Help!! CPU Decisions for new system build.

[cdub1980]

Ok, so I'm newly registered to TH, but not a new person to this website or to PC building. I am in the process of building a budget gaming PC. My goal is to stay under $1000, however, my real goal is to get as far under that as possible. I've been picking up pieces over the past month when I find great deals and will be purchasing my mobo and cpu very soon. Here's my question...

...I can get the 2500K and a good SLI/CF capable mobo for about $370-$400 total. On the other hand, I can get a solid AMD quad-core and AM3+ mobo for about $100-$150 less (albeit with slightly less performance, but ready for Bulldozers!). I want to protect against future changes (such as PCIe 3.0, ability to upgrade processor, etc) but also want to get my new system built as quickly as possible and I'm not sure that I'll have the money anytime soon to take advantage of the upcoming technologies in 2012. If I go with the AMD, I can also put some room in the budget for additional pieces like an SSD, quality soundcard, or maybe another HDD for RAID configurations.

I'm pretty sure I'll be doing 2 6870's in CF (some great prices on cards if you shop around), but am really lost on what to do regarding CPU/Mobo. Anyone's advice is appreciated! What should I do????

 

[itzdanielp]

Ok, here's my 2 cents.

1. Don't even bother worrying about PCIe 3.0. Even a pair of 6870's in xfire aren't going to even get close to saturating a PCIe2.0 pipeline.

2. Although an AMD is slightly slower on *Benchmarks* a high end AMD is going to perform just as well for everyday computing as an Intel CPU. This is because the processor is no longer the limiting factor by any means. Your biggest limiting factor is currently your HD.


so.... my 2 cents, go with a decent AM3+ Board and an upper 9xx series black AMD or a 1090T.

Use the leftover money for a solid SSD, as this will give you a much higher performance boost than an Intel CPU would with a spinny disk.

I currently have a low end AM3+ board, a mid range 945 CPU and an SSD, and my computer beats my roomys 2nd gen i7 2600k every day. Sure his bench's higher than mine, but as far as use, mine loads programs faster, boots faster, just in general operates faster due to the higher read speed of my SSD.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Ok, so I'm newly registered to TH, but not a new person to this website or to PC building. I am in the process of building a budget gaming PC. My goal is to stay under $1000, however, my real goal is to get as far under that as possible. I've been picking up pieces over the past month when I find great deals and will be purchasing my mobo and cpu very soon. Here's my question...

Cool, let's see here.

...I can get the 2500K and a good SLI/CF capable mobo for about $370-$400 total. On the other hand, I can get a solid AMD quad-core and AM3+ mobo for about $100-$150 less (albeit with slightly less performance, but ready for Bulldozers!). I want to protect against future changes (such as PCIe 3.0, ability to upgrade processor, etc) but also want to get my new system built as quickly as possible and I'm not sure that I'll have the money anytime soon to take advantage of the upcoming technologies in 2012. If I go with the AMD, I can also put some room in the budget for additional pieces like an SSD, quality soundcard, or maybe another HDD for RAID configurations.

Yeah, that's one of the best things about going with AMD.

I'm pretty sure I'll be doing 2 6870's in CF (some great prices on cards if you shop around), but am really lost on what to do regarding CPU/Mobo. Anyone's advice is appreciated! What should I do????

Well, for an Intel rig you'll want a P67 mobo or preferably a Z68 one. For AMD you'll want an AM3+ 990FX. CPUs: Intel, no question about it, the 2500k. AMD it's either the X4 955 BE or the X6 1090T BE - best value for money parts. Even the six core is only 160 or 170 dollars.

Ok, here's my 2 cents.

1. Don't even bother worrying about PCIe 3.0. Even a pair of 6870's in xfire aren't going to even get close to saturating a PCIe2.0 pipeline.

Very true. I think I read somewhere that PCIe2/16x equals PCIe3/8x which the contemporary PCIe3 boards feature.

2. Although an AMD is slightly slower on *Benchmarks* a high end AMD is going to perform just as well for everyday computing as an Intel CPU. This is because the processor is no longer the limiting factor by any means. Your biggest limiting factor is currently your HD.

Heck, even a low-mid AMD performs great. I have a Phenom II X2 on this system while waiting on BD. I can game and run a Linux Virtual Machine for my programming exercises no problem.

so.... my 2 cents, go with a decent AM3+ Board and an upper 9xx series black AMD or a 1090T.

Use the leftover money for a solid SSD, as this will give you a much higher performance boost than an Intel CPU would with a spinny disk.

I currently have a low end AM3+ board, a mid range 945 CPU and an SSD, and my computer beats my roomys 2nd gen i7 2600k every day. Sure his bench's higher than mine, but as far as use, mine loads programs faster, boots faster, just in general operates faster due to the higher read speed of my SSD.

Indeed the extras you can buy with the money left over from not getting the more expensive Intel parts can make your system more usable

 

[Uther39]

The best i think you could do is go the AMD root, buy a 955 X4 with a decent aftermarket cooler and a AM3+ MB, plus like you said spend the extra on an SSD, then you OC your 955 to say 3.8 to 4.0 ghz, and you then have a very usable system.

 

[geofelt]

You might want to read today's article on $1000 systems builder marathon:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-cpu-ssd,3027.html
In particular, look where they chose to cut expense.

I am not a big fan of cf/sli when a single great card will do the job.
You save now on motherboard, psu, and case cooling.

But, Yes, there are P67 and Z67 motherboards for <$150.
In particular, look at some of the m-atx motherboards. The only negative is that two graphics cards will run a bit hot for the top card.

Today, the 2500K is the best performing cpu for gaming. I doubt that you will ever need more, but if you do, the next gen ivy bridge 22nm cpu's will be compatible with P67 and Z68 chipsets. If you can walk in to a microcenter, they will sell you a 2500K for about $190 as I recall.

Gaming needs two or three fast cores for the most part. AMD is good value for multi core enabled apps, but not that great for gaming. The extra cores from bulldozer will be good for highly threaded apps. It remains to be seen if the effectiveness of the cores can approach sandy bridge.

Current graphics cards can't really saturate pcie 2.0, let alone 3.0.
You might want to read this article on pci-e sli scaling; there are others:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696.html

The conclusion was that you will not see any real difference with x8/x8.

Save now on the sound card. You might not need one, and it can always be added later.

 

[FinneousPJ]

The point is, I haven't seen one game where the 100$ AMD part doesn't offer playable performance. Yes, the Intel will offer higher frame rates. Both are playable...

 

[cdub1980]

The point is, I haven't seen one game where the 100$ AMD part doesn't offer playable performance. Yes, the Intel will offer higher frame rates. Both are playable...

And I guess this is my point - I get the actual differences in the chips, my real question is - in the performance/cost ratio, am i getting enough performance for the money with AMD or is it really worth the extra dough to go ahead with the Intel?

 

[Uther39]

You are getting enough performance with AMD for the money, the only thing with intel is having the kudos of a cpu that can accomplish things a little bit faster.

 

[geofelt]

How good do you want/need to be?

There will always be diminishing returns for the dollar.

How important is the dollar to you?

My take is, if you don't get what you want, you paid too much, and will forever second guess yourself.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I've been picking up pieces over the past month when I find great deals and will be purchasing my mobo and cpu very soon. Here's my question...

That is a very bad idea. I would never recommend buying computer parts over a period of time. I always highly recommend you buy all your parts at the same time, because if your one of your components is defective, you likely will not find out until you assemble your computer at which case your return-date may be expired.

 

[cdub1980]

I've been picking up pieces over the past month when I find great deals and will be purchasing my mobo and cpu very soon. Here's my question...

That is a very bad idea. I would never recommend buying computer parts over a period of time. I always highly recommend you buy all your parts at the same time, because if your one of your components is defective, you likely will not find out until you assemble your computer at which case your return-date may be expired.

Great suggestion, but i'm not worried about that just picking up some of the basics (case, CPU cooler, etc.) right now. In terms of the mobo/cpu/mem/hdd/video, i'll be getting those within a couple weeks of each other, so i should be well within a return/exchange window if i'm not happy or have defective product to deal with.

 

[cdub1980]

Best answer selected by cdub1980.