How to know what hardware is compatible with what?

[silvinodino]

Hey so I have a question. When youre building a computer for yourself or someone, what exactly are you looking for in the specs to know if its compatible? Let's say I want to run an intel processor on my current motherboard. What am I looking for in the specs that will lead me to say "Yes! They are compatible." I am trying to find a CPU that wont bottleneck an RX480 which is why i'm asking. I'd rather compare myself than having to post "What CPU will work with RX480: lol 

 

Bonus question: Is there different types of RAM that will have compatibility issues? IE: Will certain motherboards only be able to support DDR3 RAM vs. DDR4? I am asking because I have DDR3 RAM and I am looking to upgrade motherboards without running into a possible issue that a motherboard will only support DDR4 RAM

 

Thank you guys in advanced!

[Oswin]

use pcpartpicker.http://pcpartpicker.com/ this should solve your questions

[silvinodino]

9 minutes ago, Oswin said:

use pcpartpicker.http://pcpartpicker.com/ this should solve your questions

No. It does not... 

[Oswin]

Just now, silvinodino said:

No. It does not... 

oh yeah the bottle-necking hmm i would at least get a i5-6500 or the cheaper 6400. if you are on a budget than an i3-6100 would work as well

[seklas]

Hey. Usually in the name of the Motherboard you'll see the description of what socket the CPU must have to be compatible - LGA1151 (6700k and others), X99 (Extreme series) etc. Otherwise, look for the socket name in the specifications, because AMDs are different, older Intel are different too.

[Beskamir]

Read the spec sheets? I know that's boring and time consuming but I honestly can't think of a better way of telling what should be used with what.

[rn8686]

Compatibility or bottleneck? Those are two different things. A pentium D will work with a 480, but it will bottleneck it badly. If you want to know if parts will work, pcpartpicker.com is a very good site to plan builds. For a 480, I would go for an i5. 

[Ddave]

CPUs can only "fit" in certain sockets. If the motherboard has the socket your CPU needs, it is compatible.

AFAIK, some motherboards does not support DDR4 (especially older ones). 

As for bottlenecking, check benchmarks and/or reviews.

[seklas]

1 minute ago, rn8686 said:

Compatibility or bottleneck? Those are two different things. A pentium D will work with a 480, but it will bottleneck it badly. If you want to know if parts will work, pcpartpicker.com is a very good site to plan builds. For a 480, I would go for an i5. 

 

But that depends if the PC is only for gaming, if not then a better CPU would do him justice too.

[silvinodino]

13 minutes ago, Oswin said:

oh yeah the bottle-necking hmm i would at least get a i5-6500 or the cheaper 6400. if you are on a budget than an i3-6100 would work as well

What would you recommend on the AMD side of CPUs. Why does everyone suggest Intel over an AMD CPU? Just curious as to why the Intel i5 is more commonly suggested

[silvinodino]

I appreciate everyones help in this thread btw. !

[Oswin]

1 minute ago, silvinodino said:

What would you recommend on the AMD side of CPUs. Why does everyone suggest Intel over an AMD CPU? Just curious as to why the Intel i5 is more commonly suggested

it has a better upgrading path, AMD CPUs are just not as reliable as before

[Megah3rtz]

The motherboard (mobo) and the processor (CPU) need to work together, so their sockets (such as LGA1151) need to match. Ram need to match what their CPU and motherboard support. such as DDR3L or DDR4. Graphics card work with most motherboards, as long as they have as PCIE 2.0 slot. 

[seklas]

2 minutes ago, silvinodino said:

What would you recommend on the AMD side of CPUs. Why does everyone suggest Intel over an AMD CPU? Just curious as to why the Intel i5 is more commonly suggested

 

 

Currently, Intel is better than AMD so now everyone is waiting for the new CPU series from AMD to come out in a few months (unless it'll be delayed again). 

[Megah3rtz]

5 minutes ago, silvinodino said:

What would you recommend on the AMD side of CPUs. Why does everyone suggest Intel over an AMD CPU? Just curious as to why the Intel i5 is more commonly suggested

because the i5 6500 Intel processor is 1yr old. the best AMD  processor fx8350 is 4yrs old. needless to say its not the best anymore 

[zMeul]

"bottlenecking" is not a technical specification and to find such you need to read reviews as these type of limitations are individual game related

 

as for the rest, PCPartPicker will tell you

[silvinodino]

10 minutes ago, seklas said:

Currently, Intel is better than AMD so now everyone is waiting for the new CPU series from AMD to come out in a few months (unless it'll be delayed again). 

The Zen correct?

[Megah3rtz]

Just now, zMeul said:

"bottlenecking" is not a technical specification and to find such you need to read reviews as these type of limitations are individual game related

 

as for the rest, PCPartPicker will tell you

It won't specifically tell you unless it gets past their preselected compatibility filter. 

[Megah3rtz]

5 minutes ago, Oswin said:

AMD CPUs are just not as reliable as before

pardon? 

[seklas]

Just now, silvinodino said:

The Zen correct?

Exactly. Everyone's expecting AMD return to the game with a bang. Hopefully this will be successful enough, so Intel would lower their prices too, because as it stands, Intel has the majority of the market share, just like nVidia does in the GPU market.

[Simon771]

10 minutes ago, silvinodino said:

What would you recommend on the AMD side of CPUs. Why does everyone suggest Intel over an AMD CPU? Just curious as to why the Intel i5 is more commonly suggested

AMD CPUs are only for the thigest budgets avaliable.

Those CPUs are simply bad. 

i5 is usually the best choise because it's using 4 cores ... most games work the best on 4 cores.

 

AMD is like banans and sword.

i3 have 2 cores/4 threads

AMD CPUs have 6 cores.

 

But would you rather have 2 sword or 6 banans to fight with?

AMD is banana!

[Oswin]

4 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

pardon? 

AMD CPUs are not as reliable as before...

[Megah3rtz]

9 minutes ago, Oswin said:

AMD CPUs are not as reliable as before...

As in not as good or prone to failure? 

[Oswin]

Just now, Megah3rtz said:

As in not as good or prone to failure? 

no, the upgrade path...

[Megah3rtz]

Just now, Oswin said:

no, the upgrade path...

That doesn't mean they're not reliable. That just means they're a bad option.