New PC Question: Better to get best CPU now or upgrade down the road.

[RabblerouserGT]

I have a Windows 7 OEM license and, in the future, hope to buy another OEM licence for a new PC (OEM licences, by law, cannot be transferred to new PCs).

My question is... if I built a new PC with an FX6300 and later wanted to swap out to a better CPU (that fit the socket, ofc), would I have to reactivate?

Or would you say that processor will last me through hell or high water for years to come? My apologies. It's been a while since I've looked into PC upgrades.

EDIT: Also been looking into this CPU.

 

[fireberd]

I know nothing about AMD CPU's as I only use Intel.

However, my general advice to my PC clients is "buy overkill" or "buy as much as your pocketbook can stand". In other words, I would go for the best CPU now when you build it.

 

[RoasterMen]

You don't need to reactivate your OS when you upgrade your hardware

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
That I know of cpu's are not locked to an install on win-7 only mother boards are
I've only changed cpu's on a retail install
I did wake up the original Acer oem install but wasn't on it long enough for it to get flagged.
It came with a Intel E5200 dual core and I went to a Intel Q9550 quad.

AMD stuff is already pretty cheap so why wouldn't you go to the 8 core it's costs was minimally more
There was a 150.us one that was most popular than the one you linked too which is nothing compared to the i7 5930k I bought

Of course the Q9550 was about 85.us but was light years difference in performance

Don't forget to get the 2 year warranty

 

[RoasterMen]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
That I know of cpu's are not locked to an install on win-7 only mother boards are
I've only changed cpu's on a retail install
I did wake up the original Acer oem install but wasn't on it long enough for it to get flagged.
It came with a Intel E5200 dual core and I went to a Intel Q9550 quad.

AMD stuff is already pretty cheap so why wouldn't you go to the 8 core it's costs was minimally more
There was a 150.us one that was most popular than the one you linked too which is nothing compared to the i7 5930k I bought

Of course the Q9550 was about 85.us but was light years difference in performance

Don't forget to get the 2 year warranty

I now have the E5200. Overclocking is fun with this one, doesn't even break a sweat at 3.05ghz. I just lowered it down to 2.95ghz because I don't want to have another griller

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yea I was going to offer you my old one for shipping costs but noticed your region

 

[Mellon Head]

EDIT: Also been looking into this CPU.

Nothing wrong with that CPU, but if you have a few dollars to spare, the FX-8350 is a better CPU. It's faster, though it does run hot. You may want an aftermarket cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO for it.

As fireberd said, you want to buy the best CPU you can afford, overkill if possible. It will last you longer in terms of length of performance per dollar.

If you have enough money, an Intel system is a better bet in terms of performance, but you pay dearly for it compared to AMD. The motherboard and CPU (an i7 4790K for instance) will set you back two to three times what the FX-8350 8 core and a suitable motherboard will cost. That's in Canadian prices, of course, for me, and Canadians are gouged on computer hardware.

Bottom line, if you want top performance and can afford it, buy Intel. If you can't afford it and want reasonable performance, buy the FX-8350.

 

[AmericanPharaoh]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
That I know of cpu's are not locked to an install on win-7 only mother boards are
I've only changed cpu's on a retail install
I did wake up the original Acer oem install but wasn't on it long enough for it to get flagged.
It came with a Intel E5200 dual core and I went to a Intel Q9550 quad.

AMD stuff is already pretty cheap so why wouldn't you go to the 8 core it's costs was minimally more
There was a 150.us one that was most popular than the one you linked too which is nothing compared to the i7 5930k I bought

Of course the Q9550 was about 85.us but was light years difference in performance

Don't forget to get the 2 year warranty

I have an HP Pavilion Desktop, while still under warranty had a red screen, they sent out a technician to my home. He replaced the Motherboard on my kitchen table in like 5 minutes. Then, sat down, got on the Command Prompt typed in a few things and called someone at HP, then enter several more things into the Command Prompt and it has been working ever since. He left me with the old Motherboard which I later compared to the two and they do look different. So, there is a way to register the motherboard to work with the same license? Or do you think he changed the license? I never did ask him, he seemed to be in a rush.

 

[Layback Bear]

The repair person and HP probable checked or changed the license to match the new motherboard to auto activate on boot. Just like you system did when it was new.

 

[AmericanPharaoh]

The repair person and HP probable checked or changed the license to match the new motherboard to auto activate on boot. Just like you system did when it was new.

Yeah, not sure what he did. He was way to fast for my eyes to pickup on all of it. But, thanks for the input.

John

 

[RogerR]

Just to add that seeing any benefit from a cpu upgrade is highly dependent on the applications you are running. If you are running the same garden variety programs that you used to run (web browser, MS Office, Adobe Suite etc) you will get a lot more from adding RAM and an SSD than you will a new mobo and cpu.
If you are overclocking or say, video-editing, you may benefit. But typical business applications will idle the extra 6 cores you just bought.

Nothing wrong with that CPU, but if you have a few dollars to spare, the FX-8350 is a better CPU. It's faster, though it does run hot. You may want an aftermarket cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO for it.

Yes, cool and quiet is good. I installed that cooler recently and it is both effective and quiet.

 

[Eric3742]

Unless you have plenty of paper money, get the best of it.

Stick to your current MB and OS.
Get new PC mean new MB. (Like having a new step-mother)

Spend it on CPU is good, so is SSD, RAM, some licence software, this or that.

I would rather spend on upgrading.
Bought a $180 2nd-hand laptop and spend $350+ for upgrading by adding 4 SSD, etc.
Another $100 to repair my favorite laptop.

Life is unknown.

 

[Mellon Head]

Just to add that seeing any benefit from a cpu upgrade is highly dependent on the applications you are running. If you are running the same garden variety programs that you used to run (web browser, MS Office, Adobe Suite etc) you will get a lot more from adding RAM and an SSD than you will a new mobo and cpu.
If you are overclocking or say, video-editing, you may benefit. But typical business applications will idle the extra 6 cores you just bought.

I will agree that a multi-core processor is highly situational and application dependent, but I have found a sort of "bonus" with using an 8-core CPU that I wasn't expecting. I can use several CPU intensive programs at the same time (as they all use different cores) without a performance hit. Monitoring my cores shows me that I'm using all eight of them when I simultaneously run several applications at once.

As I said, it's not something I expected. Everyone knows that a multi-cored application has to be specially designed to use more than one or two cores, and there isn't much software out there that is made that way yet. There's nothing but anecdotal evidence to show that my FX-8350 is actually dividing up the workload on a per core basis, but with monitoring the cores, it sure seems like that is what's happening.

 

[RoasterMen]

I have a question. What if threads 0-3 are being used by programs, will the threads 4-7 be used by the other programs?

 

[Mellon Head]

Yes. That seems to be how it is working. At least in my experience. However, I should mention that cores 4 though 7 on an AMD 8-core are virtual, not physical cores. At least that is what I've read. It's very similar to the Intel i7 quads that have Hyperthreading.

If it's true, it's blatant false advertising.

Class action lawsuit alleges AMD's Bulldozer CPUs aren't really 8-core processors | PCWorld

There were other articles, but I can't find them, and it's late and off topic.