CPU for 600$ PC- i7?

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natebot88

natebot88

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Hello all! I just signed up today as I heard this is THE place to go when I need help!
Alright, I'm 13 and my handed- down HP nx9420 is getting outdated really fast with it's Radeon x1600 GPU and a Centrino Duo CPU. I can't, to my understanding- play the BF3 beta at this point and I've gotten to the point where I've given up gaming laptops- It's time to find parts for an awesome gaming PC.

I'd figure I'd start with the CPU- I need a Processor that can handle what I need and more (FSX at very high settings, BF3 at highest settings, Dead Island at highest settings, you get the point.) I'm not too big of a fan of AMD so I am leaning torwards Intel's beastly i7. I realise there is numbers after i7, and I'm sure that could be defined once I pick out a suitable GPU that can do the described things and more for the next few years. This being said of course, someone my age can't just save up 1,000$ in a month, so I'd also like to try to make a 600$-700$ budget on the PC.

Now if there's a reliable and affordable AMD equivlant by all means say so! I appreciate your help as I'm sure this will be a long process finding the right parts for me.

Thanks.
******* (In case you need it)
 
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Alright, if you don't need the OS upgrade that extra $200 or so would move you up into the HD 6950.

The mobo I picked out only allows for 1 GPU as the other Pci-e slot will be limited to x4, which isn't enough bandwidth for these cards anymore. But I also don't recommend dual GPU setups, you have to deal with some of the hiccups caused from having two(they're usually more glitchy than one), and there is 'micro-stutter' that can really become noticeable when...
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ghnader hsmithot

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It isnt.Unless if you have a spare monitor around and a case we could possibly take away from your budget and make room for other more economical parts into your gaming pc.
 
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magicvipre

magicvipre

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If you are going to use the PC mainly for game ( i suppose you dont do HD movie renderin, graphic design stuff) dont go for i7, get i5 is already nice. As i7 contains hyper threading for some people who needs it, and i think youre going to use it to play games, get i5, its more than enough.
 
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Haserath

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I am not good at doing budget builds as I hate skimping on parts!

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130608

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096

Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226184

Hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

GPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102940

Heatsink:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Case(Thanks to uther39):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233

DVD/CD burner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204


$620.91+45.02(tax)+14.70(shipping)= $680.63. This is before mail-in-rebates.

AMD processors are good for cheap budget builds like this. If you need any extra horsepower, you could also overclock(one reason why I added in the Heatsink). Btw, when overclocking for the 955, if you do, you should think about overclocking the HTT bus to about 2800mhz; this gives about a 10% boost along with the clockspeed bump to the processor. Reviews never seem to do this. Also, for the memory settings try unganged instead of ganged for slightly better performance there as well.

The 6770 is a decent card. You won't be able to play all games at max settings with it. My 6950 is on its knees with everything max@ 1080p in the BF3 Beta. Makes it barely playable, but not good enough; I do much better when the settings are lower since the fps is higher.

I also went with 8 Gigs of memory, because memory is just so cheap now! Plus, it's always good to have extra ram; I didn't expect to be using my 6 GB on this build for a few more years, but I opened task manager a little while ago and noticed I was over 5GB. It is a definite good buy with Mushkin too.

This build was also assuming you have a monitor and mouse/keyboard. If you need it to be cheaper, there are a few things that I could change, but these are what I would go for.
 
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rolli59

rolli59

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Can but is a violation of the license agreement!
 
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Haserath

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Well, maybe he could do that, but it would be nice for his new build to have Windows 7 for his new quad, since 7 is the best optimized Windows OS for multithreading so far. The handed down laptop is probably XP or Vista. Vista isn't that bad(using it right now actually) and XP is decent, but they are no where near as good as 7.
 
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Haserath

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Btw, that looks like a good case too. Good find!

That should put it around $670, so that would fit better into the budget.
 
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nordlead

nordlead

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You can build a competent i5 build for under $600 if you already have the OS, Case, and PSU, Keyboard/Mouse and Monitor. Otherwise you'll have an overpowered processor compared with the rest of the system.

Either an i3-2100 or a quad core AMD would be good options for a cheap build. You may want to wait a few weeks and see if Bulldozer comes out (last I heard was Oct 12th, but you never know). If Bulldozer does come out it could bring the prices down for the other processors letting you get a more powerful graphics card.

As others said, look through the system builder series for the $500 build and you'll get an idea for what you can actually buy. Once you have a system you think is good, you can post it and get feedback.
 
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Haserath

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I've learned in my time of being an enthusiast that Intel rarely changes their pricing based on AMD's performance. Even during the P4 days they had an extreme model at $1k losing out to AMD's model that was cheaper.

AMD's pricing also shouldn't change much. The Phenom II's are going for so cheap right now for the die size, that I think it will just stay this price for quite a while. Plus there is no competition for the prices they are at, an X4 outperforms an Intel dual core with HT when multithreading comes into play. The Phenom can also overclock, thus edging it's performance to be much greater than the dual core.

Delays keep happening with Bulldozer... It's only rumored to come out on October 12th, and I've heard rumors it'll be more like November.
 
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natebot88

natebot88

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I have windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit.
 
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natebot88

natebot88

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My laptop has Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit.
 
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Haserath

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Ungh, 32-bit also means that the 8GB of memory for the build will go to waste. Yet it's just so cheap for 4GB sticks... This'll probably be the cheapest time to buy them ever unless Black Friday has some good sales.

It's your decision on what to do though. Keep 32-bit or go 64-bit.
 
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natebot88

natebot88

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I do have a moniter- An Asus p205H I believe with an SVI cable ( I think it's SVI, it's white and larger then VGA)
 
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