AMD Phenom 2 finally died, need help replacing with Intel

[JimKiler]

Back in the day I loved AMD and now not so much I have an AM3 mobo and CPU and DDR3 RAM but the CPU light on my mobo is red indicating the CPU is not working. I am getting power but no video and no beeps.

I would like to upgrade to Intel but have not kept up with their technology. I want to spend $400 or less (ideally) and I will read up on the sticky threads recommending the 15 4690K. But can you guys help me with basic knowledge of what family this is, haswell, what is the newest family and same for motherboards. I would love to get the latest and greatest socket so I can upgrade in the future. Also I thought Intel was on DDR4 but the sticky is saying to get DDR3, so is the 4690K with DDR3 already a dead end street?

So I need CPU, mobo and RAM recommendations and other recommendations for which CPU/mobo family to buy.

Again please don't flame me as this just happened so I will start reading up on intel but would like your input as well.

 

[DenyGFX]

Do you have a budget in mind?

Personally I would go with an i5 4690K and MSI Z97 SLI Krait Edition to keep you below the $400.00 mark. Processor is arund $220.00 and Motherboard around $125.00 or so.

I just switched from my old AMD Phenom II X6 1090T to a Intel i7 3930K so I know your pain. I hated going to the other side, however, AMD CPUs are such power hogs and the lack of PCI-e 3.0 sealed the deal.

 

[JimKiler]

Do you have a budget in mind?

Personally I would go with an i5 4690K and MSI Z97 SLI Krait Edition to keep you below the $400.00 mark. Processor is arund $220.00 and Motherboard around $125.00 or so.

I just switched from my old AMD Phenom II X6 1090T to a Intel i7 3930K so I know your pain. I hated going to the other side, however, AMD CPUs are such power hogs and the lack of PCI-e 3.0 sealed the deal.

$400 or less. I am looking at 4690K now although I do not intend to overlook I do want to keep gaming. I will have to see if I can keep my existing DDR3. Doesn't Intel support DDR4 already or is that for CPUS outside my budget?

Agreed on AMD being a power hog. But I was still gaming just fine with a AMD 955 until this afternooon.

How do you like the MSI mobo?

 

[Gardener]

You could always pick up a cheap PhII x4 (~$80), or even an x2 that will unlock to 4 cores (~$50) on fleabay. I pickup up one of the unlockable chips last summer for a secondary rig, its works great.

 

[JimKiler]

You could always pick up a cheap PhII x4 (~$80), or even an x2 that will unlock to 4 cores (~$50) on fleabay. I pickup up one of the unlockable chips last summer for a secondary rig, its works great.

that is still a possibility but I think it is time to upgrade to intel. Surprisingly this PII 955 is the shortest lived CPU I have owned. I bought it Oct 2011, so it did not even make it 4 years!

 

[JimKiler]

Is 1600 the standard memory speed of intel Haswell CPU's? If so then I could get buy with my G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR.

 

[JimKiler]

I found the ASUS Z97-AR + 4690K at micro center for $310. This mobo is not on newegg for some reason but has good reviews on micro center and I would try the MSi mobo but sounds like they have issues with dead RAM slots. Asus also has the intel LAN chipset which would be an upgrade over the realtek.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

 

[DenyGFX]

I found the ASUS Z97-AR + 4690K at micro center for $310. This mobo is not on newegg for some reason but has good reviews on micro center and I would try the MSi mobo but sounds like they have issues with dead RAM slots. Asus also has the intel LAN chipset which would be an upgrade over the realtek.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

That's not a bad motherboard. Kind of a lower end ASUS but still an ASUS.

 

[JimKiler]

That's not a bad motherboard. Kind of a lower end ASUS but still an ASUS.

On the Micro center monthly ad, it is #6 of the 15 Asus boards they list based on price. But I have a hard time paying more than $130 for a mobo. I currently have a MSi R9 270 video card but the reviews on newegg for your mobo and one other I looked at were scaring me due to potential dead RAM slots.

How do you like your new non AMD rig? I was the last AMD hold out at the LAN party I went to earlier this month. Now it will be full Intel next year.

 

[DenyGFX]

I like it. Overclocking is much easier without worrying about temps. I spent the extra money and bought a water cooler. Well worth the money.

 

[JimKiler]

I like it. Overclocking is much easier without worrying about temps. I spent the extra money and bought a water cooler. Well worth the money.

I have attempted to overclock without much success. But I have yet to buy an after market cooler and considering this will be an upgrade over what I have now I will not feel the need to overclock anytime soon.

 

[DenyGFX]

I have attempted to overclock without much success. But I have yet to buy an after market cooler and considering this will be an upgrade over what I have now I will not feel the need to overclock anytime soon.

You will definitely see the difference. AIO liquid coolers aren't badly priced and if you have a Microcenter nearby, which I believe you do, they have them reduced a lot.

I wish i had a Microcenter close by because they had a god deal on the motherboard I had wanted.

 

[JimKiler]

You will definitely see the difference. AIO liquid coolers aren't badly priced and if you have a Microcenter nearby, which I believe you do, they have them reduced a lot.

I wish i had a Microcenter close by because they had a god deal on the motherboard I had wanted.

At the LAN party, someone was pointing out how quiet a liquid cooled system is. That is a nice plus in my book.

 

[DenyGFX]

At the LAN party, someone was pointing out how quiet a liquid cooled system is. That is a nice plus in my book.

Depending on the fan you have for your radiator it is much cooler.

 

[mfenn]

I found the ASUS Z97-AR + 4690K at micro center for $310. This mobo is not on newegg for some reason but has good reviews on micro center and I would try the MSi mobo but sounds like they have issues with dead RAM slots. Asus also has the intel LAN chipset which would be an upgrade over the realtek.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Getting the combo at MC makes a lot of sense becasue the i5 4690K costs $200 and they will knock $40 off the price of any compatible motherboard. You can indeed keep using your existing RAM.

DDR4 is currently only used on the "enthusiast" i7 5000 series. Those are basically server CPUs but relabeled as i7's.

 

[JimKiler]

Getting the combo at MC makes a lot of sense becasue the i5 4690K costs $200 and they will knock $40 off the price of any compatible motherboard. You can indeed keep using your existing RAM.

DDR4 is currently only used on the "enthusiast" i7 5000 series. Those are basically server CPUs but relabeled as i7's.

I saw the DDR4 prices and that ixnayed that upgrade path. I ordered online but i am already thinking i should just drop another $80 and get the 4790K for the extra base performance and hyperthreading. I don't plan to overclook so the MHz bump is nice and since i still have a working AM3 mobo maybe i can get $50 for it on ebay to offset the extra cost. Thoughts?

I added a price alert on newegg since they still sell my G.Skill sniper RAM and I will get another 8 when it gets cheap enough.

 

[mfenn]

I saw the DDR4 prices and that ixnayed that upgrade path. I ordered online but i am already thinking i should just drop another $80 and get the 4790K for the extra base performance and hyperthreading. I don't plan to overclook so the MHz bump is nice and since i still have a working AM3 mobo maybe i can get $50 for it on ebay to offset the extra cost. Thoughts?

I added a price alert on newegg since they still sell my G.Skill sniper RAM and I will get another 8 when it gets cheap enough.

It's not a horrible deal if you pick it up in person to take advantage of the CPU+mobo combo. The extra 15-20% on the i7 is never going to make the difference between "fast enough" and "not fast enough", so I would consider both CPUs to have equal longevity. It just depends on how much you want to spend up front.

 

[JimKiler]

It's not a horrible deal if you pick it up in person to take advantage of the CPU+mobo combo. The extra 15-20% on the i7 is never going to make the difference between "fast enough" and "not fast enough", so I would consider both CPUs to have equal longevity. It just depends on how much you want to spend up front.

I did end up buying the i7-4790K just because i know i would end up upgrading down the road and still spend the difference in price between buying and selling. I got it all installed tonight and so far so good. Time to fire up some games!

 

[mfenn]

I did end up buying the i7-4790K just because i know i would end up upgrading down the road and still spend the difference in price between buying and selling. I got it all installed tonight and so far so good. Time to fire up some games!

:thumbsup: Glad it worked out for you!

 

[JimKiler]

:thumbsup: Glad it worked out for you!

Oh my gosh it is so quiet now that i ran the desktop AI suite fan app.

Also i had to enable full utilization for USB devices in my BIOS otherwise my keyboard and mouse would take forever to work if I rebooted. Granted i usually sleep but now that i am re installing windows i have a lot of rebooting to do.

i started with XMP profile on but sometimes the mobo would hang on the BIOS splash screen, I am not sure if that was the overclocking to 1866 of my RAM or not. I will try XMP again once i get everything installed and stable for a short while.

 

[mfenn]

XMP mode will set your RAM to the advertised settings. If the RAM is hanging with those settings, but works with the more lenient default settings, then one of the sticks is probably borderline. If the hangs continue, I would test each stick individually and RMA it.

 

[JimKiler]

XMP mode will set your RAM to the advertised settings. If the RAM is hanging with those settings, but works with the more lenient default settings, then one of the sticks is probably borderline. If the hangs continue, I would test each stick individually and RMA it.

Good idea, I have not overclocked and i used this RAM in my AMD AM3 system and i remember from back in the day AMD i could overclock the RAM independent of the CPU. Has Intel changed that? In other words does using XMP overclock anything else on my system? I thought using XMP is not really an overclock and should not affect anything else but i maybe wrong about that.

 

[mfenn]

Good idea, I have not overclocked and i used this RAM in my AMD AM3 system and i remember from back in the day AMD i could overclock the RAM independent of the CPU. Has Intel changed that? In other words does using XMP overclock anything else on my system? I thought using XMP is not really an overclock and should not affect anything else but i maybe wrong about that.

Memory and CPU clocks are fully independent on modern Intel platforms, and setting XMP mode wouldn't normally be considered overclocking. Technically you are overclocking the memory controller in the CPU (same with AMD), but these sorts of problems are almost always caused by the memory and not the CPU.

 

[JimKiler]

Memory and CPU clocks are fully independent on modern Intel platforms, and setting XMP mode wouldn't normally be considered overclocking. Technically you are overclocking the memory controller in the CPU (same with AMD), but these sorts of problems are almost always caused by the memory and not the CPU.

Thanks for your help. I got a rebate on Saturday and yesterday Newegg has the same exact memory i got in 2012 on sale so i now i will have 4 sticks with 4GB each and if one is bad i can still play games while the other gets returned.