7850+2500K or 7870+2400

[Exterminans]

Hey guys,

here are my infos


Approximate Purchase Date: (e.g.: during the next month)

Budget Range: ( 800-1000) total

System Usage from Most to Least Important: (e.g.: gaming, surfing, watching movies)

Parts Not Required: ( keyboard, Speaker, OS) I have a 550W one. If I can I want to reuse it it is just 1 year old.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (micro-center; mindfactory)

Country: (Germany) I am in the US right now so I proberbly will by here some parts and then Germany

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (what is the exact difference? AMd vs Nvidia )

Monitor Resolution: (1680x1050)



In the end I thought about 2 builds.
Once: Radeon 7850 and an i5 2500K CPU
or: radeon 7870 and an i5 2400 CPU

What you guys think what is the better choice for playing games?
What chip set would you buy with each built?
When I figured that out i can move on to RAM, Hard-Drive...


I appreciate all your help

Exte

 

[mgoon11]

A big factor in that difference is whether or not you will be overclocking. If you do you pretty much have to go with 2500K, however if you don't a 2400 and 7870 would be the better combo because of the slightly upgraded graphics

 

[mgoon11]

Also I have no idea what you're build is like but spring for a GTX 670 if you can, and is there a reason you're not going for ivy bridge?

 

[Exterminans]

Well as already said I don't mind about overcklocking. So I would decide to go with 2400 + 7870?!
The GTX 670 is about 75-100 bugs more than the 7870, so I think that would be then too high.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard that the ivy bridge CPUs are hotter, so I would have to spend more money on cooling!
Farther else the ivy bridge CPUs are just for a short while new. I heard later this year? beginning next year the new Haswells will be released.
Hotter and at the moment more expensive( just to have new tec until the end of the year). Does that makes sense at all?

 

[Exterminans]

What chipset would you recommend for that built?
Any suggestion for Mobos?

 

[Need Help_71]

if you're going to overclock then I would say z77, if not then an H61 is fine

 

[jmsellars1]

Ivy Bridge is only hotter when overclocking, it should be cooler/the same at stock.

If you plan to overclock, go the i5-2500k route. The i5-2500k is a great overclocker and so is the HD 7850, it can actually be overclocked to beat the stock performance of the HD 7870 without much of a problem.

If you don't plan to overclock, the i5-2400 and HD 7870 are both great bang for your buck.

Z68/Z77 with the 2500k, H77/H61/H67 with the i5-2400.

 

[Need Help_71]

^true however you would need to overclock less on the ivy bridge processor to match the performance of the i5 2500k

^agree on the overclocking 7850

both are great builds, depends if you want to overclock in which case you would need a cooler as well though it is only 35 bucks about

 

[Need Help_71]

Ivy Bridge is only hotter when overclocking, it should be cooler/the same at stock.

If you plan to overclock, go the i5-2500k route. The i5-2500k is a great overclocker and so is the HD 7850, it can actually be overclocked to beat the stock performance of the HD 7870 without much of a problem.

If you don't plan to overclock, the i5-2400 and HD 7870 are both great bang for your buck.

Z68/Z77 with the 2500k, H77/H61/H67 with the i5-2400.

i see u have the GTX 460, how well does it perform while gaming?

 

[jmsellars1]

It's great, I tend to tone down the AA/AF a bit on something like Skyrim but other than that I max everything at 1920x1200 without a problem. It's a fantastic overclocker as well, stock clocks are usually around 650Mhz and I have had it up to 900Mhz stable. When comparing to more modern cards, it's similar to the HD 7770/HD 6850/GTX 560 (560 is just an overclocked 460.)

 

[motorneuron]

There is no doubt that a 2500k + 7850 is a better value than a 2400 + 7870. That's because the 2500k if overclocked will destroy the 2400 (though it's not that relevant for most games), and the 7850 will match a stock 7870 if you overclock it. So the question then becomes why you are not interested in overclocking, or not sure about it. A reasonable overclock will do very little to affect the lifespan of your parts--the 7850 and 2500k are both very good thermal/power performers, so you can pump up their clock speeds without getting them dangerously hot.

A 7850 is basically (but not quite) an underclocked 7870, so there is no reason you can't push it at least to stock 7870 clocks. The price difference between the cards is also too great to justify the 7870's modest performance increase. If you're getting into the ~$350 range, it's very hard to justify not just spending the extra 50 bucks for a 670.

We all know that the 2500k is a great overclocker. It's true that many games won't need that much from the processor, but the 2500k is much more future proof for very little additional investment.

And anyway, part of the fun of building your own machine is tinkering with it--that's what overclocking is.

So, because I think the 2500k/7850 is the better bang for your buck, and because I think there is no reason not to overclock, I think the 2500k/7850 is the clear choice.

 

[Need Help_71]

^ What he said

 

[Exterminans]

Best answer selected by Exterminans.

 

[Exterminans]

Awesome guys
thanks that helped me a lot !!!
I will go with the 2500K maybe 2550K (depends on the price difference) + the 7850
So I need a Z68/Z77 mobo...
No i don't fear overclocking, it will be for sure some fun to play around with that It was more like should I buy a higher CPU or GPU


Thanks all!

 

[Exterminans]

are there good Z77 mobo out there under 150$?

 

[motorneuron]

The ASRock extreme 4 is a great value z77, and it comes in under $150 even after shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293