# upgrade



## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Looking to change my cpu and mobo , right now i got an old i7 930 on a terrible hp motherboard. i only got 250$ in the paypal so thats my budget. I can use more cores then less as I use cs5 a lot more the gaming. i'll be using the same ram and r9 290 i'm currently using.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Sell the old i7 930 and motherboard to gather an extra $60 then grab this:

Intel Core i5-4440 Haswell Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I54440 - Newegg.com

GIGABYTE GA-G1.Sniper Z97 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Or I could just get a cheaper motherboard , 140$ is nuts lol . For 140$ it better do my laundry too.

my last mobo before i went with this hp one was a 50$ open box gigabyte and that served me very well so I'll see if there's something like that. That i5 bugs me too , seems like going from an i7 to an i5 would be somehow less even though it's probably faster. Keep in mind I'm not against amd and I get the feeling they'll perform alot faster with more cores, idk


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G + SB710 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com
AMD FX-8370 Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor FD8370FRHKBOX - Newegg.com

How about this , I think that cpu will be a lot better then the i5.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

emosun said:


> Or I could just get a cheaper motherboard , 140$ is nuts lol . For 140$ it better do my laundry too.
> 
> my last mobo before i went with this hp one was a 50$ open box gigabyte and that served me very well so I'll see if there's something like that. That i5 bugs me too , seems like going from an i7 to an i5 would be somehow less even though it's probably faster. Keep in mind I'm not against amd and I get the feeling they'll perform alot faster with more cores, idk


The i5's are typically better to use over the i7s. Hence the recommendation. I doubt you can even use the full power of the i7.



emosun said:


> GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G + SB710 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Newegg.com
> AMD FX-8370 Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor FD8370FRHKBOX - Newegg.com
> 
> How about this , I think that cpu will be a lot better then the i5.


Perhaps an AMD FM2+ socket over the AM3. The AM3 is older now and that motherboard doesn't even support PCIe 3.0.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

> Perhaps an AMD FM2+ socket over the AM3. The AM3 is older


Seriously? Why put $$ into an APU system and then install an R9? AM3+ is the current AMD socket. Unlike Intel, AMD does not force users to change motherboards with every generation of their processors. 



> that motherboard doesn't even support PCIe 3.0.


Irrelevant.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Masterchiefxx17 said:


> The i5's are typically better to use over the i7s. Hence the recommendation. I doubt you can even use the full power of the i7.


When you use adobe premire the rendering uses all available cpu power regardless of what cpu it is. So weather I had a single core celeron or a quad socket server board , when I go to render every core will max out at 100% unless I set the programs affinity beforehand. Which is why I'm thinking the 8 core amd cpu's may be a better route then these cheaper i5's.

Honestly if I could afford it I would love to go with a dual socket board and max out both cpu's. I won't however rule out an fm2 socket IF the cpu's are faster even though I do not need an apu at all.

Keeping with a 250$ budget are there any faster options then the fx-8370? Turns out the cpu is pretty nnew and I'm actually having a hard time finding a board that supports it lol.


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## gcavan (Aug 13, 2009)

Pretty much any AMD 970/990 chipset board will support it; those manufactured previously will most likely require a BIOS update. The newest revision (5.0) of the 78LMT board linked in post 4 has native support for the 8370


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## sobeit (Nov 11, 2007)

remember, if you are using the os that came with your hp, it will also have to be replaced.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

gcavan said:


> Pretty much any AMD 970/990 chipset board will support it; those manufactured previously will most likely require a BIOS update. The newest revision (5.0) of the 78LMT board linked in post 4 has native support for the 8370


I saw that but the board only supports it past a certain bios revision , I would have to get the board an install an old cpu and update it if the board was made before the cpu release which is very possible. I don't really have any am3 cpu's around here.

I wonder how much worse the 8350 is. Or how much better it is vs the i7 930 I currently use.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Ok something I should have initially done was check benchmarks for cpu's in adobe apps. I checked out the adobe benchmarks on tomshardware and everything in my price range isn't much faster then the 930 I currently use. If it is it's roughly 12-30% faster.

My last upgrade was from a q6600 to this i7 and I had basically a 100% speed increase. I could possibly try older server board with more cpu's. maybe a pair of older xeons will outperform a newer option.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

gcavan said:


> Seriously? Why put $$ into an APU system and then install an R9? AM3+ is the current AMD socket. Unlike Intel, AMD does not force users to change motherboards with every generation of their processors.
> 
> 
> Irrelevant.


Yet the FM2+ sockets offer a better pricing over the AM3+ sockets that AMD offers. I appears to be that emosun's first concern is to deal with pricing. Besides, many AM3+ motherboards are older and that "irrelevant" claim you posted about the PCIe slot not being 3.0 is shocking to me.

How you can not recommend an upgrade to new components is a surprise as emosun may plan on keeping this system around for even longer. You'll limit his full potential by that "irrelevant" claim.

Also, I can easily recall the how Intel used the LGA 1155 socket on both the second and third generation CPUs. Perhaps socket changes are not the worse thing when new technology comes around since it brings advances to the lineup. AMD is still using the same guidelines they announced in 2009 for the AM3 socket.




emosun said:


> When you use adobe premire the rendering uses all available cpu power regardless of what cpu it is. So weather I had a single core celeron or a quad socket server board , when I go to render every core will max out at 100% unless I set the programs affinity beforehand. Which is why I'm thinking the 8 core amd cpu's may be a better route then these cheaper i5's.
> 
> Honestly if I could afford it I would love to go with a dual socket board and max out both cpu's. I won't however rule out an fm2 socket IF the cpu's are faster even though I do not need an apu at all.
> 
> Keeping with a 250$ budget are there any faster options then the fx-8370? Turns out the cpu is pretty nnew and I'm actually having a hard time finding a board that supports it lol.


No offence, but not once was Premier rendering mentioned in your original thread, so my recommendations are based off of a general PC user. The advantage of an eight core CPU may be beneficial, but there is always Intel's Hyper-Threading to think about as well.

If you do go for the FX-8370 then something like this board will fit he budget:

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com

You're still limiting yourself to that PCIe 2.0 slot on the R9, but it does fit the budget with the rebate.



emosun said:


> Ok something I should have initially done was check benchmarks for cpu's in adobe apps. I checked out the adobe benchmarks on tomshardware and everything in my price range isn't much faster then the 930 I currently use. If it is it's roughly 12-30% faster.
> 
> My last upgrade was from a q6600 to this i7 and I had basically a 100% speed increase. I could possibly try older server board with more cpu's. maybe a pair of older xeons will outperform a newer option.


Going that route, I'd recommend looking on places like eBay. You may get lucky and find a company who is attempting to sell some old technology for cheaper.


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Masterchiefxx17 said:


> Besides, many AM3+ motherboards are older and that "irrelevant" claim you posted about the PCIe slot not being 3.0 is shocking to me.


This actually did have merit. The bus speed of pci-e has never really been an issue. One thing I do know a lot about is gpu's , and bus speeds between pci-e 1.0 , 2.0 , and 3.0 do not dictate the speed of the device as much as the actual device does. It would have to get down to pci-e 8x and 4x before any noticeable speed was being lost from the actual bandwidth of the bus. Infact I would be very surprised if any gpu existed that could actually max out the bandwidth of a pci-e 2.0 slot to the point where the transfer speed was a bottleneck.



Masterchiefxx17 said:


> No offence, but not once was Premier rendering mentioned in your original thread, so my recommendations are based off of a general PC user. The advantage of an eight core CPU may be beneficial, but there is always Intel's Hyper-Threading to think about as well.


It does say I use cs5 and could use more cores then less. But cs5 encompasses several adobe programs so I should have specified.

I can toggle the hyperthreading on my i7 currently and much like the hyperthreading on a pentium 4 it gives me a very small boost but I'd see much more speed it they were simply more cores instead. 

Now that I look at these server boards I'm concerned with gpu compatibility from a bios standpoint as many of these boards are built to be in racks and their pci-e slot are more an afterthought then a high end gpu solution.

From what I can see my only solution would be a new upper end i7 as it's really the only cpu that shows significant speed increases in adobe apps, gonna need to increase my budget or wait for them to get cheaper.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Have you tried Tiger Direct for possible deals in your price range Search Results for motherboard cpu bundle at TigerDirect.com


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

I like this board a lot with an i-5:
GIGABYTE GA-Z97-HD3 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com and here:

Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell Refresh Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I54690K - Newegg.com - Newegg.com
You would see a major difference with your decent video card as well and can do an i-7 later if you want to.
Remark about gpu between pci-x 3.0 and 2,0 is ridiculous as there is little or no perceived difference. As for 8 core, there is little out there that can utilize that so there is no need to go beyond quad core for now!


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

Rich-M said:


> I like this board a lot with an i-5:
> GIGABYTE GA-Z97-HD3 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com and here:
> 
> Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell Refresh Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I54690K - Newegg.com - Newegg.com
> ...


Well that's just the thing my main upgrade concern is adobe which uses as many cores that are available.

Also that i5 only seems to be about 30% faster in render times over this current i7 I use. No doubt it's faster in other areas but I really need shorter render times which keeps steering me back to either more cores or dual cpu's.

It would be a better idea in terms of future proofing. The current board I use maxes out at an i7 975 which is 10% slower then that i5. The ram also is limited to 1333. I might consider that cpu with a cheaper motherboard


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

Ok you can save some more $ here then:
Intel Core i5-4440 Haswell Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600 BX80646I54440 - Newegg.com
GIGABYTE GA-H97-D3H LGA 1150 Intel H97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com


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## emosun (Oct 4, 2006)

One thing I'll miss is none of these boards support triple channel ram , even though this hp board sucks I can still run the three sticks in triple channel

now I'm thinking an i7 4770 got a little more dough to spend


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

Go for it!


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

You should check the deals now as a lot of stuff has been reduced so it may work in your favour.


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