AMD or Intel

d3moliti0n

d3moliti0n

d3moliti0n

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Ok, in about a weeks time I will have £300 to spend on a new motherboard, CPU and a few other items. I have already ordered the PSU, memory and SATA HDD:

PSU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-BQ

Memory - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

HDD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA

My question now is, do I go AMD with one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-244-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1328 and this motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-339-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

Or do I go Intel with one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-339-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1672 and this motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-248-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

And will that PSU be ok with either of those choices (including overclocking) or will it only run one or the other? Also, will I need an aftermarket cooler to OC both of those chips or will a stock cooler be ok up to a certain point?

Also, after that, I will have a bit of money left over, I don't know whether to go for a 30GB SSD for my OS or to go for a new keyboard/mouse as my current ones are getting on a bit (but still work well). Also, I've never used an SSD before, where would it actually 'go' in my computer? Like, where would it fit in the case if I was to buy one?
 
psu is great and will work with either, nice ram choice too.

just wait a few more days and buy a socket1155 motherboard and sandy bridge CPU.
 
How much will those be? Will there be a big price difference?

Also, is it worth buying an SSD for my operating system? Will I notice a significant difference or will it be equally as fast at loading up etc. with that HDD?
 
d3moliti0n said:
How much will those be? Will there be a big price difference?

Also, is it worth buying an SSD for my operating system? Will I notice a significant difference or will it be equally as fast at loading up etc. with that HDD?
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just use the nice fast 1TB, get a SSD later on, they are more of a luxury than a necessity.

I have no idea of sandy bridge prices, but the reviews out show them to be epic.

www.anandtech.com

www.bit-tech.net
 
True Sandy Bridge looks mint

Thing is I agree on the SSD- Buying one in future makes much better sense unless you are feeling flush


Im gonna wait till SSD'S are 500Gb mainstream then take the plunge
 
Sandy Bridge isn't that far away, it's worth waiting on. However don't rely on it being a game changer. There's always hype before a launch :)

Intel are not going to come out with a chip that competes with their existing line up and price it at a position that blows them out of the water - although it will allow them to compete more with AMD, at certain price points AMD is worth looking at.

Watch for motherboard prices as well, often there's eyewatering prices when a new platform launches.

I highly rate SSDs. But with a budget of £300 I agree with Stupid, look at the SSD later.

If you're planning to spend £300 on a motherboard and CPU then you'll have a huge range to choose from. Be careful what your requirements are of the motherboard. Do you need firewire, USB3 of use etc etc.

As far as where does the SSD go? Anywhere you like. They weight almost nothing. You can attach them with sellotape to the frame of the chassis. I'm being completely serious.

If you were to find another £100 then the SSD would be what to spend it on.

Finally we haven't mentioned graphics cards - You're going for integrated graphics and you have little or no interest in first person games?
 
The Halk said:
Finally we haven't mentioned graphics cards - You're going for integrated graphics and you have little or no interest in first person games?
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I already own a graphics card thats just under a year old: Point of View GeForce GTX 260 (216 core) Exo edition, 896MB. I don't see the point in upgrading yet as I assume it's still a powerful and relevant GPU that will be able to run current and upcoming games at high graphics settings, it's just the rest of my system that needed upgrading as I'm currently running a 2GHz E2180 dual-core system with only 2GB of ram on Windows XP.
 
Fair enough on the graphics card front.

However it's by far the biggest power draw in your PC. But your PSU is still sufficient, but there's not a lot spare.

That particular PSU, as far as I remember, doesn't have a lot of 12V juice, the 530W rating is a little generous, soif you're going for a big fat overclock you might see stability issues. It's still rated for your system at stock though, and a small overclock won't change much.

As far as an aftermarket cooler, that's something you should almost certainly get. Even if you just want to cut down on fan whine/resonance. An Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 is perfectly fine for it, and you'd need to spend (waste) a whole lot more money to get something better. Any difference a better cooler would make would be more than offset by the cost.

Edit : Oh hang on a minute. I don't know about the new Intel socket type and coolers... at a guess I would say they would fit fine, but you should get a better answer on that to avoid having to pay for a fitting kit for any cooler you buy.
 
I highly doubt I will be overclocking it that much, just a bit of an OC on the CPU to get a bit more out of it for gaming. I would say just another couple of GHz or so. As long as I can get games running well on the machine then I won't be aiming for big OC's etc.

Do you think that will be ok with that PSU?
 
d3moliti0n said:
Do you think that will be ok with that PSU?
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That PSU is good, plenty of watts and power.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/170

Is a GTX260 with a i7 overclocked system, notice the 300watts while playing Crysis and the 336watts while using Furmark, that is the TOTAL power usage, Sandy bridge is even more power efficient.

That Bequiet PSU will power any single card configuration and an overcloked high end system easily.
 
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