• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

What processor -

sastusbulbas

sastusbulbas

sastusbulbas

Associate
Joined
26 May 2008
Posts
1,914
For gaming/movies and all purpose home use, how do these four processors compare?

Intel Core i7 920 2.66

AMD Phenom II X4 940

Intel Core 2 quad Q6600

AMD Phenom X4 9950

At the moment AMD looks like the more affordable, it seems possible to get an AM2+ mobo and budget AMD processor and upgrade it to better components and later switch to an AM3 board?

Or is it just as well to stick with an AM2+ mobo with an AMD Phenom X4 9150e or a 64 X2 7750? Or a Q6600 and 775 mobo?

The 9159e does seem to be good value? and energy efficient which I assume would mean quiet?

What sort of performance differences will be noticeable over processors in the £60 - £100 range?

What is more bang for buck? Intel or AMD? I assume 4 core is more future proof and suited to al round multiple uses?

And is it better to stick with Intel/Invidia and AMD/ATI ?

Cmon guys I need ideas! I keep running around in circles with an up and down budget. (PS I seem to be drawn to the Gigabyte mobos?)

Cheers,
Steve

Edit,

What memory would be recommended for a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3/AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition? And how would it compare to the Intel i7 920 with the same board?
 
Last edited:
For your uses, imo, you'd be better with a C2D like the E8400
Re intel/NVidia and AMD/ATI no it doesnt matter, Id recomend intel/ATI atm as intel is noticably better than AMD, and ATI is better value than NVidia - combine the E8400 with a 4870 1 gig and you're set for any modern game and most into the near future too.
Obviously i7 does blow it away as its next gen, but for the cost increase for what youre wanting (gaming and general use) its prob not worth it
 
What mobo and memory do you recommend with the E8400?

And what Nvidea is equal to the 4870 1 gig? I have been a little unimpressed with the constant driver updates with ATI, not to mention the way my system seems to lose these drivers every now and then.

I am assuming I would have to change my Hyper PSU as it only has a six pin connector (though this powers my 8 pin HIS 3850 agp ok)

Considering my most demanding games are C&C 3 and Red Alert 3, and that I would like it to be quieter and capable of smooth playback of rented Bluray what do I need?

How good is the AMD 9150e?

And do I stick with XP 32 bit for games? or Vista for Bluray? or go 64bit?
 
- Mobo a P45 based chipset, such as the Biostar TPower, or Asus P5Q Pro, or one of the gigabytes, whichever takes your fancy

- RAM you should look at PC6400 minimum, preferably PC8500 - if you get an asus board prob best to avoid OCZ as there are reported compatibility issues (tho I use both and havent had any) Corsair are prob best but their PC8500 is twice OCZ's so Id recomend the Biostar and OCZ combo

- NVidia's equivalent would be the 260

- Yes you will need a new PSU, aim around 500W or if youre planning on maybe adding a 2nd card to do crossfire later(crossfire not SLI as P45 only supports crossfire) then prob best aim 650W - anything from Corsair, Zalman, Enermax, PC P&C, Coolermaster

- Not sure re the AMD


- Personally Id get vista 64bit, 64 bit OS is the way forward, and tbh Im suprised theyre even releasing a 32bit version of Windows7 - also vista has ironed out all its bugs, as most O/S's do by sp1, I wont be getting windows7 til SP1 as theyre all the same til then (buggy)
 
sastusbulbas said:
What is more bang for buck? Intel or AMD? I assume 4 core is more future proof and suited to al round multiple uses?
Click to expand...
Yes, you want a quad for future proofing. Even games are starting to take advantage of multiple cores now, partly because of developers writing code with an eye to porting to the XBox360 where you really need to use all 3 cores to get any kind of performance.

A good value setup right now would be a Phenom II 940 or 720, a 790GX motherboard (the Gigabyte one is good), 4GB of DDR2-800 and a Radeon 4870 1GB. The price/performance ratio of that setup is really hard to beat.
 
DrBombcrater said:
Yes, you want a quad for future proofing. Even games are starting to take advantage of multiple cores now, partly because of developers writing code with an eye to porting to the XBox360 where you really need to use all 3 cores to get any kind of performance.

A good value setup right now would be a Phenom II 940 or 720, a 790GX motherboard (the Gigabyte one is good), 4GB of DDR2-800 and a Radeon 4870 1GB. The price/performance ratio of that setup is really hard to beat.
Click to expand...

Im sorry but I totally disagree, a) very few games actually use quad core b) you've got it all backwards re game development, unfortuantely (I wish you hadnt), this is how it was several years ago and I wish it still was, but nowadays most games are developed for the consoles and ported over to PC, hence why they tend to be more buggy nowadays aka GTAIV. Theres nothing wrong with AMD as such, it is a cheaper option than intel, but thats because intel knocks spots off it
 
How quiet can I make such a set up?

I would like it to be quiet, and play Bluray as well as play the C&C titles.

To be honest I may end up running it through a plasma or projector and using it more for home cinema music and internet than gaming? Hence my interest in something that does all and suits all?

I am not sure if I want to overclock if it means more noise, as I already find my current computer too noisy.

Edit,

If two core is where it is at for games, why do magazines such as Custom PC recommend quad core cpu's in their budget and high end gaming machines?
 
Last edited:
Because people fall for marketing gimmicks, and knowing quad exists most people assume its better than dual, it is for some things like multitasking - encoding/editing/modelling etc, but for games you get better bang for buck with dual core. If you bought a quad at equal speed it'd be better (though only in a few gaes) thing is it'd cost twice as much, so if you look at the 2 side by side at even cost, then the dual makes more sense. Your biggest concern noise wise is going to be your gfx card, modern ones tend to make a fair amount, afaik Nvidia's are a little quieter than ATI's here, though if youre comfortable with it you can add an aftermarket cooler to your ATI. The other thing you want is a decent case, the antec P182's are good for noise
 
To be honest it will probably reside in my old Gigabyte case, and when I am happy with it's noise level it will end up in a media PC type case amongst the audio equipment.

My wife wants this to be very quiet and very unobtrusive as well, and we are hoping to move away from a "computer desk" and maybe even a lot of the stereo equipment. Hence it is important that I can use it for 24/192 audio as well as Bluray at some point.
 
If youre that bothered about noise, and still want decent gaming performance, youre going to struggle, unless you fork out for decent water cooling, around 250quid -as said before your main problem will be the gfx card
 
For a quiet system i would recommend an E8400 with a good heatsink on which you can run low fan speeds.

For the GPU a GTX 260 core 216 is a good buy for gaming and is very quiet during idle and normal usage. It will get a bit louder during gaming.
 
the new sapphire 4870s with the black cooler are almost silent, just have to make sure you get the new type
 
95thrifles said:
If youre that bothered about noise, and still want decent gaming performance, youre going to struggle, unless you fork out for decent water cooling, around 250quid -as said before your main problem will be the gfx card
Click to expand...


I dont know why some people say this, as for water cooling you still need 2-3 fans on the rad anyway, so you'll never get away from fan noise even if you go with a water cooled system!
 
I have 4 fans on my rads and they are completely inaudible....the speed of the fan(s) is what differs water from air.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom