Which Processor ?

[mikeymead 17]

Hi all,

 

Well it's got to the point that there's not much more that I can do to update my poor old Fujitsu Siemens PC so I thought that this time I might have a crack at building my own PC instead of buying off the shelf.

 

I've set myself a budget of about £1000.00 give or take for the total build.

 

I can't quite make my mind up of which processor to go for.

 

The two choices I have in my price range are:-

 

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.2HGz AM3 Black Edition Processor.

Or

 

Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz 8MB Cache LGA1366 Socket.

The PC will be used for various stuff, gaming wise I play SF2 ( all versions) Various racing games, RTS games and a few FPS.

 

I'd be gratefull of any input.

 

Many thanks.

 

Mikeymead

[+DoctorQuest 125]

Good timing.... I have very similar questions..

 

I am ready for a new gaming PC and would like to know what folks run and what kind of SF2 performance they get.

 

I really don't think I need bleeding edge top-of-the-line gear just a bump from my P4 machine.

[Chamo 0]

In my opinion, you should get Intel's. It has a good range for overclocking so It won't get old for some time (2-3 Years based on Moore's law, which is a wide time span).

 

AMD's has six cores, but based on the reviews, it's just an ol' Phenom II X4 with two more cores.

 

One of my friends has an i7 950 past the 4GHz line so yours could handle 3.5. I'm talking about overclocking, of course.

 

Nevertheless, I have always loved Intel's chips, so wait for a AMD-sided mate to post, so you can compare.

 

 

[JediMaster 451]

The problem with the AMD is that while 6 cores sounds great, only the very latest programs can take advantage of that and I'm pretty sure SF2 isn't one of them.

 

The 930 is certainly the better CPU, but keep in mind you have to get a pricier mobo and buy 3 sticks of RAM vs 2 for it. You can spec out the rest of the system ala carte, but the RAM/CPU/mobo trio is closely linked and you have to price the 3 together.

 

You may want to consider the core i7-870/875 instead. Similar price and performance but only LGA 1166 and the mobo is cheaper and you only need 2 sticks of RAM (dual vs triple channel).

[Von Paulus 8]

You may want to consider the core i7-870/875 instead. Similar price and performance but only LGA 1166 and the mobo is cheaper and you only need 2 sticks of RAM (dual vs triple channel).

It's LGA1156. The finger just refused to move out from 6.

I agree with JediMaster. And you can always think also in I5-760. A wonderful processor for overclocking.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i5-760-core-i7-970,2698-6.html

[JediMaster 451]

Spellcheck doesn't catch number typos.

[mikeymead 17]

Thanks for all the advice, I've found it very useful.

 

From reading what you've said I've come up with this as a work in progress.

 

Case Akasa Freedom Xone Black £ 45.49

Mother Board & Processor Asus Intel Ultimate Bundle (Includes P6X58D-E Motherboard & Core i7-930 2.8GHz Processor)£349.98

PSU XFX 850W Black Edition £110.00

CPU Cooler Akasa AK-CCX-4002H Vemon £ 36.11

Memory Kingston HyperX 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz / PC3-12800 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM £114.98

Hard drive Western Digital 1TB Caviar 3.5 sata6 7200rpm 64MB £ 75.00

Optical Drive LG Electronics 22x DVD-RW SATA Black bare drive plus Nero software £ 16.99

GPU XFX HD-583X-ZAFV Graphics Card Radeon HD 5830 1024MB PCi-E HDMI DVI £152.87

Card Reader Akasa Internal 3.5" USB 2.0 Card Reader £ 12.11

Operating system Windows 7 Home premium OEM £ 80.00

 

£993.53

 

I'm not sure what you think but I think this offers fairly good value and room for future growth?

[JediMaster 451]

Well, I'd say that's a great system aside from the 5830. I don't know how much more a 5850 would cost you or alternatively an nvidia GTX 460, but either of those would greatly outperform a 5830 which is the obvious bottleneck here.

Frankly 6GB of RAM is overkill for today, but it's a great expansion idea for later. I have 4GB on my home PC (just about 3.5GB usable thanks to 32-bit) and I never run out, while I did when I had 2GB.

If you could take the extra £ 57 for the 2nd batch of 3GB and apply it to the £ 153 you're spending on the 5830, maybe you could get a 5850 or 460? No idea what they run over there, but £ 210 should get you closer.

 

Don't forget to install Win 7 in 64-bit mode or you're stuck with only 4GB of RAM usable regardless of how much you buy and install! If you plan on only running 32-bit, then the extra 3GB of RAM is totally wasted anyway.

[SFP1Ace 33]

Well, I'd say that's a great system aside from the 5830. I don't know how much more a 5850 would cost you or alternatively an nvidia GTX 460, but either of those would greatly outperform a 5830 which is the obvious bottleneck here.

Frankly 6GB of RAM is overkill for today, but it's a great expansion idea for later. I have 4GB on my home PC (just about 3.5GB usable thanks to 32-bit) and I never run out, while I did when I had 2GB.

If you could take the extra £ 57 for the 2nd batch of 3GB and apply it to the £ 153 you're spending on the 5830, maybe you could get a 5850 or 460? No idea what they run over there, but £ 210 should get you closer.

 

Don't forget to install Win 7 in 64-bit mode or you're stuck with only 4GB of RAM usable regardless of how much you buy and install! If you plan on only running 32-bit, then the extra 3GB of RAM is totally wasted anyway.

 

This. Plus many benchmark show that 5830 is often even slower than previous generation ATI Radeon 4890....If you could squezee that 60 quid extra for 5850, it would be much better choice, IMHO. And apparently 5850 draws less power than 5830! :D

Edited August 23, 2010 by SFP1Ace

[mikeymead 17]

Thanks for the advice guys,

 

I had planned on installing Windows 7 in 64-bit mode.

 

Turns out that I can get a GTX 460 for not much more than the HD5830, HD5850 are at least £70.00 more but would probably be worth it in the end.

 

This GTX 460 seemed quite a good buy.

 

http://www.dabs.com/...948135-50520000

[JediMaster 451]

Yes, the 460 has gotten rave reviews, unlike its bigger siblings the 470 and 480 which have received "well, they're pretty good". Had it been out when I replaced my 260 I might have bought that instead of my 5850 since it costs less and seems to be as fast if not faster. Oh well.

[mikeymead 17]

Just thought I'd give a bit of an update.

 

I'm having to buy the components in groups of about £250.00. I'm about 3/4 of the way there at the moment.

 

When done I'll probably partition the hard drive so I have the option of duel booting Win7 or XP.

 

What is the best way of doing this and how much room should I allocate to the operating systems?

 

Many Thanks.

[JediMaster 451]

Always install the oldest OS first. As for partitioning, well, with 2 OS my personal preference is 3 partitions--one for each OS and the final for the data/programs. You will of course have to install most programs twice, but if you install them to the same place (overwriting the first install with the 2nd) you'll be unable to uninstall in both OS, just whichever you installed last, so it's not generally recommended.

 

If you got the 1TB drive, I think I'd feel safe with pretty much any split. As long as the partition is 200GB you're good for most situations. Some people swear by more or less, but you've got room to spare.

 

 

[mikeymead 17]

Thanks JediMaster,

 

I must admit I've found your suggestions with my new pc build extremely helpful, You've probably prevented me from making both silly and costly mistakes.

 

Cheers:

Edited October 4, 2010 by mikeymead

[mikeymead 17]

New system is coming along quite nicely, just got to get the memory now.

 

One question about that, was going to get 1600MHz CL9 sticks, but would it be worth paying the extra £40-£60 for 1866MHz CL9 or 1600MHz CL7.

 

Will I get any benefit or in the real world will I not notice any difference?

[JediMaster 451]

Depends on the application. I went from 2GB of 800MHz to 4GB of 1066 and noticed a real improvement in speed in many areas. I don't recall offhand what the CL levels for the 2 sets of RAM were, but they were equivalent IIRC. My gut says faster at the same latency is better than lower latency at the same speed, so I'd go for the 1866 over the 1600 CL7, but I know some people think differently. If they're similar price, though, you can expect similar performance. As to whether that's worth the money for the improvement you get, I can't say. You're already going to be faster than your previous system with the cheaper memory anyway.

Make sure the RAM you buy is listed on the site for the mobo as being compatible. My 2GB of RAM was listed as 1066...but only under certain circumstances and my mobo didn't support that, so it ran at 800! If your board doesn't support it, you may find it runs slower than the rated speed or at a higher latency or both! That would be a major bummer. When I bought this new 4GB set I made sure my mobo listed it specifically by model and speed and all so as not to waste my money. Not to say unlisted RAM won't work, it could be fine, but there's no guarantee.

Anyway, that's not a trivial amount of money, so I can't say it will or won't be worth it to you because you may or may not see a difference, and if you do you may not think it was worth that much. You'll have to go with your own feelings on that.

[mikeymead 17]

Well got there in the end, new pc is up and running, I don't know what the performance is like yet as I'm still in the process of swapping stuff over.

 

Running XP at the moment as I had a spare copy of it kicking around. I'll get Win7 next mounth.

 

I really quite pleased how it's going so far, thanks you guys for the help.