Is dual core enoough

[jordanaire]

Hi all I want to ask if your just gaming,listening to music,watching films ,downloading files and burning things on to cd do you need bother getting a quad core pc i want to play online but im not really interested in doing any advanced or either basic computing or modding so,and don't have multiple windows open all the time and I turn everything electronic of when Im done with it.This is what im thinking of getting

Western Digital Caviar Green 750gb hard drive £45.91

£15
StarTech SATA -to- USB2 SAT3510BUVGB

Kingston 1600MHz DDR3 Non ECC CL9 8GB Kit (2x 4GB) HyperX BLU XMP DIMM Memory Module £31.03

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD+/-RW SATA Black - OEM

£16.98

AMD CPU FX Series 4100 Black Edition Quad Core Processor Bulldozer
£88.08 Inc VAT

Galaxy Midi Tower Gaming Case with 2 x Blue LED Fans & LED Display £32

1024MB GTX 560 PCI Express Nvidia DDR DVI DX11 £126.99

Novatech 300Mbps 802.11n Wireless PCI Adapter
£14.99

Antec EarthWatts EA500D Green Power supply - 500 Watt £56

ASUS M5A78L/USB3 - AMD 760G - ATX - AM3+ - 4 x DDR3 2000 OC - RAID - EPU - USB3 PORTS, £50 on dabbs

Gelid Tranquillo CPUr, Cooler £22.99 (QUAD OPTION)



Will a dual core pc with amd phenom black edition be able to run the gtx 560 pci express graphic card and etc and cope with online gaming and other things like makeing things in game maker and similar applications.
Also I'll scale other things down like 500 watt psu to 350 watt and maybe slightly less ram

I like to hear your thoughts,is quad core and higher just for medium computing to profesional expert because as I've said im not really interested in advanced computing I want to play games and do basic tasks.

 

[allix24]

Yes, a dual core is still completely viable today, most people aren't great fans of Bulldozer for gaming anyway. As for the PSU, stick with the 500w, any smaller and while it may run you're risking random crashes from overdrawing under high load. Athlons and phenoms are great choices for people trying to save a bit and still get the preformance they want.

 

[jordanaire]

yeah I read about bulldozer being a really big dissapointment and not in the same limelight as intels sandybridge processers, yeah i looked at phenom and is only £18 cheaper but I can't see shaving much money of the other items wanted to try and get closer to £400

 

[CaedenV]

yes, duel core is plenty for most users out there. My old C2Duo was still plenty fast for 90% of what I was doing, and it was an older bottom barrel one. The only reason to upgrade for me was to do HD video editing, and to play better/newer games at high quality. But for what you described you would do just fine with the FX, Phenom2, or a C2D/i3 processor; all of which are in the same budget range. I would avoid the FX, and choose a Phenom2 or i3 instead as they are faster and take less power for the things you are describing (FX chips are great productivity workhorses on the high end, but get trounced on everything else). Perhaps even an APU would do the trick.
I would never build a system with less than a 450W power supply as something smaller may prevent your from future upgrades. Keep the 500W
dropping to 4GB of ram would not hurt anything... but with ram prices so cheap why not do 8? Just be sure that if you do 4GB to get a 2X2GB kit so that you do not loose your Duel DDR setup.
Some current games, and just about all future blockbuster games will be heavily CPU defendant. So if you do play games often, then I would 'splurge' for a basic quad core for that reason, but otherwise you would be fine.

 

[inzone]

The newer games are starting to take advantage of the multiple cores and a quad core cpu is becoming the standard of gaming computers. If you were to look up some of the computer building sites that specialize in building gaming rigs you will see that they are all putting in quad core cpu's. Also it is a known fact that for gaming the Sandy Bridge cpu's are the best and I know you are just building this Pc for gaming and small stuff but you also asked about what you should get for gaming. Xeon cpu's are for professionasls ,experts and buisnesses.
The most popular and best cpu for gaming right now is the i5-2500 Sandy Bridge cpu , that may be out of the budget range for you but there are other Sandy Bridge cpu's that are not. Just something for you to consider.

 

[jordanaire]

cheers Ill keep that in mind

 

[jordanaire]

yeah i was thinking about getting a six core but that's unneccesary for me really and i was looking at quad core but then all of a sudden bulldozer comes and 8 cores are available and start thinking it's more than i'll need but i really want it.The main reason I want a gaming pc is because the battery on my latop is crap and I've also bought the star wars online game and I don't want lag

 

[jordanaire]

just found this xfx 450 watt psu with 80 plus certification and multiple safety features and active factor correction but after reading what other people have said I think i'll have to go quad core. Thanks for help

 

[jordanaire]

I thought about getting apu. ps how is it on the ram front,probably won't matter but will 8gb ram be enough in the future say 5 years, really I want something to last that I won't after to keep updating all the time

 

[jsc]

With the current price of DDR3 RAM, if I were building a new system, I would go ahead and put 16 GB ofRAM in it.

 

[jordanaire]

I thought about getting apu. ps how is it on the ram front,probably won't matter but will 8gb ram be enough in the future say 5 years, really I want something to last that I won't after to keep updating all the time

 

[jordanaire]

okay good to know. Thats a good profile picture

 

[jessterman21]

yes, duel core is plenty for most users out there. My old C2Duo was still plenty fast for 90% of what I was doing, and it was an older bottom barrel one. The only reason to upgrade for me was to do HD video editing, and to play better/newer games at high quality. But for what you described you would do just fine with the FX, Phenom2, or a C2D/i3 processor; all of which are in the same budget range. I would avoid the FX, and choose a Phenom2 or i3 instead as they are faster and take less power for the things you are describing (FX chips are great productivity workhorses on the high end, but get trounced on everything else). Perhaps even an APU would do the trick.
I would never build a system with less than a 450W power supply as something smaller may prevent your from future upgrades. Keep the 500W
dropping to 4GB of ram would not hurt anything... but with ram prices so cheap why not do 8? Just be sure that if you do 4GB to get a 2X2GB kit so that you do not loose your Duel DDR setup.
Some current games, and just about all future blockbuster games will be heavily CPU defendant. So if you do play games often, then I would 'splurge' for a basic quad core for that reason, but otherwise you would be fine.

+1

i3 and plenty of RAM = best bang for your buck

 

[jordanaire]

okay