Mapping my updates...

So currently I am running a Phenom II X4 955, and I want to start planning my upgrade, I am not up on all the new stuff, but I was looking at two options, and I am poor so it will be bought piece by piece...

 

1) I could buy something like Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 which would accept my current processor, and later I could buy a AMD FX-8350 (or better?) as an upgrade. I have been an AMD guy for a long time but I understand Intel has been kicking butt as of late.

 

2) I could just save and buy and i5-4690K and obviously motherboard (something like the ASUS SABERTOOTH Z97).

 

The Intel stuff is more expensive, and money is an object, but if I am gonna do it, then I save a little longer and get something better... I dont need a super computer, but something that will tide me over for a few years at least and has the possibility of upgrading, my current puter has been around for a long time because I bought something that had the possibility of upgrading.

 

Thoughts?

I currently have DCS running on the AMD 8350 and it runs very well with a GTX770TI... Still, if I were going to build a new one specifically for DCS I would go Intel CORE I5 with that Sabretooth Z97 board.. Yes more money but a LOT more machine for it. Also we don't know how EDGE will affect things so I would go with the most I could get just in case EDGE is hungry and that is OPTION 2.. Just make sure you save enough for a GOOD video card...

:thumbup:

My last upgrade to a PC keeping the budget somehow in reasonable limits is:

I5 4670K

MSI Gaming 3 - Z97 (the newest chipset)

AMD R9 290 4GB

16GB RAM

I have preserved the old case, power supply, SDD and HDD.

The results on DCS exceeds my expectations. Full HD, heavily moded, max settings made it run at 30-60 FPS.

Regarding the Asus Sabertooth Z87, this one have a hidden problem. The mini PCIx on the nearest to CPU slot position is not functional. I had returned mine and changed with a Maximus mobo. During researches at that moment I found that this was a general issue for Sabertooth. Also I found OC functionalities to not work as expected, not very flexibile etc. So .... NO sabertooth for sure.

Maximus mobo is an expensive and rock solid one, keeping my i7 at 4.4GHz steady. However, this model have another general issue ... the hardware clock not working at all. This was solvable with a NTP synchronizer working at every 10 minutes. If this mobo wasn't so stable I would return it as well. Shortly, take big care to ASUS products...

Gainwards are creating rock solid video cards... I bet for their reliability since 10 years ago.

I was an AMD fanboy, but since latest 3 revisions of intel I had to change the side ....

I just posted yesterday a kind of feedback here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2113547&postcount=7

I think that is better to add a some more extra money now that makes your PC worthy for a longer time having in same time a bit more satisfaction. :D

The config presented above costs me around 900 euros ... it's a real gaming rig anyway. Overcloking procedure will come, for now I raise it to 4GHz and looks healthy.

With experience from two Asus motherboards - one (P8Z68-V Pro & i7-2600K) in my current sim rig, another (Z77 something + the cheapest i3-2xxx) in the server - I would definitely get something else. They've both had their problems.

The gaming mobo sometimes just fails to boot and starts a boot loop, which can be cut only by clearing all BIOS settings. And the fancy automatic overclock function will, in most cases, end up the same way... so I pretty much have to use static clocks and just keep them that way. I'm running the i7 at 4.3GHz at the moment, so it's quite OK in that sense. Even the slightest memory overclock will fail, but that may be the memory causing the problem, not the mobo. The 1600/CL7 RAM is fast enough anyway, I decided to go for a low latency instead of higher clocks.

The server sometimes just freezes (ESXi 5.1, and that should really be quite stable! I've run a system with the same version for two years now) and after a reboot the boot disk order is all mixed up... no idea what can possibly cause that. Even if the freeze was caused by the OS, it's totally unacceptable for the mobo to lose its settings.

I'd go for MSI or Gigabyte, but my choice would still be Intel and Nvidia for the other main components. Had enough with AMD graphics drivers in the past :(

I was always a AMD man myself and my last cpu was the 955 Phenom but i went over to the darkside( Intel lol ) and got the i5 3570k with a ASUS P8Z77 motherboard and i can tell you one thing I wont be going back to AMD any time soon.

Might be helpful if you tell us the rest of the spec?

With regard to downstream upgrading...

IMHO, you should assume that whatever CPU/Mobo/RAM combination you get now, will need to be replaced as a trio next time around. Granted, you could increase RAM amount down the road but since that is the cheapest thing in the box these days it really isn't all that significant.

Yeah, the processors I am looking at on both sides seem to be near or at the top of the supported lists for most mobos I have looked at... so I can see that as well.

It's always possible that a newer chip will use an old form factor but historically that hasn't often been the case.

Yeah, a few years is good. The CPU/Mobo/RAM in my sig has been in use for just shy of 3 years now (disk and GPU are another story ;) . I will probably upgrade by next spring but I am not itching to replace them yet.

Sure, you have to promise her more hours on her romantic cockpit ! :D Win-Win ... !!!! :D

Well thanks for reposting... its helpful. ALthough so far from you and outlaw its.. spend the extra $$$ you cheap ass :)

I think you just broke rule 1.1 :D

I'm thinking I may get a new video card in a few months since the newer ones don't cost that much. When I bought my current one it was $419!

We got a 2 year wait for the next AMD FX CPU/Chipset/Socket. (Q3 2016)

FX and AM3+ is a Cheap stop gap, if you wanna wait, but lacks DDR4 and PCIe3

Maybe you don't need the hyper-threading technology.