AMD or Intel?

[Nager]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I will be ordering in the next couple of days

BUDGET RANGE: $800 - $1000 CDN

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Games, Movies, Internet, School Work

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Don't need OS (I am a student with access to Windows 7), keyboard, mouse, soundcard, CD drive

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Doesn't matter

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1400 x 1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I am looking to build a quiet computer, I am not looking to buy any aftermarket fans/ heat sinks right now. Mainly going to play Grand Theft Auto 4 and COD right now.


Case: ANTEC P183 Performance One Mid-Tower Case $150

PSU: Antec CP-850 $120

GPU: ATI HD 5770

CPU: I am having a tough time deciding between the Phenom II X2 955 and the i5, I on a pretty tight budget so I am leaning towards the Phenom, but for only 25 dollars more the i5 seems to kill it. Will an overclocked Phenom be a bottle neck to GPUs 2/3 years from now?

Mobo: Don't know, *I need at least two PCI slots for my tv tuner, and sound card

HD: What's cheap, fast, and has 1tb of storage?

The only thing that I am certain on right now is the case... this is where you guys come in

Edited to be slightly less vague

 

[crazy359]

go for i5, and go for 600w cooler master eXtreme

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The best PSU for the P183 is the CP-850....nothing on the market can touch it at its price.

Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12

I'd do i7 if considering future XFire but it's a budget stretcher.

 

[Nager]

The best PSU for the P183 is the CP-850....nothing on the market can touch it at its price.

Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12

I'd do i7 if considering future XFire but it's a budget stretcher.

The CP-850 is no longer available on newegg, and I've decided against crossfiring, going to stick with one GPU. I am considering the Seasonic X-650, but it's a bit pricey.

 

[BohleyK]

If you are not going to Crossfire a really good AM3 board is the UD3P. Overclocks very well and has a nice amount of features for a $75 motherboard.

 

[nofun]

For gaming, you would do better to have a slightly less expensive CPU and a better GPU. Look at an AMD build as they are cheaper for the features you get, and then consider dropping in a better graphics card.

The 5770 will be fine at that resolution, but you will probably have to reduce your model detail to get optimal FPS. A beefier card would not go astray.

 

[Nager]

If you are not going to Crossfire a really good AM3 board is the UD3P. Overclocks very well and has a nice amount of features for a $75 motherboard.

Sounds reasonable, can you suggest memory that will go well with it?

For gaming, you would do better to have a slightly less expensive CPU and a better GPU. Look at an AMD build as they are cheaper for the features you get, and then consider dropping in a better graphics card.

The 5770 will be fine at that resolution, but you will probably have to reduce your model detail to get optimal FPS. A beefier card would not go astray.

The step up from the 5770 is $150+ which to me just isn't worth it, perhaps I am better off going with a 4890 for now, and upgrading to a dx11 card once prices go down.

 

[redgarl]

For 1000$, you go with AMD and a crossfire configuration. Way mroe performance over a core i5 and a single video card configuration.

 

[wiinippongamer]

AMD all the way!

 

[geofelt]

At your resolution, a 5770 will play games very well. It requires a 450w psu with 1 pcie 6 pin power connector:
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5770/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-5770-system-requirements.aspx

corsair 550VX is sufficient @$98.49 before $20 rebate:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Either cpu will do the job. I am partial to the intel offering. You can use any DDR3 ram and not suffer any real performance hit. Cheaper ram will reduce any cost difference.

I think the WD caviar black 1tb is a good performing 1tb drive @ $115:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

The caviar green 1tb is cheaper, but the performance is not as good.

 

[HansVonOhain]

Go with intel. They are much better at everything.

 

[nofun]

Go with intel. They are much better at everything.

An AM3 CPU is a great value and has a clear upgrade path... For his budget range, he would be smart to go for it...

 

[nofun]

Here's a decent build:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz $113

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 $140
(has two PCI Express, and 3 PCI expansion slots)
OR
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H $105 (after $15 MIR)
(has three PCI Express, and 2 PCI expansion slots)
OR
Asus Combo Deal $212
(mobo has 2 PCI express, and 2 PCI standard expansion slots)

^Take the board that gives you the expansion slots you want, as they are all very similar otherwise. You may want an extra PCI standard slot (for example) if both your TV Tuner and Sound Card use a standard PCI slot...


RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB DDR3 1333 (7-7-7-21) $100
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $85
GPU: SAPPHIRE 100282SR Radeon HD 5850 $309
Optical: If you need a DVD+RW drive, tack on another $35
Case: Antec 300 Illusion $55
^great value for the price as it is a very solid case and comes with 4 decent fans!
PSU: OCZ Fatal1ty 550W $45 (after $25 MIR).
^If you plan to crossfire another large card later, you may just want to bite the bullet now and get a larger PSU. The OCZ Fatal1ty 700W would be plenty, and also has a nice MIR offer now.

Monitor: Acer X193Wbd Black 19" (1440 x 900) $120
^If needed, I wasn't sure
-----------------------------------------------------------
$1004 (after MIR)



That's a pretty decent build which will give you optimal gaming performance for the price you're looking at. If you already have the monitor and DVD drive, then subtract another $155. That price is also with the most expensive mobo I listed (if you go for the cheaper ones, you can shave off another $35-$45). This build has a great graphics card for the price. Two 5770s in crossfire will deliver better performance, but this will cost a little bit more, and make for a more cramped case. The CPU isn't bleeding edge, but it's an AM3 chip, and it will be plenty of power for gaming purposes. The AM3 is significant because you will still be seeing upgrades for the AM3 socket until probably 2011 when AMD releases their Fusion platform (so you can just drop in a newer CPU later when you need to). The Phenom II X2 550 Callisto would also be a good choice. It's only dual-core, but it overclocks well, and will still be plenty for gaming.

The build I listed will deliver far better gaming performance than an i5 build with an HD 5770. Just wanted to show you that a nicer graphics card wasn't completely out of your reach. As I said before, gaming is more about the GPU than the CPU so long as it's all there in balance. No matter what you decide, consider the GPU first, and then plan the rest of the build around that. The GPU should not be an afterthought, but the central feature of a gaming build.

 

[masterasia]

AMD is for people who are concerned about budget. Intel is for people who want performance. Looks like AMD for you.

If you live near a Microcenter, Intel i7 920 is $199+tax and Intel i5 750 is $150+tax and Intel I7 860 is $229+tax.
I live near one, so I will always choose the i5 750 over the Phenom II X4 955. Leave all that upgrade path junk out of the equation. You really want to build for THE NOW and not for the future because new stuff is always coming out. In 2-3 years, PCI-E 3.0 will be the standard and you'll be forced to upgrade anyways if you want to play the latest games.

 

[Nager]

AMD is for people who are concerned about budget. Intel is for people who want performance. Looks like AMD for you.

If you live near a Microcenter, Intel i7 920 is $199+tax and Intel i5 750 is $150+tax and Intel I7 860 is $229+tax.
I live near one, so I will always choose the i5 750 over the Phenom II X4 955. Leave all that upgrade path junk out of the equation. You really want to build for THE NOW and not for the future because new stuff is always coming out. In 2-3 years, PCI-E 3.0 will be the standard and you'll be forced to upgrade anyways if you want to play the latest games.

I live in Canada, we don't have Microcenters, while it's true 2-3 years from now a lot of the hardware will become obsolete, certain things won't, Case + PSU should last 5 so I don't mind spending a little extra for that + it's quiet.

@nofun

I am sure your build is nice, but it's totally different from what I want, I don't need the hd 5850 right now, my resolution is low, and it's 100+ for that card over the hd 5770. I am going to stick with the Case + PSU I wanted.

I am looking to purchase this G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBECO for the memory, it has a low voltage, so it should be good for OC with the 955?

Also I really wanted to get the Samsung Spinpoint F3, but it's out of stock or unavailable everywhere I've look, I will probably get the Caviar black, but what other hard drives, have similar read and write speeds of the Spinpoint?

 

[geofelt]

For any ram you are considering, do your own homework.
Go to the ram vendor's web site, and access their configurator.
Corsair, Kingston, Patriot, OCZ and others have them.
Their compatibility list is more current than the motherboard vendor's QVL lists which rarely get updated.
Enter your mobo or PC, and get a list of compatible ram sticks.

Here are a few links:

http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx

http://www.corsair.com/configurator/default.aspx

http://kingston.com/

http://conf.ocztechnology.com/index.php?c=1

http://www.patriotmemory.com/configurator/index.jsp

Cpu performance is not very sensitive to ram speeds.
If you look at real application and game benchmarks(vs. synthetic tests),
you will see negligible difference in performance between the slowest DDR2 and the fastest DDR3 ram.
Perhaps 1-2%. Not worth it to me.
Don't pay extra for faster ram or better timings unless you are a maximum overclocker.