New Computer Build
 

I have a few questions for those computer hardware Gurus
Whats the best processor to get
Intel i7 or the new AMD x6 processors
or should I just buy the cheaper quad core or i5 i3 processors

is it worthe the huge price gap?

need more info.... what do you plan on doing with your computer? gaming? encoding? whats you budget?

gaming. Budget is 1000 or less (hopefully LOL).

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...anufacture=AMD
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...anufacture=XFX
or
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...A&promoid=1069

Then RAM MOBO Case Hard drive

I don't think op needs 6cores for gaming, but since it is a good choice since it is the same price as i5 750.

For gaming, you do not need 6 cores. You only need 6 cores if you run multi-threaded applications such as video encoding, photo editing, etc. Most game will not take advantage of that anytime soon.

Since you posted in the sc2 beta thread, i assume sc2 is one of the games you want to play. I don't remember the link to the benchmark a site did, but basically, sc2 will benifit much more from the clock speed and cache size on a CPU compare to the number of cores.
That said, if you know how to overclock, the new x6 amd's are very easy to OC you can easily get one of them up to 4.0Ghz on air.
either x6 or i7, you can't go wrong. But if you go the i5/i3 LG1156 route, its a dead end upgrade path. The i7 LG1366 will be compatible with the new i9(intel's consumer level 6cores) coming out later this year.

not worried about sc2 because my computer runs it fine.
Upgrading mainly for bad company 2 and upcoming games.
Also gonna start doing a lot of photo editing

So after reading tons of reviews.
Ive decided to go with ATI for video cards (maybe crossfire)

Anyone have advice on motherboards? Will it really effect performance?

For gaming, go with a Phenom II X4 9xx (like 945) and a 785G chipset motherboard.

Core i3 540 is also a good choice, if you want to go Intel. No real advantage to that though, other than lower power consumption. The motherboard will be a bit more expensive.

AMD vs Intel $100-150 CPU Benchmarks - Gaming

Then spend the rest of your budget on the most expensive video card you can afford.

There is absolutely no reason to spend over $220 on a CPU, let alone $150. In fact, you might even want to go a bit lower than a 9xx or Core i3, allowing you to put even more budget into your video card. An X2 550 is a good choice, because although it's dual core, it has a full sized cache and high clock speed. This is more important than having more cores in games, and that extra $50-70 will be much more effective in games when put into a better video card.

the 945 is $164 right now so thats a pretty big price difference :)

PSU doesnt really matter right?
500 watt should be sufficient for everything correct?

Also whats your opinion on crossfiring 2 radeon hd 4850 compared to 1 hd 5770 or should I just take the huge hit and get a 5850

Don't crossfire.. spend that amount of money on a single video card instead

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

Opinions on this mother board?
edit: supposedly it supports am3 as well

Get the 5850 if you can afford it

That motherboard will be good

sweet. Thanks a lot skinny pup probably cut my build by 50% lol

saw the 5850 on sale for about 280 + tax, partially lowered due to a mail in rebate. Plus, it was by XFX, which has a great reputation for their customer service and warranty.
this was at ncix. Sort of let down, since the 5850 was around 250 USD at launch. I have a feeling that the price is going to stay at 350 retail for awhile.

I have to congratulate you for listening to me. You are going to end up with a kick ass gaming PC for a really low price :thumbsup:

whats the best place to get ram
I don't need the brand name OCZ stuff right?

You should get OCZ or Kingston or another brand that offers a lifetime warranty

But no, you don't need the most expensive kind

are you going DDR2 or DDR3?

If he buys that gigabyte board, ddr2

something i like to do as well, and i was lookin at this build for $750usd which i've priced out the parts at www.newegg.com

Sony Optiarc DVD Burner $22.99
Antec Three Hundred Computer Case $59.99
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive $79.99
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 790GXAMD Motherboard $119.99
XFX HD-577A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5770 XXX Edition 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $179.99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Power Supply $89.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $109.99
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core CPU $74.99

any recommendations to make this build cheaper? Or any parts out now that is newer and cheaper ie: mobo/cpu etc... or discounts?

NEwEgg.com does not ship to canada.. at least when i emailed them a couple years ago, they didnt

But newegg.ca does.


I would throw in a cheap SSD drive. I built a comp with a Kingston 64 gig value drive and a I3 and it frigin flies.

I will have parts shipped to a US postal office and pickup the parts myself.

won't the duties and taxes plus trouble add up to ordering locally/newegg.ca?