Hi all,
I'm planning on building a pc on a budget, main uses would be occasional gaming (high end games though), media and general use. Last pc I built was an athlon 64 3000 and having looked at all the up-to-date hard ware, there's just too much choice, so would like your opinion on a few things.
Firstly the processor: AMD or INTEL?
All my previous builds have been AMD as I heard they were good with games and are cooler to run. Intel on the other hand are less power hungry.
I was going to go budget on a C2D, but then realised that it's worse than an AMD Phenom Tricore which comes up cheaper? So now it's either:
AMD Phenom Tricore or Intel C2Q (cheaper ones). If out of the two which models do you recommend for both?
Secondly the motherboard (one with most headaches)
Basically I'm hoping to do a hybrid build where the graphics switches from integrated to external depending on what I'm doing. It's not completely necessary but would be nice.
Then there's the option of Crossfire or SLI? Just the case of NVIDIA or RADEON really. I'm thinking of going for a 9800GT but I heard there are some on par Radeons out there as well, although not sure which. I'm hoping to just install one card for the moment and maybe purchase a second later on.
So the mother board must be so that I can at least put two gfx cards in SLI or Crossfire mode, and so 2xPCI-E x16 is essential. I want a mobo also with integrated graphics to at least 9400gt performance level if that exists?
The rest of the components are okay with me, just these main components which always troubles me.
Thanks for any input.
WKY
I'm planning on building a pc on a budget, main uses would be occasional gaming (high end games though), media and general use. Last pc I built was an athlon 64 3000 and having looked at all the up-to-date hard ware, there's just too much choice, so would like your opinion on a few things.
Firstly the processor: AMD or INTEL?
All my previous builds have been AMD as I heard they were good with games and are cooler to run. Intel on the other hand are less power hungry.
I was going to go budget on a C2D, but then realised that it's worse than an AMD Phenom Tricore which comes up cheaper? So now it's either:
AMD Phenom Tricore or Intel C2Q (cheaper ones). If out of the two which models do you recommend for both?
Secondly the motherboard (one with most headaches)
Basically I'm hoping to do a hybrid build where the graphics switches from integrated to external depending on what I'm doing. It's not completely necessary but would be nice.
Then there's the option of Crossfire or SLI? Just the case of NVIDIA or RADEON really. I'm thinking of going for a 9800GT but I heard there are some on par Radeons out there as well, although not sure which. I'm hoping to just install one card for the moment and maybe purchase a second later on.
So the mother board must be so that I can at least put two gfx cards in SLI or Crossfire mode, and so 2xPCI-E x16 is essential. I want a mobo also with integrated graphics to at least 9400gt performance level if that exists?
The rest of the components are okay with me, just these main components which always troubles me.
Thanks for any input.
WKY