

Ah, that was more than just a little bit. Seemingly I had missed that part. It makes complete sense now Pretty good trick too.

@puntoMX: I can't say I looked at them much but from a quick glance they sure look nice. I'll investigate! Thanks I'm a bit hesitant about EFIS BIOS'es too. Not that it's really "cutting edge" tech but it's still mostly new to these manufacturers and I'd rather not buy the generation where all the problems are found out...