Upgrading my System (MB and Proccy)

[ikkru]

Please guide me...

1. What is the purpose of the computer?
A: Daily Office Work
B: Browsing
C: Movies and Music
D: Gaming (not a prof gamer , i love to play Strategy games and racing like AOE and NFS)

2. Are you open to alternate ideas/products giving similar better performance but offering more VFM/ sellers? If not- why?
A: yes

3. What is your MAX budget?
A: Maximum 8K. (but very happy on 6k-7K if possible)

4. Planning to overclock?
A:No

5. Which OS are you planning to use?
A: Windows 7 Ultimate

6. How much hard drive space is needed?
A: NA (allready have 150GB sata + 300 GB sata)

7. What resolution will the screen run at & whats the size of the screen you want?
A: Sorry no idea!!!

8. How would you rate your hardware knowledge from the count of 1-10? (1 being the lowest, 5 being you are somewhat in sync with the current performers and 10 being the highest)
A:7

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
A: Yes, but 3 years back. Now no idea about new CPU or MB or Chipsets

10. When are you planning to buy the system?
A: ASAP

11. Are you one of the types looking out for "future proof" configurations?
A: yes BUT if possible only within my budget.

12. Are there going to be any components that you don't want to include in this new rig? If yes, do mention.
A: I want CPU and Mother board only.

13. Which city do you live in and are you open to buying from shops from other city/states?
A: Trivandrum

14. Mention any other points if deemed necessary
A: My current confg is Athlon 4000+, and an Asus M3A with 2 X 1GB 800Mhz DDR2. Monitor - Samsung 17"CRT. But may be upgraded to an LCD nex year. I have a Gfx 8400GS is also with me as my current MB is not having onboard graphics. But i am preferring the MB with onboard graphics.
B: Please Give two or more M/B s from all the brands as so many stuffs may be not available here.
C: Please help me and iam not at all familiar with new MBs, chipsets etc

Thank You.

[Sam]

ok as you have DDR2 ram, so heres something:

Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz @ ~3.5k (though very hard to find)
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H @ ~4k

or:

Athlon II X2 250 3GHz @ ~2.5K
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H @ 4k
with rest of money get extra ram. maybe another 1/2Gb stick. this will make the ram run in single ch but atleast you'll get more ram (Win7 will run smooth).

[ikkru]

thank you sam. As you said x3 is hard to find. X2 240/245/250 are there. Is this x2 need such a high end mother board which you recmded? Any ASUS MB to check?

[Sam]

thats not a high end mobo at all. its just a good mainstream one. it got HD4200 IGP & will beat the 8400GS (forget to mention earlier). also got 4 ram slot (buy extra ram as you want). Asus seem to have a lot of problems nowadays. ram, PCIex16 slot, heatsink. so best to avoid Asus. also Asus board (based on AMD 780-785G) chipset cost lot more.

[Cilus]

Sam, I think he can also get a AMD 780 chipset based mobo. For DDR2 based mobo. it offers almost same feature set of AMD 785G chipset. Since he is not buying BE processors or a processor to be unlocked, the missing features (like ACC) is not going to affect. But these mobo will be lot cheaper and the extra money can be invested to get a better processor.

My suggestion will be
Biostar A780L @ 2.8k
Athlon II X4 630/635 @ 4.8k

total will be around 7.6k

[Jaskanwar Singh]

a780l is 760g chipset mobo and it supports ACC also. but i think it will not be easy to find that. better go for x3 435 and gigabyte GA-785GM-US2H.

[Sam]

was going to say exactly that. 7series boards now very hard to find. 8series board still costly

[Cilus]

Well, if OP can go for Online Shopping, it is available in AnythingInIT Site. Here goes the link.
And when last time I was in Kolkata, believe me a lot of shops are having stock of those motherborads, because now a days lot of people are upgrading their system to AMD based Quad core processors, rather than upgrading the whole system. The Gigabyte mobo was available in Vedant.
Even they are having stock of Phenom X4 9850 and 9950 Quad core processors at very cheap prices.

[rajan1311]

The MSI 785GM E51 is easily available in bangalore, costs abut Rs3.6k (incl tax), looks good too
But that is DDR3....
hows the Biostar A785GE guys?(ddr2)

[ikkru]

any MSI equivalant please? In my area all vendors are having ASUS only. But they told me that they can arrange MSI. That is why i am asking.
Is online purchase is reliable? If yes give me a good site. but i am not that much confidant on online purchase. shall i make a try?

[Sam]

^^ can try SMC International, Delhi based. i think they have the Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H in stock. they are reliable. just give them a call & inquire about product availability as many times these things are not in stock.

[ikkru]

if any warranty issue rise, is it easy to solve on purchase online? Give me one more site to check.

[Sam]

theres 2 things:

1. many local service center repair it.
2. else ship it to the country's RMA center & they should take care of it. but usually motherboard don't produce issues (unless its an Asus motherboard).

[ikkru]

thank you... One more site please...

[Sam]

IT Wares & Lynx. Remember Lynx prices exclusive of tax & carry charge unlike SMC. IT Wares prices inclusive of tax. carry charge extra.

[ikkru]

Friends please help me to clear my doubs..

1. What is the difference between
(A) Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2
OR (B) Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4

2. Which combination is good
(A) a Good proccessor (like Phenom II) with an entry level Motherboard OR (B) A comparitively low level processor (like Athlon II) with a medium mother board (like GA-MA785GM-US2H)

Thank you

i cant make a new thread. every time it is showing "your message is too short. to post a message there should be atleast ten charactor"
but iam damn sure that, this post contains more than 10 charactor

[Sam]

Originally Posted by ikkru

Friends please help me to clear my doubs..

1. What is the difference between
(A) Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2
OR (B) Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4

Phenom have 6Mb L3 cache. in encoding stuff it comes in handy. some Phenom IIS (X2 550, 555, X4 955, 965) have unlocked multiplier. so overclocking is fun (provided you have a better HSF with you).

Originally Posted by ikkru

2. Which combination is good
(A) a Good proccessor (like Phenom II) with an entry level Motherboard OR (B) A comparitively low level processor (like Athlon II) with a medium mother board (like GA-MA785GM-US2H)

depends on what you going to use. but i'll suggest get Athlon II X4 + 785G based board (AM2+).

[ikkru]

Originally Posted by Sam.Shab

depends on what you going to use.

could you please explain...

Originally Posted by Sam.Shab

but i'll suggest get Athlon II X4 + 785G based board (AM2+).

Not asked for a buying. just to clear my doubts

[Sam]

Originally Posted by ikkru

could you please explain...

if someone wants to do encoding, he can go with Phenom II X4 + a cheap board (thats supports it fully without lowering the performance). the performance will be good.

on the other hand, if one wants to use it as a all round rig. good for everything. best in nothing. say good multitasking, fast encoding (don't compare to i7 or Phenom II X6), fast graphics card not getting bottlenecked, Athlon II X4 is the best available option.

Originally Posted by ikkru

Not asked for a buying. just to clear my doubts

oops. should have read well

[Cilus]

Athlon II and Phenom II series are based on same architecture. But the Phenom II is having an On-Die 6 MB L3 cache as Sam suggested. As a result, in gaming and some CPU intensive task they perform better. But Athlon II is also very good processor and the Performance/Price ratio they offer is unbeatable. The type allocations you've mentioned (office work, browsing and casual gaming), they are best suited for you.

And regarding multiplier, a CPU Speed= Core Clock Speed (Normally 200 MHz) X Multiplier Value. In case of a 3.2 GHz Phenom II 955 Processor the default multiplier is 16. So 200 MHz X16 = 3.2 GHz

Some of the Processors are termed as Black Edition processors, and they have Unlocked multiplier. So you can increase the multiplier without any limit to overclock the processor. Currenly only Phenom II processors are having BE versions. Phenom II 955, 965 are BE processors

[ikkru]

Thank you for your explanation friends.

one more thing. my current MB is ASUS m3A ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards - ASUS M3A

is this MB supports Athlon II? how you grading this MB? is this a good MB? iam planning to change it

[Cilus]

Your motherboard is based on the AMD 770 chipset and supports processors up to 95W TDP. So technically your motherboard will support Athlon II processors, providing the TDP is <= 95W. One of my friends is using it with Athlon II 630, and it is working fine.

But initially after you install the processor, probably it will show unrecognized processor, if the latest bios is not updated. After the latest BIOS installation, it will detect the processor properly. I would suggest you to update the BIOS to latest one using your existing processor. You can use the ASUS software provided to upgrade it. Then plug the new processor.

It is not a gaming mobo, but the performance will be decent, if a good Gfx card is provided.

[ikkru]

hmm.. i have a 8400GS with me. is this motherboard support new technology like HT etc? is this chipset outdated?
in one word "should i change this MB if it support Athlon II or wait for some more time (if support athlon II)?"

[Cilus]

Originally Posted by ikkru

hmm.. i have a 8400GS with me. is this motherboard support new technology like HT etc? is this chipset outdated?
in one word "should i change this MB if it support Athlon II or wait for some more time (if support athlon II)?"

There is no need to go for a whole system upgrade. 1st of all HT or Hyper Transport is not a new technology, it is present since the AMD 64 bit processors. Only the new versions are released over time.
Your Motherboard is having HT 3.0, the latest one. But probably if an AM3 processor is plugged, it will work as HT 2.0 speed. Ya, this may lead to little performance loss, but it is not worthy to go for a new mobo.

And as I mentioned in my previous post, it supports Athlon II