Any recommendations for my future gaming rig?

[Surf314]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phen...,2389.html

My chip, I strongly recommend for price/performance.

[Surf314]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.a...102&p2=109

Also a good resource. I dunno what i5/i7s are going for but they seemed way out of my price range when I built mine. I built my computer for about what you want to spend and I think it's p great.

[Didzo]

I see Intel as overkill. I have never used more than 55% of the resources on my AMD processor... and that's with both TF2 and Spore running on maximum settings on the same time, along with an internet browser and some other crap.

[copulatingduck]

have you played anything newer than tf2? me1 gobbles cpu cycles like whoa, as one example

[Kirby]

Crysis > CPU's too

[zaneyard]

i can run crysis on very high settings at 1920x1200 fine

[Didzo]

have you played anything newer than tf2? me1 gobbles cpu cycles like whoa, as one example

I played two games at once.

On two different screens.

With multiple other programs sitting around as well.

CPU stayed in the low 40C's as well.

[copulatingduck]

tf2 and spore are hardly something to be benchmarking cpu performance with. just going from performance charts on tom's hardware, the i5 gives slightly boosted performance, for a slightly larger price (going off newegg for that). so if we were to ignore the staggering difference in thermal output, or the fact that intel has just been kind of kicking amd's butt in development (at least insofar as work for the higher-end of personal computing goes) then you could maybe argue that buying amd makes sense. amd is nice, and i buy it when it makes sense, but right now, the price differential basically does not exist. the proc karth is considering yield's very similar performance to the proc surf mentioned, but with a mere $15 price difference. if it was my money i would put the extra $15 down for 3 reasons:

• less heat
  
• less power consumption in general
  
• and comfort in the fact that, should anything happen, intel will most likely continue leading the race for at least the immediate future. so if shit goes south, at least that's one (or 2 counting mobo) less part(s) I will have to worry about in the future.

amd at least in recent history has been great for the price/performance folks, but tbh as of late they've been struggling just to keep up with what would be considered the middle-line of performance. the prices aren't what they used to be and the chips aren't as well designed as they used to be (or rather, they're certainly not better designed than the competition). imo there's not a lot of reason to buy amd right now

[copulatingduck]

How big of a difference is there between i5 and i7 beside the price?

the difference, in something most people can understand: performance as it relates to any of a given number of applications

[Surf314]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=4209.msg136916#msg136916 date=1266200249]
How big of a difference is there between i5 and i7 beside the price?

the difference, in something most people can understand: performance as it relates to any of a given number of applications
[/quote]

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-...,1398.html

I dunno?

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

i5s are really coming down in price.  Also, looks like one of the i5 (I forget which one) can pretty easily OC up to the i7 extreme stock settings.  But the i5s on their own are still great chips as I hear it.  And yeah.  Shit.  More ram.  Like 4 gigs for scalability to the future.

[KarthXLR]

Karrde link=topic=4209.msg137236#msg137236 date=1266364655]
i5s are really coming down in price.  Also, looks like one of the i5 (I forget which one) can pretty easily OC up to the i7 extreme stock settings.  But the i5s on their own are still great chips as I hear it.  And yeah.  Shit.  More ram.  Like 4 gigs for scalability to the future.

There are 4 gigs on there.  :-*

[Didzo]

Your case is ugly.

Find a less ugly one.

Gawd.

[KarthXLR]

Also thinking about throwing in this graphics card.

Worth it?

[Versus]

yes

[Kirby]

Looking at that card, I'd recommend you rethink your case decision, both that case an mine are within half an inch of each other in every dimension, except I have (4) 5" bays and (5) 3.5" bays, and I have issues where my 4890 is literally in between 2 of the drives it's so long, thatcard is longer than mine by a good inch or so, and you'll have much less room to work with in regards to HDD placement, having only 3 3.5" bays.

[KarthXLR]

Looking at that card, I'd recommend you rethink your case decision, both that case an mine are within half an inch of each other in every dimension, except I have (4) 5" bays and (5) 3.5" bays, and I have issues where my 4890 is literally in between 2 of the drives it's so long, thatcard is longer than mine by a good inch or so, and you'll have much less room to work with in regards to HDD placement, having only 3 3.5" bays.

So, a larger case?

[Surf314]

Also thinking about throwing in this graphics card.

Worth it?

I read on Tom's that 2 250's are the best bang for your buck. You should be getting a big PSU no matter what though and you can still SLI that baby.

[KarthXLR]

[quote author=Karthkarthkarth link=topic=4209.msg137399#msg137399 date=1266448942]
Also thinking about throwing in this graphics card.

Worth it?

I read on Tom's that 2 250's are the best bang for your buck. You should be getting a big PSU no matter what though and you can still SLI that baby.
[/quote]
Spore said I shouldn't f with sli. :X

I'm only buying one card, but upping my power supply isn't a bad idea. Is 600 Watts really not enough?

Holy eff this computer is basically being made from scratch.





ALSO: Would installing Windows 7 be wise?

[Surf314]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=4209.msg137428#msg137428 date=1266453040]
[quote author=Karthkarthkarth link=topic=4209.msg137399#msg137399 date=1266448942]
Also thinking about throwing in this graphics card.

Worth it?

I read on Tom's that 2 250's are the best bang for your buck. You should be getting a big PSU no matter what though and you can still SLI that baby.
[/quote]
Spore said I shouldn't f with sli. :X

Also I'm only buying one card, but upping my power supply isn't a bad idea.

Holy eff this computer is basically being made from scratch.





ALSO: Would installing Windows 7 be wise?
[/quote]

W7 is the only windows worth installing. SLI as far as I know has come leaps and bounds from where it was when I think a lot of people here formed their opinion of it. The scores on Tom's get pretty substantial increases and with some cards you can set one to work on Physx and the other to display. But basically to me it's a great way to not throw away money. See I bought a 250 cuz I was running into my budget wall but now I know I can just get another 250 and SLI for the performance of what Tom's is telling me a little better than a single GTX 285 (at least in 3DMark). And that would cost me $400. Only downside is power, you should overbuy power to make room for upgrades, especially SLI.

But if you get a 260 and later you have $200 lying around you can get another and have even better performance.