Which system should I get?

coolsouthern

coolsouthern

coolsouthern

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12 Aug 2009
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337
Hi I have been looking at 2 systems on Overclockers and am not sure where I should be spending my money.

The 2 systems are:

"warlord" AMD - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-063-OE&groupid=43&catid=1270&subcat=

£864.60 with 64 bit Vista and some extras

and the

"Titan Goliath" i7 920 -http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-030-OE

for £933.69.

Ok so both these systems have been configured with an HD 4870 1gb, a wireless card and an extra optical drive to push their prices to where they are.

I just wanted some advice from those undoubtedly more knowledgeable than me. Is it worth the xtra £70 to upgrade to the i7 based unit with 6gb ram as opposed to the 4gb AMD chipset in the cheaper option?

The only 2 games I play are Civilization IV and Football manager 2009. I will be upgraing to the newer versions of these games as and when they are released but aside from that I only use my pc for Office and going online.

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice!
 
Thanks mp260767 I had read that but had also seen loads of people praising the i7 and (especially as it comes pre overclocked) it seemed like the better option to me?

Not entirley desperate to have the best system but for such a small increase in price I wondered!

Thanks again fore the advice!
 
a lot to spend on a Gaming Rig for only two games to play on it with. Especially Football Manager as any old heap a junk can run that game. You could probably save £200+ by going for cheaper one if only play those two games.
 
Thanks Ray! I should have mentioned the fact that I am looking at this kind of budget hoping that it will last me somewhere close to 5 years without having to upgrade!

Also, I think you are underestimating football manager ( maybe not gpu wise) as it seems to be very demanding on systems!

The minimum requirements on the back of the box state 1gb of RAM and 2.0 GHz processor. And thats the minimum!

Who knew it would require that much power to make Spurs Premiership and European champions!!
 
I got the Titan Goliath system around 10 days ago, it's ridiculously fast, great cooling and very stable.(cable management was superb too)

It eats any game and even manages Crysis on very high great too.

Got it with a GTX275 and an antec 902.

Also 6gb ram is ideal for an i7 build and if going amd i would go 8gb myself personally.
 
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FM09 & past FM's always crawl for most rigs. I run it on a laptop also, a Dual Core 2 Duo T5800 & handles it very well.

Just feel for what you need it for, a lot of money to spend, could go a lot cheaper. But you might get into other games, so maybe pay more now. I would go for I7 out of them two.
 
Thanks Sycho and ray for your comments!

I think I'm going to stick with the AMD system based on the fact, that should my usage become any more extensive, I've heard that it would probably be the better rig for gaming. This is echoed in a comment above stating that while the i7 cpu is more powerful, the mainn benefits are to be seen in video editing etc!

Ray my laptop is (off the top of my head) a dual core T something ( I think it's 2.30 GHz maybe?), with 4gb DDR2 SDRAM and it was pretty damn slow. My friend complains about it on a machine with a q6600 cpu with 4gb DDR2! I am, however, expecting this to kick it's ass and look forward to being able to play the 3D match engine at full setting without any slowdown!

I dont like 90% FPS's ( they make me dizzy and sick, haha) and I do have a PS3 for other games I do like i.e fifa and maybe some GTA. Th only other games I have liked that are on PC are also on PS3 (Bioshock and Fallout 3) but I am amazed at the graphics on ps3 and don't feel I need to fork out 3k odd to get slightly better graphics!

I will get slated on here and am sticking my neck out by saying this but I honestly don't get why gaming on pc's is so popular! You have to constantly make modifications to keep up to date while spending a fortune and it seems like most people end up spending more time modding their machines to boost its performance than actually enjoying it?

Saying that I can see how getting into overclocking and working to tweak every inch of performance from your components would be a fun hobby in itself so each to their own I suppose!

Premier league here I come!
 
"Also 6gb ram is ideal for an i7 build and if going amd i would go 8gb myself personally. "

I asked about upgrading the AMD machine to 8gb but was told that if they were to do that then I would not be getting the cpu overclocked! Otherwise I would have done it!
 
coolsouthern said:
Thanks Sycho and ray for your comments!

I think I'm going to stick with the AMD system based on the fact, that should my usage become any more extensive, I've heard that it would probably be the better rig for gaming. This is echoed in a comment above stating that while the i7 cpu is more powerful, the mainn benefits are to be seen in video editing etc!

Ray my laptop is (off the top of my head) a dual core T something ( I think it's 2.30 GHz maybe?), with 4gb DDR2 SDRAM and it was pretty damn slow. My friend complains about it on a machine with a q6600 cpu with 4gb DDR2! I am, however, expecting this to kick it's ass and look forward to being able to play the 3D match engine at full setting without any slowdown!

I dont like 90% FPS's ( they make me dizzy and sick, haha) and I do have a PS3 for other games I do like i.e fifa and maybe some GTA. Th only other games I have liked that are on PC are also on PS3 (Bioshock and Fallout 3) but I am amazed at the graphics on ps3 and don't feel I need to fork out 3k odd to get slightly better graphics!

I will get slated on here and am sticking my neck out by saying this but I honestly don't get why gaming on pc's is so popular! You have to constantly make modifications to keep up to date while spending a fortune and it seems like most people end up spending more time modding their machines to boost its performance than actually enjoying it?

Saying that I can see how getting into overclocking and working to tweak every inch of performance from your components would be a fun hobby in itself so each to their own I suppose!

Premier league here I come!
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You made the right choice going for the AMD system for your standards it's definetly the best decision also 4gb ram should be more than fine anyway for a while.

Why would you fork out 3k?:p this is 2009, pcs have gone a LOT cheaper now for their performance/cash ratio....what i mean is currently you can get like £600 built up pc that can handle any game, the current pc technology is way way ahead of all consoles at the moment and will not get outdated for a while.Look at some benchmarks, systems like the two you've listed walkover any game except for Crysis but they even play that very well so basically one game only gives them a run for their money. :)

I've got 2x42 inch HD tvs, i got xbox 360 aswell as PS3, sure they look good but they look nothing compared to games at 1920x1200 maxed on an ips lcd.;) (also i notice some console games seem to slow down and use lower textures.....they sure are great though for their price.)

Have fun with your new pc, give updates when it arrives. :)
 
Thanks Sycho I know what you mean it's just that, like I said above, PS3 graphics amaze me enough but I suppose that could be because I haven't seen the real deal. I've not noticed any slowdown on any PS3 games I have but have seen some round some friends houses. Pretty sure the problem there is more the TV as some LCD's can be get slow down and blurry moments if a game is too fast paced!

Haha I know 3k is maybe a bit extreme although you do still see these "Extreme" gaming rigs still being sold!

I would still have liked to have the extra 4gb but I think thats just me being greedy yet again! At least I know where to come if and when I do decide to go for it. I will need someone to tell me how to reset the overclocked cpu so I can stick it in without frying everything!
 
The additional 4gb will do nothing for you. However it will make overclocking the processor more difficult.

I also vote for the ati system. If its purely for gaming and you want a 5 year lifespan you might consider a better graphics card than the 4870. Failing that the £70 briefly saved would just about get you an ssd, which are aamzing
 
Pains me to say it as I love my I7 but would go for the AMD and maybe a cheaper AMD too, both are possibly overkill for the games you are playing (SI likely to merely tweak the FM CD engine for the next few years rather than complete new builds) CIV4 will run at a breeze on either, maybe save money here and splash out on a high spec LCD monitor
 
D1ngd0ng said:
Pains me to say it as I love my I7 but would go for the AMD and maybe a cheaper AMD too, both are possibly overkill for the games you are playing (SI likely to merely tweak the FM CD engine for the next few years rather than complete new builds) CIV4 will run at a breeze on either, maybe save money here and splash out on a high spec LCD monitor
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All the signs are pointing to more than just a few small tweeks in regards to FM10 but I will wait until I see it first-hand as it's probably just media rubbish!

Just realised I'm not entirely sure that CIV4 supports threading?? I know FM09 does it's the only way my laptop survived!

I have a 26" Samsung LCD that was being wasted on my 7 yr old PC and am really looking forward to getting this baby up and running on it!

Thanks again everyone you have really made me feel like I went for the right decision on the AMD machine! After a few delays and 2 days being taken off work after being promised the delivery of my machine only to be dissapointed again, tomorrow I will supposedly 100% have my machine!

If it arrives I will let you know if it meets all my criteria ( of blasting through FM09 and CIV4 without breaking a sweat). If it doesn't turn up I'm actually going to cancel the order and go somewhere else. Despite these forums being full of helpfull and friendly advice the internet is filled with horror stories and warnings about purchasing from overclockers and with my experiences I am already starting to fear that they may be true!

Either way I'll let you know tomorrow!

Thanks again!
 
JonJ678 said:
The additional 4gb will do nothing for you. However it will make overclocking the processor more difficult.

I also vote for the ati system. If its purely for gaming and you want a 5 year lifespan you might consider a better graphics card than the 4870. Failing that the £70 briefly saved would just about get you an ssd, which are aamzing
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I can see myself getting an SSD but I am willing to wait for them to drop down heavily in price. Even if this doesn't happen for another couple of years!

I can see this lasting me 5 years, however, I kind of agree with you about the graphics card. I will probably end up upgrading this in 3 years or so as I assume the newer FM's and Civs could do with an upgrade at that time. Apart from that I KNOW that I am not into heavy gaming on PC's so the 4870 should last me ( I hope!)
 
kinda confuse ,but if i were u,i wud go wid i7 , as u wil keep it for least 5 yrs,thn it wil b gud,to me spending 70quid more on sumthing better reali worhts it
 
Hey guys I got the system this morning (thank God) and I have been setting it all up this afternoon. I've hit a snag though as the speakers I plugged in from my old system ( Logitech Z4) dont play the sound. Instead the sound id coming out via my LCD monitor.

I have started a fresh thread for this by mistake before remembering to come here and update you all. So far I am loving this new system. It's the fastest thing I've ever had and although I haven't played any games yet I installed both FM09 and Civ4 in under 5 mins at the same time! Office, Kaspersky and Nero all took around the same time too so I'mvery excited!!

It is pretty loud for anyone considering getting this system ( AMD "Warlord" ) but I'm sure someone more efficient with PC's could sort that problem out themselves!

Thanks in advance guys
 
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