Time to get a new computer and I was wondering

if I should get the basic processor that comes with the one I'm looking at. My current system has an AMD Phenom Q9600 Quad Core Processor, but I'm looking at a system that has an Intel I3 540 processor and I don't know enough tech to know if the I3 is better.

If the I3 isn't as good as the AMD Phenom I can afford to kick it up to an I5 650 or a 655k, and maybe even an I7-2600 (If I get a lucky break financially) but budget constraints will force me to sacrifice memory to the minimum needed to run CoH.

Any opinions will be appreciated.

well thats a 2.3Ghz Quad core AM2+. How is the rest of your system? ram, video, power supply. Depending on the motherboard if it will run AM3 processors I'd just buy a new CPU. a Newer Phenom with a better core and more cache. keep the memory, maybe upgrade it, and your video card

AnandTech Bench - Phenom 9650 (L3 fix) Vs i3-540

Game benchmarks are last.

Old system

AMD Phenom Q9600 Quad Core Processor, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB (video card died in December), Power supply 580
　
New system I'm looking at

I have the choice of

I3 540
I5 650
I5 655
I5 660
I5 680
I5 760
I7 870

4 GB RAM (Minimum), 1 TB Hard Drive, Power Supply at least 600 depending on mem and video card.

And I'm not willing to go less than an

ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB

If the If the I3 or I5 cores are sufficient it will give me more wiggle room to get a nicer video card and more memory with the new system.

Upgrading the old system will take too long. Family offered me a solution of getting a new system on their credit card and letting me pay it off (they'll buy my current system and I'll pay them back the remaining balance) vs having to save up for months (I'm on a fixed income and can only put aside so much at a time)

Just read the fine print, sometimes shorter bar is better, sometimes longer. Depends on the benchmark test they are using.

Another source of multiple tests across a huge number of CPUs. Results in the charts are sorted within each CPU/Socket family normally (each family is color coded) and sorted from best to worse regardless of family when you hover your mouse over the chart. Being two months old it doesn't have the Sandy Bridge Core i3/5/7-2xxx series.

Thanks for the help and the nifty websites. Using them I was able to finalize my choices and order my new Tower. And it turns out I was able to get a better selection of parts than I originally thought for my budget. (I also learned I was eligible for a discount on my purchase as well as not having to pay for 6 months and no interest if I can pay it off in the first 6 months after the billing starts. ) So this will give me time to build up a bulk payment to give my family when the bill arrives on their CC.

So in about 10-15 business days I'll be getting the following

Intel Core i7 870 processor (4x2.93Ghz/8mb l3 cache), 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB, 2 TB Hard Drive - 32M Cache - 7200 RPM - SATAII 3.0Gb/s

I can't wait for it to get here. I've been having game withdrawals ever since my video card died in December.

Personally, I think the i5-2500K is the chip to get. At just over $215 (or $180 if you are lucky to live near a Microcenter) I'll probably be picking that one up soon. Ok, I'll probably look hard at the 2600K. Yeah, I am a recovering tech junkie.

Heh, i7-870 is still a nice bump over the Phenom.

Heh, you should at least repair the old system so you can 2 box CoH. or sell it to one of us tech junkies.

You may not want to get a Sandy Bridge system just yet.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20326

Don't know how true this is or the extent of it.

Yep, and I was just about to order a Sandy Bridge too. Now the boards are going to be recalled.

Its like the 1156 boards with the bad sockets again.

If you can be patient, give Intel a month or two to get the new spins of Sandy Bridge out the door and the various OEMs to get their boards retooled.

Unless you absolutely HAVE to buy it now OR ELSE.

And, on the bright side, it's a little extra time to save up some additional capital (or wait for your income tax return).

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Glad I didn't push the Sandy Bridge rig out to replace my P55 one. Now I really have to find a replacement 1156 MB for my high price rig now that the MSI P55 MB is gone for good.

This is a double problem with motherboard manufacturers because it looks as if they stopped manufacturing P55 motherboards to get a jump on the P67 ones so they don't have any stock of the old stuff, in the popular configurations, to ship. Intel's going to be compensating a lot of OEM manufacturers 1st quarter income.

"Soon" is 2nd quarter, which can mean April 1st or June 30th and still count. The P67 fix will be done and out on motherboards by the end of March.

Upon further analysis, if you already made the leap, all is not lost. The two 6Gb/s SATA ports are fine, the problem is the four 3Gb/s SATA ports on the chip (actually the clock circuitry for them). Also a number of mid range motherboards included an additional 6Gb/s SATA controller for two additional ports. Using these 6Gb/s SATA ports, even with 3Gb/s drives, is a viable work around. It's not like the problem is going to blow up your motherboard or damage your drives.