Upgrade route - AMD or Intel?

sombaht

Hi,
Currently have the following setup:
Intel Core2Duo E8400
4GB Ram DDR3 1600MHz
GeForce GTX 460 SUPER OC 1024MB

Am looking to upgrade to a quad CPU, and in order to future proof it somewhat I need to make the jump from socket 775.

I've narrowed it down to the following two CPU/mobo options:

AMD route:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=27814&agid=1242

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=48266&agid=1232

Or the Intel route:

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=41224&agid=1617

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=46922&agid=1601

The AMD route has the advantage of being compatible with the new Bulldozer line of CPUs due out in September, but the Intel route should also be compatible with Sandybridge i7.

There is about €60 in the difference, AMD being cheaper obviously. System is mostly used for gaming (FPS) and am hoping that I can run the likes of BF3 & Deus Ex3 at high settings.

Any thoughts on either of the two options, or please feel free to chip in with other possibilities.

Cheers,
sombaht

jakedixon2004

I would personally go down the Intel route as you can always upgrade to an i7 in the future if you want but you are more limited by the AM3 socket.

sombaht

Im not sure if the AM3 socket is more limiting, one of the main reasons I considered it is that it supports the current range of Phenoms and the new Bulldozer range due out next month. Where as the Intel socket 1155 supports i5 and a few i7, dunno if it will support intels next range of CPU's.
Future proofing builds is a nightmare!

Cheers,
sombaht

Jonny7

The signs aren't great for Bulldozer, but no one truly knows - so if you're a gambling man you could take that route

Otherwise the i5's (e.g. 2500k) are the performance kings at the moment

Monotype

The 2500K is considerably more powerful than the 965. If you want future proofing without upgrading the processor, the 2500K will last you a long time in the gaming world.

The thing about AMD is that we don't know much about bulldozer yet - will we get something as good as the 2500K?
On the other hand, AMD is good if you don't want to be spending a lot of money right now. You get a better featured board, although you could get something like the Asrock extreme4 for €20 than what you have for the Intel board. The processor will still be sufficient for most games as demands are heavier on graphics cards than processors.

2500K = no CPU upgrades necessary for probably the life of the board.
AMD = Cost spread over time.

marco_polo

Monotype wrote: »

The 2500K is considerably more powerful than the 965. If you want future proofing without upgrading the processor, the 2500K will last you a long time in the gaming world.

The thing about AMD is that we don't know much about bulldozer yet - will we get something as good as the 2500K?
On the other hand, AMD is good if you don't want to be spending a lot of money right now. You get a better featured board, although you could get something like the Asrock extreme4 for €20 than what you have for the Intel board. The processor will still be sufficient for most games as demands are heavier on graphics cards than processors.

2500K = no CPU upgrades necessary for probably the life of the board.
AMD = Cost spread over time.

It is also worth noting that AM3+ socket (and FM1) will likely be fairly short lived as the introduction of the FM2 socket (enhanced bulldozer) is on the cards towards the end of 2012 (This maybe affected by the current Bulldozer delays of course). This means the successors for both Bulldozer and Fusion line will once again share the same socket type.



All in all buying for now (i5-2500k) is definately the right move at the moment, unless funds are really tight.

sombaht

Monotype,
Any advantage to getting the Asrock extreme4 board over the Z68. I would have thought the Z68 chipset would be a step up from the P67 of the extreme4 board?

Cheers,
sombaht

Monotype

I thought that was the P67 board you had.
It's a minor step up to use a Z68 over P67. You can use the graphics on the CPU chip with Z68 but not with P67. Since you'll have a dedicated card it won't be much use to you (although handy for diagnostics). There's some advantages to be had with encoding too. The second big feature is SSD caching. You can use small SSDs as a cache to speed up regularly used programs on your HDD. You can only do it with less than 60GB - you'd be better off using a new 60/64GB SSD without the cache so it's really best for reusing small, older SSDs.
Basically, it wouldn't be worth than €10 for the difference between two boards with identical features apart from the P67/Z68 chipset.