Need a professional opinion

Zulthus · 2012-05-28, 10:26 PM

Does this look like a good board? I'm planning on buying a Phenom ii x4 965 with it along with a second GTX 460. It's micro-ATX, so I'm sure that's a rare thing to have...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130269

The fuck... It was linked when I first posted it...

Rbstr · 2012-05-28, 11:02 PM

It'd help if you linked the board.

Electrofreak · 2012-05-28, 11:20 PM

It must be that new kind of micro-ATX which can't be seen by the naked eye.

Zulthus · 2012-05-28, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

It'd help if you linked the board.

Yeah, I'm not sure how I missed that...

Rbstr · 2012-05-29, 12:16 AM

What CPU and MB do you have now?

Depending on that I'm not so sure how much better off you are with new CPU/MB and another 460 than you are spending on a card that's from the newer generation? That glorious 28nm 660 is lurking on the horizon.

(that connector is obv. pchoped in but the box is apparently legit)

Or, potentially, not spending on a card and going with an i5 then upgrading the GFX later.

Goku · 2012-05-29, 12:31 AM

Little late to be buying a Phenom II. You really should be looking at i3 or i5. If you must go AMD get the 960T so you can unlock to a six core or get a 8120.

Zulthus · 2012-05-29, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

What CPU and MB do you have now?

Depending on that I'm not so sure how much better off you are with new CPU/MB and another 460 than you are spending on a card that's from the newer generation? That glorious 28nm 660 is lurking on the horizon.

(that connector is obv. pchoped in but the box is apparently legit)

Or, potentially, not spending on a card and going with an i5 then upgrading the GFX later.

I bought this PC prebuilt about 5 years ago because I didn't think I was going to play any games other than PS and BF2, so it's some shitty no-name chinese Foxconn mobo (2A92 it says) and a decent AMD Athlon ii x4 630.

I was thinking about a 670 but I don't really feel like dropping $400 on a single card at the moment; I'm kind of starting to lag behind CPU-wise. Goku said the Bulldozers were failures so I'm going to stray away from those... (I've never went with Intel before) if I was going to get an i5, I'd need a new mobo for that as well...

Thoughts?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128540
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072

I dislike that Intel's CPUs are more expensive than AMD... but apparently they're 'better' (never had any trouble with my current AMD processor)

Vancha · 2012-05-29, 07:46 AM

You could get a 965 with an AM3+ motherboard, then should Bulldozer gen. 2 or gen. 3 actually turn out to be half-decent, stick one of those in there as an upgrade.

As far as "now" goes, you could get the i3 2100 and even that would perform better than the 965. There's not much point getting an i5 2500k with a B75 motherboard. Either bump that up to a Z75/Z77, or lower the CPU to a 2400.

Goku · 2012-05-29, 07:54 AM

The Pildriver FX still doesn't have a specific date. There are reports of third quarter, but bet on that being very near the end. Steamroller sounds like its actually going through quite a few changes to fix what was wrong with the original BD that comes out in 2013. However I am 100% sure that will require a new socket, so there really is not a upgrade path there.

Zulthus do you by chance live in near a MC? They have great combo deals on the 3570K and Z77 that would will make you feel better about purchasing them.

Athlon II X4 to a 965 really isn't a bump in performance. You are really just getting the L3 cache the AII X4 lacks, so thats probably around a 10% improvement in games if I remember correctly.

AMD really has no good mATX boards out there that support BD, and probably won't see any for PD either. You are already screwed there in terms of a upgrade. Only way you can fix this is sticking with a ATX. Intel however has numerous mATX boards that will meet your needs.

I did say the BD did fail. However if you don't mind overclocking and getting it to 4.6GHz+ you will notice a good improvement.

Rbstr · 2012-05-29, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I dislike that Intel's CPUs are more expensive than AMD... but apparently they're 'better' (never had any trouble with my current AMD processor)

The question you have to ask yourself is "Am I spending money on a meaningful upgrade?"
Going to a new Phenom II isn't doing that. Going to an SB or IB likely is.

This is exaggerated but spending $100 on 10% improvement is silly if $200 gives you 100%

Zulthus · 2012-05-29, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

The question you have to ask yourself is "Am I spending money on a meaningful upgrade?"
Going to a new Phenom II isn't doing that. Going to an SB or IB likely is.

This is exaggerated but spending $100 on 10% improvement is silly if $200 gives you 100%

I'm not a great tech guy but I was assuming a processor from ~2004 would be quite a bit worse than the Phenom from '07. Regardless I'll go check out the Microcenter in Olympia and see if they have the deal on a mATX board with an i5.

Ailos · 2012-05-29, 05:49 PM

Currently, sticking to intel mATX boards with something like socket 1155 will probably give you the broadest options not just how many current processors are compatible, but also some upgrade paths in the future. Otherwise, upgrading from an Athlon 2 X4 to a 955 isn't much difference, and also, for PS2's purposes, I don't think you'll have issues with a 460.

Zulthus · 2012-05-29, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by Goku

The Pildriver FX still doesn't have a specific date. There are reports of third quarter, but bet on that being very near the end. Steamroller sounds like its actually going through quite a few changes to fix what was wrong with the original BD that comes out in 2013. However I am 100% sure that will require a new socket, so there really is not a upgrade path there.

Zulthus do you by chance live in near a MC? They have great combo deals on the 3570K and Z77 that would will make you feel better about purchasing them.

Athlon II X4 to a 965 really isn't a bump in performance. You are really just getting the L3 cache the AII X4 lacks, so thats probably around a 10% improvement in games if I remember correctly.

AMD really has no good mATX boards out there that support BD, and probably won't see any for PD either. You are already screwed there in terms of a upgrade. Only way you can fix this is sticking with a ATX. Intel however has numerous mATX boards that will meet your needs.

I did say the BD did fail. However if you don't mind overclocking and getting it to 4.6GHz+ you will notice a good improvement.

I'd do ATX but my case can't hold it... it's a small-ish HP case, prebuilts don't give much room for improvement

That's why I was thinking about going for that SLI mATX mobo I posted somewhere up there if I was going to get an AMD chip... sounds like I need to go for intel however... so I looked up a different one

It looks like that would fit an i5 and has room for a second graphics card... good choice there?

Ailos · 2012-05-29, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I'd do ATX but my case can't hold it... it's a small-ish HP case, prebuilts don't give much room for improvement

That's why I was thinking about going for that SLI mATX mobo I posted somewhere up there if I was going to get an AMD chip... sounds like I need to go for intel however... so I looked up a different one

Amazon.com: EVGA Intel P67 SLI Micro ATX DDR3 1333 Motherboard 120-SB-E672-KR: Electronics

It looks like that would fit an i5 and has room for a second graphics card... good choice there?

That earns my thumbs up.

Mutant · 2012-05-30, 03:40 AM

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I'm not a great tech guy but I was assuming a processor from ~2004 would be quite a bit worse than the Phenom from '07. Regardless I'll go check out the Microcenter in Olympia and see if they have the deal on a mATX board with an i5.

The reality is that we are in the world of "good enough" for gaming CPUs. Limited budgets are generally best spent maximizing GPU.