Looking to upgrade my computer

[Rennn]

Thanks, gentlemen. The original Intel board I was considering, I'll admit, was because of the good rating from Newegg. I've been out of the loop for a long while on hardware, so I assumed most good boards are around $100 these days. I'd say $330 or less would be my budget for board + CPU + GPU.

 

But it definitely sounds like the AMD setup will get me the best production for the money. The AMD processor looks great. I didn't realize they came with their own cooling fan. I have a pretty nice (by 2006 standards) fan on my current CPU, but I wasn't sure if was compatible with non-socket 775 boards. Any recommendations for a non-"piece of crap" AMD board? Like I said, I don't really play around much with the processor ... in fact, I'm not ever sure how to go about changing its settings.

 

That's really reassuring about Windows XP, though. I was afraid with all the newest technology, XP would be horribly incompatible. Nice to know it's better, at least for gaming, than the later Windows.

 

 

Well, when I replace my dying motherboard I'm planning to replace it with this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

Not sure how much better or worse it is, I guess I'll leave that up to Werne...

 

As for XP versus 7... Windows XP and 7 are both good for gaming. Not sure how long it's been since you kept up with operating systems, but Vista and Windows 8 are utter crap. You shouldn't encounter significant problems running Windows XP until it's retired in a month.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Rennn

[FMod]

We're going to wait and see what happens to XP in the coming years. Considering that MS security patches haven't been all that effective or timely, I'd give it till Q4 or even 2015 till it has real effect.

 

Even then, the vulnerabilities will keep being worked on, since support for Server 2003 doesn't end till a year later, then it goes to custom support phase, and they are contractually obligated to keep developing and providing fixes till at least 2018-2020.

 

XP continues to maintain a massive market share and as of April 2014 between 1/4 and 1/3 of all PCs will still run it. Microsoft really wants it retired, so they'll hold out on patching it. But since patches will be coming out and at least a million people will keep getting them, the vulnerabilities will be known. My guess is, security software makers will jump on it and the fixes will find their way to customer machines with at least implicit Microsoft approval.

 

Personally, I'm not particularly worried, like I'm said I'm even about to install XP, but I'll be even more prudent about web usage than ever. You'll definitely want to load up on some free security software, avoid pron/warez/etc and keep up with the best security practices.

Oh, and I won't be handling banking on my XP system or giving it access to encrypted drives, it's going to be limited to games and some older software. Finances and security holes don't mix.

[Werne]

Well, when I replace my dying motherboard I'm planning to replace it with this. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

For $5 more you can get a GA-970A-UD3P, pretty much the same as my UD3 but looks nicer (black PCB, mine's light blue which fits visually with practically nothing, but I liked the sideways SATA ports) and it's cheaper. Main difference between the board you linked and this one is the power delivery system, D3P is a 4+1 while UD3P is an 8+2, latter is much better for a Phenom II.

 

I'd say $330 or less would be my budget for board + CPU + GPU.

Then your best bet is Rennn's hardware combo - FX 6300 + MSI 970A-G46 + GTX 750 SC. FX 6300 is the best CPU you can get for that price, that board shouldn't have problems chugging along with a 6300 in it and the 750 SC is the best card you can get for the price since AMD's 7790s and 260X are going up in price (factory-overclocked 7790 is faster than 750 SC, but those are unfortunately more expensive due to Litecoin GPU miners driving up the prices).

 

Also, does your board have DDR3 or DDR2 RAM installed? If it's DDR2 you'll need new RAM as well since DDR2 has been dead for a while now, 4GB preferably cause 8GB would be too expensive and worthless with a 32-bit OS that addresses only 3.2GB. You don't have to buy new RAM though, used DDR3 is pretty cheap (think $10-15 for 4GB, even cheaper if you bargain with someone who doesn't know a damn thing about PCs) which will keep you chugging for a while until you find something new.

 

I'm yet to buy a new set of RAM modules though, I always get used ones. :smile:

 

Do note that you'll need to re-install your OS after replacing hardware, or contact Microsoft to reactivate your installation. Once you change the motherboard your OS will need to be re-activated for an unknown reason, I personally find it to be just a pain in the arse.

 

But it definitely sounds like the AMD setup will get me the best production for the money. The AMD processor looks great. I didn't realize they came with their own cooling fan. I have a pretty nice (by 2006 standards) fan on my current CPU, but I wasn't sure if was compatible with non-socket 775 boards. Any recommendations for a non-"piece of crap" AMD board? Like I said, I don't really play around much with the processor ... in fact, I'm not ever sure how to go about changing its settings.

Yeah, you get a cooler along with the CPU, tray units come without a cooler while boxed come with one. Not sure about 95W models but 125W ones come with a heatsink that uses a copper plate base and two heatpipes utilizing a single 60mm fan, I think 6300 comes with a non-piped heatsink and aluminum base like Athlons, also has a 60mm fan. Both are noisy though.

 

As for your current cooler, if it's a stock one (round with "Intel" written on the fan) you can't mount it on AM3/AM3+ boards, or any other than 775 without extensive modifications to the heatsink. A lot of aftermarket coolers support multi-platform mounting so if you have an aftermarket cooler, check it's papers.

 

As for the motherboard, that MSI that Rennn linked will be adequate for the 6300 on stock, but I wouldn't overclock on it at all if you want your PC to last. Also, I'd put some sort of a fan over the VRM heatsink (that long black thing between the CPU socket and rear I/O ports) regardless of overclocking, power delivery system always gets hot on the FX-series since they tend to draw quite a bit of power.

 

And settings, there's only one way to do it properly - through BIOS. Manipulating hardware through software (like AMD OverDrive) is something I don't trust one bit. I also don't trust that "Load optimized settings" in BIOS, I prefer to set things up manually, but people say optimized settings are pretty accurate as well.

 

That's really reassuring about Windows XP, though. I was afraid with all the newest technology, XP would be horribly incompatible. Nice to know it's better, at least for gaming, than the later Windows.

It is better for some games. It doesn't support DirectX 11 though and it's security support is being dropped in a month, so I'd be careful about wandering around the internet after EOL. Decent security software is a must for XP, or any Windows for that matter.

 

 

 

As a side note, I just checked Celeron D 352 vs FX 6300 on cpu-world for the laughs and... holy crap! I knew difference will be huge but... holy crap! According to cpu-world, FX 6300 brings an 85% improvement in single-threaded performance, 760% in multithreading, and 758% in memory-intensive programs.

 

Real-life performance will differ due to hardware combinations (synthetic benchmarks are not 100% accurate anyway) but me thinks you'll be perfectly happy with an FX 6300. :smile:

 

Also, just for the hell of it, let's pit that Celeron against i7 4770K. :devil:

Edited March 6, 2014 by Werne

[MaithuRuadh]

Thanks again for all the help! I picked up the recommended pieces and got everything up and running this morning. Now to reinstall Skyrim ...