Sandy Bridge or Phenom, Spec me.

powned

powned

powned

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Hi big blue forum :D

I've been lusting after a sandy bridge 2500k lately (who hasn't?) Thankfully I've now cooled off a tad and I'm trying to determine what CPU/GPU combo will be best for gaming within my budget, i dont mind overclocking so keep that in mind - I'm sooOOoo out of touch with system building in this brave new decade hence this post.

I need these 3 components and wanted to go for:

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz £199.99
MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 1024MB £155.99
Asrock P67 Pro 3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £94.98
Total £450.96

But would this be better?:

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 SUPER OC 1280MB £219.98
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3)£144.98
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £71.99
Total £436.96

Im not an Nvidia fanboy so ATI GPU suggestions are welcome. I don't to any video encoding or much compression, I just want something that will give me the best performance for my money (£450) after overclocking in games like crysis, crysis 2 (cant wait), rfactor, FSX, battlefield bad company 2 etc. I play @ 1680x1050 or 1920x1080, either is good for me. I've read opinions that say sandy bridge will/wont make much difference to your fps, ive heard people say spend the extra money on gpu and ive heard people say spend it on the cpu... I'm confused :confused:

Thanks in advance ;)
 
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Close call between the 2 really. The AMD setup is known and proven, the new SB CPU's have only been unleashed on the general population for just about 10/11 days so not enough to go on yet. If you really can I would hold out for a few weeks more and trawl the forum for as much info as you can get before diving in.

Not much use I know but I've never run a Phenom X6 (just a X4 for a while and a X3 at the mo) and have not seen enough of the SB to make my own decision yet :)

GPU wise, on your budget, try to squeeze a 6850 in and flash up to 6870 as already suggested :)
 
AMD have a new socket and processors coming out in a few months so would be tempted to wait till then and then pick.

The MSI ATI Radeon HD 5850 Twin FrozR II is back on offer so that could be good third option at £130 ?
 
No point getting the six core processor for gaming. If you go down the AMD route stick with four.

In my opinion the Phenom II chips seem like they are at the end of the road now. I would go for Sandy bridge if you want to buy now, or wait for Bulldozer to put some competition back into the CPU market.
 
No point having 6 cores when you will be only gaming.

Go for the Sandy Bridge option and overclock the nuts off it :D

My build is similar to your proposed spec and I love it, seriously I love it!

I see in your sig your main machine is a core2duo laptop? If anyone is thinking about upgrading from a core2duo to a sandy bridge do yourself a favour and go for it. I went from an e6300 to my Sandy Bridge setup and it is 3x faster in general.

Also - if you are only gaming in 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 resolution then you could save a bit of money and go for the 768MB GTX460.
 
2StepSteve said:
Also - if you are only gaming in 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 resolution then you could save a bit of money and go for the 768MB GTX460.
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fairly sure no matter what res your playing at, going for 1gig versions is always better option... 1 card will last longer n not struggle will future games as much as 768 version would
2 he has the option of getting bigger monitors..
i could be wrong tho?
 
Abrelosojos said:
Sandy bridge is overrated in my opinion. Its an i7 with a gpu you will never use.
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And overclocking potential beyond 4GHz, and much greater performance clock for clock than the outgoing i7, and a dedicated encoding engine, and lower power usage, and cooler temperatures. All at similar prices to the stuff it's replacing..............
 
Not sure how £55 extra and more expensive motherboards is a "similar price". The dedicated encoding engine is (currently) useless if you're overclocking, as is the IGP. However, you do indeed get lower temperatures, lower power consumption, better core-for-core and clock-for-clock performance and higher overclocking potential (by about 600 MHz).

Is that worth the extra cash? The answer, as always, is "it depends". Or, in other words, yes. ;)
 
Definately the sandy bridge for gaming, its a shame but AMD chips cant compete in gaming anymore, theyre decent but dont compare favourably to the intel chips at all.

Plus the GTX 460 although not faster than the 470 is debatably a better overall card. Sandy bridge + the 6950 flashed to 6970 as others mentioned would be the best combo.
 
Abrelosojos said:
Sandy bridge is overrated in my opinion. Its an i7 with a gpu you will never use - Might be good for laptops.
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If you actually read this statement through a couple of times it does actually make sense. :)

At enthusiast level your all buying £280 odd chips with a capable built in GPU that your never going to use. Secondly, once the initial flush is over and these socket 1155 chips get released to the laptop manufactures en mass it will turn the laptop market on it's head. Especially if you've laid out a substantional amount on a higher end model in the last 12 months.

And overclocking potential beyond 4GHz, and much greater performance clock for clock than the outgoing i7, and a dedicated encoding engine, and lower power usage, and cooler temperatures. All at similar prices to the stuff it's replacing..............
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Fallen victim to Intel's chip numbering confusion here. It's actually a replacement for your i5 range and the difference to a current i5 760 is closer to the £130 mark. The true replacement for the i7 is the socket 2011 which will make all those with 2600k chips look like over zealous puppy dogs. All those with pockets deep enough to have the fortune to currently run a i7 970/980X or the soon to come 990X are still laughing into the old pint pot.

The real winners at the moment are those picking up socket 1156 i5's and socket 1366 i7's from dopes pushing them out at peanut prices in favour of SB in the first 20 days on the market

:)
 
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Abrelosojos said:
Sandy bridge is overrated in my opinion. Its an i7 with a gpu you will never use - Might be good for laptops.
Click to expand...
It really depends on how you look at it...

Is it a CPU that worth upgrading to if you already got a overclocked i5/i7 rig? Probably not.

Is it the best CPU platform of choice to upgrade to for those not yet own a i5/i7 system? Then the answer would probably be yes.

Also the type of games that the people playing is also factor as well. For example, for people that already got a decent graphic card, but play a lots of WOW or older games that don't use more than two cores, the frame rate increase would be quite a margin switching to an overclocked Sandybridge system.
 
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