mfj1985

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Ok so I pretty much decided on a build for me which is http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/301091-31-6950-final-setup-order-today

I am also trying to piece together a more budget oriented setup for my brother. He does the same gaming I do but has a little less to spend.

How does the following look, keep in mind if u make suggestions make sure its not more than max 100 dollars extra?

PhenomII 1090T 6x3,20GHz (Turbo 3.60GHz)
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 motherboard
Arctic Alpine64 GT low-noise cpu cooler
Kingston HyperX 8GB DDR3-1600 DualChannel RAM
Western Digital 1TB SATA3 6Gb/s Fluid Silent (7200rpm)
AMD HD6970 2GB
Seasonic 750 W 80+ silver ceritfied
Coolermaster HAF 922

I figured going this route he would be set for all gaming atm, and he shouldnt feel so bad ditching his mobo as I have to do on my setup to get the new line of CPUS (bulldozer for him , sandy bridge for me) once it is needed.

His upgrade path seems a bit better than mine, since his current mobo is very good value/lowcost, and when cpu upgrade is needed he can get a similar value am3+ socket for bulldozer and a new single graphic card. Where as I need to replace more expensive cpu/mobo in my setup.

I opted for some quality psu/case etc which he can use for many years. I picked 8gb ram cause i got a good deal, but I guess 4gb would have been sufficient :d

He is also gaming on 1920 x 1080 and only using it for gaming.
 

mfj1985

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He wants it for gaming now in holidays :(

Same for me on my setup really,....always something new anyway.

Regarding AMD pick, I just find intel setups generally cost more especially when u want a similar quality mobo for an intel setup. Also figured while i5 760 performs equal to 1090 in most games now, surely within a year or so more games will benefit from 6 cores?


It is pretty much the same deal when core2quad came out. People were telling me it was a bad buy cause no games used more than 2 cores, but in the end IMO it was worth it, kind of thinking the same here.

+ the cpu is kinda cheap atm, and once its insufficient in what 3 years? he can go bulldozer instead. It should be pretty easy to oc close to 4ghz
 

mfj1985

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It might beat it now, but if u dont change CPU for the next , lets say 3 years, I have afeeling the x6 will become better once more games gets optimized for the extra cores?

Just like it was with core2duo > core2quad?
 

vibhas

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Be careful, remember than P2 955 BE has 3.5GHZ but each unit of GHZ does less than the i5 750's 2.66GHZ. so ghz =/= ghz, they arent apples for apples.

Like my ole PC 2.8ghz Pentium 4 has nothing on... my i 3 laptop @ 2.13ghz
 

amk09

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you have to understand that any game out today can run great on a good dual core chip.

Games have yet to fully transition to 4 cores, let alone 6 cores.

I would say that in 3 years, there will be a few games that will take advantage of 6 cores, but I am willing to bet that a quad-core will still have no problem keeping up.

And fyi, there are still core2duo's that have no problem maxing out the games of today.
 

NuclearShadow

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About the HD 6970 is there a specific reason for going with this card rather than going CF with 2X 6850's? Both setups have a similar price but the CF 6850 setup wins in every gaming benchmark except for Metro 2033 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6970-radeon-hd-6950-cayman,2818.html

If your planning on CFing the 6970 soon then I can understand why you made such a choice but if that is the case is that really needed?