29 replies to this topic

[Vulpesveritas]

I have one main problem with a number of things people are saying. Why would you pay to upgrade to an i5 when he already has a thubian? That is $215 for at most a 5% higher performance. That would be better put to an SSD or better graphics card in my opinion.

Just my thought.

[Vincent Vascaul]

By the way if you decide to go intel lmk I will prolly take the thuban off your hands

Edited by Vincent Vascaul, 18 February 2012 - 11:24 AM.

[Big Willie]

Vulpesveritas, on 18 February 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

I have one main problem with a number of things people are saying. Why would you pay to upgrade to an i5 when he already has a thubian? That is $215 for at most a 5% higher performance. That would be better put to an SSD or better graphics card in my opinion.
Just my thought.

To be honest I just wanted to post my specs and I strongly prefer Intel. But let me offer some more general advice.
When I was designing my new computer I started with the:

Monitor because the number of monitors, resolution, and function will determine your video card requirements. Once you know what you want for a display you can determine you video card requirements:

If you are gaming on one monitor a sinlge mid or upper mid video card will give you very good performance ("Nvidia GTX 560 ti" or "AMD/ATI Radeon 6870"). If you are going to actively use 2 or 3 monitors for gaming (not one gaming and one web surfing) you will want a more powerful video card ("Nvidia GTX 580" or "AMD/ATI Radeon 7950) or go with a SLI Crossfire dual card configuration (DISCLAMER: I do not like SLI configurations, rarely does the performance of two moderate cards in SLI exceed a more expensive single card. There may be exceptions if you are overclocking your video cards, but it means you have to accomodate the extra PCIe x16 slot on you motherboard and the extra power draw). After selecting a video card you can decide on a motherboard and CPU:

Obviously your CPU selection will determine you motherboard socket, but you also need to know what periphials you need. First are you going SLI/Crossfire, if so make sure to get a board with 2 16x or 2 8x PCIe slots for your video cards. Are you going to use onboard audio? if so get a good codec (like Realtek ALC889, NOTE 889 is better than 892 but you should be used to confusing product number if you have ever looked at an ATI video card comparison). Are your going onboard LAN? if either of these answers are no, you need to make sure your motherboards has sufficient PCI slots for those cards. Aslo what 'perks' are important to you? Do you want PCI3, USB3, SATA III (6gb/s), EUFI bios. How many hard drives are you going to attach (do you have enough sata ports).

After those major decision you can select a power supply (again I recomend using a power supply calculator). Make sure that you not only have enough Wattage, but that you have enough cables of the appropriate connector type. If you are over clocking do you need a lot of extra molex connectors for fans? If you are SLI/Crossfire do you have enough PCIe connectors for supplimental power?

After that it is all about filling out the rest of your budget. Do you want SSD, mechanical hard drive, or SSD + mechanical, what are you storage needs. (NOTE I have a 256GB SSD drive and it is fast as hell, I cannot even read load screens, but it is just a luxury item that saves me 5 seconds a load screen and reboots)

That is the order and criteria i used when selecting my PC, I can't offer you any more specific advice since I selected an Intel CPU and board and focused my specific research there, and I am not overclocking.

Edited by Big Willie, 18 February 2012 - 12:06 PM.

[DV McKenna]

Im no slouch in building computers believe me, i ask for peoples inputs for ideas

I will most likely 95% sure that i will be going the AM3+ Route only because i can get more for my money across the board, the intel chip is superior but more costly.

Really the only things that are 50/50 are the PSU (i have always gone by the saying that its better to have more than not enough) and GPU i have never really caught onto the eye infinity thing i just cant ignore the gap in the middle.

An interesting article i read over at Toms Hardware earlier is that 2 560TI's (448) give better performance than a 7970 and are cheaper.
However not cheaper in the long run with the added electricity cost, but then if your a gamer your wasting money to play anyway so thats pretty moot.
Still im gonna hold out on GPU untill the 78** AMD cards come out with some reviews.

[DV McKenna]

Well, time is fast approaching so bumping my own thread for where i am at (still no where to be honest).

Mobo - http://www.dabs.com/products/asrock-990fx-extreme3-am3--amd-990fx-ddr3-atx-7XNH.html
Cooler - http://www.dabs.com/...ooler-7JSP.html
PSU - http://www.dabs.com/...upply-7H4C.html
SSD - http://www.dabs.com/...120g--72KB.html
Monitor -http://www.dabs.com/...0-res-7NPR.html

Now here is where i can not decide, another PC in the house (Mrs gaming machine) caught a sad but fiery death and she is not enjoying the craptop so she desperately wants my current rig ( Read next week or else! Minus the HDD as we saved hers and the case scrubbed up ok, the CPU also seems to test ok in my machine so we're going to reuse this and see.)

The current setup up top is about 452GBP so about 448 GBP under budget. I cant see the 7870's being out next week which is the GPU i really wanted nothing else in AMD's lineup really tickles my fancy compared to it so im stuck with a few options.

GPU1 -http://www.dabs.com/...antom-7KT2.html

GPU2 -http://www.dabs.com/...294943437&src=3

Now taking the 570 which will play anything i throw at it for the next several years leaves enough room for a couple of options. Upgrade my 1075T (read not black edition) CPU to a bulldozer chip, im not a massive fan of bulldozer i agree with most of the tech reviewers out there that it has been pretty much a flop.
Now initally i was sticking my Phenom II chip and waiting it out for AMD's next release.
There is also the option of a case upgrade going with the 570 to replace my Coolermaster 430 Elite and/or changing the Mobo out to say the Sabertooth 990FX.

So the 570 has alot going for it, but i can't quite decide

[Catamount]

Well the 7870's release is the 15th from what I've heard. The UK can't be getting it all that much later. Even if you had to wait one more week, it seems like it'd be completely worth it.

[DV McKenna]

Catamount, on 12 March 2012 - 04:18 AM, said:

Well the 7870's release is the 15th from what I've heard. The UK can't be getting it all that much later. Even if you had to wait one more week, it seems like it'd be completely worth it.

Is that a confirmed release or speculated? alot of the sites here had the 7950/7970's up a week or so in advance mostly to take pre-orders, as yet they have not with the 7870's.

If it is that close, and stock is likely to be good then yes, probably worth the wait

[Catamount]

Well the 3/15 date's being tossed around a lot, so I"d just wait until then at least, and see if the cards are out, Thursday.

[bawchicawawa]

Uhmmm, your current build isn't really that bad...

Honestly, i see no reason to build a whole new comp... Seems very redundant. You want to game on ultra settings? Well, just get a better gpu, your cpu/ram/psu/hdd etc look good enough to not bottleneck you on a mid range GPU, i'd suggest a 7870.

Edit:
Get an ssd as well as the 7870, you will see MASSIVE improvements with just those 2 items.

Edit#2: http://www.tomshardw...ark,3148-6.html

Edited by bawchicawawa, 13 March 2012 - 09:44 PM.

[DV McKenna]

What i ended up with.

Asus Sabertooth 990FX
AMD FX 8120
Corsair H80
8Gb Gskill Ripjaw Ram
120GB OCZ Agility SSD
OCZ 700W Modular PSU
MSI Nvidia GTX 580 1.5GB

Loving the machine, i have the 8120 overclocked to 3.9ghz at the mo, shooting for past the 4ghz barrier.
The H80 is an amazing bit of kit, keeps all the cores at 14 degrees on low speed Idle, and under load the highest it has hit on medium speed is 37 degrees.
The High setting is a bit too loud for my taste (sounds like a jet engine compared to medium).

The MSI GTX 580 is a great card, amazing quality and the cooling system is whisper quiet.