Help! system speccing

eXalin

eXalin

eXalin

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for the last few weeks I have been researching day in and day out to try and find out what I should buy.

In october, I will be building a new system, however I cannot decide at all on the sort of set up to go for (amd/ati, intel/nvidia)

I have been swaying towards an intel nvidia set up, and these are the advantages/disadvantages I have identified.

Intel / nvidia set up

Advantages
  • 3DVision, ability to play games/films in 3D (this is the main reason I want to get an Intel/nvidia set up.
  • Intel i7 is better for gaming and is overall a much better CPU
  • 6gb of DDR3 RAM, (I have read that while the performance boost is minimal, it is still there over a DDR3 dual channel set up
  • X58 and its components are generally better than that of the AMD FX set up

    120HZ Monitor, another important reason why I want to get an intel set up, 120hz will be great, the thing is if it supports 3d I would really wanna get it, and by getting an ATI set up I wouldnt be able to use it.

    I could go SLI obviously if the 470 was not enough.

Disadvantages

Premium pricing, the cost of an intel set up is much more expensive which means the products I get will not be as high quality as the products I could afford If i went for a AMD set up.

I could afford a 5970 if I went for an AMD set up, instead with this set up I can only afford a 470, which if I understand may struggle to run 3D vision or games such as crysis on high resolution / max settings on a 23.6 acer monitor.

ATI set up

Advantages

  • Able to pound any game with a 5970, would not bother with a 5870 as I might aswell get a intel set up if i chose to get a 5870
  • Much cheaper, meaning able to afford other products, higher quality psu's, more expensive ram etc

    ATI bringing out new range in november/october meaning the 5970 price should be slashed!
Disadvantages

  • AMD is known for the budget market, and having read benchmarks all of the i7's beat it hands down, you get what you pay for.
  • No 3d Vision
  • Is it worth spending 270 on a 120hz 3d monitor if I cant even use the 3D feature? Might aswell spend 150/200 on a nice normal tn panel, but I would really love to have the new technology




so please, someone give me some advice on what one to go for! obviously I wont be buying my kit until the begining of october (by which time ati should be releasing the new 6000 series which means the 5970 price may be slashed!
 
i guess it depends on how important 3D Vision is to you.

if its something you really want, then u dont have much choise really and have to go with nvidia.

for the 120hz montior, even when not using 3D they still tend to look better due to the higher refresh rate.

u can run an nvidia card on an AMD setup however, but u lose the ability to SLI in the future.

a single 470 is still a pretty fast card, and should handle most games, even with 3D, althou some of the more demanding games would stuggle and might have to stick to 2D.

u do have the option to get SLI in the future thou that will boost ur 3D vision, and overclocked 470's in SLI are pretty quick.

u could cut down the price abit if you really wanted to and go for an I5 instead. Just make sure the motherboard has SLI, as not all the 1156 boards do. Theres not much difference in games between an i5 and an i7, as an i7 isn't used to its full potential in games.

because the i5 is also dual channel, then u'll have 4GB instead of 6 so that will save you money as well
 
Thanks for the swift response :)

the thing is i5 is dual core, i want quad core as i bet more games will start to be released which will make use of the other 2 cores.

I would have gone for the amd set up with sli, but as you mentioned, they arent compatible, unless you hack the motherboard and im not really to keen on doin that ;p!

I think a 120hz monitor is a must, but I dont wanna fork out 270 for a 120hz monitor if I cant even use it to its full potential (i.e with 3d)

ahhhhh, so stuck!
 
actually there are 2 types of i5, the 6xx series and the 7xx series

the 6 series is dual core hyperthreaded, so 4 virtual cores.
the 7 series is quad core no HT

the i7's are better, but as far as games go, theres little difference.
however, if you do other things on your pc that require more cpu power, then an i7 would be better than both AMD and an i5

if you have the money, then an i7 would be the way to go, better platform, tripple channel ram, faster cpu, etc.
i7's are also Quad Core HT
 
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