Gaming Pc

[KezR33]

Definitely getting it built, wouldn't have a clue where to even begin on my own.

[SilverECR33]

Intel is the go these days. AMD seems to have dropped the ball for a while now.

i5 is really not potent enough if u must go new tech go with i7.

*my Duel core rig smashes my mates i5 setup in games. E8600 ftw

[bozodos]

your mate must have a shitful graphics card on his i5 then.

[SilverECR33]

4870 i think

[R31Nismoid]

What you mean i5 is not potent enough?

Best you'll get out of a E8600 won't beat a i5 configured & clocked properly using the same video card etc.

[SilverECR33]

what i ment was. the cache size and clock speeds are much better on the i7 for gaming, These are important factors for gaming rigs. (ofc the i5 is still nothing to sneeze at)

Few numbers:

E8500: 3.16ghz, 6meg cache 1333

E8600: 3.33ghz, 6meg cache 1333

i5 650: 3.2ghz, 4meg cache 1156

i7 960: 3.2ghz, 8meg cache 1366

Disregarding the extra cores because we all know that most games use a max of 2 cores.

Also disregarding optimization and overclocking, ofc some of these cores overclock like crazy especially the i7 and the E8600.

ofc the threading and handling is much better on the new cores to ++ to their score. but i stand by my comment that the i7 is the go because of the cache and speed because this a game rig And you wont be using the extra cores on most games. (depending on user requirement ofc)

But if i had to go a i5 it would probably be this : INTEL CORE i5 750 2.66Ghz 8meg CACHE LGA1156 $ 249

:thumbs:

Edited July 2, 2010 by SilverECR33

[Mayuri Krab]

I only know of one person who runs an SSD and that's in an Alienware laptop!

I've a SSD in my main desktop & I'm planing on changing one of the HDD on my G73 laptop to a SSD later on...

Gives the most apparent speed boost... 5 second windows load FTW

What about AMD's new Hex cores? From what I read they are pretty decent for the price & they use the same socket (AM3) as the quads so upgradebility is better compared to intel's mess of socket types...

[enndee]

So is $1500 your limit?

Also what screen size/resolution you running?

Nothing wrong with AMD processors however you really want to go socket 1366 with Intel at the moment.

The speed of the i7's is just too good to pass up, and you'll easily be able to get 3.5ghz (closer to 4ghz) outta the processor making it a very nice machine.

The 4350 video card though is a joke. It's old design and slow as shit for new gaming. You'll need something more like a 5850 ($300)

Definitely go with an i7, I bought my i7 rig in 2008 soon after they came out and I spent about $2.5G including a 26" LCD. My specs are:

base model i7 - 920 I believe

2x Samsung 1TB in Raid0 - though if ssd prices are down it's definitely worth buying one (and putting the OS and swap file on it, and buying another drive for storage)

UD3R Gigabyte mobo (should have gone for the intel board though...)

6GB kingston

radeon 4890 (can definitely get better value for money now)

As you can see it's nothing great, though it still plays everything fine in full HD.

Also look at getting a good vid card, as IMHO they are still the bottleneck of the system.

Have a look at the build section of the AtomicMPC forums, good bunch of guys that have probably answered this question a couple of times this week.

Hope that helps

[Marcus89]

ATi wont be releasing new cards for a while

5850 is currently a very good compromise.

Although i did see one for around $230 the other day which is CHEAP... also a 5870 for $320 which means prices everywhere else will start dropping shortly.

Where the hell did you see that I would buy a 5850 for that price straight away or even the 5870 even though i don't really need it. Cheapest i have seen the 5850 was like 320 but then the price went up to 342 (this is at msy)

[R31Nismoid]

Ah i think it might have been 300 (5850) and $400 (5870)

Getting a bit confused

It was a sale, as the site doesn't have them listed @ that price anymore. It's back to 340 & 400 respectively