Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I have no issues buying a new mainboard. Even if the socket is the same and you could upgrade the CPU, this view is flawed becau […]
Show full quote

I have no issues buying a new mainboard. Even if the socket is the same and you could upgrade the CPU, this view is flawed because everything else in the system is old and will hold you back.

While you can stick an AM3 CPU into an AM2+ board, most of them are "stuck" on DDR2 which is heaps more expensive compared to DDR3.

Some boards are still PCIe 1.0 and stuck on HT 2.0 or don't support some features of the CPU (cool and quiet) and things like that.

Just like some boards can run Bulldozer, but not every feature will work. There is always a catch or some restriction.

Simply put, never ever consider things such as "upgradeability". It's a marketing term to lure you to buy a certain product but the IT world moves so fast, not worth it.

With so much overclocking headroom these days, who really upgrades the CPU these days? Most AMD CPUs are fully unlocked and you can even unlock cores. Even Intel is doing unlocked CPUs now...

I remember when the AMD 6 core CPU came out. Most boards received a BIOS update, but this didn't stop many of the AMD fans to buy a 6 core CPU AND a new 8 series chipset board! Why? I have no idea 😁

Anyone remember eSATA? For a while this was a reason to buy a new mainboard. But then you also wanted to buy a new case, one that has eSATA at the front or top.

But now we have USB 3.0 and we have the same issue. You case needs to also come with USB 3 plugs...

And what's around the corner? Intels highspeed interface lightpeak / thunderbolt.

Oh and then there is UEFI BIOS and support for 3TB drives. Again something that only a mainboard swap can do.

Still wondering what the go is with UEFI. I mean my Asrock board has this, but what's the big deal? It has exactly the same options as the normal BIOS, just looks nice and has mouse support. AMI Win BIOS did this 10+ years ago 🤣

So yea, don't worry about upgradeability. Buy the cheapest gear that does what you need now and upgrade more frequently...

If one keeps waiting for something that's just around the corner, one would never "upgrade" as theres always something around the corner 😜
At some point you just need to axe that knot and make a decision 😉

Upgradeability is mostly useful from a retro perspective and less for new hardware, as you can't even be sure if a roadmapped upgrade path will even materialize.

Tetrium wrote:

If one keeps waiting for something that's just around the corner, one would never "upgrade" as theres always something around th […]
Show full quote

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Simply put, never ever consider things such as "upgradeability". It's a marketing term to lure you to buy a certain product but the IT world moves so fast, not worth it.

With so much overclocking headroom these days, who really upgrades the CPU these days?

So yea, don't worry about upgradeability. Buy the cheapest gear that does what you need now and upgrade more frequently...

If one keeps waiting for something that's just around the corner, one would never "upgrade" as theres always something around the corner 😜
At some point you just need to axe that knot and make a decision 😉

Upgradeability is mostly useful from a retro perspective and less for new hardware, as you can't even be sure if a roadmapped upgrade path will even materialize.

I agree with all of this. I only upgrade when there's a reason to, following many years of listening to IT colleagues banging on along the lines "tell us what you want to DO, we'll tell you what the h/w or s/w needed is". If you have to have the fastest.... well, you'll never get there except momentarily.

I reckon the swap from agp to pci-e was the only time I thought about an upgrade path [hence getting those asrock dual boards] but that's because if I jumped to pci-e it would cost even more.

Otherwise, buy what's affordable that does what you need with a bit of headroom.

I've only just stuck a Phenom II x6 1100T in my AMD rig and i think it should last a while before i feel the need to build a whole new one. I have a 6 core processor along with 8GB of Corsiar Vengeance DDR3 RAM (running at 1600Mhz) and a big fat HDD! The only thing i may consider replacing within the next year is my Radeon 6870 GPU... I'll probably get a Radeon 6970 when the price comes down or get whatever else is out by then 😀

Barry_Purplelips wrote:

Intel kicks ass. They invest a truckload of millions on research which's why their processors outperform everything else on the market. I sense jealousy and BS.

Intel had the advantage because they designed the first chip. To avoid lawsuits AMD was forced to find alternate (translation = less desirable) ways of doing the same thing.

Tetrium wrote:

Gah, I made a long post yesterday but it got lost :( […]
Show full quote

Gah, I made a long post yesterday but it got lost 🙁

Vogons wrote:

I think the quitters have secretly teamed up to delegitimize bapco as an attempt to stop Intel from kicking there asses.

See how easy it is to come up with a conspiracy theory these days? really, we weren't there, we can't possibly know.

Personally I don't like Intel's socket hopping thing ever since they left the LGA775 platform.
I like AMD for their price/performance and the flexible hardware that comes with it.

My lost post was 10 times better but eh...early mornings 😁

Let's not forget what they pulled with the earlier pentium II and III chips. There was only one reason for switching to the slot 1 design - to keep AMD chips from being able to use the same board, so they could charge a premium price for those chips.

PowerPie5000 wrote:

I've only just stuck a Phenom II x6 1100T in my AMD rig and i think it should last a while before i feel the need to build a whole new one. I have a 6 core processor along with 8GB of Corsiar Vengeance DDR3 RAM (running at 1600Mhz) and a big fat HDD! The only thing i may consider replacing within the next year is my Radeon 6870 GPU... I'll probably get a Radeon 6970 when the price comes down or get whatever else is out by then 😀

I usually do at minimum a cpu upgrade on one of my main systems at least, but mostly a full new build each year if desired. This past summer my SLI system was using a older Epox AM2 sli board, but that board could not take any Phenoms, just Athlon 64 X2 and FX-62, so I sold the board for like 40 bucks more then I paid and purchased a Asus M2N-SLI. Its a older SLI board, but it can take the newer cpus fine.

I ordered a Phenom II X2 550 BE a few weeks ago for like 40 bucks or so, stuck that in my main Crossfire system, and unlocked it to 4 cores with zero issues. The Athlon II X4 635 that was in there went into the SLI system and the FX-62 sold for what I paid for it. Unless the motherboard or 8800GTS cards die in the SLI system, it will stay as it is now. The Crossfire system currently uses two HD5770 cards, nothing they cant handle yet so no issues there.

Heres a default Vantage score compare between the two cpus in my Crossfire system: