Gaming Computer

Headshot

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

well i'm located in co. wicklow so i am a fair distance away and i wouldn't know how much it would cost to ship a pc back and forth (plus would you trust an post handling your expensive computer?) so it all depends on that i supose

ah damn, pity your so far away

Before I head of

what are these options



edit also

whats wrong here



Also is it easy to install the fan myself ?

deceit

The first bit is simple, just an option if you want them to build the computer for an extra 20 euro and other services they offer and the problem is most likely you selected a cpu with a standard cooler and also selected the a70 so they want you to choose the cpu without a cooler.

Headshot

deceit wrote: »

The first bit is simple, just an option if you want them to build the computer for an extra 20 euro and other services they offer and the problem is most likely you selected a cpu with a standard cooler and also selected the a70 so they want you to choose the cpu without a cooler.

thanks for the reply

that's grand then, I probably could install the Corsair A70 myself

Headshot

Im stucking between a rock and a hard place

Im thinking of changing the CPU from the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T to the Intel Core i5-2500K

Ill have to choose a new motherboard thou but if I add a dear motherboard and the i5 its like only 79 euro over budget and I dont mind spending that if its worth it

So is it worth changing ?

IrishMetalhead

wouldn't buy a 2500k untill the sandybridge problem is fixed.
plus for gaming you'd benifit more irl with the 2 extra physical cores with the x6 altho the 2500k might be better in applications

(altho personally i have prefered amd over intel alot lately for somereason so i could be abit bias here)

Headshot

Man im confused, I just don't know which CPU to go for

anyone else have thoughts on the matter

Monotype

I presume since you have selected assembly that you don't want to swap the motherboard when the replacements come. Next, will you need to use any of the dud hard drive ports- i.e., is there much chance that you'll be adding drives?
If the answer is yes, then sandy bridge is out of the question.

The i5 would be faster in games as games usually aren't programmed to make the best use of many cores and intel has the performance advantage.

If you want to keep the budget lower, then AMD. Maybe save your money towards your next graphics card and you'd see better gains.

marco_polo

I though I told you to stop thinking about it too much and just order already . Either option will make a great gaming plaform, if you have the extra 80 for sandybridge then great, but in pure gaming terms you will be losing out on very little with the X6.

Once the GPU bottleneck starts to kick in at higher resolutions though you will rarely see a difference between any of the uppper middle - high end CPUS.

Even a single GT 580 can be fully utilized by Phenom II CPUs.

X6s (1100T not 1055T) vs i5-2500k in BFBC2 with GT 580
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/21

X6s (1095 and 1055T) vs i7-980 in Crysis Warhead with HD5870
http://www.guru3d.com/article/phenom-ii-x6-1055t-1090t-review/16

Multi GPU is a whole different ball game of course as the increased graphics processing power pulls the CPU back into the mix.

Headshot

marco_polo wrote: »

I though I told you to stop thinking about it too much and just order already . Either option will make a great gaming plaform, if you have the extra 80 for sandybridge then great, but in pure gaming terms you will be losing out on very little with the X6.

Once the GPU bottleneck starts to kick in at higher resolutions though you will rarely see a difference between any of the uppper middle - high end CPUS.

Even a single GT 580 can be fully utilized by Phenom II CPUs.

X6s (1100T not 1055T) vs i5-2500k in BFBC2 with GT 580
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i5-2500k-and-core-i7-2600k-review/21

X6s (1095 and 1055T) vs i7-980 in Crysis Warhead with HD5870
http://www.guru3d.com/article/phenom-ii-x6-1055t-1090t-review/16

Multi GPU is a whole different ball game of course as the increased graphics processing power pulls the CPU back into the mix.

wow those links are very good

marco do you think ill beable to play most games on 1920x1080 and even crysis 2 on the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T ?

marco_polo

Headshot wrote: »

wow those links are very good

marco do you think ill beable to play most games on 1920x1080 and even crysis 2 on the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T ?

You will be able to play any game no problem whatsoever and for a good few years to come as well, it will probably even outlast your HD6950 TBH (CPUS tend to have a bit more longevity, if I had to choose give me a three year old CPU over a GPU of the same age any day).

In terms of Crysis 2, unlike most other games it supports up to 8 thread so an AMD hexacore will run it just great. Even having said that I expect graphs for Crysis 2 will be no different to any of those above,as the upper mid / high end CPUs converge onto the same fps at higher resolutions.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,768604/Crysis-2-Everything-about-DirectX-11-3D-without-perfomance-drop-and-8-core-optimization/News/

Headshot

marco_polo wrote: »

You will be able to play any game no problem whatsoever and for a good few years to come as well, it will probably even outlast your HD6950 TBH (CPUS tend to have a bit more longevity, if I had to choose give me a three year old CPU over a GPU of the same age any day).

In terms of Crysis 2, unlike most other games it supports up to 8 thread so an AMD hexacore will run it just great. Even having said that I expect graphs for Crysis 2 will be no different to any of those above,as the upper mid / high end CPUs converge onto the same fps at higher resolutions.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,768604/Crysis-2-Everything-about-DirectX-11-3D-without-perfomance-drop-and-8-core-optimization/News/

**** it, ill go for IrishMetalhead recommendation. Just have to wait till they get the stuff back in

IrishMetalhead

what's currently out of stock then?

Headshot

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

what's currently out of stock then?

PSU

Hank Scorpio

Overall the phenom is prolly the better chip in applications and what not, but for gaming the i5 is better.

I done alot of research before i bought my rig, both are good choices though, but i know what i would pick. Those i5s have faster architecture and its utilised better in gaming

Plus the sandy bridge i5`s are being overclocked to 5ghz +

My gpu scores always seem to do better from benchmarks etc online, and youtube videos. I see games where im getting almost double the fps and i put that down solely to my overclocked i5

Headshot

nuxxx wrote: »

Overall the phenom is prolly the better chip in applications and what not, but for gaming the i5 is better.

I done alot of research before i bought my rig, both are good choices though, but i know what i would pick. Those i5s have faster architecture and its utilised better in gaming

Plus the sandy bridge i5`s are being overclocked to 5ghz +

My gpu scores always seem to do better from benchmarks etc online, and youtube videos. I see games where im getting almost double the fps and i put down solely to my overclocked i5

I blame you Nuxxx for putting my in between a rock and a hard place

Personally I wouldnt know anything about overclocking so I wouldnt beable to do it

Hank Scorpio

Headshot wrote: »

I blame you Nuxxx for putting my in between a rock and a hard place

Personally I wouldnt know anything about overclocking so I wouldnt beable to do it

Overclocking your graphics card is easy. You just install a software program and move the slider up bit by bit until it crashes in a game

Overclocking the i5 was hard work for me at the start, I was pretty much in your situation, didnt really know much about it. And i only bought my pc 4 months ago

Headshot

nuxxx wrote: »

Overclocking your graphics card is easy. You just install a software program and move the slider up bit by bit until it crashes in a game

Overclocking the i5 was hard work for me at the start, I was pretty much in your situation, didnt really know much about it. And i only bought my pc 4 months ago

You probably have alot more knowledge than me when it comes to computers thou

I wouldnt be comfortable doing the over clocking, so the i5 probably wouldnt be worth it then

Hank Scorpio

Headshot wrote: »

You probably have alot more knowledge than me when it comes to computers thou

I wouldnt be comfortable doing the over clocking, so the i5 probably wouldnt be worth it then

I had a few scares at the start, blue screens, pc kept restarting and wouldnt show any video etc, all these things are normal though.

Theres hundreds of tutorials online for overclocking i5`s. I could push mine a good bit further than it is atm but it wudent be worthwhile. The ambient in the room is quiet high atm.

Basically what your doing is increasing the bus speed and multiplier of the cpu to achieve a higher clock speed, the problem with that is finding the best and lowest possible voltage to achieve it while maintaining acceptable temps

marco_polo

nuxxx wrote: »

Overall the phenom is prolly the better chip in applications and what not, but for gaming the i5 is better.

I done alot of research before i bought my rig, both are good choices though, but i know what i would pick. Those i5s have faster architecture and its utilised better in gaming

Plus the sandy bridge i5`s are being overclocked to 5ghz +

My gpu scores always seem to do better from benchmarks etc online, and youtube videos. I see games where im getting almost double the fps and i put that down solely to my overclocked i5

I just looked at those benchmarks you posted today, but because you are running them with no AA you are taking it too easy on the GPU , so it not getting a proper full workout, hence your benchmarks are substantially higher on the overclock. If you ran them again with 8/18X AA I bet you would see a near tie with the stock speed numbers. Running a graphically demanding game @1080p with full detail and AA your gpu will be runinng at 100% full load pretty well constantly and all the overclocking (or more CPUs) in the world will not improve your FPS any further.

Even the 60 odd euro Athlon II X3 is competitive with the four fold more expensive i7-920 at 1080p gaining with a single HD 5870 (I note there is no AA turned on so the test is not quite as GPU demanding as it could have been, so they are not quite fully stressing the GPU either IMO)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-ii-x3-440-gaming-performance,2619-5.html

Just to illustrate what I was saying earlier about dual GPU, look at the absolute spanking the Athlon then gets by dropping in another HD5870 crossfire removing the GPU bottleneck big time.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-ii-x3-440-gaming-performance,2619-7.html

Hank Scorpio

I understand what your saying, i only ran them without AA to keep it constant across all the games, not all of them were offering AA options

The 460s are special because they scale so well in sli, they even outperform 470s in sli. 2 460s in sli outperform a 580 in alot of games, and in alot of them there dead even. add to that the heat issue, and your onto a winner

I honestly think a sandy bridge i5 overclocked to 5ghz or thereabouts would CRUSH any of the amd cpus in that price range

All my games in those benchmarks have my gpu at 99% constantly btw with vsync off

Edit: Just to add, I see the point your making and agree with it, but for future proofing and sli options in the newer dx11 (dx12?) games, its important to have the best possible gaming cpu for the money, and imo thats the sandy bridge i5`s by a country mile

marco_polo

nuxxx wrote: »

I understand what your saying, i only ran them without AA to keep it constant across all the games, not all of them were offering AA options

The 460s are special because they scale so well in sli, they even outperform 470s in sli. 2 460s in sli outperform a 580 in alot of games, and in alot of them there dead even. add to that the heat issue, and your onto a winner

I honestly think a sandy bridge i5 overclocked to 5ghz or thereabouts would CRUSH any of the amd cpus in that price range

With two powerful graphics cards in SLI/crossfire, or at a low resolutions absolutely the Phenoms would get crushed. But not with a single 6950 like this build which is on a fairly tight budget as is. We currently have a 90 euro motherboard which only has a second PCIe X4 slot so it not really suitable for high performance dual GPU (And we definately don't have the budget to upgrade to that level of motherboard ), also the 550W PSU is probably not quite suitable for a second 6950 either, so dual GPU is really out of the equasion.

Hank Scorpio

marco_polo wrote: »

With two powerful graphics cards in SLI/crossfire, or at a low resolutions absolutely the Phenoms would get crushed. But not with a single 6950 like this build which is on a fairly tight budget as is. We currently have a 90 euro motherboard which only has a second PCIe X4 slot so it not really suitable for high performance dual GPU (And we definately don't have the budget to upgrade to that level of motherboard ), also the 550W PSU is probably not quite suitable for a second 6950 either, so dual GPU is really out of the equasion.

Ye i edited my post just before you quoted mine

But surely its possible to get him the same gpu with a crossfire mobo and a i5? A decent case and psu wouldnt exceed 200 euro, so hes left with 600 for the gpu cpu and memory

Edit again: it would be nice to see how the 560#560/560 sli setup do compared to the 6950

Even though the 6950 can be flashed

Headshot

fyi

I can stretch to 900 euro btw

edit

of course I like to stick to 800 but as iv said before lads, i want the best I can get ya know

marco_polo

Why did I have a 6950 in my head, its a 560 in IrishMetalHead build.

Anyway with so 900 - 30 delivery - 85 Windows tax leaves us with 785 so i5-2500K territory ought to be possible (Not tonight though I'm off to bed ).

Hank Scorpio

If i was him, this is imo, with a 900 euro budget

I`d get a sandy i5k, a decent mobo supporting sli and a gtx560

The performance just from that would be immence, and theres an option of upgrading to sli( from what i seen the 560s scale well ) in the future

Headshot

If someone when they are well rested could advice me what to buy at hardwareversand
(with links), I would really appreciate it.

Thanks lads for all the help so far, good night

marco_polo

nuxxx wrote: »

All my games in those benchmarks have my gpu at 99% constantly btw with vsync off

Damn you, I had my hot water bottle filled and everything when I saw this.

Just to pick up this last point my previous posts were a simplification I suppose, what the lack of heavily demanding AA really does is allow the GPU to process frames more quickly, turning on fairly heavy AA levels substantially increases the processing time for each frame which is what ultimately causes the performance plateau amongst CPUs.

Although the the GPU was at 99% on both the stock and overclocked runs, the fact that it had more FPS to give on the overclocked run would suggest the GPU had not quite hit its absolute frame limit for those settings despite working admittedly very hard, and so was not GPU bound. (The fiendishly complex finer details of CPU/GPU processing interactions are way beyond my knowledge levels). What makes me feel a little better is that sometimes even the experts can't easily tell if it is the CPU or GPU limiting performance.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2008/03/31/an-elf-in-a-box.aspx

dwighet

nuxxx wrote: »

Ye i edited my post just before you quoted mine

But surely its possible to get him the same gpu with a crossfire mobo and a i5? A decent case and psu wouldnt exceed 200 euro, so hes left with 600 for the gpu cpu and memory

Edit again: it would be nice to see how the 560#560/560 sli setup do compared to the 6950

Even though the 6950 can be flashed

fingers crossed I will be able to give you reports of a xfire 6950 and O`Ced I5 760 at the end of this month.... The 6870 I have is going and definitely getting one 6950 but should be able to scrape up enough coin for a second...Also going to have to get a new psu if im going xfire.....I doubt if my xcilence 750 will be up for it so its going to be an expensive upgrade(AX 850) but will be in time for Crysis 2... Looking forward to that..:D

marco_polo

dwighet wrote: »

fingers crossed I will be able to give you reports of a xfire 6950 and O`Ced I5 760 at the end of this month.... The 6870 I have is going and definitely getting one 6950 but should be able to scrape up enough coin for a second...Also going to have to get a new psu if im going xfire.....I doubt if my xcilence 750 will be up for it so its going to be an expensive upgrade(AX 850) but will be in time for Crysis 2... Looking forward to that..:D

Jebus you've only had it a couple of months, :eek: I think you are becoming an upgrade monster :pac:

dwighet

marco_polo wrote: »

Jebus you've only had it a couple of months, :eek: I think you are becoming an upgrade monster :pac:

I know:eek:Would there be such a thing as a hotline for people like me...I think I need help