Component Recommendations Required

t1mm

Hi there,

My Athlon64 3000+ is getting a small bit old (!) so I'm thinking of putting together a new system for gaming. I required only a motherboard, processor, ram and graphics card, and hope that you can help me make some decisions on which components to include. I'd rather not spent more than 400 euro.

Processor
By all accounts, the i5 2500k seems to be the best value for money according to reviews I've read and posts I've read here.

Motherboard
I'm really not pushed - I don't require a vast number of sata ports or 8 channel integrated sound or anything.

RAM
I'll probably put between 6 and 8gb in.

Graphics Card
I'm still trying to figure out both ATI and nVidia's naming schemes. Does anyone have an opinion on this card? I've picked it out mainly based on price, and the fact that the 6950 has only a DVI port added for 40 euro extra.

Finally: I've got a 500w X-Power PSU that I've been using for a few years now, do you think it would be alright to hang onto it or should I consider buying a new one?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Tea_Bag

you cant compare a 6770 and a 6950. different league and more than an extra DVi port.

you're cutting it too fine with a budget of €400 because id never recommend you to keep that PSU. id suggest going AMD and a good GPU if you cant afford to spend the money on this:

Total build cost: €407.28 + €30 shipping
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.10
Intel Core i5-2400 Box, LGA1155 €152.19
4GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9 €25.71
ASRock H61M/U3S3 (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX €60.17
HIS HD 6850 Fan GDDR5 1024MB Native HDMI Display Port Dual-DVI €128.11

Monotype

Are you thinking of the 6790? You can't get a 6950 for €150 yet.

If you're hanging onto items, be aware that hard drive technology has moved on quite a bit and speeds would be double what they were in 2005/6.

DVD drive may also be incompatible if they are PATA and your board has SATA only.

weisses

Monotype wrote: »

Are you thinking of the 6790? You can't get a 6950 for €150 yet.

If you're hanging onto items, be aware that hard drive technology has moved on quite a bit and speeds would be double what they were in 2005/6.

DVD drive may also be incompatible if they are PATA and your board has SATA only.

Yeah absolutely right there ..... got caught as well few years back with a "small" upgrade

IrishMetalhead

heres what you can get if you go the amd route

Total build cost: €372.73 + €30 shipping
AMD Phenom II X4 840 Box AM3 €80.17
4GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800U CL9 €25.71
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.58
ASUS EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5, AMD Radeon HD 6870, 1GB, PCI- Express €140.93
Gigabyte GA-880GM-USB3, AMD 880G, AM3 mATX €73.34

now this has advantages and disadvantages of the sandybridge upgrade.
the only disadvantages i can think of off the top of my head is you won't get as powerfull of a cpu off the bat and as far as i know that motherboard dosn't support sata 3.
But you gain massive advantages on the faster gpu and higher wattage psu also have the choice to upgrade to one of amd's zambezi range of cpu's whenever amd finally decides to bring them out ¬.¬

IrishMetalhead

Monotype wrote: »

Are you thinking of the 6790? You can't get a 6950 for €150 yet.

If you're hanging onto items, be aware that hard drive technology has moved on quite a bit and speeds would be double what they were in 2005/6.

DVD drive may also be incompatible if they are PATA and your board has SATA only.

ohh yea i forgot about that.
more than likely you will have pata devices which will need to be replaced to get ones that will work with the new mother but luckily it only costs an extra €50 if you need to buy both a new hdd and disc drive:

http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39670&agid=1342
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=47362&agid=699

hopefully your devices are sata tho to spare you the pain of spending extra money on bits you already have

t1mm

Thanks for the replies everyone - I really appreciate it! I've got a SATA hard disk but only an IDE DVD-RW drive so I should probably add that to the list too. An expensive hobby!

IrishMetalhead

well thats abit of good news, dvd burners are sub €20 these days anyways so no big loss, could of been worse

Tea_Bag

Hmm I wonder if my build with an i3 would be better than the phenom 840, which is really just an athlon quad, and for the same money?

Monotype

If it's for games, the extra cores are better (i.e., 2 vs 3 or 4), so X4 would have the advantage, when overclocked. That's if the intel quad core was out of the price range.

IrishMetalhead

wouldn't go with the i3 as hyper theaded cores arn't as good a physical cores in general so the amd set-up i posted would be your best if your looking to with that price range so basicly what monotype said anyways.
heres a basic scale of what procs are better for gaming (imo):

Athlon x2 < Athlon x3 = Core i3 (1155)? < Phenom x4 < Phenom x6 < Core i5 (1155) < Core i7 (1155)

keep in mind there is feck all performance difference in gaming between the Phenom x6 over the x4 and the i7 over the i5
Am i right in saying this? please correct me if I'm wrong its the only way I'll learn

fergus1001

i have a 6850 in my rig and it plays every game under the sun at high to ultra settings

Tea_Bag

fergus1001 wrote: »

i have a 6850 in my rig and it plays every game under the sun at high to ultra settings

Bought a 6850 for a friend but never tested it. I assumed it was similar to my old gtx460. Curious, what resolutions are you playing on?

fergus1001

Tea_Bag wrote: »

fergus1001 wrote: »

i have a 6850 in my rig and it plays every game under the sun at high to ultra settings

Bought a 6850 for a friend but never tested it. I assumed it was similar to my old gtx460. Curious, what resolutions are you playing on?

Well I'm playin native to my desktop witch is 19somthing x something I'll check it tomorrow but in terms of performance I get 30-40 fps on said resolution on the ultra texture and dx11 update

Monotype

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

keep in mind there is feck all performance difference in gaming between the Phenom x6 over the x4 and the i7 over the i5
Am i right in saying this? please correct me if I'm wrong its the only way I'll learn

Pretty much, although I've read that the X6s overclock slightly better. With gaming, you usually best spending the difference on upgrading your card. Looking at the X6s, they've come down a lot. €126.86 at hardwareversand for the 1055T now. The i3s are nearly that price! I think I'd take it over the lower i5s 23xx, but if you're close, the 2500K is undoubtedly worth stretching for. 2600K if you have money to burn and like looking at extra threads in the task manager.