DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Upgrade TimE!!

36 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/upgrade-time.108205/

U
Ultra_Bloodshed Original post #1
Feb 7, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Dude....

It's time for my upgrade again!! My 3 year old ASUS A8N-E mobo failed times in a week so I am off to get me a new SET ;)

So people, please suggest some great config for me.... either intel or AMD is welcome ;)... My budget is currently Rs.30000. What I need is a mobo, proccy, ram and maybe a GFX card, tho it's not a must ....

My current/existing config are"
CM 331 Elite cabinet
ASUS DVDRW optical drive
CM Extremepower 600W
Seagate 750 GB HDD
Creative Audigy Soundcard
nVidia 8600 GT :( (gotta upgrade it ;)

I use my system mainly for GAMES, although I may use it for some project on DBMS in the future... (read ORACLE)... I hope i have provided enough info... If not, please feel free to ask....

Thanks all!!
topgear
topgear #2
Feb 7, 2009 at 9:51 PM
Config : 1 ( Recomended )

Intel Q8200 Rs. 8800
MSI P7NSLI PLATINUM Rs. 8800
2x Palit 9800GT For SLI Rs. 14600
2x 2GB Transcend DDR2 Ram Rs. 2400

This config will give you very good performance in gaming.

Or else

Config : 2

Intel Q8200 Rs. 8800
Asus P5Q Pro Rs. 9500 or MSi p45 NEo F Rs. 6000
Palit 4870 Sonic 1Gb Edition Rs. 17500
2x 2Gb Transcend DDR2 Ram Rs. 2400
R
RMN #3
Feb 7, 2009 at 10:14 PM
@topgear
is CM extreme 600W enough to power Config 2?
topgear
topgear #4
Feb 8, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Some people Run their rig with CM600W flawlessly

Though I would suggest Corsair TX650W Power Supply or
Tagan BZ600 @ Rs. 7000 & 6000 respectively.

Here I'm giving a alternative config for Him :

Intel Q8200 Rs. 8800
MSI P45 Neo F Rs. 6000
2x 2GB Transcend DDR2 800Mhz Ram Rs. 2400
MSI 9800GTX+ OC edition Rs. 12000

Total Rs. 29200.

Which CM600W can handle easily.
U
Feb 8, 2009 at 4:45 PM
is the MSI P45 NEO board good?? What about an ASUS P5Q-E or a Biostar one? also Is there some kinda problem with the CM 600 W PSU?? cause i heard that they are not that good and tends to kill a machine :p
tkin
tkin #6
Feb 8, 2009 at 6:28 PM
is the MSI P45 NEO board good?? What about an ASUS P5Q-E or a Biostar one? also Is there some kinda problem with the CM 600 W PSU?? cause i heard that they are not that good and tends to kill a machine :p
Asus P5Q mobo series are best.
amitash
amitash #7
Feb 8, 2009 at 6:43 PM
1.Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H--6.5k
2.phenom 2 920--13k
3.Palit 9800gtx+--11.5k
4.Transcend 4gb ram--2.6k
Total--34k
U
Feb 8, 2009 at 8:04 PM
tkin said:
Asus P5Q mobo series are best.
better than biostar or MSI??

and amitabh, as a gamer, should I opt for intel core2 or AMD phenom II??
amitash
amitash #9
Feb 8, 2009 at 10:05 PM
^currently the phenom 2 920 is much faster than core 2 quad Q8200...And its easily overclockable so I would suggest a phenom2+780 combo over intel at your price range...

P.S. Its amitash not amitabh
topgear
topgear #10
Feb 9, 2009 at 6:48 AM
1.Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H--6.5k
2.phenom 2 920--13k
3.Palit 9800gtx+--11.5k
4.Transcend 4gb ram--2.6k
Total--34k

Hey good suggestion buddy but one thing

Instead of Palit I would recommend to go for Zotac 9800GTX+ which is only Rs. 11150 & comes with XII Century - Death or Glory game bundled.
U
Feb 9, 2009 at 11:30 AM
ok ppl... Please help me decide then....

Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3GHz OR AMD Phenom II 920 @ 2.8 GHz??

if intel, is Asus P5Q-E better than Biostar TPi45??

And if AMD, is there any better M/B and should i go for ATi or nVidia?

-----questions....questions..... :?
The Sorcerer
Feb 9, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Ahem!! People need to check something about the biostar i45 before considering asus series. See something kickass in this cpu-z validation link :D
*valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=434920
Before people talking about credibility and all, let these links and benchmarks do the talking:
*www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=190070
U
Feb 9, 2009 at 11:54 AM
^^ Thanks sorcerer for that input :D I think biostar is the way to go

But what about the choice between intel and amd?? Which will be better for gaming? :(
The Sorcerer
Feb 9, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Stick to intel since you have the budget. Get the e8400 s-spec slapc which is an E0 stepping- provided you can find it. You should see the s-spec model on the sticker of the intel processor's box near the barcode. M0 stepping (I think their s spec is slavc but not sure) are stubborn OCers and they are times they give really sad OC clocks. Get cl4 rams from g skills or corsair xms 2. G skills usually give powerchip ICs and corsair xms2, as far as I heard- its either elpida or powerchip ICs. In any case, cl4 is the way to go now. They do give cl4 latency at 1.8~1.9v so there's some room for ocing as well. Its high time you ditch that power supply before getting a graphic card.
If you are buying a card in the ranks of 4870 1GB ddr5, vx550 corsair or Real power 550 coolermaster are good choice. Corsair uses seasonic OEM and RP 550w uses acabel OEM psu as for now.
amitash
amitash #15
Feb 9, 2009 at 12:49 PM
^Why stick to intel when AMD is performing better for his budget range?...P2 920 is a quad core procy which I think will provide huge boosts in gaming in the coming months as nearly every game is quad optimised...For your budget AMD is the way to go..would only suggest intel (in indian prices) if you had a budget for core i7 as core2quad price cuts havent been seen here...AMD's stock cooler is also awesome..people have been OCing their P2-920s to 3.6-3.7Ghz with stock....couple this with a 9800gtx+ and you have a very good gaming rig which will last quite awhile.....I bet in another 3 months you will be seeing ppl going quad all the way....And in gaming the phenom 2 quads will kick the E8400 easily in all the latest games.

As for the mobo, I think the gigabyte one i suggested is very good value for money.

Instead of Palit I would recommend to go for Zotac 9800GTX+ which is only Rs. 11150 & comes with XII Century - Death or Glory game bundled.

Cool I didnt know the zotac one was abit cheaper...He can go for that.
U
Feb 9, 2009 at 2:17 PM
^ is phenom II quad easily and readily available?? I am unable to find a Phenom II 920 in either itwares.com or techshop :(
prateek_san
Feb 9, 2009 at 2:44 PM
dude go for Phenom II ... i just purchased it and performance is great when it comes to gaming.....
topgear
topgear #18
Feb 9, 2009 at 9:20 PM
@ Ultra_Bloodshed - Get phenom 2 with Biostar 790GX mobo. Its more feature rich than 780G mobos.

Phenom 2 performs better than C2Ds & should be compared with intel core i7 cpus.

A user bought it in here & he is very happy with it :

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1048964&postcount=28
amitash
amitash #19
Feb 9, 2009 at 9:47 PM
phenom 2 is available at lynx-india

Phenom 2 performs better than C2Ds & should be compared with intel core i7 cpus.
LOL dont even think about comparing with core i7...when it comes to high end performance intel reigns supreme...phenom 2 is not even better than all the core 2 quad cpus...the Q9550 and the extreme series beat it.

core i7 920>>>>core2extreme qx9770>>>q9650>>q9550>Phenom 2 940>Q9450,Q9400>phenom 2 920>Q9300,Q8200
topgear
topgear #20
Feb 9, 2009 at 10:18 PM
@ amitash - Thanks for the heads up.

Toms Hardware benchmarked a core i7 vs. phenom 2 940. . They have not put any Q9xxx in between.

And the benchmarks they conducted for AMD using DDR2 mem. They used 3.8Ghz clock speed for core i7 & 3.64 Ghz for phenom 2 ( since higher clock speed was not stable )

So I thought about the caomparision between core i7 and phenom 2.

& said that phenom 2 is better than all C2D's like C2D 8xxx series ( which is highest in Core 2 Duo family ).

And thanks againg for clearing the facts.
amitash
amitash #21
Feb 11, 2009 at 12:12 PM
^check out anandtechs review, they give very reliable scores
topgear
topgear #22
Feb 11, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Thanks mate. Will check it out..
U
Feb 11, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Thanks for all your advice guys.... Refering anadtech's benchmarks, i have settled for the following config...

Intel Core2Duo E8400
ASUS P5Q-E
Corsair 2x4096-6400C4DHX(4-4-4-12)(2x2GB)
Palit ATi 4850 512 DDR3
Altec Lansing VS4121 BLK


Is it good, or do you suggest any alterations??
amitash
amitash #24
Feb 11, 2009 at 9:21 PM
^I would still suggest you go for phenom 2 920 rather than E8400....In the gaming benchmarks the E8400 seems faster because all games are not quad core optimised...Just wait for 2 months and you will see the quad cores easily beating the dual cores...the E8400 is NOT very future proof..It will be outdated soon.
topgear
topgear #25
Feb 11, 2009 at 9:32 PM
Those corsair rams are very good as their timings/latency is very good.

Run those mems with amd proc like phenom 2 920 as amd procs mem controler is built in the cpu unlike intel c2ds which mem controller is built in the northbridge chipset.

So you will get better mem performance with amd & the phenom 2 is better than e8400 in processing power anyday.
tkin
tkin #26
Feb 11, 2009 at 9:54 PM
Thanks for all your advice guys.... Refering anadtech's benchmarks, i have settled for the following config...

Intel Core2Duo E8400
ASUS P5Q-E
Corsair 2x4096-6400C4DHX(4-4-4-12)(2x2GB)
Palit ATi 4850 512 DDR3
Altec Lansing VS4121 BLK


Is it good, or do you suggest any alterations??
Its good, but if you're not a frequent upgrader(will not upgrade in one year from now) or do stuff like video encoding, get intel quad cores(least is Q6600, better to get Q9400 @ 12k), everything else is fine.

Core for core Intel proccy's are faster than AMD, so stick to Intel.
amitash
amitash #27
Feb 12, 2009 at 10:30 AM
^again...core for core only intel core i7s and the 35k intel core2quads are faster than the amd phenoms.
tkin
tkin #28
Feb 12, 2009 at 4:53 PM
^again...core for core only intel core i7s and the 35k intel core2quads are faster than the amd phenoms.
I think you don't have an update for the prices now.

A core i7(4 cores,8threads, 2.66GHz-i920) costs 15k.
A Phenom 920 X4 costs 11k.
A Phenom 940 X4 costs 13k.

AND i-920 BEATS THE HELL OUT OF BOTH OF THEM EASILY, I don't see any 35k proccies that should be needed for comparison, no one buys them these days.

Conclusion-Intel's way ahead of AMD when it comes to performance at a moderate price, a 2k extra for a large amount of performance, anyone can pay it.

But still you need to pay for a X58 mobo and DDR3 RAMS for i7 which gives AMD an edge, but with DDR3 prices falling its time for AMD to think harder.
amitash
amitash #29
Feb 12, 2009 at 5:46 PM
I know the i7 beats AMD easily..thats why i bought one..... you will need to pay atleast 36k for a core i7 + 3gb ddr3 + x58 mobo(cheapest)
With a decent graphics card it will go upto 50k which does not fit his budget at all...DDR3 prices may be coming down everywhere but not in india..prices here stay nearly the same as they did years ago

For a budget of less than 50k AMD beats intel easily.
F
Feb 12, 2009 at 6:39 PM
+1 above
every one is not fool if one can get 920 in 15k with no extra cost then you know what would be done..
i'd say -
Phenom II 940 -13k
biostar 790gx with acc -5k
2x2 800Mhz any good one - 2-3k
msi 4870 512mb - 13k
crosair vx 450 - 4k

sell ur cm600 ~ should go for 2k

yeah budget is slightly over.. btw you have not mentioned the monitor size, if it is less then 20" then no point in going for high value GPUs, 4850 sonic should be enough and CM 600 PSU will do fine too..
amitash
amitash #31
Feb 12, 2009 at 9:51 PM
@thread starter...get the p2 940..prices have dropped now its 12k
tkin
tkin #32
Feb 13, 2009 at 5:33 PM
@thread starter...get the core i7 940..prices have dropped now its 12k
i920 costs 15k(in kolkata), you sure i940 costs 12k??

BTW-Lets not talk about US prices.
amitash
amitash #33
Feb 13, 2009 at 7:11 PM
*www.lynx-india.com/index.php?productID=5160
tkin
tkin #34
Feb 13, 2009 at 10:29 PM
*www.lynx-india.com/index.php?productID=5160
You are lost, were talking about CORE i7(thats what the "i" in i920/i940 stands for), also you mentioned i7 940 yourself
"get the core i7 940"
you have the names mixed up,

Intel core i7- i920,i940
AMD Phenom II- 920/940, no "i" here, did AMD do this on perpose?
And you own a i920 yourself:D:D
I wonder..................:rolleyes:
topgear
topgear #35
Feb 14, 2009 at 6:23 AM
@thread starter...get the core i7 940..prices have dropped now its 12k

:eek: :eek:

Core i7 940 is Rs. 29K

*www.lynx-india.com/index.php?categoryID=170
amitash
amitash #36
Feb 14, 2009 at 10:21 AM
holy cr@p...so sory I was reading about core i7 somewhere while posting and got everything mixed up :D...I meant p2-940 prices have come down...again really sorry.