Ok, I'm seriously in the market to build a new PC. I've been out of the gaming loop for several years now. I've dabbled on the Xbox, but trashed it recently because it was not fulfilling my empty PC gamer heart. Now Planetside 2 is on it's way along with various other titles and I think it may be time to get back into it. I'm back in the States, got mostly regular hours and actually have evening and weekend time to play; I just need something to play on. I also have zero faith in next gen consoles. NOW... Is it still worth it to build my own rig? I'm on a bit of a budget, what's the best tech for current gen that would be easily upgraded for future-proofing? Insight & opinions graciously appreciated.
There is very little you can do for future proofing anything. Your best bet is a socket 2011 motherboard as that will get a CPU upgrade, however I highly doubt you can afford that. AMD's socket AM3+ will also get an upgrade to the "Piledriver" core later this year. Socket FM1 is at its end of life, to be replaced later this year with FM2. Socket 1155 is also at the end of its life, having just received its last processor upgrade. That said, socket 1155 with the Z77 chipset and an Ivy Bridge processor is your best price/performance ratio and how you should go. If you cannot afford to go that route then a socket AM3+ and a Bulldozer processor is your next best thing, unless you can find a good deal on a Sandy Bridge system for around the same price as a Bulldozer system. Lowest end Sandy Bridge you should go with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 Ivy Bridge processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504 Bulldozer processors: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106009 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106010 Sandy/Ivy Bridge motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293 Bulldozer motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131757 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226245
How do you feel about the AMD APU systems? I was looking at the A8 + Radeon HD 6870 for a balance of budget and performance.
I wouldn't buy amd apu personally. Just go with regular amd cpu + hd card 7870 is on sale now and will cost you 280$ish, but defenetly more future proof then 6870 Whats your budget?
I've decided AMD this time around for sure. In order to keep within my +/- $700 budget, I'm thinking there will not be any future proofing now that i'm shopping. I'm hoping to get at least 3-5 years out of this rig though.
So I just realized I hit edit instead of quote, so here is what I meant to post a few hours ago but accidentally edited into your last post: The APU's are really only the way to go if you are REALLY on a budget and are planning to use the integrated graphics. The Bulldozer processor may not be as efficient per clock cycle, but because it runs at much faster speed it will still give better performance. If you dont plan on overclocking, Bulldozer will work better for you. The Llano cores can only be overclocked to between 3.8-4GHz on good cooling, and Bulldozer can hit between 4.7-5GHz on that same cooling, which again maintains the edge from sheer clock speed. Combine that with the motherboard having a greater likelihood of being able to upgrade the processor in the future and you really have a lot more reasons to go with AM3+ and BD over an FM1 and Llano. The only reason I would go with Llano right now is if you are on a really tight budget, as you can get the A8-3870k for $105 with promo code. But if you arent buying within the next week or so or if you can afford just a bit more money, Bulldozer is the way to go on your kind of budget. Llano on sale: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106001
If you are on a budget best Gaming Processors atm are Intel, and if you don't plan to overclock it's best to go with i3 2010 I think was the number of the processor i think there is 2020 now doesn't matter its very fast for games a friend has it plays diablo 3 BF3 with 560 Ti card no problems at all running it at high. If you do want to overclock and you are on a budget its best to get Sandy bridge i5 2500K its better than the ivy bridge because it doesn't overheat so much and you can overclock it to 4.4ghz with lets say Coolermaster Hyptertower and the ivy bridge is just hot as hell and air cooling isn't really a good option for it cause it gets around 75 degrees when clocked plus sandy bridge is cheaper also motherboard is cheaper i would refer an P67 chipset if you are running an RAID config HDDs than its good to have the Z68 but if you aren't no point. For video card atm Nvidia are selling their 570 cards cheap cause they will go out of production at the end of August because then the 660 will come out and the 570 is cheaper and with very close performance if not better so I would go for that I am with 2 of those babies and they will keep me up till the 700 series come. Here is Tom's Hardware CPU Scale for gaming http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html
Id recommend you pick up evga gtx 480. it is 200$ right now and performs close to 7870 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130759&Tpk=GTX480 mobo - 99$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262 cpu - 109$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996 power supply - 69$ after rebates offer ends tomorrow http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020 HDD - 74$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136784 case - 69$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108236 DDR3 - 42$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231542 = 654$
Where are you getting that statistic? The 7970 should completely destroy a 480 under nearly all circumstances.
Enigma, we should make a sticky with different types of rigs for different price ranges and/or preference (ATi/Nvidia, Intel/AMD, etc)
As a non-tech guy who is in the market for a new system soon™, I'd really appreciate having a resource like that. It would also probably save you guys some time too.
The amount of threads made (including mine from a while back) about build advice -- yes it would save a lot of time for everyone. I'll try to look into this.
Finding someone willing to track the latest and greatest tech and then update the thread will be the challenge. I'm still trying to talk my wife into letting me buy the damn machine lol Here is my proposed build: MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813131757 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819103961 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814161405 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820226245 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817139020 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136533 Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108395 After rebates comes to about $850.
I just bought a decent (and cheap) wireless keyboard/mouse. I plan to HDMI the PC to my TV and kick-ass from the couch. Just need a wireless headset to talk to you guys and i'm all set. People have argued that wireless input devices are bad for gaming, but unless I play some extreme *twitch* shooters, which I don't, then I think it will work just fine. If it doesn't work out I guess I'll just buy a new keyboard and mouse and a desk to play at lol
This would be a better processor for the exact same price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106010 and a better graphics card for only $5 more: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161411 The TV would be of much larger detriment to your playing ability than a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Idk about the TV being worse, I was kicking ass in CS:S HDMIed to my laptop earlier. I feel safer going with that particular 7850 because of the much improved cooling. I can OC the card to a 7870 mark easily without upgrading my cooling equipment. So you think the 6-core is a better buy than the 8-core? Why is that exactly?