13 replies to this topic

[Goose]

So here's what I'm thinking of doing. I heard future-proofing is a stupid idea and small upgrades a few years from now will keep it up to date. I'm on a tight budget but I think this will fit all my needs. What do you guys think? Suggestions? I'm not super tech savvy so I hope I don't have any mistakes.


CPU AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor $109.99 @ Newegg

Motherboard ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard $79.99 @ Amazon

Memory G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory $39.99 @ Newegg

Hard Drive Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Dri $88.86 @ Outlet PC

Video Card MSI Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card $209.99 @ Newegg

Case Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case $49.99 @ SuperBiiz

Power Supply OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply $49.99 @ Newegg

Optical Drive Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Write $46.75 @ Newegg

Total Prices include shipping and discounts when available. $675.55

Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-19 06:45 EDT-0400


EDIT: formatting...

Edited by Goose, 19 July 2012 - 08:12 PM.

[JD2995]

WTF? I'm poor and I live in a third world country and looking this I take a decision, I'm a console gamer forever. But the specs look pretty good.

[Foot]

You just need a cooling fan, after all you've spent on this VERY impressive set-up, you don't want it to burn out, or burst into flames (o_0) after all you've just spent

[Goose]

WTF? I'm poor and I live in a third world country and looking this I take a decision, I'm a console gamer forever. But the specs look pretty good.

I love Nintendo consoles, but theres just too much on the PC to pass up. I havent had a gaming PC for a very long time and I really want one. Plus I just picked up a lot of games at the Steam summer sale Where are you from BTW?


I was considering a fan. The processor comes with a stock one, but perhaps I should get a better one. I want to keep the price low though.

[Hinkik]

Nice you picked the same chassi as I did.

But I don't like your processor choice I would rather go with an i5 2500K. Bulldozer really sucks : /

The GPU is a great choice but I think you should go with an Nvidia gtx 560 ti 448 instead. More bang for the buck.

And since I think you should go with intel i5 2500k you have to choose an socket 1155 motherboard, I recommend a asus p8p67 or a p8z68. Chose whatever version of it you want it just has to be 1155.

Also, you need a cpu fan cause otherwise the computer seriously is not gonna work. You are going to get blue screens of death all the time (assuming you picked windows) I would go with a cooler master hyper 212 plus.

Edited by Hinkik, 20 July 2012 - 03:54 AM.

[Goose]

What exactly is wrong with bulldozer? I would like to keep the price low, but if it compromises performance then I'll upgrade. Also will I see a drop in performance going from my 2gb GPU to your 1gb?

I'll probably pick up the fan though.

[uh20]

idk, i have this wierd $430 design that can still probably run games at 30-40fps (using amd-a series and a nvidia640)

personally though, nvidia did reallyreallyreallyreally well with their high end 600 series cards, so if you have ANY money to spare, you should save up a rig for the all famed 670
if you want less than that, its probably better to go with amd
also, memory is not everything, you will hardly run out of video memory with 1 gb, and 2gb is just crazy, trust me on that
or am i always too spoiled by the fact my operating system is currently running at 204mb with firefox open, just looked that up


so, this is all fine and dandy but you need to now make sure everything fits

1. lookup your cpu socket type and motherboard socket type and make sure they are the same

2. lookup your graphics card socket type and speed (1.0-3.0) and make sure it matches your motherboard
now im not sure about amd as much but if your card says pci-E 3.0, you can usually get away with a 2.0 motherboard with the bare slightest loss in performance
but only do that if you are absolfreakinglutely sure that they are backwards compatable, check around for that

3. lookup a game you want to play, skyrim, battlefield3, etc. and lookup both your processor and your graphics card
based off of whatever fps test you find, you may want to switch processors or graphics cards to make sure you are not bottlenecking your system
truely, this is the hardest part of building a pc, making sure both wont choke each other
but if you want a comparison, a 3.4-3.8ghz i5 matches a nvidia 670 well
so that means you should look around low end i5 processor or maybe a high end i3, or equivalent


also, for when the day the money king comes out and smashes microsoft headquarters
amd graphics cards have very bad linux drivers, just pointing that out
you know, no grudges at all

Edited by uh20, 20 July 2012 - 05:33 AM.

[eugoreez]

I'm using that processor right now.. multitasking is the best... but gaming performance, I'm not sure... I can't really differentiate the performance with my old phenom II 555... either because I did not overclock the bulldozer to >4ghz yet or the games I play is not CPU demanding...

[kaizo9gari]

i would get a 1000w+ PSU, its one thing off your mind in the future when you upgrade

[Hinkik]

What exactly is wrong with bulldozer? I would like to keep the price low, but if it compromises performance then I'll upgrade. Also will I see a drop in performance going from my 2gb GPU to your 1gb?

I'll probably pick up the fan though.

Bulldozer consumes a lot of power and doesn't get that much performance. Just don't get it, trust me on this.

And also, never ever think the amount of RAM is gonna make a big difference. If you aren't using very very big textures or super high resolution screens then 1gb to 2gb is no difference in performance. The GTX 560 ti 448 is the best thing to get if you're after bang for the buck.

Also quote for a 100% of getting a reply please

i would get a 1000w+ PSU, its one thing off your mind in the future when you upgrade

I would never get a 1000W psu right now.

After every gen in PC components, the need for power goes down all the time. A great example is GTX 580 to GTX 680. It's a lot easier to run the GTX 680.

And the more a 1000W plus PSU is not going to be cheap and also running a 1000W PSU is going to drain a lot of unnecessary power.

I'm using that processor right now.. multitasking is the best... but gaming performance, I'm not sure... I can't really differentiate the performance with my old phenom II 555... either because I did not overclock the bulldozer to >4ghz yet or the games I play is not CPU demanding...

That is one things that make the Bulldozer strange. For the first the 8 cores do nothing. For example in the multi threaded benchmark program, cinebench the i5 2500k scores better than the best bulldozer model.

Edited by Hinkik, 20 July 2012 - 09:42 AM.

[uh20]

yea, now here something even im confused about
someone elses opinion please

there is an amd a-series a6 that includes a graphics card with the processor
the wierd thing though is that people say this card, although having the already included graphics, is great for supporting a bigger mid-high end graphics card
(such as nvidia 560 tops)
now thats kinda wierd, ill try and find the comparison (cpu paired with high graphics falloff test) that basically said it scored equal to that of the top i5 processor while being lower in specs in terms of cpu% while gaming

Edited by uh20, 20 July 2012 - 12:39 PM.

[Goose]

Bulldozer consumes a lot of power and doesn't get that much performance. Just don't get it, trust me on this.

And also, never ever think the amount of RAM is gonna make a big difference. If you aren't using very very big textures or super high resolution screens then 1gb to 2gb is no difference in performance. The GTX 560 ti 448 is the best thing to get if you're after bang for the buck.

Also quote for a 100% of getting a reply please



I would never get a 1000W psu right now.

After every gen in PC components, the need for power goes down all the time. A great example is GTX 580 to GTX 680. It's a lot easier to run the GTX 680.

And the more a 1000W plus PSU is not going to be cheap and also running a 1000W PSU is going to drain a lot of unnecessary power.



That is one things that make the Bulldozer strange. For the first the 8 cores do nothing. For example in the multi threaded benchmark program, cinebench the i5 2500k scores better than the best bulldozer model.

Hm ok, what processor should I choose then if I want to stay with the AMD series?

[Hinkik]

Hm ok, what processor should I choose then if I want to stay with the AMD series?

Anything ivy bridge. Just pick the best that your budget allows

[uh20]

hinkik, your crazy about that ivy bridge, i know i has a %8 boost and all but...
actually i just pulled that out of the hat, i remember it being some small percentage though, and a bit cheeper

AND HERE
this is a small test page from testing battlefield3 with a very expensive 580 graphics card but different cpu's
http://www.techspot....ance/page7.html
it seems if you want to play intensive games without a dropoff, then you need to get something better than a dual core athlon or phenom, quad core athlon works good, and like i said earlier, the amd a6-a8 series does really well for some freaking reason

Edited by uh20, 21 July 2012 - 08:12 AM.