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Are these good specs?

S

StayPuftGiant

n00b
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
11
1) What will you be doing with this PC?
-Playing games.
2) What's your budget?
-$700 tax and all.
3) Which country do you live in?
-US
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
-CPU, GPU, RAM, PSU, MOBO, case, Disc drive and HDD.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
-Monitor and kb+m
6) Will you be overclocking?
-Don't know a lot about it, but would like the possibility.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor?
-23" and I don't know resolution.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
-Plan on ordering within the week.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
-See info below.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
-Yes, 64-bit Vista Premium.

Been looking to get into PC gaming for the last few months and have cobbled this list of parts together to order but would like some experienced feedback/advice before I do so. Anywho, the list:

CPU- AMD Phenom II X4 965
GPU- Asus HD6850 or Sapphire HD6870
RAM- 2x4gb G.Skill Ripjaws
PSU- Antec BP550 550w or OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w
MOBO- Asus M5A97 Evo or GA-970A-D3
Case- Rosewill Challenger Black
HDD- Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb
Disc Drive- Disc Drive
 
Those aren't good specs. Intel's Core i3 CPUs are faster than AMD Phenom II CPUs when it comes to gaming. That RAM and GPU are overpriced. That case isn't too great. Both PSU choices are of low quality.

Here's what I recommend instead:
$262 - Intel Core i5-2300 CPU + Biostar TZ68K+ Intel Z68 Motherboard Combo
$40 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$180 - XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$117 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive + Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE SATA DVD Burner Combo
$64 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
----
Total: $713 shipped.

A little overbudget but totally worth every penny. The above build just blows that AMD setup out of the water in terms of performance.
 
Thanks a bunch. I'll definitely check over your recommendation and if all goes well, it might be the one I go with. Another question, how futureproof is it? So long as it'll last me 2 years it'll be perfect.
 
StayPuftGiant said:
Thanks a bunch. I'll definitely check over your recommendation and if all goes well, it might be the one I go with. Another question, how futureproof is it? So long as it'll last me 2 years it'll be perfect.
Click to expand...

As long as you're not that hardcore gamer performance person and don't plan on playing games on high settings, it should last those two years.
 
You can always upgrade your GPU after a year or two, the rest of your system should easily last 2 years of gaming.
 
slh28 said:
You can always upgrade your GPU after a year or two, the rest of your system should easily last 2 years of gaming.
Click to expand...

That's good. Kinda the reason I went with the AMD setup was a couple people were saying Intel's architecture or something would change soon and AMD's AM3+ was going to last at least 4 years, but that must have been just fanboys talking.
 
StayPuftGiant said:
That's good. Kinda the reason I went with the AMD setup was a couple people were saying Intel's architecture or something would change soon and AMD's AM3+ was going to last at least 4 years, but that must have been just fanboys talking.
Click to expand...

Actually there's a grain of truth there: Intel is changing socket next year. As such any Intel CPU coming out next year won't be compatible with the current Intel socket LGA 1155. However AMD's new Piledriver CPUs are suppose to be compatible with the current AM3+ socket. If plans stay on course, AMD might be releasing new CPUs for socket AM3+ in 2014. Since AM3+ came out last year I think, that would mean that AM3+ would last around three years if all goes to plan.
 
Danny Bui said:
Actually there's a grain of truth there: Intel is changing socket next year. As such any Intel CPU coming out next year won't be compatible with the current Intel socket LGA 1155. However AMD's new Piledriver CPUs are suppose to be compatible with the current AM3+ socket. If plans stay on course, AMD might be releasing new CPUs for socket AM3+ in 2014. Since AM3+ came out last year I think, that would mean that AM3+ would last around three years if all goes to plan.
Click to expand...

So when the LGA 1155 is outdated and, say, I want to upgrade the CPU, I would just have to buy a new mobo to go with the CPU?
 
StayPuftGiant said:
So when the LGA 1155 is outdated and, say, I want to upgrade the CPU, I would just have to buy a new mobo to go with the CPU?
Click to expand...

Basically yes.

However, before you think about going AMD, they're not actually that much better in terms of CPU support. While the physical socket may fit the new CPUs, the motherboards themselves may not actually support the CPU due to a variety of reasons like the motherboard won't be able to provide enough power for the CPU, not enough cooling on the motherboard to handle the CPU, and the motherboard manufacturer not wanting to update the BIOs of their older motherboard to work with newer CPUs. The aforementioned reasons have been the main reasons why certain AM3 mobos won't work with AM3+ CPUs even though socket AM3 can fit AM3+.

Not to mention that there's always the possibility of a new socket with AMD. Remember that AMD's AM3 socket only lasted two years before AM3+ came out. Before AM3, there was socket AM2+ which lasted only a year before AM3 came out. Before AM2+, there was AM2 which last about 2 years before AM2+ came out.
 
Thanks for the information, you've really helped a lot because it seems like I'm going to go with the setup you recommended earlier though I'm thinking of swapping the Intel Core i5-2300 CPU + Biostar TZ68K with an i5-3450 and a Biostar TZ77B . Are those worthy components?
 
Danny Bui said:
Those aren't good specs. Intel's Core i3 CPUs are faster than AMD Phenom II CPUs when it comes to gaming. That RAM and GPU are overpriced. That case isn't too great. Both PSU choices are of low quality.
Click to expand...

People are crazy! Phenom Quad core over dual core i3 any day! I don't care what some synthetic benchmark says about performance on games not optimized for 4 cores.

The more threads the better and since your budget is around $700 I would go AMD all day!
 
Last edited:
Great.... another one.

Dude, with his $700 budget, I was able to cram in the Core i5 2300, far far faster than most AMD CPUs in games. Unless you love to pay money for lesser performance, little reason to go AMD for a gaming setup.
 
jhwk6957 said:
People are crazy! Phenom Quad core over dual core i3 any day! I don't care what some synthetic benchmark says about performance on games not optimized for 4 cores.

The more threads the better and since your budget is around $700 I would go AMD all day!
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I disagree. There are newer games that utilize SSE 4.1 and/or SSE 4.2 fully - but unfortunately, AMD's Phenom CPUs support only four of the many SSE 4.x instructions at all. And if those games fail to find complete hardware SSE 4.x support in the CPU, the game falls back to the far slower software emulation mode. As a result, with those particular games the AMD CPUs perform as slow as or slower than an old-generation Core 2 Quad.
 
jhwk6957 said:
People are crazy! Phenom Quad core over dual core i3 any day! I don't care what some synthetic benchmark says about performance on games not optimized for 4 cores.

The more threads the better and since your budget is around $700 I would go AMD all day!
Click to expand...

Ok, I admit I was trolling a little. It is getting harder and harder to justify AMD for the serious gamers. But my only point is that for casual gamers buying a x4 965 over a 2300 for example is an easy way to save $91 and unless you are someone who obsesses over frame rates than I bet you couldn't tell the difference.

That's just one opinion, I know there are many who would disagree.
 
jhwk6957 said:
Ok, I admit I was trolling a little. It is getting harder and harder to justify AMD for the serious gamers. But my only point is that for casual gamers buying a x4 965 over a 2300 for example is an easy way to save $91 and unless you are someone who obsesses over frame rates than I bet you couldn't tell the difference.

That's just one opinion, I know there are many who would disagree.
Click to expand...
$91? The AMD Phenom II X4 965 costs $120 on the egg. The The Core i5 2300 costs $180. That's a difference of only $60 and the performance increase is well worth the extra $60. With that said, even if the OP couldn't afford the extra $60, the problem is the Core i3 2100/2120 is still a better choice the AMD Phenom II X4 965 when it comes to games.

Yes you might not be able to tell the difference but why get a slower CPU when a faster CPU costs the same?
 
StayPuftGiant said:
..

Anywho, the list:

CPU- AMD Phenom II X4 965
GPU- Asus HD6850 or Sapphire HD6870
RAM- 2x4gb G.Skill Ripjaws
PSU- Antec BP550 550w or OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w
MOBO- Asus M5A97 Evo or GA-970A-D3
Case- Rosewill Challenger Black
HDD- Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb
Disc Drive- Disc Drive
Click to expand...

This is extremely similar to what I'm running now (see sig: AMD 965, Spinpoint F3, Radeon 6850, 2x4GB Ripjaws RAM). It still works great, and it was a good value back in Feb 2011 when I built it -- but the reason I went with the AMD 965 was because of the issues with the Sandy Bridge launch.

I'd go with Danny Bui's suggeston at present and pick up an i5 instead. If I was building again right now that's what I'd do, despite my general satisfaction with my current build.

If possible I'd toss in an SSD too -- it's the one thing I don't have in my computer that I want to add.
 
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