Another "Help me upgrade" thread.

[El Diablo]

Right now I'm running an AMD Phenom 9850 black edition which is pretty out dated and crappy now. I'm looking to upgrade my processor (mobo and ram obviously along with it) and was looking for peoples opinions on parts.

I was hoping to spend between 300-400 on a CPU and motherboard, maybe more if it's worth it. So far what I'm looking at is an i5 760 processor with a generic name brand 1156 motherboard however I'm not sure if this is the best way to go.

Would it be better spent spending a little more money for a 1366 socket motherboard an i7 on that socket type?

Also, I was looking into Sandy Bridge processors and in an article I read (dated Feb 2nd) it mentioned that it will probably take months for companies to get working motherboards back into the market with the fixes. Do you think it would be worth holding off on upgrading anything and wait it out for a month or 2, then go for a new socket 1155 motherboard and Sandy Bridge processor that will last longer and have a socket type that isn't dead, or just upgrade now and then worry about upgrading again a couple years down the line?

 

[Trigun]

One of the reasons for waiting for sandy bridge would mostly just be the MASSIVE overclocking on the unlocked processors.
I have heard some hit 5GHZ on air, which puts performance above an i7 950(1366) overclocked at 4ghz.(Though, in all benchmarks i've done, it out performs nearly anything and everything with a few above it)

However Prices i've seen on Sandy bridge do not make it worth it right now(Imo).


In perspective,
I got my i7 950 Brand new for 242$ with free shipping and a 15% off coupon , on ebay.
And I got my Rampage II Gene mother board for 155$ Because of a torn box on Amazon with free shipping.

Which brought my total cost on CPU+Mobo to 397$
And i'm still trying to find the most stable setting that I like after a month+ of trial and error.

Though, with an i7 you will NEED an aftermarket cooler. (and probably a small fan to blow air on your Northbridge) The cores on my 950 OC'd to 3.9 Ghz under Prime95(blend test) reached 101C , This was with 5 case fans not including the heatsink, 2 120mm intakes, 1 200mm intake, 1 200mm outtake, 1 120mm outtake.
With a Prolimatech Megahalems at the same speed , Cores never go beyond 70+




The one thing i'm cautious about though, is that i've been reading that they already going to come out with a successor to LGA 1366 this year or something. And I hope it's not true, it'd be a waste. They'd be better off just optimizing 1366 itself wouldn't they?
But then again , new platform= moar munnys for intel

 

[El Diablo]

I don't plan on OC'ing it incredibly high, or even at all for a while. If I even did decide to down the line I'd definitely buy a better heatsync but I have no plans to anytime soon.

I don't know how the 760 compares to the 950 in terms of OCing but from some of the comparisons I've been looking at, the 950 doesn't look like it's worth the extra 100 dollars (at least for gaming anyway, if you're not OCing it). Maybe I'm wrong in which case I'll look into the 950 more.

Why don't you think Sandy Bridge is better and not worth waiting for though? http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-2600K-Processor-Socket-LGA1155/dp/B004EBUXSA is only 30-40 dollars more than the 950 and seems better, unless it has to do with the OCing you do which I have no clue about.

 

[Trigun]

Well in Passmark, both at stock settings
it beats the the 760 by almost 2000 points.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+950+@+3.07GHz
I don't think SB is worth it when you can get a 950 for almost a 100$ less when you look in the right places, that and that it is only Dual channel on RAM;
And for that matter you can grab a i7 920 Even less and the only difference between that and a 950 is the multiplier and clock speed. Most people OC 920's from 2.6ghz to 4ghz with ease.


Another reason though for i7 over i5(1st gen) is that the LGA 1156 platform is already ,thanks to Sandy bridge , an outdated platform. And if they don't come out with a successor to 1366 this year and instead release a new generation of processors for that, then you are future proof for the time being.


But again that's just me you know? If you want to go sandy bridge , I would think it's a good choice considering the performance numbers i've seen online. They will probably continue with 1155 for a good number of years(considering they said Hex-core and 8 core CPU's will be coming out for it soon). And the power consumption is less , ranging from 65-95W compared to the 130W of 1366.


And one thing i'm not sure of is if 1155 has enough PCIE lanes for dual 16xPCIE 2.0 setup with Xfire and Sli.

For gaming with 1156 you can only do one card at 16x and another at 8x. With 1366 you can do 2 full 16x pcie 2.0 cards , with manufactures of motherboards being able to add more specific to their Mobo. The ASUS Rampage III Extreme has full Tri- SLi/Xfire support.