At present I'm running an old dual cpu opteron system with 6gb ram and a radeon HD4670. I'd like to upgrade to a system that will get the job done for 2 years at best, I'm keen on low power and silence so the machine can be left on idle.
I also have a white macbook with a core 2 duo and 2gb of ram which suits me just fine but any upgrades are dead money and with a limit of 4gb I don't see the point.
I hardly play games but may do some light gaming at best, basic use (internet, movies, documents). My intention for upgrading is primarily focused towards image editing with adobe photoshop and corel painter, both programs require generous ram to run and this is where my macbook has let me down. Upgrading my opteron was relatively cheap but its big, noisy and power hungry for my uses.
I originally bought the opteron for 3d rendering and animation but have focused on 2d nowadays.
I actually believed myself to be knowledgeable on PC hardware but thats not quite the case so I'm here asking for a bit of guidance and clarification.
So I looked at building a cheap and low power system that can get the basic done, keep my going with my artwork and could stay on idle for a few hours when not in use during the weekend/week days off.
cpu - pentium g620
board - msi h61m e33
ram - corsair vengence pc3 15000 1866 dual
psu - unsure?
case - unsure?
hdd - seagate 750gig (already have, very quiet)
optical drive - LG bluray (already have)
If I decide to play any games I would use my HD4670.
The AMD Llano 3500 looks ok too, the boards are a little expensive at present but from what I have seen the Intel chips are better for raw speed but lose out with the integrated graphics. Would investing in an FM1 board be an unwise decision considering that getting a 1155 Intel board allows upgrade to i3 or i5.
Any suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheap suitable upgrade from an opteron system
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: Cheap suitable upgrade from an opteron system
Difficult choices for a budget system.
Personally I'm not sold on the super budget Intel take on things yes they do some nice stuff but I've gone down the Athlon II road for budget builds myself
For a number of reasons even for somewhat demanding users (video editing and similar activities) the Athlon II x4 is very satifactory for end users and at a price that's fairly appealing too. For even tighter budgets either a dual or triple core Athlon II is pretty decent.
Really depends on where you are coming from (cpu wise) for example I updated someone from an Athlon 64 x2 4200 (2.2GHz) to an Athlon II dual core 3.2GHz they were on a shoe string budget and I doubled their performance roughly for very little cost. Myself I use a Phenom II 840 I got at a bargain price and I do photo work it's been a very good bang per buck performer and it's no slouch for video work either.
I would say if you are going intel it's worth getting a better CPU not "expensive" it's a pretty good price but I think you'd want something a bit more for photo work, in the same way I'd suggest AMD buyer go for more than a dual core Athlon II
For boards I use the ASrock N68C-S UCC and that takes AM3 processors up to 95w and it's very well priced, and to date I've had no problems with them nice little board good for undervolting too. Nothing fancy but it takes DDR2 and DDR3 up to 8Gb which is ideal for budget builds and upgrades. PSU wise I've been using the corsair builder range and been happy with those too
I can't say socket FM1 appeals much to me for budget builds board cost is higher, CPU range a lot more limited though the recent AMD Athlon II X4 - 631 release is well priced and decent performance wise.
Personally I'm not sold on the super budget Intel take on things yes they do some nice stuff but I've gone down the Athlon II road for budget builds myself
For a number of reasons even for somewhat demanding users (video editing and similar activities) the Athlon II x4 is very satifactory for end users and at a price that's fairly appealing too. For even tighter budgets either a dual or triple core Athlon II is pretty decent.
Really depends on where you are coming from (cpu wise) for example I updated someone from an Athlon 64 x2 4200 (2.2GHz) to an Athlon II dual core 3.2GHz they were on a shoe string budget and I doubled their performance roughly for very little cost. Myself I use a Phenom II 840 I got at a bargain price and I do photo work it's been a very good bang per buck performer and it's no slouch for video work either.
I would say if you are going intel it's worth getting a better CPU not "expensive" it's a pretty good price but I think you'd want something a bit more for photo work, in the same way I'd suggest AMD buyer go for more than a dual core Athlon II
For boards I use the ASrock N68C-S UCC and that takes AM3 processors up to 95w and it's very well priced, and to date I've had no problems with them nice little board good for undervolting too. Nothing fancy but it takes DDR2 and DDR3 up to 8Gb which is ideal for budget builds and upgrades. PSU wise I've been using the corsair builder range and been happy with those too
I can't say socket FM1 appeals much to me for budget builds board cost is higher, CPU range a lot more limited though the recent AMD Athlon II X4 - 631 release is well priced and decent performance wise.
Re: Cheap suitable upgrade from an opteron system
I think your choices are fine aside from 1866 memory, there bearly any difference in performance, you will probably benefit more of higher clock cpu or more ram you can get 16gb pretty cheap this days, something like CORSAIR XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMX16GX3M4A1333C9 or if you ddr3 1600 CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M4A1600C9B, i wouldnt bother with higher speed than 1600, there is bearly any difference in todays systems. I would probably recommend to go with i3 2100 if you were to benefit from hyperthreading and sligthly higher clocks, but its up to you if you think if you would benefit from investing the extra $$$.
For the PSU, SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - OEM, its cheap and more than enough to power any cpu of the current sandy bridge line, if you go with dedicated GPU will depend on its consumption, but a low end should be fine also. Case for a budget build, i would go with something like NZXT Source 210 S210-001 Black “Aluminum Brush / Plastic” ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
For the PSU, SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - OEM, its cheap and more than enough to power any cpu of the current sandy bridge line, if you go with dedicated GPU will depend on its consumption, but a low end should be fine also. Case for a budget build, i would go with something like NZXT Source 210 S210-001 Black “Aluminum Brush / Plastic” ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Re: Cheap suitable upgrade from an opteron system
@Mr Spocko:
To be honest I don't have a preference, the reason why I'm looking at the G620 is the cost and lower power draw compared to an Athlon x2 so I can leave it on all day if I'm at home and not be concerned about the power usage on idle. For example in the UK there's an online store that has an i3 2100 and phenom 2 quad 960 black both for £95?
@Abula:
Thanks for the links. The case you suggested is bigger than I'd like, a mini-atx would be more to my liking.
I'm in no great rush and if needs be I'm fine to but as I can afford. I've took a bias towards server components over the years as I believed them to be much more reliable, My opteron systems have been rock solid over the years, which motherboard manufacturers have a reputation for stability? I've seen Gigabyte get the thumbs up and Asus getting a thumbs down, what have you found?
To be honest I don't have a preference, the reason why I'm looking at the G620 is the cost and lower power draw compared to an Athlon x2 so I can leave it on all day if I'm at home and not be concerned about the power usage on idle. For example in the UK there's an online store that has an i3 2100 and phenom 2 quad 960 black both for £95?
@Abula:
Thanks for the links. The case you suggested is bigger than I'd like, a mini-atx would be more to my liking.
I'm in no great rush and if needs be I'm fine to but as I can afford. I've took a bias towards server components over the years as I believed them to be much more reliable, My opteron systems have been rock solid over the years, which motherboard manufacturers have a reputation for stability? I've seen Gigabyte get the thumbs up and Asus getting a thumbs down, what have you found?