Computer Upgrade / Advice Needed

[Deleted]

Hi guys,

Thinking about upgrading my PC, as I want to start streaming with it, but I find the CPU hits 100% load under a 1080p stream on BF3.

Currently using

Phenom 965BE x4 OC'd to 3.7ghz
Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AMD 990X Socket AM3/AM3+ SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 DDR3 ATX Motherboard
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz C9 Dual Channel Kit with Intel XMP Support

Now it's either between upgrading just the CPU and getting a AMD FX-8120 Black Editon 8 Core 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ Zambezi 125W CPU, Retail for £150 which means i dont have to replace the motherboard, although I have heard the FX series is a bit of a flop and really doesnt perform well

or

Replacing the motherboard and processor, and I've been looking at price/performance and I've come across these

Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 Socket 1155 DDR3 ATX Motherboard £92
Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked 3.30GHz Sandy Bridge Quad Core 6Mb Cache LGA1155 Processor, Retail £167

I was wondering what your opinions were?

Anything I buy motherboard wise has to support crossfire as I currently use two HD6850's which are both overclocked.

[Flcrewpolo]

Hi guys,

Thinking about upgrading my PC, as I want to start streaming with it, but I find the CPU hits 100% load under a 1080p stream on BF3.

Currently using

Phenom 965BE x4 OC'd to 3.7ghz
Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 AMD 990X Socket AM3/AM3+ SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 DDR3 ATX Motherboard
Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz C9 Dual Channel Kit with Intel XMP Support

Now it's either between upgrading just the CPU and getting a AMD FX-8120 Black Editon 8 Core 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ Zambezi 125W CPU, Retail for £150 which means i dont have to replace the motherboard, although I have heard the FX series is a bit of a flop and really doesnt perform well

or

Replacing the motherboard and processor, and I've been looking at price/performance and I've come across these

Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 Socket 1155 DDR3 ATX Motherboard £92
Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked 3.30GHz Sandy Bridge Quad Core 6Mb Cache LGA1155 Processor, Retail £167

I was wondering what your opinions were?

Anything I buy motherboard wise has to support crossfire as I currently use two HD6850's which are both overclocked.

the fx series isnt bad and would be an improvement over what you have, however for gaming i would recommend a sandybridge or ivy bridge which is very soon you see a huge gain

[freebaser]

If £150 vs £300 doesn't matter, I would prefer the the 2500k / z77. But the 8120 would probably(?) fix your problem.

[Sartharias]

i5 2500k with a z77 mobo, is your best bet. The 2500k so far has been the ruler of the roost so far within gaming, especially on a price to performance ratio and is the go to recommendation on these and most other forums generally speaking. That mobo I linked is crossfire and SLI ready. It supports both Sandy and Ivy bridge processors if you were to decide to get a Ivy Bridge i5 instead.

[Deleted]

I'm assuming my ram would be fine in the new mobo? And is there much difference between the i7 and i5, except price?

---------- Post added 2012-04-24 at 09:37 AM ----------

Also on the same mark, the CPU benchmark charts show the FX 8120 outperforms the i5 slightly, is this a true representation?

[freebaser]

I'm assuming my ram would be fine in the new mobo? And is there much difference between the i7 and i5, except price?

---------- Post added 2012-04-24 at 09:37 AM ----------

Also on the same mark, the CPU benchmark charts show the FX 8120 outperforms the i5 slightly, is this a true representation?

In multi-threaded applications only. Games and applications that use 4 threads or less will preform better with the i5. The i7 is useful for multitasking and multi-threaded applications but doesn't really have a benefit to games.

[hapylol]

Lucifer,

I agree with everybody here in terms of the i5-2500k +z77 mobo's.

As far as your ram, I know my Asrock Extreme3 Gen3 had issues with 1.5+ volt ram so you might want to see if they are compatible with the z77's.