Gaming My pc build

[kjb1686]

okay then i will go with the i3 and upgrade at a later time think 3.1ghz is a pretty decent speed for it not being overclocked. would this mobo be a good choice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157270 or is there one that is either 10 dollars less or so that will perform the same.

 

[marcus134]

Okay so here is my questions among the many games out there are there many that require a quad core processor or would a dual core be more than sufficient if that is the case i might get the i3 and at a later time upgrade into the i5 or i7 or whatever ends up coming out

currently, the vast majority of games available on the market don't take advantages of more than 2 cores.

Because of that, tom's hardware sub 200$ cpu recommendation are mostly dual cores.
(best gaming cpu: February 2012) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

 

[Splych]

an i3 is a good choice for now. As for the motherboard, for me I have preference for ATX sized mobos. It's more of a personal one, but the feeling of having a "full" one looks nicer to me and feels like I have more space [again, probably just something I want myself to think]. At the budget you put for your mobo, it's a little hard to find one. I usually make it a standard to have 4 slots of RAM just in case I ever upgrade.

In your current situation, it's a little hard to find things. You plan on upgrading later, but the mobo limits you @ that budget. I recommend either putting more budget towards the mobo and going for a cheaper processor then upgrading the processor or whatever else the forum has to say. It would be good to look at the list Marcus posted and trying to fit in your budget there.

 

[kjb1686]

I manage to find a few good motherboards but i don't know which one would work for me

MOBO 1: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157270
MOBO 2: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128521
MOBO 3: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813121508

Which of these would be a good choice i dont want to spend more than 95 dollars on a mobo if possible.

Also i just found this MOBO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767 it was listed on the falcon guide.

 

[Originality]

Of the 4 listed, go with the first. The second and fourth are AM3 motherboards hence incompatible with Intel CPUs. The third is H67 so not as good as the Asrock Z68M.

 

[kjb1686]

Okay i am going to get that mobo right now i am looking around at AMD CPUS and seeing if i can find a good one that is either equivalent to the i3 or a quad core and is cheaper than the i3.

 

[Originality]

If you get that Z68 MoBo, you can't get an AMD CPU.

 

[kjb1686]

I'm going to hang onto the motherboard as in leave it in my cart unless i find something else from amd cheaper that is about as good as a i3 or something i will purchase all of my parts as is.

Edit as a matter of fact i just found this http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103996 it looks nice but i don't know now all that is required is a motherboard.

Edit once again: I found this MOBO for the cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280 i dont know if these would work for the items in question but for a motherboard less than 100 slim pickings.

 

[marcus134]

Okay i am going to get that mobo right now i am looking around at AMD CPUS and seeing if i can find a good one that is either equivalent to the i3 or a quad core and is cheaper than the i3.

it's really up to you, the core performance of a i3 is better than it's amd counter part, but you can get a quad for the same price if you go amd and software that takes advantages of 4 core get more speed from amd.
bench (phenom 2 X4 955 VS i3 2100) : http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=289

On the plus side for amd, their cpu are unlocked, they can easily be overclocked to close the gap when it comes to core performance.

If you look at this article, you'll see that the cpu you choose when it comes to gaming, doesn't really matter as most games are bottlenecked by the gpu anyway ( even with a hd7970), for the few games where the cpu has a stronger impact (satrcraft 2), you don't see a segregation between dual and quad cores because actual games doesn't take advantage of quad cores.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120.html

the choice is this:
amd: quad from day 1, easy overclock (fx series has high OC potential) to close the performance gap. (12 core announced for next year)
Intel: cheap dual core today, upgrade to a quad next year (or the one after) - more core speed.

quad core optimized games: although some are starting to appear on the market, I don't think they'll be common for the coming year and dual core cpu should be able to run them without penalty. Quad core may become a necessity in 3 years from now, but the amd quad available today may not perform fast enough by then (far projection - hard to say exactly, from my experience of the past 10 years).

the question is whether the other things you do with your computer or the way you use it will take advantage of a quad core or not.

 

[kjb1686]

Okay nevermind i managed to get it down to 566 and i found this psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035 is this a decent one and also this hdd http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767 are these good choices like i said im sticking with the i3 that should be just perfect for me.

 

[Splych]

Originality has pointed this out before, Seagate HDD don't last long through his experiences along with many other people. My dad doesn't mind using them, but I take the safer route and go for another brand other than Seagate. With that being said, for the same price I recommend either of these HDDs:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769 [Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $85]
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236080 [Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB - $85]
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181 [Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB - $85]

I am just a little unsure about the Samsung one since they were bought by Seagate. Other than that, they're all going for the same price and same capacity so it may just be personal preference now.

 

[kjb1686]

Okay that western digital blue looks nice so i will snag that what about the psus though is the antec worth it or should i get the corsair.

 

[Originality]

Today I'm in two minds about Seagate. On one hand, as mentioned, I've had many, many years of bad experience with them (mostly people calling me saying their computer broke, I ask what HDD it is, and it usually turns out to be Seagate). Based on this, I think it's fair for me to say that Seagate HDDs will probably fail within the first year of use.

On the other hand, CPC Magazine did a lab test on the majority of current drives available, and gave the award to a 2TB Seagate Barracuda drive. This means that they (at least) trust Seagate enough to recommend them to everybody (based on performance to price value).

BTW, out of Samsung Spinpoint F3 and WD Caviar Blue/Green, the Samsung is the best.

 

[kjb1686]

Okay so the spinpoint is the best out of the 3 once again i ask how the psu is compared to the corsair.

 

[Originality]

Both Antec and Corsair are very good brands, so I don't compare between them. There may be minor differences between them (such as ampage on the 12V rail/s or number of SATA connectors) but for the average person either will work just fine.

 

[moose3]

While this may be a bit off topic as i didn't see it come up yet, but with all the good PC building information, i thought I would throw out one more tidbit in terms of GPU:

Unless you are building a system to max out some benchmark specs, your best bet is buying the one best graphics card you can. SLI and Crossfire setups can be a bigger headache than any performance advantages. This includes dual gpu on one card setups, they suffer the same disadvantages as an SLI/Crossfire setup with even more disadvantages of their own.

When they work, they are nice, you can get higher fps and push settings higher, but they don't always work. Graphics cards have to have drivers or profiles set up for each game to have the setup actually work so you have to wait or try a few tricks and even then the companies can still screw things up royally.

Granted I may be biased with having had a 4870x2 that I had to RMA twice, and AMD had serious issues getting a driver out the door that didn't have one problem or another with the second GPU...

 

[Originality]

ATI (at the time, now AMD) were famous for their driver problems. Since then, AMD have evened the playing field so they don't have the same problems as they used to.

With the issue of the HD 4870X2, my brother has one. I had to RMA it after 3 months (at the same time as the motherboard) due to a stupid event that got both fried at the same time. It's worked fine since (3 years now I think).

I never mentioned SLI/Crossfire because when it comes to a budget, multi-GPU setup is a stupid idea. Instead of buying 2 weak GPUs to pair up, just buy one GPU that's 3x as strong. It's as simple as that (sure, there's the issue of microstuttering in multi-GPU setups, but that's only for gaming and my advice remains unchanged).

 

[kjb1686]

Okay im settled then i am going to post my new build in a minute but the antec is 10 dollars cheaper and i like it so im getting the antec.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157270
Graphics: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130752
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035
Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231394 Best i could find for the price
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

Ok the last two items the keyboard and dvd drive no need to post that so im not going to. Okay how is this build decent.

 

[thieves like us]

I see that you chose the samsung hdd (at least you passed on the WD green series which is good, because I've had nothing but trouble with 3 of their drives).

I'm running one of the seagate barracuda hybrid drives (16GB of flashram and the other 500GB is platters) and love it. my laptop boots up and shuts down very quickly due to the way the drive "learns" which system should be stored in the flashram.

additionally, if it's not too late, you may want to reconsider your psu and spend a few extra dollars and go with one of corsair's modular units. not only are they rated very highly, they run quiet and you don't have an excess cabling (which will block your airflow) that you have to tie off and try to hide out of the way.

 

[kjb1686]

so i should not get this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035 but this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027.