My Upgrade

[ZeroDamage]

I am starting on my system upgrade. The first (and only) thing I ordered so far is an after market cooler. I've read good things about this cooler and it is compatible across all Intel and AMD systems and should not obstruct anything in my case.

 

It is the Akasa Nero S. Hardwareheaven.com (formerly driverheaven.net) gave it a pretty good review and it looks to cool very well and should last me a long while. They reviewed a few others, one being so Massive that it looks to nearly cover the whole motherboard. You can see how it looks on the bottom-right picture on this page: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=959&pageid=7

 

Thought would be the ideal cooler if it were cheaper and did were not so huge. Apparently it performs on par with a water cooling type of unit.

 

 

 

I ordered this:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/10639/cpu-aka-01/Akasa_Nero_S_4-Heatpipes_Universal_CPU_Cooler_w_Direct_Contact_-_Sockets_LGA_775_1156_1366_AMD_939_AM2_AM2_AM3_-_AK-CCX-4001HP.html

 

Now I am contemplating what to buy for the actual upgraded system and whether I should sell my current setup or put it together in my old case for a secondary system for my son. I already own case, PSU, monitor and a mouse/keyboard. I would only need to pick up a low-end video card for my son to start playing TF2 or something.

 

Anyway. I love the performance of the i7 chips but the cost of ownership just ruins it for me. The cheapest CPU is 300 bucks and a good motherboard costs about as much. Nevermind the needed RAM upgrade.

 

I could go with the current top-end AMD setup with the new Gigabyte or Asus motherboard based on the 890GX chipset from AMD which is new and supports the upcoming X6 processors, USB 3.0, Sata 3, etc. I could just get a low end AMD CPU to hold me over until something better comes along such as the new X6 six-core CPU's. I could wait a while and see what happens. I just do not know yet. I only need to upgrade my mobo, cpu, and RAM. My 850 Watt PSU will work fine as will my current 4870 X2 video card. I only need to replace 3 components.

 

I am open to recommendations. While there isn't any "Limit" on what I can spend, the top-end i7 system is out of the question as are the $300+ motherboards that seem to be the norm now for Intel based systems.

 

I need RAM + CPU + Mobo. Nothing more, nothing less.

[bushwack]

Throw a dollar amount out there. Are you an overclocker?

I'm perfectly happy with my 3 yr old $80 Abit motherboard and with a $40 Intel E5200 clocked up to 3.9ghz.

 

If it was me, upgrading a computer today, I would shoot for a Quad. Prolly the Intel i5 750 for $200. And maybe a mobo that could be upgraded to a i7 later with like this Asus.

[ZeroDamage]

I want to keep it around $500.

[boiler]

What features do you need out of your motherboard? Do you need SLI/Crossfire support? $300 for a motherboard is about twice what I spent on my new board for my Core i5-750 system.

 

I've been very impressed with the performance of my new system, even with a "budget" HD5770 graphics card. Overclocked the 750 to 3.2 with a simple multiplier change, and I've read of others who have gotten them close to (or over) 4GHz on air. I thought about an i7, but I can't imagine noticing a big performance difference for what my system is.

 

with an i5 and ~$160ish motherboard, you could slap in 4GB of ram and easily be under $500 (or 8GB and maybe a little over, depending on your selection).

 

 

My new system (for reference sake):

 

Intel Core i5 750 (@3.2GHz currently)

Asus P7P55D (LGA 1156 Intel P55)

G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600MHz (CL9)

XFX HD5770 XXX edition

2x500GB WD Caviar Black

[ZeroDamage]

Looks like the best board for AMD right now is the previous generation chipset of 790 from Gigabyte and it has usb 3.0 and the sata 6.0 speeds. It is kind of pricy though at 180 bucks. Much better layout though. Not sure about it yet though. I am still thinking about it. Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5

Apparently some crazy overclockers got the 6-core AMD chip (not yet released in the US) to 6.7ghz. That is insane even if it is subzero cooling. That's impressive with 6 cores.

I am still deciding on what to get.

 

 

What features do you need out of your motherboard? Do you need SLI/Crossfire support? $300 for a motherboard is about twice what I spent on my new board for my Core i5-750 system.

 

 

I would like to have the option of doing either SLI or Crossfire fully at 16x on both slots. My current motherboard can do it and it is 3 years old. There is no excuse a modern day board cannot do it and it not cost $200+ but that looks to be the trend with the intel stuff. Layout is important and decent onboard audio should be present. My video card is huge long so there needs to be clearance and a good arrangement of ports so nothing is blocked. Should be a little bit of space around the CPU slot for aftermarket HSFs. I should not have to spend hours measuring and trying to figure out if this or that will fit.

 

 

[boiler]

I would like to have the option of doing either SLI or Crossfire fully at 16x on both slots.

Sounds like Intel may not be an option then. That's a budget killer paired with the new Core i5/i7 chips.

[lousiest]

All this talk about upgrades makes me wanna do it too *stares at his 8600 GT*

[ZeroDamage]

I am going to wait and see what the 890Fx chipset does for me. Should be out this week or next along with the X6 processor.

[ZeroDamage]

I think I found my motherboard. It isn't available on Newegg yet (or anywhere else for that matter) but plan to purchase it as soon as it is available as long as it does not go over $220.

 

http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=gVlEl0cfLNhfTWow

[Preacher]

bet it costs at least $250 when released

[ZeroDamage]

I purchased this memory. It looks like the last thing I will get will be the processor which is available to be shipped until Tuesday next week.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231281

[samurai nightling]

I've only built 2 systems, so I'm not as experienced as many of you, but I have used G.Skill RAM in both systems and i swear by the stuff. I ran 2gb in the old comp and 8gb currently in this one and they have never failed me yet. *knock on wood* Good stuff, good choice.

[Jiffy]

I used mushkin in my first system and loved it. I dont even recall what is in mine currently, I believe corsair.

[ZeroDamage]

The last thing that I ordered that I need showed up before anything else: the cpu. I got the 1090T 6-core Black Edition. The box that it comes in is VERY small.

 

The motherboard which I ordered first should have arrived today but I wasn't home to get it so I asked to have it re-routed to my work since it requires a signature. I got the Asus Crosshair IV Formula.

 

The memory I ordered last Friday and I have no idea where it is. Newegg decided it was a good idea to first ship from California to Greensboro, NC via DHL and then let the USPS take over from there. The memory hit Greensboro on the 27th and the tracking info hasn't been updated since. For all I know, it got lost. I will be tinkled if I do not have it tomorrow. I ordered it early so that I would have everything when the CPU showed up. It seems the CPU showed up before everything else.

 

As for the memory, I got some G.Skill DDR3 2000 for a good price. Around $125 for 4GB. I will add another 4GB later if I think I will need it.

 

I will throw up some comparison numbers, etc when I get everything together.

 

I am still not sure if I will sell my current setup or not. I may also sell the soundcard if the onboard audio of this board is as good as it should be. The CPU is an E8400 Intel, 4GB of RAM, and the motherboard is the Asus P5N32E SLI Plus.

[ZeroDamage]

All of my parts are in. I will be putting this together and praying that nothing is defective after waiting this long.

[lousiest]

Awaiting pics

[ZeroDamage]

Awaiting pics

 

 

 

Did not have any plans on taking pics but I guess I will tomorrow. Not much in the way of cable management though. The motherboard is the nicest I've ever seen. The heatsink and fan is huge and cools this thing really nice as well.

[Preacher]

I'm more curious as to whether it out performs your old set-up. I've read so many mixed reviews I would be too afraid to go with the new x6 myself. I would like you to give an experience synopses if you don't mind. Especially an account of gaming, multitasking etc .

[ZeroDamage]

I'm more curious as to whether it out performs your old set-up. I've read so many mixed reviews I would be too afraid to go with the new x6 myself. I would like you to give an experience synopses if you don't mind. Especially an account of gaming, multitasking etc .

 

I've had two days to play with the system. First, I will say that this was the easiest system I've put together to date. The board fit right into my case, all of the necessary power and led plugs went properly into the provided thingamadoo.

 

Performance wise, the system is much faster than my previous when it comes to gaming. I currently have my cpu OC'd to 3.6Ghz with the Turbo Core boosting to 4.1 Ghz. The only game I've played so far has been Modern Warfare 2 and my FPS has almost doubled from initially being around 34-50 fps all the time to now 90-95 fps all the time even though my graphics have been increased to Max everything and 4xAA and Alpha AntiAliasing set to Max. I can now enable WeGame to record videos at the HD setting and I see no performance drop in FPS at all. I used to see some performance drop and a stuttering unrelated to the FPS.

 

My temps are around 35c at idle and around 48c at load. This HSF is beast.

 

The onboard audio is fairly decent too. It is based on a Via chip but Creative brands it with their software. I do not need a second audio device to get sound recorded in my wegame videos.