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Debating on which CPU to buy

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Hi guys,

I'm having a hard time deciding on a CPU for my new build. :( 
I want to be able to play games at max settings, such as Mass Effect 3, BF3, Skyrim, and many others. :D 

The cpu can be AMD or Intel.

My specs so far:
MB: ASUS or Gigabyte
GPU: GTX 660 ti or 670(if I got the money)
PSU: 650w
Monitor: Asus 23" Full HD Res(1920x1080)

Also help choosing a Motherboard would help too.

I'm on a 800-1000 dollar budget.

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CPUs Authority

^Ignore what he said, unnecessary.
I would advise you to get either a 2500K or 3570K - both are perfect for gaming, very affordable, and are respected highly in the gaming community. I advise even the older gen CPU because it overclocks much better than it's younger brother, sometimes beating it out in performance afterward. Anyway, with a board, nothing fancy - an ASUS P8Z77-V LK is a very good choice for price & features, the 660ti & 670 are good cards so you can pick that one out, and for PSU I recommend anything from SeaSonic, XFX or OCZ.

payturr said:
^Ignore what he said, unnecessary.
I would advise you to get either a 2500K or 3570K - both are perfect for gaming, very affordable, and are respected highly in the gaming community. I advise even the older gen CPU because it overclocks much better than it's younger brother, sometimes beating it out in performance afterward. Anyway, with a board, nothing fancy - an ASUS P8Z77-V LK is a very good choice for price & features, the 660ti & 670 are good cards so you can pick that one out, and for PSU I recommend anything from SeaSonic, XFX or OCZ.

Okay, um on the PSU which one do you recommend. I've seen some on newegg.com that have modular connectors.
And those look awesome :)  And it provides better cable management from what I've seen.
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rohn, the i7 is good but very unnecessary because those threads won't be used by him, not for years until game code is changed, that's my stand on it. Unless he did video editing I'd say go for it.
PC_FTW: Any PSU from those brands are good, modular is AWESOME, I recommend going with modular if you can get it, and with your PSU try to get one with 80PLUS Silver or 80PLUS Gold, even 80PLUS Platinum - what that means is that they have much better power efficiency as you go up the line, so a Gold is more efficient than a Silver and a Platinum is more efficient than a Gold.

payturr said:
rohn, the i7 is good but very unnecessary because those threads won't be used by him, not for years until game code is changed, that's my stand on it. Unless he did video editing I'd say go for it.
PC_FTW: Any PSU from those brands are good, modular is AWESOME, I recommend going with modular if you can get it, and with your PSU try to get one with 80PLUS Silver or 80PLUS Gold, even 80PLUS Platinum - what that means is that they have much better power efficiency as you go up the line, so a Gold is more efficient than a Silver and a Platinum is more efficient than a Gold.

Okay thanks. And this setup will be able to handle SLI correct?
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Hell yeah! I checked the board, and so long as you get a big enough power supply (IE: 750W), you should be good. I advise against SLI though - it tends to be buggy with some games and just get in the way, I'd go for a one graphics card set up if you can.

payturr said:
rohn, the i7 is good but very unnecessary because those threads won't be used by him, not for years until game code is changed, that's my stand on it. Unless he did video editing I'd say go for it.
PC_FTW: Any PSU from those brands are good, modular is AWESOME, I recommend going with modular if you can get it, and with your PSU try to get one with 80PLUS Silver or 80PLUS Gold, even 80PLUS Platinum - what that means is that they have much better power efficiency as you go up the line, so a Gold is more efficient than a Silver and a Platinum is more efficient than a Gold.



I fully understand what u r saying :)  . i was suggesting i7 out of concern of future proofing. if any budy changes system every 1-2 years then surely go for i5. but those u dont change system for 3-4 years they should built it strong. I am still on my Intel C2Q 8300(bought 2 yrs back). which is still giving me good performance. :bounce: 

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rohn_avni said:
I fully understand what u r saying :)  . i was suggesting i7 out of concern of future proofing. if any budy changes system every 1-2 years then surely go for i5. but those u dont change system for 3-4 years they should built it strong. I am still on my Intel C2Q 8300(bought 2 yrs back). which is still giving me good performance. :bounce: 

I know what you mean - those i7s are built to last a long while! And I hope you know you're talking to the guy who is still using a Pentium 4 :p 

payturr said:
I know what you mean - those i7s are built to last a long while! And I hope you know you're talking to the guy who is still using a Pentium 4 :p 


Ya I saw that :D 
but before my c2q i was also using a P4 3.0 ghz with HT. i played gta 4 on my P4 with all setting to low.
that was a good processor. always hot on 70-80 degrees :ouch: 

payturr said:
I know what you mean - those i7s are built to last a long while! And I hope you know you're talking to the guy who is still using a Pentium 4 :p 

Lol the laptop I'm typing on is a Lenovo G575 cpu in it is a AMD Apu C-50 clocked at 1ghz 2 core.
This cpu can barely handle Windows 7 Home Premium. I had to go back to XP. :p 
CPUs Authority

Man AMD.. I just can't with them! I have an A4 laptop, its okay :/  Nothing to write home about, except graphics, graphics are awesome.
I'm building a new PC this upcoming year with the Pentium G860 actually :D  Super excited to put that with a 7770!

payturr said:
Man AMD.. I just can't with them! I have an A4 laptop, its okay :/  Nothing to write home about, except graphics, graphics are awesome.
I'm building a new PC this upcoming year with the Pentium G860 actually :D  Super excited to put that with a 7770!

Don't get me wrong APU's are okay. I mean I'm playing Left 4 Dead at Med/High settings with this thing. Even GTA San Andreas is being
ran at near max. But the speed of this thing is a shame. The specs are:
AMD C-50@1ghz
AMD Radeon HD 6250@444mhz
Hyundai RAM? 2gb
And they had Windows 7 64-bit on this thing :o 
Which ran really slow. lol
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PC_FTW said:
Don't get me wrong APU's are okay. I mean I'm playing Left 4 Dead at Med/High settings with this thing. Even GTA San Andreas is being
ran at near max. But the speed of this thing is a shame. The specs are:
AMD C-50@1ghz
AMD Radeon HD 6250@444mhz
Hyundai RAM? 2gb
And they had Windows 7 64-bit on this thing :o 
Which ran really slow. lol

Exactly. Now, if my processor was as fast as a Core i3, and the graphics were a bit better - I'd might idolize AMD. Too bad though. :C

payturr said:
Exactly. Now, if my processor was as fast as a Core i3, and the graphics were a bit better - I'd might idolize AMD. Too bad though. :C

Yeah hopefully AMDs new architecture will be better. But they will always fall behind Intel by a generation.

payturr said:
Always feels like too many :/  Oh well, we have our systems planned out pretty well!

yeah. AMD doesn't perform to bad on gaming but with other stuff. "YIKES" :??: 
But yeah it does feel like they are still stuck on Athlon 64. haha.

Best solution

OP, with the way things currently stand in the CPU market, Intel clearly has the upper hand. I would advise against the FX series CPUs from AMD, most people have been rather unimpressed with those. Intel iSomething-series might cost more but its worth it.

I would also advise against an 8-core processor. It's just money down the drain. I don't know of any game that utilizes more than 4 threads right now, so even with a hyper-threaded quad-core, you are still kinda only using half the processor... and from someone who has done parallel/multi-thread programming/coding themselves, I don't see games using more than 4 threads any time in the near future. It's better to get the best available quad-core than a mid-range 8-core if you only plan on gaming.

The best processor for the money is hands down the i5 3570k. It's $220 on Newegg right now, but you can find it cheaper. There's a local vendor where I live that has it for $190. It's simply the best value currently.

The i5 is a LGA 1155 socket, and the best value motherboard with that socket is the ASRock Z77 Extreme4, which you can get on Newegg for $135.

The prices might be just a bit steep, but your build will remain solid for a long time, and you'll be able to get the max settings you are looking for at a smooth frame rate. But if you do the i5 / Z77 combo, I'd also choose the GTX 670.
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payturr said:
Exactly. Now, if my processor was as fast as a Core i3, and the graphics were a bit better - I'd might idolize AMD. Too bad though. :C


The A10-5X00 stuff is actually pretty close to the I3 and sometimes its equal as a cpu, depending on price point. I have a friend who purchased a laptop based on one shortly after is was released. Trinity is actually a pretty cool chip.

FALC0N said:
The A10-5X00 stuff is actually pretty close to the I3 and sometimes its equal as a cpu, depending on price point. I have a friend who purchased a laptop based on one shortly after is was released. Trinity is actually a pretty cool chip.

I think thats where AMD will beat Intel is with the APU's. We will have to wait and see how Steam Roller performs tho.
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