should i build new pc or upgrade existing???

K

1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run? (Stupid answers like 'gaming' or 'office work' will not work. Be exact. Which games? Which applications? Avoid the word 'et cetera.')
Ans: working on databases, various IDE's ,lots of programming(visual studio),virtual machine(xp,linux),bluray movies at 1080p :mrgreen:

and sometimes gaming(nfs MW 2012 ,dirt 3) but m not a gaming fan though!!

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans:35k max

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans:not now.. but i may in future

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: windows7 64bit

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans:1-2tb

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans:screen size between 20" - 24" , must be full HD

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans:speakers and ups

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans:2nd week of September

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans:assembler

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans:Bangalore.. I'm ready to buy online..

11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans:

my current config is :

AMD Athlon X2 4600+
Asus M2n-mx se plus
4 gb DDR2 RAM
seagate 160 GB + WD 500 GB HDD
AOC LM525

the prob is i'm facing a lot of overheating issues.. and i realized the solution too when i went through the forum....
My query is can i reuse my processor and/or my mother board for the build??? will it support my requirements???

The proccy and motherboard are too old, there is nothing to reuse. I would suggest go for a new build. You should be able to sell this PC as it has got a dual core which is good for internet browsing and office work. Keep the 500GB HDD though, they are very expensive these days. With the money you get by selling this and your existing 35k, you should be able to build a good new config.

K

yeah sure ll do that.. but should i go for i3 2120 + a decent GPU or i5 2500k without GPU for my requirements???
in case of i5 2500k i would add a GPU later.. but i need a rig that i don't have to upgrade for at least next 3-4 yrs...

OFF-TOPIC : sorry to ask here but how much would my existing rig go for???

K

after going thru several posts here I've decided on this :

Intel Core i3 2120 7315

Gigabyte B75M-D3H: 4632

GSkil RipJawsX 8GB DDR3 1333MHz 3630

seagate 2tb 6862

NZXT Source 210 Elite 2600

PSU Cosair CX430 V2 2875

Dell ST2320L 10600

KB+mouse W/L 1500

ASUS 24x DVD writer 1285

(prices from flipkart and ITdepot)

guys is this the right combination??? i know i've crossed my budget but i hope locally i get it for cheaper!!

Buy 1600Mhz memory as it is hardly a matter of 200bucks. Buy 4GB*2 to run it as dual channel.

K

havoknation said:
Buy 1600Mhz memory as it is hardly a matter of 200bucks. Buy 4GB*2 to run it as dual channel.

sure

i will do that. but is this config fine?? or can i use i5 2400 with the same mobo??

Kirankj1724 said:
GSkil RipJawsX 8GB DDR3 1333MHz 3630

Get Corsair Value Select 4GB 1333MHz RAM (x2) @2.4K

V

@Kirankj1724

If you are going with the i3 2100 based config then get corsair value 1333MHz 4GB*2 at 2.5k.No point of 1600MHz here as i3 2100 supports upto 1333MHz frequency RAM.
If you are thinking of i5 2400 then better get fx8150+Asus M5A88M AM3+ Motherboard if possible.It is better suited for virtualisation.

If you stick to i5 2400 then that board(Gigabyte B75M-D3H) would work.

K

thanks for your suggestion

but AFAIK M5a88m has no usb 3 header..

V

^^Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 has usb3.0 header but doesn't have onboard graphics.You have to buy a GPU if you go with GA-970A-UD3.

A

IMO virutalization is more RAM intensive and after that core intensive. I run 2-3 vmware workstation based system at a time in 16GB. In 8 GB you can easily run 2, but do not go for core i3AMD will come out better than core i3

also I do not see many boards in AM3+ socket with USB 3.0 header, have a look
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 Motherboard vs ASUS M5A97 Motherboard vs Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 Motherboard vs ASRock 990FX Extreme4 Motherboard: Compare Motherboards: Flipkart.com
overall this seem to be good
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 Motherboard | Motherboard | Flipkart.com

other idea would be to drop HDD buyout for now, use your old SATA drives, some time later you can buy a new HDD, against this buy a gfx card.
based on your preference and thus will have enuf to spend for mobo n proccy

K

^^^
I'm completely confused now :-(

if i go with fx8150 i would have to get an aftermarket cpu cooler too right? and what about psu??? guys could u pls help me with a proper fx8150 rig within the same budget(35-40k)..
and how gud is fx8150 compared to i5 2400?? is there a huge diff in virtualisation??

V

@Kirankj1724
Whether fx8150 would be better than i5 2400 in virtualisation depends upon the number of VMs you are running.
Suppose you want to run many VMs at a time say 7 VMs at a time.
In case of fx8150 you can assign each VM one core and the remaining core is for OS(host).
But in case of i5 2400 as the number of cores(4) is lesser than number of VMs running at that time,the VMs have to share CPU cores which is done by CPU time slicing.
So even though i5 2400 is significantly faster per clock,the speed of execution would be less as each VM gets effectively lesser speed due to CPU time slicing resulting in VMs running slower.
Also time is lost due to context switching.
Similarly there can be other instances with regard to number of VMs running at a time and number of cores assigned to each VM
where the required number of cores can have a effect on VMs running.
If you are running only 1VM at a time,i5 2400 won't be bottleneck generally provided you are not doing heavily threaded things in VM or the OS or in both of them at a time.
For running more number of VMs takes good amount of RAM as pointed out by acewin.

Fx8150 runs a lot cooler than i5 2400 even though it consumes more power than i5 2400.

Amd fx8150 - 12k or fx8120 - 9.7k
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 - 6.2k
GSkil RipJawsX 4GB*3 DDR3 1600MHz - 4.8k
Corsair CX430V2 - 2.5k
Asus DRW-24B5ST - 1.1k
WD Caviar blue 1TB - 5.4k
Logitech MK200 - 0.7k
Nzxt source 210 elite - 2.6k
Monitor Benq g2222hdl - 8.3k
Graphic card - Any 2k card for the sake of display or hd7770 - 8k

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 doesn't have onboard graphics so you have to opt for a graphic card.
You can reuse your 500GB hdd and not buy any hdd for the time being to cut the cost.Opt for fx8120 only if the setup exceeds your budget.
Add custom cooler if you start overclocking.Change the PSU to a good quality better wattage PSU if you add a very powerful graphic card.

Intel i5 2400 - 10.8k
Intel DH67CL - 5.4k
Corsair value RAM(1333MHz) 4GB*3 - 3.6k
Corsair CX430V2 - 2.6k
Asus DRW-24B5ST - 1.1k
WD Caviar blue 1TB - 5.4k
Logitech MK200 - 0.7k
Nzxt source 210 elite - 2.6k
Monitor Benq g2222hdl - 8.3k
Optional - Graphic card - hd7770 - 8k

A

buy 2x4GB or single chip of 8GB, I have Elitebook 8460p with core i5 2520 this has 2 cores, I run 2-3 VM quiet easily, having 2 cores has not been a bottleneck for me. But threaded application will always have better performance in multicore systems. I will still say stick to the budget and do not buy a new HDD for now, spend the save bucks here on rest of the parts making your config best possible for longer run. prices for HDD still have to come down quiet a lot, they have not settled yet since last year.

I had bought 2 TB seagate external last year in 5.5 K in around March and we are still getting 1 TB in that price, certainly not much of help.
for monitor there is Dell ST2220L as well, with similar specs and has additional HDMI port.

And do not get confused in any part. any of our suggestion shows conflict then, consider it as a choice option, because in the end you have to stick to your budgets

K

thanks vkl and acewin for your suggestions. i would be running only 1 VM at a time - (xp to use Visual studio 2010 and SQl server).
and what is the diff. between Gigabyte B75M-D3H and Intel DH67CL boards??

OP's requirements are :

working on databases, various IDE's ,lots of programming(visual studio),virtual machine(xp,linux),bluray movies at 1080p and sometimes gaming(nfs MW 2012 ,dirt 3) but m not a gaming fan though!!

For most of those FX 8150/8120 will be a better choice and for Virtualization, FX 81XX series is better because it supports all popular types of virtualization, mainly Vtx and Vtd.

Cilus said:
OP's requirements are :

For most of those FX 8150/8120 will be a better choice and for Virtualization, FX 81XX series is better because it supports all popular types of virtualization, mainly Vtx and Vtd.

Eaxctly, regardless the number of VM(s) run simultaneously, OP should need FX8120 or FX8150. Final choice will depend on the total budget.

K

fx 8120 - 10000

ga-970-ud3 - 6254

Sapphire HD 5450- 2000

gskill 8gb- 3719

corsair cx430- 2875

nzxt source 210- 2600

asus dvd writer- 1200

dell st2320L - 10600

iball wireless kb\m- 1350

guys how about this rig? i left out HDD as mentioned. Would psu be suffecient here?

V

Originally posted by Cilus
OP's requirements are :
working on databases, various IDE's ,lots of programming(visual studio),virtual machine(xp,linux),bluray movies at 1080p and sometimes gaming(nfs MW 2012 ,dirt 3) but m not a gaming fan though!!
For most of those FX 8150/8120 will be a better choice and for Virtualization, FX 81XX series is better because it supports all popular types of virtualization, mainly Vtx and Vtd.

d6bmg said:
Eaxctly, regardless the number of VM(s) run simultaneously, OP should need FX8120 or FX8150. Final choice will depend on the total budget.

In visual studio generally i5 2400 is somewhat faster.

As for vitualisation i5 2400 supports both VT-x and VT-d.
Intel's VT-x = AMD V and VT-d=AMD IOMMU.
It is the unlocked k series sandy brdige processors who don't have VT-d enabled.
IOMMU does mapping of virtual address.
With the help of VT-d/IOMMU guest operating systems can use hardware that is not specifically made for virtualization.

d6bmg...don't make generalised statements.Check the things first.Real advantage of fx8150/8120 can only be felt in case of more core usage simultaneoulsy.
fx is much slower in per core performance.
In general it is not that in all multi-threaded programs under windows7 fx will be faster.Depends upon the degree of multi-threading.

@Kirankj1724
If your usage is low or running one VM without that very heavy multithreading in the guest and host simultaneously then go for i5 2400.It is a better choice.
Otherwise take the fx.Fx is also a good option.

K

@vkl what are the diff with Gigabyte B75M-D3H and Intel DH67CL boards?? gigabyte board is cheaper and has usb-3 header too right?

V

Gigabyte B75M-D3H is a mATX board whereas Intel DH67CL is ATX.
Both the mobos have usb3.0 ports in the back panel but B75M-D3H has a usb3.0 internal header.

Intel DH67CL supports LucidLogix Virtu GPU virtualization softwarewhich the B75M-D3H doesn't.
Virtu is important if you are using a discrete GPU and still want to make use of quick sync(intel's video transcoding engine)
which is a much faster solution for video encoding through the applications which support.
Gigabyte B75M-D3H offers a PCIe3.0 x16lane which would work as PCIe3.0 only with
a ivy bridge processor.With sandy bridge it would work as PCIe2.0.But that's nothing to worry as PCIe2.0 x16 lanes are much more than enough.

K

thanks a lot for clearing my doubt vkl

i guess i will go for i5 build as suggested by vkl!!
thanks a lot to all u guys!!

A

virtualization has increased in general usage, where in normal users also run Virtual machines for the benefit of running two OSes simultaneously. And also in terms of technology has also improved. Most of the new proccy and mobos support hardware virtualization.
intel still holds its forte where core to core performance is very good.
With VM softwares dedicatedly using HW benefits. Now before you boot your VM you can allocate a dedicated core as well as RAM allotment for the VM you are running, this benefits over all performance. Other cores not dedicated for VMs clear up hosts task and dedicated core clears up tasks in VM using the RAM alloted.

When I started working on VMs around 4 year backs there was not enuf general knowledge for VMs and their benefits as well HW support was also not available. Now everyone can use them for just the thrill of running two OSes and development etc etc. There are opensource/free softwares available as well like VirtualBox, Xen, Microsoft made its Virtual PC software a free software.

If running windows as host you can think of saying visual studio works faster on intel, but will be different if u are running it inside a VM. Having more core alloted to the VM is a benefit which we cannot calculate direct away. We have many apps now but still not everyone try to utilize more cores that is why intel has an edge even in virtualzation

vkl said:
d6bmg...don't make generalised statements.Check the things first.Real advantage of fx8150/8120 can only be felt in case of more core usage simultaneoulsy.
fx is much slower in per core performance.
In general it is not that in all multi-threaded programs under windows7 fx will be faster.Depends upon the degree of multi-threading.

VT-X and VT-D come into play while running VM(s), be it single instance or multiple instance. For more info, see wikipedia. I'm not making any generalized statement or at least I try not to make any.

P.S. Ever tried to run or stimulate any virtual OS in your PC? If you had, then you won't be suggesting wrong processor+mobo to the OP.

V

d6bmg said:
VT-X and VT-D come into play while running VM(s), be it single instance or multiple instance. For more info, see wikipedia. I'm not making any generalized statement or at least I try not to make any.

P.S. Ever tried to run or stimulate any virtual OS in your PC? If you had, then you won't be suggesting wrong processor+mobo to the OP.

You don't seem to read things properly or don't understand things.I have clearly stated that i5 2400 supports both VT-x and VT-d.
It's the k series sandy bridge processors like i5 2500k which don't support VT-d.
What are you trying to make me understand??
I have already written about VT-d in my earlier posts.I have clearly explained in which applications and which scenarios of vitualisation which processor is more suitable.
OP understood the things and made his choice as per requirement.
I have nowhere mentioned that fx is bad.
And yes I have experience with virtualisation.

That's why read,understand and check things clearly first before commenting/posting.Better not post anything than posting random stuffs and generalised statements which can confuse OP.
Better read some sites and know about something than posting crap stuffs in the thread which is not required.

@ Kirankj1724
8GB RAM is more than enough if you are not running many VMs at a time.