You're a Bunch of Factors

Looking at upgrading cpu/motherboard, but i haven't been keeping up with the latest developments since the core2duo processors which i have got in my pc right now.

anyone know which processor is the one to go for at the moment?

anyone had much experience with 64 bit W7 as well? looking at upgrading to that too

i think the core i7 960 is possibly the one to go for - i was confused because there seemed to be 2 different core i7 lines of processors, the 9XX and the 2XXX but the 2XXX ones seem to be 1155 pin chipsets, so they are for retrofitting into older motherboards. but i am looking at getting a new motherboard so i may as well go with the 1366 pin variety.

msy have the 960 out for $319
http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=1525

Not too sure about the new intel CPU but I presume that the Core I7's are the top of the range. Win7 in general is great but if you like lots of RAM, you will need to get 64 bit version as the 32 bit version only supports a maximum 3 GB.

Beware if you have old computer peripherals, drivers may not be available in 64 bit mode.

ibd77 wrote:Not too sure about the new intel CPU but I presume that the Core I7's are the top of the range. Win7 in general is great but if you like lots of RAM, you will need to get 64 bit version as the 32 bit version only supports a maximum 3 GB.

Beware if you have old computer peripherals, drivers may not be available in 64 bit mode.

there are lots of different core i7 processors, i was wondering if anyone had researched which ones are the best - i am thinking of picking the second best one so i dont have to pay 1k for a processor.

with regards to the compatibility, im pretty sure that its a non-issue these days - 64 bit windows has been around for a few years now, i haven't heard any issues at all with W7 (i have 32 bit W7 atm), it was more of a vista issue. (in any event i just looked up both of my printers and they have 64 bit versions)

with regards to the ram, that is pretty much why i am going to go with 64 bit, so i can get 12 gig of ram.

Easy answer here, sorry for not seeing it sooner.

i7-950 = 2nd best after the high-end extreme edition cpu. Reasons being it's "bang for your buck" is excellent and it's very over-clockable. I believe Tom's hardware rates it quite highly. I run one of these and am very happy with it.


Win7 64bit is also awesome. 6GB RAM or more and you're laughing.


I haven't read up on it lately but I think there's still some issue with Sandybridge CPU's that's causing some delay or something, if that's still the case don't worry about those yet (and you won't gain a lot anyway if you do).

Plenty more info if you need it, just sing out.

thanks pete.

do you have any motherboard preferences? i was looking at this one http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=3433 but only because my last motherboard is a gigabyte and i think they are ok but i havent really looked at any of the other ones.

i have a GT240 video card that i bought a year ago so i will prolly keep that for a while, i dont play a huge amount of games and it runs my 2 monitors fine.


i was thinking about busting out the 12 gig of ram just because its balla so i thought this would be ok http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=5185


another question - i have a 1TB WD10EADS as a second (and third) storage drive - do you think it will slow down the performance significantly if i swap one of these 1TB drives to my windows installation drive instead of my 640 gig WD6400AAKS?

i have a 640 and 2x1TB at the moment, and are thinking to moving to a 1TB + 2x2TB (http://www.msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=2588)


thanks for your help pete

Christ, any more questions all at once?

Sorry for late reply.


A lot of it depends on what you use your pc for, knowing you as I do I would say nerdy crap and multi-table grinding and no doubt you want good performance for HD stuff.

Most of the fancy shmancy stuff on motherboards is for gaming, if you basically never bother with that stuff then it shouldn't cost you too much at all.
You definitely want at least 1 Gigabit ethernet port, you'd be a full on proper retard not to get that.
As many USB3 ports as you can shake your peripherals at would be good too.
I advise including support for SSD's - I'm still undecided but if you want a dedicated boot drive that's the way to go it seems.
Decent brands include Gigabyte and ASUS, I'll even have a look for you shortly and come back with some actual suggestions.

Hard drive speed will be your bottleneck, except for an SSD.
12GB of RAM is crazy talk for your needs, unless you have some whack CAD program or something - and you probably do now I think of it.
One single decent graphics card should be fine, seriously, do you CAD from home? Might be able to recommend something that will continue to last.

One thing I've noticed with MSY is that their price list is a joke, and their customer service does not exist. Just because something is on their price list doesn't mean they'll ever actually stock it at any given store. Definitely need to ring ahead for any parts you want to order.

Back after dinner with some motherboard ideas.

thanks a lot pete

BigPete33 wrote:A lot of it depends on what you use your pc for, knowing you as I do I would say nerdy crap and multi-table grinding and no doubt you want good performance for HD stuff.

yeah i was thinking about possibly getting a SSD as my boot drive, but they are still crazy expensive, so i am thinking of just a pretty fast normal drive - any ideas would be excellent.

BigPete33 wrote:Most of the fancy shmancy stuff on motherboards is for gaming, if you basically never bother with that stuff then it shouldn't cost you too much at all.
You definitely want at least 1 Gigabit ethernet port, you'd be a full on proper retard not to get that.
As many USB3 ports as you can shake your peripherals at would be good too.

yeah i dont do much gaming but the peripherals are definitely what i need.

BigPete33 wrote:12GB of RAM is crazy talk for your needs, unless you have some whack CAD program or something - and you probably do now I think of it.

i don't do cad at home, but i do run MATLAB (a pretty heavy duty programming/modelling/engineering program) which i would love all the ram i can get - and it only costs an extra $100 to go from 6gb to 12gb so i figured i might as well - it becomes bragworthy then

BigPete33 wrote:One single decent graphics card should be fine, seriously, do you CAD from home? Might be able to recommend something that
will continue to last.

i dont do much in the way of graphics stuff except for running 2 screens. the reason i am thinking of holding off on the video card, is that some time in the future (most prolly when i bink some big tourney) i want to get a couple of dell 27" screens, and then i will definitely need a new video card, so i was prolly gonna wait till then. i only upgraded it a year or so ago because the other one shat itself, so it will do for now.

BigPete33 wrote:One thing I've noticed with MSY is that their price list is a joke, and their customer service does not exist. Just because something is on their price list doesn't mean they'll ever actually stock it at any given store. Definitely need to ring ahead for any parts you want to order.

yeah msy are crap in terms of all that stuff, but i put up with it and keep going back there because they are so damn cheap. bit like tiger airways in that sense.



so i guess the most important question that i am not sure of at the moment is, what regular hard drive would you recommend as a boot drive?

I have a very strong preference for Western Digital hard drives, so here's my biased opinion...

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=100

I recommend the WD1002FAEX (1TB) and the WD2002FAEX (2TB)

SATA 6Gb/s for the win. Those drives have 64MB cache and 7200 rpm which is ok and not too noisy. The Caviar Green series that you linked to is basically same noise level but only 32MB cache. The Velociraptors are a much faster drive but only have 32MB cache and 600GB maximum size.


One thing you'll likely need is a decent power supply, this is something you MUST NOT scrimp on.

Suggested weapon of choice for a non-gamer is.... http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NTk=
I run the model above that one and am super happy with it. If you ever think you might decide you want to run 2 graphics cards, just go ahead and get the next model up and I wouldn't even pause to consider it.

BigPete33 wrote:I have a very strong preference for Western Digital hard drives, so here's my biased opinion...

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=100

I recommend the WD1002FAEX (1TB) and the WD2002FAEX (2TB)

thanks for that pete - i think ill prolly go with the WD1002FAEX (1TB) as the boot drive, and 2xWD Green 2TB drives as storage, just to keep the cost down.

BigPete33 wrote:Suggested weapon of choice for a non-gamer is.... http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NTk=
I run the model above that one and am super happy with it. If you ever think you might decide you want to run 2 graphics cards, just go ahead and get the next model up and I wouldn't even pause to consider it.

at the present time, i have one of these http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=5924 and i think that should be enough for what i am running - i basically have the same setup now with the 3x HDDs, and i still think i have plenty of room left with that.

thanks a lot pete, owe you a beer mate