Athlon II X4 640 -> Pentium G4400 ? Or wait till afford i3.

[WeeHawky]

So, I was looking at Skylake and was wondering if I could get by with a Pentium as an upgrade from the Athlon II X4 640 with a motherboard for around $120 ?

Or should I just wait till I can drop the $120 on the CPU only (IE: i3's ) . I'm gonig to assume the i3 probably would be a better option for gaming ?

[_I_]

the g4400 is about $50-60
id get that and save up for an i5 6500 $180-200

the penium g has much faster cores than the aii x4, thats where it counts in most games
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/130/AMD_Athlon_II_X4_640_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G4400.html

[WeeHawky]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

the g4400 is about $50-60
id get that and save up for an i5 6500 $180-200

the penium g has much faster cores than the aii x4, thats where it counts in most games
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/130/AMD_Athlon_II_X4_640_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G4400.html

Does Skylake allow for DDR 3 support ? Or more specificly http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132582&cm_re=LGA_1151_motherboard_asus-_-13-132-582-_-Product

[Obbnix]

Skylake takes DDR4 and DDR3L memory:
DDR4-1866/2133, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V

From Intel [ark.intel.com]
(used the i5-6500 as an example)

What GPU do you have? While the Athlon is pretty old at this point, an upgraded GPU may offer a better performance upgrade per dollar than a CPU(depeding on what you are currently using of course).

[WeeHawky]

Publicado originalmente por Obbnix:

Skylake takes DDR4 and DDR3L memory:
DDR4-1866/2133, DDR3L-1333/1600 @ 1.35V

From Intel [ark.intel.com]
(used the i5-6500 as an example)

What GPU do you have? While the Athlon is pretty old at this point, an upgraded GPU may offer a better performance upgrade per dollar than a CPU(depeding on what you are currently using of course).

950 SC. The RAM I have is 2 sets of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275 to make 8 GBs (fuuuuuu the RAM went down 20 dollars in 7 months! ugh)

[_I_]

that ram isnt bad, but wont wont with skylake
it will work fine with haswell

i3 4130-4170 for about the same price without ram

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ym44K8
CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($126.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.97 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.60 @ Newegg)
Total: $273.55

vs

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r97TvK

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.60 @ Newegg)
Total: $262.57

[WeeHawky]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

that ram isnt bad, but wont wont with skylake
it will work fine with haswell

i3 4130-4170 for about the same price without ram

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ym44K8
CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($126.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.97 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.60 @ Newegg)
Total: $273.55

vs

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r97TvK

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.60 @ Newegg)
Total: $262.57

So Haswell is what I could do with the current RAM? Why wouldn't it work since it's 1.5 V ?

[_I_]

for skylake you need ddr4 or ddr3 1.35v or lower

that ram kit is ddr3 1.5v

[WeeHawky]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

for skylake you need ddr4 or ddr3 1.35v or lower

that ram kit is ddr3 1.5v

So haswell it is..

[_I_]

check the profiles to be sure

use cpuz
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
cpuz -> spd tab
select each dimm and look voltage for all profiles
if any profile is over 1.55v that dimm should not be used on intel 1150 builds

[SundownKid]

Get a Skylake i3. The performance difference from Haswell is huge.

RAM is cheap, just sell your old RAM on Ebay and buy a new 2x8GB set.

Make sure to get 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM this time as it will greatly boost performance for an i3.

[Rove]

Publicado originalmente por weehawky:

950 SC. The RAM I have is 2 sets of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275 to make 8 GBs (fuuuuuu the RAM went down 20 dollars in 7 months! ugh)

Is that the GTX 950 SC you mean for the GPU?
If so I don't know why _|_ suggested a GTX 750 ti since that would be one step worse.


Here's a couple other otpions that allow you to upgrade your CPU and motherboard but re-use your RAM. Also what motherboard do you currently have? Is it socket AM3 or AM+?

Here:

AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QtPByc
Base Total: $126.98
Mail-in Rebates: -$10.00
Shipping: $5.39
Total: $122.37

This CPU is not only faster at stock speeds it is also unlocked to be able to overclock, has turbo boost for automatic faster speed up to like 4GHz and has a 4MB L2 cache up from your current CPU's smaller 2MB L2 cache. So it should be like 60% better.

Also if you can spend just a little bit more:

ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard
AMD FX-8300 3.3GHz 8-Core Processor
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mQHpqs
Base Total: $174.98
Mail-in Rebates: -$15.00
Shipping: $1.99
Total: $161.97

That will be a much more worthwhile upgrade, it is also unlocked for overclocking, it has 16MB total cache (8MB L2+8MB L3) and is a great deal in price. Also if you already have a socket AM3+ (not AM3) motherboard you'll be able to just buy the CPU and set it in.

[_I_]

aii x4 to athlon apu is a lateral move at best
the apu is built in 2 modules sharing l2 cache and fpu

same with the fx 8, 4 modules sharing core components

skylake i3 can beat fx6-8-9 in most games

ram is cheap, but if you really want to save it, go with the haswell i3 and save up for a haswell i5

[WeeHawky]

I guess what I'll do is go Skylake and get more RAM.. Sounds like this is going to be a $200 project either way.

Current mother board is AM3 880G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131660&cm_re=ASUS_AM3_DDR3-_-13-131-660-_-Product

[Rove]

Publicado originalmente por weehawky:

I guess what I'll do is go Skylake and get more RAM.. Sounds like this is going to be a $200 project either way.

What's your current motherboard though?

[WeeHawky]

Publicado originalmente por Rove:

Publicado originalmente por weehawky:

I guess what I'll do is go Skylake and get more RAM.. Sounds like this is going to be a $200 project either way.

What's your current motherboard though?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131660&cm_re=ASUS_AM3_DDR3-_-13-131-660-_-Product

Why would the Skylake CPU prevent it my current RAM from working when there is 1.5 V RAM listed under the motherboard?

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/B150M-A_D3/B150M-A_D3_Memory_QVL.pdf?_ga=1.72617883.904576755.1459568871