What to get? On a budget.

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mm622449

Weaksauce
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Sep 3, 2005
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I have two sticks of Gskill ripjaws ddr-1600 pc12800.


I have $450 to spend on a CPU/Motherboard/ and vid card....


Want to be able to run games like the new Battlefield, etc....


Recommendations?
 
450W, case is fine. Any resolution, doesn't really matter. Would like to have optimal video settings for a large TV as well as just a basic LCD monitor. Also, its 8GB of RAM.
 
Also, keep in mind I want this system to last for about 2 years... I was thinking AMD, but that's just because I thought AMD's product lines were cheaper.... I wouldn't mind Intel as long as it was just as fast for the $$.
 
but that's just because I thought AMD's product lines were cheaper.
Click to expand...

Its debatable if that is true anymore especially for the FX series. Although it looks like AMD has lowered the prices quite a bit since the bulldozer intro. The main reasons are low per core performance and desktop applications generally not being designed to use 6 or 8 threads. Intel is clearly leading at performance / watt but price / performance depends on what you do. It's hard to beat the 2500K but that is out of your price range.
 
Do you live near a Microcenter? You can't beat their bundles. There is an i3 2100 combo this month for $120 and they always have some AMD bundles.
Multiplayer BF3 does a lot better if you have more than 4 theads, so the 1045T combo for $120 would be good for that game. In other games the i3 would be better though.
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/bd4b92bc#/bd4b92bc/1
(No, I don't work for Microcenter but I spend too much money there.)
 
Spend the money for a good board. I use an Asus Sabertooth 990x. The processor? I would get a 960T for now, if you can find one. Video? Same as processor. Get an interim card, like a 6950/6870. if you can find one. If you don't care about resolution, any 2GB card from ATI that is as fast as or faster than a 5850 (6850, 6870, etc) will be fine. Can't spare the cash? Get anything that has over 800 stream processors.
 
I live like 30 minutes from a micro center?


Out of those bundles which would you recommend..... my budget is in the $250 range for just motherboard and processor alone.
 
i would choose the 960T Black Edition (it has an unlocked multipler, and if you're lucky can unlock it to a X6)
 
Any other input on this? Bump. $250 to spend on a CPU + Mobo combo that will run the new battlefield and the newer games coming out... Need to have enough longevity to last about 2 years.
 
Wait for Ivy Bridge and Trinity to come out, and then see what the options are. Ivy Bridge is end of month, Trinity is rumored to be next month.
 
Microcenter has a good deal, buying the 1045t, 960t, or any FX processor and get a Gigabyte mATX MB for $10 (then free after $10 MIR) its a 760G board but for $99-120 out the door for CPU and MOBO its an awesome deal. then just pick up 2x4GB ram and maybe a SSD and your set:-p I love MC's prices on ram and SSD's


just search around for good vid card prices, my Gigabyte 6850OC was $169-$30 MIR ($139) but they had 6870's for around $20 more plenty in stock
 
Do NOT get a cheap board. Period. Get a solid board, and whatever for CPU. The AM3+ platform (990FX) supports USB3, 2 or more 16x PCI-E card slots, and more. The board is the core of the build, not the processor. Board prices don't drop much, and the tech moves pretty slow. Quality boards have better voltage regulation and higher wattage stable. Processors get better and cheaper quickly.


You CAN monitor temps on an unlocked 960T. In fact mine shows within 4 deg celsius difference between the core sensors and the board sensor, when not unlocked. If you keep the voltage below 1.35, and the clock below 3.7Ghz, the 960T is fine, even with stock cooler, when unlocked..

Note: on my sabertooth 990 board I used 1.25V CPU, with Load line calibration allowing 120% CPU voltage headroom under load, to get 3.6Ghz stable, and under 52c full load. This was unlocked.

The processor needs crazy voltage to get past 4 Ghz stable, and only with 4 cores. The temps will be out of control with stock cooler, too.

Just stick with unlocked, CPU-NB at 2400Mhz, CPU clocked at 3.6 Ghz, 120% load line calibration room, and 1.27V CPU, 1.21V CPU-NB
 
I got Black Phenom 960T with Asus MB for $110+tax at Microcenter. Unlocked to 6 core, OC stable at 3.9GHz with 1.45V Vcore, HT 2400MHz. Ram Kingston Black 1600 9-9-9-24 1.65V, old Zalman Heatsink and pulling 250-260W at the wall. Folding continously 24hrs and getting 22Kppd.
 
GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard


$89.99


GIGABYTE GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16
$199.99




AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor $149. 439$ in total this is cheap an effective combo in some new games (BF3 multiplayer)6core FX is really good for his price.
 
I would pay the extra $10 for the Asus M5A78L-MX Plus board instead of that Gigabyte. The Gigabyte is only free AR and the Asus will support 125W processors vs. 95 on the Gigabyte (in the Rev. 4 and 5 boards anyway. If they are Rev. 3.1 it will support 125W).
 
Newegg has some nice bundles, check out their bundles page. I saw one the other day for around $350 without a video card.
 
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