Advice needed on upgrade! Any Feedback Welcome :)

[dhdude]

Hey Guys,
I haven’t posted here many times, as I don’t often feel I have much to add, but I regularly read the forums and check TPU several times a day for my tech fix
Anyways, I’ve posted here before about dilemmas regarding upgrading my PC in the near future and whether or not it’s worth it, however things have taken a turn for the worse financially, and I’m regretfully having part out the rig in my System Specs to free up some cash for some unexpected bills.
I’m selling the Q9550 and 2x2GB of my Dominators to a friend of mine, and also looking to sell my 260 to another friend. I plan to keep the Case, PSU, ODD and HDDs and a Xigmatek S1283 I have spare for a future build.

I was wondering, as money will be tight for a couple of months, whether you guys think it will be worth keeping my mobo and my 2x1GB Dominators and maybe spending around £60 on a Pentium Dual Core E6500 so I actually have a rig to keep me going for those few months, or whether you think I should just sell the mobo and remaining RAM, get money for them whilst I can, and then just waiting and saving as much as I can in order to upgrade to at least an i5-750 or maybe even a i7 920 later on down the line? Any money spent now means less for me to spend later on unfortunately :/

The latter option means I’d have to live with just a Acer Aspire One N270 netbook for those few months, which would kinda suck tbh, as I use my PC for work (both educational and paid) and for my music, movies and games.

Anyway, this dilemma has been troubling me for a week or two now, so I was wondering what your opinions were? Any opinions and feedback appreciated

 

[surfingerman]

if you use your pc for work, i think its a no brainier man keep your pc, and if you need more cash put in some 20 hour days, yeah it sucks working all day but sometimes you gotta just go balls to the walls, and get things in order

btw what kind of work do you do? also there is alot of ways to make money online, you could try offering work or services on craigslist, go sell some old stuff your buddies have lying around (with permission LOL) and take a commission, go dor to door if you have too start selling peoples junk they dont want, get up and go make some change lol, theirs so many things you could do for some spare change

also if it was me and the choice was parting out a pc or paying some bills i would personally let the non essential bills slide a few months, if their small and you repay them later wont hurt your credit too badly, and doesn't sound like your taking out any loans

 

[dhdude]

I'm a student atm, working as a child carer part time and also earning a bit of cash fixing other people's PCs locally, as well as designing posters and flyers for a local business. My PC isnt critical to my studies, as I still have a netbook, but its a bit restrictive trying to do anymore than Office-based stuff on that lol.

I'm already selling off spare parts lying around and some old phones, just trying to maximise the amount of money I have, Im also due to start a bar job soon to help raise more funds, but unfortunately these bills need paying now, and parting out my rig is the only way I can think of to quickly raise cash

 

[Dent1]

Hey Guys,
I haven’t posted here many times, as I don’t often feel I have much to add, but I regularly read the forums and check TPU several times a day for my tech fix
Anyways, I’ve posted here before about dilemmas regarding upgrading my PC in the near future and whether or not it’s worth it, however things have taken a turn for the worse financially, and I’m regretfully having part out the rig in my System Specs to free up some cash for some unexpected bills.
I’m selling the Q9550 and 2x2GB of my Dominators to a friend of mine, and also looking to sell my 260 to another friend. I plan to keep the Case, PSU, ODD and HDDs and a Xigmatek S1283 I have spare for a future build.

I was wondering, as money will be tight for a couple of months, whether you guys think it will be worth keeping my mobo and my 2x1GB Dominators and maybe spending around £60 on a Pentium Dual Core E6500 so I actually have a rig to keep me going for those few months, or whether you think I should just sell the mobo and remaining RAM, get money for them whilst I can, and then just waiting and saving as much as I can in order to upgrade to at least an i5-750 or maybe even a i7 920 later on down the line? Any money spent now means less for me to spend later on unfortunately :/

The latter option means I’d have to live with just a Acer Aspire One N270 netbook for those few months, which would kinda suck tbh, as I use my PC for work (both educational and paid) and for my music, movies and games.

Anyway, this dilemma has been troubling me for a week or two now, so I was wondering what your opinions were? Any opinions and feedback appreciated

Sell all your hardware, buy a cheapo £60 Athlon II X3 or £80 Athlon II X4, £60 AM3 mobo, £80 4GB DDR3, that is about £200-220. OC that X3/X4 slightly and it will perform the same as your current Q9550. Then when you've got your finances up drop in a hexacore processor (Phenom II X6 1055T/1090T).

 

[garyinhere]

Why not sell the netbook?

 

[dhdude]

Sell all your hardware, buy a cheapo £60 Athlon II X3 or £80 Athlon II X4, £60 AM3 mobo, £80 4GB DDR3, that is about £200-220. OC that X3/X4 slightly and it will perform the same as your current Q9550. Then when you've got your finances up drop in a hexacore processor (Phenom II X6 1055T/1090T).

Thanks for the suggestions guys, liking the idea of going down the AMD route; I was thinking maybe going for a Phenom X2 555? I hear they often unlock to X4s?

Why not sell the netbook?

Unfortunately can't really sell the netbook, as it was a Christmas present my family bought me for Uni, and it does come in handy for note-taking in lectures and lessons, and also working on the go

 

[dhdude]

As I said in my first post, my original plan was to go i5 750 or i7 920 when the finances allow, do you guys think an X6 would be a better choice to end up with?

 

[dhdude]

I've also been thinking about the future of the current Intel and AMD platforms, I know Bulldozer is due early next year, and all these 1155 motherboards being shown off lately lead me to believe Intel might actually release Sandy Bridge a little earlier than expected.

I know the next generation is always around the corner, and you can hold off forever waiting for the next big thing, but maybe it might be worth me buying an PD E6500? then saving for longer for Sandy Bridge? If I do that I maybe buy a 5850 in the mean time, that I'd carry over to my next build, as I'd have more months to save.
What do you guys think, do you think an Overclocked E6500 would bottleneck a 5850 too much at 1080p?

 

[Fourstaff]

Since you have not found a buyer for your motherboard, I would say you are better off getting the E6500r. You can reuse your 2GB dominator but you will be living a pretty frugal life until you hit a rich patch, even then, make sure you have some money spare in case another rough patch comes again. And an Overclocked E6500 *might* bottleneck the 5850 depending on what game you are playing. BFBC2 likes quad cores, the E6500 will definitely bottleneck it.

 

[dhdude]

Yeah thats what I was thinking, kinda frustrating tbh as I play a lot of BFBC2
You think its worth selling it all and waiting it out then?

 

[Mussels]

get a cheap 785G (or 880G, they arent much more) board and an Athlon II CPU - you can get a quad core CPU + mobo dirt cheap that will work with that 2x1GB ram you mentioned AND have decent onboard video to tide you over with.

 

[dhdude]

Cool thanks for the suggestions and advice guys
How much better would a Phenom II 555 be than an E6500 with a mild overclock? Only looking for a rough estimate really as I cant find any direct comparisons

 

[Dent1]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, liking the idea of going down the AMD route; I was thinking maybe going for a Phenom X2 555? I hear they often unlock to X4s?

There is about a 50% chance that the Phenom II X2 555 will unlock to a X4, 50% chance that the potentially unlocked cores are not damaged and another 50% chance that your motherboard can run the core as intended. Overall you've got about a 12.5% chance of getting a quad core from the 555.

It seems more logical to get a £70 Athlon II X4 630, at least you know its a quad core to begin with and it performance is on par with your Q9550 with a small OC. If for whatever reason money is tight and you're unable to upgrade in the future to a Phenom II X6 or Bulldozer at least you can be comfortable with the fact that you've got a quad core and somewhat secure with your purchase.


AMD Athlon II X4 630 Socket AM3 2.8GHz 2MB L2 Cach...

Cool thanks for the suggestions and advice guys
How much better would a Phenom II 555 be than an E6500 with a mild overclock? Only looking for a rough estimate really as I cant find any direct comparisons

The Phenom II 555 at stock would be better than a stock E6500, the Phenom II 555 is equivalent to the E8400 in overall benchmarks.

To be honest, the 555 isnt a good purchase, if you are unsure about the Athlon II X4, the Athlon II X3 435 is the best bang for the buck, they are like £60 and will dominate E6500, E8400 and Phenom II 555 and the majority of benchmarks.

AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 1.5MB L2 Ca...

 

[GSquadron]

+1 for core i5 750
core i7 920 has resulted worse than core i7 860 and it costs even more. Not to mention the mobo which will cost you more. The core i7 860 is far better than core i5 750.
Anyway the reviews tell that core i5 750 is more preferred cuz of its low price.
If Dent1 says that there are 50% chances for 3 things, than the chances you can get if you sum them up are 12.5% chances to unlock perfectly.

 

[Dent1]

+1 for core i5 750
core i7 920 has resulted worse than core i7 860 and it costs even more. Not to mention the mobo which will cost you more. The core i7 860 is far better than core i5 750.
Anyway the reviews tell that core i5 750 is more preferred cuz of its low price.

I think the OP wants effectively a downgrade or a "cheaper" system so he can get some quick money.

Ive always wondered why the i7 860 is faster than the 920, I never understood that when reading benchmarks does it have more cache or something?

If Dent1 says that there are 50% chances for 3 things, than the chances you can get if you sum them up are 12.5% chances to unlock perfectly.

Thanks my math is shit. But 12.5%. Isnt a great number :s

 

[Fourstaff]

Get the E6300 for cheaps as a temp solution?http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=124032

 

[Hayder_Master]

i5 750 is really good chose, also i7 860 is great
MOBO i advice by Giagabyte P55 , UD4P will be awesome

 

[dhdude]

Thanks

Cool, well thanks for the advice guys, still undecided on what im gonna do yet, but on a positive note, I've sorted out my bills, so I can start saving again now, so I'll hopefully be able to build in a month or two's time at most

 

[scaminatrix]

Good luck with the build mate, and if you want to sell your monitor, let me know !

 

[dhdude]

Good luck with the build mate, and if you want to sell your monitor, let me know !

Thanks man, I think I'll be holding onto it for the time being, but will hit you up with a PM if I ever decide to sell it
Awesome to see another guy from Kent on here too