CPU/Mobo Upgrade in a month

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Emil

Forerunner
My present rig use the Athlon X2 3600 on a Jetway 690 Mobo with 2x1GB DDR2 667 RAM. It runs Windows XP. Of late, as the number of programs and services have built up and everyone at home has so many windows and tabs open at a time, the speed has come down. The rig is used mainly for browsing, music, a bit of image and audio editing and occasional download.

I am looking at going for Windows 7 as well as running at least one VM after upgrade.

No gaming whatsoever so I am not looking for a gfx card. The monitor is a 19" 1440x900. That is the only thing that may be upgraded to a full HD perhaps a year down stream.

Budget is not strict but I don't want to throw away money on unnecessary features. I don't mind populating with enough DDR2 RAM now if that makes more sense to save money on the Mobo. I am tempted with the i5 but it doesn't seem to make sense without the availability of a Mobo with built in gfx for me.

It is early days yet so let the suggestions roll out.

I am not using renegade's template because the requirement is still in the vague, early stage.
 
Wait for the core i-3's to be released in Jan. It is 32nm fabrication, has inbuilt GFX. Though not great in initial tests it is 2-3 times better than the G45 and gives ~70% performance of the 9400GT boards. So if you want to upgrade then wait for a while. Add 1 more GB of RAM for now. Get a second hand one and go for a upgrade in about 6 months coz prices of DDRIII RAM and esp. the mobos for DDRIII would have come down as DDRIII is all set to go mainstream in few months.
 
I agree with Karthi007 too . Just wait a month . See the review , benchmarks , prices then decide.

Oh and don't upgrade the RAM it would be wasting moneys , just sit still and watch DDRIII mobos and quality rams prices drop rock bottom ?

The bomb for spreading DDR3 is ready only the trigger remains to be pushed.

That trigger is Intel Core i3 and Intel Core i5 on January 3.
 
You should upgrade primary HDD also. If you need the clear value leader system you're probably better off with the AMD X4 620. Core i5 doesn't seem to make sense for browsing, music, a bit of image and audio editing and occasional download, serious overkill !

AMD Athlon II X4 620 + Gigabyte/Asus 785G Chipset Mobo with DVI out + 4GB Transcend 800MHz DDR2
 
well the prices of ddr2 rams are expected to come down by the end of this month ..so i suggest u to wait and watch out the market behaviour:)
The bomb for spreading DDR3 is ready only the trigger remains to be pushed.

That trigger is Intel Core i3 and Intel Core i5 on January 3.
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exactly correct!!

EDIT:^that can be the case but still i think i5 is the way to go:Car1:
 
SidhuPunjab's suggestion is exactly what I was thinking and I would go that way if I needed to upgrade today.

But since my timetable was anyway after one month or so, I think the suggestion by Karti007 and Anubis to wait for the i3 launch makes sense. I didn't quite follow "inbuilt GFX". Isn't inbuilt GFX a feature of the Mobo rather than the CPU?

The system is not that bad either that I should hurriedly pad up with a 1 GB RAM.
 
The clarkdale processor has GPU inbuilt with it and not the mobo :D The processor is a 32nm and the graphics core is 45nm.
 
Karthi007 said:
The clarkdale processor has GPU inbuilt with it and not the mobo :D The processor is a 32nm and the graphics core is 45nm.
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Oh great. That would probably make the Intel combo really VFM when a GFX card is not needed.

Just out of curiosity;

where does the Intel 5300 with Gigabyte G31 fit in next to the AMD X2 240, X2 550 and X4 620? I mean when the AMD CPUs use a 780 based Mobo?
 
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