Dilemma!

Cookeh

Cookeh

Cookeh

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Joined
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After seeing benchmarks of the new GTX560 (namely seeing it thoroughly beats a HD5850 in EVERYTHING and can handle AA better) I'm no longer so sure of what I should be buying.

Original Plan:

Phenom II X4 955
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0
4GB GeIL DDR3
HD5850

Total: £333.96

Alternative 1:

Athlon II X3 455
Same mobo
Same RAM
GTX560 Ti

Total: £348.94

Alternative 2:

See above
HD6950

Total: £358.95

Alternative 3:

Phenom II X2 555 (hope for unlock to at least X3)
Same mobo
Same RAM
GTX560 Ti

Total: £360.94

Alternative 4:

Phenom II X4
Same mobo
Same RAM
GTX560 Ti

Total: £398.95

Things worth noting:

  • I've already bought ram (hence price being £4 down from list price currently on website)
  • I game on a 19" monitor with res 1440x900 but would at some stage like to upgrade to 1080 (so, 22"?)
  • I've never played a game max in my life, so wouldn't miss a few settings being turned down.
  • Already spending £10 (hopefully on a used Noctua NH-U12 P SE2) on a cooler.
So, which to go for?
  • The motherboard does CF at 8x/8x so that's an option for the future that isn't afforded to me by going nVidia. However would need to upgrade PSU (current is a 480W CoolerMaster affair).
  • I can spend up to £400, but really would rather not - would pretty much empty my current account.
  • Would getting a cheaper graphics card and a Phenom II X4 set-up be the way to go, and then upgrade graphics and PSU when I see frame rates drop?

Any ideas are welcome :)

Cheers
 
This, X4, and a far better Gpu.....

buildbn.png
 
Tempting, but GTX480s have stupendous power draw and put out loads of heat! My PSU is only 480W, and iirc correctly can only output 450W!

Also, comparing the Athlon II X4 and Phenom II X4 it seemed that Phenom II was 6-10% better and that margin only increased as both were overclocked - so I kinda pushed Athlon II out the running - is it really worth considering?
 
Woulda said Phenom x4 and 480, then you pointed out power issue, so Phenom x4 and 560, the slightly lower spec mobo isnt going to make any real difference, as Im sure you know

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.98
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.99
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £37.99
Total : £397.96
 
your other option is to go for something like this....

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz
G.Skill RipJawX 8GB
Foxconn P67A-S Intel P67

for £392

use an old gpu/a cheap one until you can upgrade that and the psu, would be a lush build and last a long time.
 
95thrifles, only thing that worries me about the 760G chipset, and that mobo is its overclocking ability! That's the reason I never spec them, as I have no idea what the clock like.

Looks tasty though, tasty indeed. Is it not overkill though? And noticed a HD6870 with 3 free games for £174.99 earlier. Iirc correctly The 6870 hates AA, but is the same as / marginally better than the GTX560?
 
I know of a good motherboard that overclocks well. ;)

custom pc gave it their gold award when they had a round-up a year or so a go.
 
Just noticed I can get a HD5870 for £20 cheaper than a GTX560Ti. And from the benchmarks I've seen they're pretty much identical.

Worth a better look?
And what kind of power does it draw? (One thing I haven't been able to find).
 
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