£500 budget cpu/motherboard/ram

bakes0310

bakes0310

bakes0310

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Joined
22 Oct 2004
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spec myself heres my two options:

Option 1:
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz
Asus Crosshair III Formula
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000MHz PC3-16000C10 Low-Voltage Triple Channel

Total: £437.96

Option 2:
Intel Core i5 660 3.33GHz
Asus Maximus III Formula
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000MHz PC3-16000C10 Low-Voltage Triple Channel

Total: £506.98

So which one?
 
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Is 4gb ram enough or shouldnt i get 6gb. For example theres a couple games that use 4gb ram like dragon age.

Edit with the ram you recommended and going with the amd option the total is £383.95. That seems mighty low, is it really a nice a upgrade?
 
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Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £142.99
(£121.69) £142.99
(£121.69)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £121.89
(£103.74) £121.89
(£103.74)
Patriot Sector 5 G Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel (PGV34G1600ELK) Patriot Sector 5 G Series 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel (PGV34G1600ELK) £82.99
(£70.63) £82.99
(£70.63)
Sub Total : £296.06
Shipping cost based on delivery to work address, S8 9NR with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £53.39
Total : £358.45

get this and it will fly in games!
 
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM £143.03
(£121.73) £143.03
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
(£91.91) £107.99
Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) Patriot Sector 5 Viper II 4GB (2x2GB) PC3-12800 1600MHz Dual Channel + 3D Mark Vantage (PVV34G1600LLKB) £82.76
(£70.43) £82.76

Sub Total : £284.07
Shipping cost based on delivery with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £49.71
Total : £333.78

Get this and it'll beat the AMD in nearly everything!

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18106602
 


I know it's at the high end of your budget and you can decide if it's worth it or not but, I just thought I'd throw an i7 build into the mix. :)
 
bakes0310 said:
spec myself heres my two options:

Option 1:
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz
Asus Crosshair III Formula
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000MHz PC3-16000C10 Low-Voltage Triple Channel

Total: £437.96

Option 2:
Intel Core i5 660 3.33GHz
Asus Maximus III Formula
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000MHz PC3-16000C10 Low-Voltage Triple Channel

Total: £506.98

So which one?
Click to expand...

The Phenom II runs RAM in dual channel so you need to go with 2 DIMMs or 4 DIMMs.

Also you may want to consider the following motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-366-as&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

it can do crossfire at pci-e 2.0 8x which should not be much of a performance difference when compared to pci-e 2.0 16x:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/amd/hd_5870_pci-express_scaling/

also i would consider going for a phenom ii x4 955be instead of a 965be as it is much cheaper:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=cp-244-am

basically you can get the cost of the amd build to under £300 with very little performance hit and still have crossfire capability.

spend the money saved on a pair of hd5770 1gb cards and you can have performance in games which can challenge a more expensive hd5870 1gb:

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=862

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2983/his_radeon_hd_5770_1gb_video_card_in_crossfire/index.html
 
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bakes0310 said:
Omg decisions, i thought it wqas going to be easy:p
Click to expand...

Well I built an i5 for my grandfather for £540, its not for gaming but he gets great converting and burning speeds, which takes him about 20mins to complete everything. Just change the graphics card and the psu, sorted.

And the aska case was surprisingly great, very quiet. The antec 300 gaming case or the new cooler master advanced case would do great also.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18102556

Hope this helps, build and review in link
 
Ok how about out of these two:

option 1:
Asus Maximus III Formula
Intel Core i5 661 3.33GHz
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Total: £452.97

Option 2:
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz
Asus Crosshair III Formula
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Total: £383.95
 
Stick to an AMD setup if your main purpose for the rig is gaming. You will save a lot of money whilst still having a very fast setup and put the money towards a really good graphics card or go crossfire with 2 x 5770s and be happy for a long time.

Also, the AMDs OC very well with decent air coolers so you will see further gains there which means even more performance for your money.

Not saying the Intel is not good enough or worse, in fact it will out perform the AMD at certain tasks but bang for buck goes to an AMD setup with the difference being only marginal.
 
0neAnd0nly said:
Well I built an i5 for my grandfather for £540, its not for gaming but he gets great converting and burning speeds, which takes him about 20mins to complete everything. Just change the graphics card and the psu, sorted.

And the aska case was surprisingly great, very quiet. The antec 300 gaming case or the new cooler master advanced case would do great also.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18102556

Hope this helps, build and review in link
Click to expand...

Your grandad has an i5 build? Lmao! If asked my grandad if he wanted an i5 he'd probably put out his hand and wait for me to slap it!
 
From those 2 options, the AMD (quad) one wins.

It gives you better performance and costs less.

Spend the rest on a a new vga or more ram.
 
Ok so it looks like it's amd two final questions:

1. what cpu cooler and will it fit in my akasa 62 eclipse case and of course on the motherboard?

2. Never overclocked before, so is the ram im getting geil value good enough?

Edit: raralis im way under my budget so i could just buy better ram now, so what should i get?
 
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