First Gaming build - ~$2000 budget AMD vs Intel

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jafetgx

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Nov 24, 2013
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I'm planning to get my first gaming pc, with a budget around $2,000, i can't decide if i should go with a Intel based pc or an AMD based one.

What do you think of this builds?

Intel build:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27TQ9
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27TQ9/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27TQ9/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($479.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.93 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme EATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($409.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Microcenter)
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($144.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-14D1XT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($94.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $2158.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-24 18:39 EST-0500)

AMD Build (Given the saving in the CPU i could afford a much better GPU)

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27UzN
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27UzN/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/27UzN/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.93 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($184.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Video Card ($1018.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Phantom (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($99.99 @ Microcenter)
Case Fan: Cooler Master Megaflow 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan ($11.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair 760W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($144.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-14D1XT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($94.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $2154.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-24 18:39 EST-0500)

Thanks for your help
 
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H
titan is a waste of money the 780 ti give the same and in some cases more performance for a fair bit less money.
also a 6 core intel is more geared towards productivity a 4 core with hyperthreading is plenty strong enough for gaming. (that being said most games wont use hyperthreading but its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it).
the 8350 is a good cpu for gaming but in real terms it will bottleneck quicker in multi card systems than its equivalent intel due to the intel having stronger single thread performance (when both manufacturers go clock for clock..
lastly 8 gigs is more than enough for a gaming rig. so all being told i could probably buy the same gaming performance for maybe 250-500 cheaper.
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H

HEXiT

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titan is a waste of money the 780 ti give the same and in some cases more performance for a fair bit less money.
also a 6 core intel is more geared towards productivity a 4 core with hyperthreading is plenty strong enough for gaming. (that being said most games wont use hyperthreading but its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it).
the 8350 is a good cpu for gaming but in real terms it will bottleneck quicker in multi card systems than its equivalent intel due to the intel having stronger single thread performance (when both manufacturers go clock for clock..
lastly 8 gigs is more than enough for a gaming rig. so all being told i could probably buy the same gaming performance for maybe 250-500 cheaper.
 
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canadianvice

canadianvice

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I would second getting something like the i5 over an i7. With the extra savings you could get some extra storage. I'm not sure about you, but my Steam library just barely fits on a 240GB SSD. Combine that with a user profile and what will no doubt be other miscellaneous projects, you're apt to run out of space rather quickly. I'd consider getting SSD + a 1TB HDD.

In terms of getting supplies to help reduce your costs - consider eBay for SATA cables, and any connecting cables. Same quality, dirt cheap. Additionally, if you don't have a 2.5" drive converter (depending on how you want to place the SSD), those are cheap on eBay as well.
 
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Supahos

Supahos

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Dont' get a 3930k, if you really want to build a rig on X79 get a 4XXX version as they are definatly faster. Also as mentioned dont' get a titan, the 780-TI is better across the boards for gaming. I also would pick a different board, No reason to spend $400 on it, any of the ASUS boards above $250 will give you similar performance, and let you spend the money elsewhere.

I would build a 4770k, Maximus Hero board, 780-TI, and 16gb of 2400 mhz memory and you would likely come out with the same price or less, and be much faster for nearly all tasks..
 
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jafetgx

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Thanks a lot for the advice, with what you're telling me i'm thinking of getting an Intel Core i7-4820K with an Asus P9X79 PRO and don't know about the 16Gb or 8GB RAM, i'd like to have a window for future games and upgrades.

Do you think it'd be a waste of power going for the 16gb RAM? what do you think of the LGA2011 socket?
 
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jafetgx

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What about an 4820K with an Asus P9X79 Pro or LE?
 
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Supahos

Supahos

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Well I mean honestly that option would be faster, but I'm not sure its worth it especially for gaming. It seems to me the only benefit to the X79 platform is 3 or 4 way SLI of high end GPUs. you didn't mention that in your post so I didn't think it was the way to go. The 16 lanes of PCI on Z87 boards work just as well in single or dual GPU setups.

Get the Pro if you do decide to go with the X79 setup, but I still would stay with the Z87, more sales, more support on the regular end, most bugs have been worked out but it seems they are slower to fix the X79 even though its more expensive. I guess it's likely because it takes longer to find a issue with a smaller sample size.
 
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jafetgx

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Thanks, i don't think i'd be getting 3 780ti in the near future or running at more than 1080p so maybe i could ease a bit on my budget.
 
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HEXiT

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you just need to keep things in perspective. there are only 2 games that will push a single 780ti that i know of. crysis 3(developed with gfx cards 2 years down the road in mind) and the as yet unreleased star citizen (supposedly will make a pair of titans cringe, but like i say its not here yet so we dont really know). everything else currently available will run at max settings 60 fps on a single 780 ti.
it really is only if you want full on 3d @ 2560x1400 or run a triple monitor setup that you would need 2 780ti's to get the required fps for that screen size or max everything out on the triple display. so while a 780 ti in sli would be sweet its pretty much overkill for todays games and by the time the games arrive that will take advantage of all that grunt the cards will be oldish and would likely be able to be replaced by 1 card.
what im getting at is theres no good reason to spend 2 grand or more for gaming in todays market and tomorrows market is anybodys guess as what will be needed.
personally if i were going to spend all that money i would get the i5 4670k, a single 780 ti, 8 gigs of ddr3 1866 c8 (intel cpu's handle it natively and any faster than that is just wasted money for zero performance gains), a pair of ssd's preferably 256gig to raid 0, a 2-3tb hdd and the rest (apart from what you spend on the case and psu) on water cooling. a proper cooling loop not 1 of these generic all in 1 units. that will allow you to water cool the gfx, cpu and possibly the ram (although theres little need for it) but thats just me...
buy the system you want as its your money and only you know what you want for the end result.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-bandwidth-latency-gaming,3409-6.html some memory benches to consider... things havent changed much other than intel now supports 1866 on some of the 4xxx series but as you can see going faster than what the cpu can handle natively brings no benefits. so if it handles 1866 then stick with that and get the lowest latency within reason as it s marginal to maybe 2-3% gains from cas 8- cas 11 but can vary in price dramatically.
 
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