My First PC Build: Which one should i go for?

[Ryzix]

HEy guys, hows it going.

Im building my first PC and i was stuck on waht CPU i should get... Im currently thinking of getting the Phenom II x4 965 after swtiching from originally getting the FX-4100 and hearing that its bad for gaming and appearatnly nulldozer cant play some games? I dont want this happening on my first build. Im going to be getting the GIgabyte Radeon HD 7870 2Gb and came here to ask you guys what the best thing i should do in terms of getting the most FPS? I want to stick with an AMD cpu because the mobo i have planned is an AMD mobo and Intel's are expensive! Im looking for at least a good AMD cpu for under 200$. Do you guys think i should get the 965 and OC it? Im also planning on getting the Cooler Master Hyper 212 heatsink to go with whatever cpu im grabbing. Overclocking kind of scares me at the thought of burning a hole in my cpu... Plus, i've never Oc'd before. haha.

Much feedback is appreciated! I just need people to point me in the right direction and get a good AMD combo with my 7870! Thanks!

 

[gtfhercules]

I would go for a 2700K, as you can get very good overclocking. I have a 3770K and cant push it past 4.6 on liquid, but a 2700 could most likely go past 5. Note that the best AMD cpu can hardly compete with an i5. It also depends on the kind of games you play. I play Planetside 2 with is largely CPU dependent.

 

[JKatwyopc]

For a new build, I would suggest you go with Intel because you will be able to get better performance with less power usage. However, if you still wish to stick with AMD then don't bother with Phenom II's because the technology is getting dated and they are getting harder to find. Bulldozer is also a bust for gaming due to higher power usage, lower IPC, and relatively poor gaming performance. Get a Piledriver CPU instead. I would suggest the FX-6300, FX-8320, or FX-8350. All three of those can be purchased for under $200.

What's your budget for the entire build? What components do you already have? What kind of games do you plan to play?

 

[dragonsamus]

If you want AMD then I would suggest the 8320. It's cheaper than the 8350 and with a good cooler you can overclock as high as the 8350. You're pretty much getting the same performance of the 8350 but at a lower price since you'll be overclocking. Also, it's newer tech so I would recommend spending your money on that.

What resolution are you playing at?

 

[lostgamer_03]

As it's your first build I think these Guys are going the wrong way.

When it's your first build I expect that you won't be overclocking the CPU. The i5-3570 (non-k) version is just as good as gaming as on the i7-3770k overclocked, there isn't really no difference than 1-5 fps, and when you got Radeon 7870, you will never see the difference anyway.

AMD isn't very good at producing gaming CPUs, I would NEVER buy an AMD CPU, even some of the Intel notebook CPUs beat AMD's desktop CPUs.

If you really want to go all AMD, then pick up the 6300, it gives almost the same gaming performance as the 8-core CPUs, if not the same.

 

[envy14tpe]

You don't have to overclock to get a great CPU. If you do overclock it'll cost you at least an extra $50. You can get a i5 for $195:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116506
Then, you don't need to buy a cooler master 212 because your i5 will come with a heatsink n fan. The CM 212 is for overclocking. On a budget I wouldn't do so.

For me, AMD or Intel doesn't matter. What matters is real performance now. Clearly Intel is winning this game. AMD seems to dominate the $100 cpus, but those can't compete with a i5.

 

[steddora]

I'd stick with Intel in every respect. I'm not dishing it towards AMD; but you can pick up an 1155 board and an i5-2500k for a decent price and it will perform better than most if not all AMD setups you could go with. Pair that with the 7870 and your system will really shine. You should be able to pretty much max all the settings in anything out there right now with that type of setup. And if you learn and read about it later on, you could go into overclocking and with the Hyper 212, you can get some pretty nice numbers on the 2500k.

 

[envy14tpe]

I have the 2500k. I bought it as the 3570k was released. I didn't see performance gains that were worth an extra $10-15 for the 3570k, but now I feel like it would have been a better choice because (supposedly) a 2500k@4.4GHz = 3570k@4.2GHz and the 3570k is less power hungry so you can save money on electricity too.

 

[BuddiLuva]

Get an FX-8320 and a CM212 and overclock that badboy for all round performance, not just gaming.