AMD or Intel

[Grotbags]

I've been reading about cpu's and other componants for a few days. I've been out of the loop for a while now, for about three years i think. i was hoping i could get some opinions here, to supplement the reading i've been doing!

I'm hoping to spend no more than 130 on a CPU, which one should I go for, I'd love to get a quad but I think i'm punching above my weight there. I'll be playing games on it, downloading, movies you guys know, the usual stuff!

Also I now know practically nothing about the latest graphics cards- DX11's can anyone recomend one for under 70 ?!!

Thanks in advance !

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You need to think of the platform price. How much is your motherboard budget BTW??

AMD motherboards tend to be cheaper than their Intel counterparts for a similar feature set.

What are the main uses for the PC??

[Grotbags]

Its a small budget, perhaps 450-470 for the whole build minus the monitor. so no more than 60 for the mobo. hopefully if i can get the correct parts i'd like to be able to play CoD black ops with decent settings. i play a lot of online shooters, watch films, internet browsing.

i'm looking at these right now

MSI Radeon HD 5570 1024 MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

HIS Radeon HD 5770 1 GB GDDR5 Eyefinity DisplayPort HDMI 2x DL-DVI (HDCP) PCI Express 2.1 X16 Video Card Retail

The HIS is significantly more expensive and not a fair comparison to make between the two. I would like to know though what people thought of them or if they could perhaps suggest better performing alternatives!

[jim]

You need a blu-ray drive?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you need to buy an operating system??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems an Athlon II X3 is faster than a Core i3 at a similar clockspeed in Black Ops:

http://www.techspot.com/review/336-c...nce/page8.html

I would probably get a GTX460 or HD6850 graphics card too:

http://portals.hexus.net/?item=27537...id=microdirect

[Grotbags]

blu ray is not really essential at the momment and I'm planning to use my old xp

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would get:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 ~ £58

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/238326

OR

AMD Athlon II X4 645 ~ £87

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/238327

MSI 870A-G54 ~ £65

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/205849

Has USB3.0 and SATA3.0 ports.

4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £43

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173105

Inno3D GTX 460 768MB ~ £115

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/226371

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case~ £29

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779

Antec 520W High Current Gamer PSU ~ £60

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

The total comes to around £414 to £443 including free postage.

The GTX460 tends to do better in Black Ops then an HD6850 although the latter can be faster in games like Crysis Warhead.

There is a cheap GTX460 1GB available for around £128 to £130:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Palit-SONIC-...2283208&sr=8-1

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-p...288-cores-hdmi

However,the card lacks VRM cooling in retail samples AFAIK.

There is also an HD6850 1GB available for around £132:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-m...-dl-dvi-i-hdmi

The OP also can get free postage from Scan:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...-delivery.html

[Grotbags]

Cat, this is absolutly amazing! I can't thank you enough for the help. I'm definatly going to go through the list and read up on them.
Will be a while... : )

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Black Ops seems to be run better on triple and quad core processors.

You could probably get an Athlon II X4 645 and a GTX460 1GB or an HD6850 1GB for around £460.

The Phenom II X4 925 can be had for under £100:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248852

It might be faster than the Athlon II X4 645 in some instances.

However,the Athlon II X4 640 can be had for around £75:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/242140

[sammorris]

Careful on the GTX460 Smart Edition, isn't that a GTX460SE, not a proper GTX460 1GB?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Careful on the GTX460 Smart Edition, isn't that a GTX460SE, not a proper GTX460 1GB?

Good spot! The card on Scan is indeed a GTX460SE 1GB which is will be slower than a GTX460 1GB.

[Grotbags]

Thanks for the input. I've been reading even more and it seems that a lot of people are not even bothering with DX11 yet, is there even any point do you think in investing in one now, or just to get a decent 10.1 !?

[sammorris]

DX11 is largely irrelevant, all the current cards offer it, and they're more powerful and efficient than the previous generation.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the input. I've been reading even more and it seems that a lot of people are not even bothering with DX11 yet, is there even any point do you think in investing in one now, or just to get a decent 10.1 !?

Since your using XP you can only run DX9.

Also,cards like the GTX460 and HD6850 have much better performance even in most DX9 and DX10 games when compared to the previous generation cards.

For example the HD6850 is 25% than the previous HD4890 which was similarly priced:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/H...D_6850/28.html

Also,the HD6850 1GB consumes far less power than an HD4890 1GB too:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/H...D_6850/26.html

In Black Ops using DX9 a £100 HD5770 1GB is faster than the HD4890 1GB and the GTX460 1GB has twice the performance of the HD4890 1GB:

http://www.techspot.com/review/336-c...nce/page4.html

[sammorris]

That's hardly true in all situations though is it, I'd consider that a testing anomaly, the 5770 is a good 15% behind the 4890 normally.