Hardware component upgrade

[tonymadge]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.8Ghz processor is not a bad idea they are cheap and can be overclocked, not by a great deal but should run well enough, also going to the new motherboard will, when you have some spare cash allow you to move up to the Phenom 955 which is the quickest quad core AMD ship at the moment, again a fast quad with overclocking room!!
I thought about going down this route as well, still considering

[tonymadge]

Just been to overclockers as I have been looking at the Phenom and i7 systems and saw this

Titan Fusion OC" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz @ 3.00GHz DDR2 System, £390.99 inc VAT
If you swap the graphics card to a Nvidia GTS 250 the cost rises to, £456.49 inc VAT

Now this is quite interstings as the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM2+) so you can later when finances allow move to a Phenom 955 which will overclock to 3.8Ghz on air cooling!
I must admit I am leaning towards this one, I have always been an AMD fan and this looks remarkable value
full specs below

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz Overclocked to 3.00GHz!
- Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel+
- Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- OCZ StealthXStream 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
- Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black
- 1yr Onsite Collect & Return Warranty

Also this company look good and have positive reviews

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php

[ajb]

That's interesting Tony. The Gigabyte board does seems a better way to go, although the Phenom CPU is way beyond my limited budget at the mo but it might come down in price in time . I'm at least fortunate in not needing to go for the whole PC at this time. Now, the trick is getting the upgrade components through the approvals committee (SWMBO) .

Andy

[ajb]

Typical! Just when you think you've got it sorted, out comes another CPU to confuse the issue :@ . Looking on Overclockers and Scans websites, there is now an AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz for socket AM3. The price difference is a few quid but their specs are not quite the same as the 7850 (obviously apart from clock speed). The new one sounds better from pure processing speed but has less cache, and no L3 cache. Which one to choose??

[DaveB]

I tried looking for an upgrade path recently and fell into exactly the same hole mate. Life was much better when you had just two chips from two companies (both on or around the same speed).. intel or AMD.. then intel or via for your chipset then either fast page mode ram or EDO!!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[tonymadge]

Ummm no level 3 cache will slow it down But it seems AMD have realesed its big brother a X2 500 which has level 3 cache and is unlocked unlike the 250...reading reviews it will overclock to near 4Ghz on air and seems pretty good, early days yet though as it only has just come out, it is also AM3 motherboard compliant but will fit the AM2 boards (AM3 use DDR3 Ram)
Just to make your chioce harder

[ajb]

Hell it gets more and more confusing. I agree with Dave's comments about the days when the choice was much less and therefore so much easier. However! I decided to throw an extra £30 into the pot and went for the AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition. This is much faster, has plenty of L3 cache and can be overclocked. I swapped to a Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3H mobo. Just hope this lot runs FS9 very fast or my life might come to an abrupt end :-( .

Andy

[tonymadge]

Andy
if you look at my specs which is asingle core AMD 3800 running at 2,4Ghz it runs FS9 extremly well and also can cut it in FSX when I am feeling stupid enough So I think the new 550 with bags of cache should really run FS9 and FSX without many problems. Are you buying it from overclockers?? Keep me posted via pm on how it all goes together and performance please ;-)