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I'm looking into building my own computer, since the one I've got right now is an HP computer that I've slowly upgraded so it could handle more than it should. :P
What I really need help finding are a motherboard that goes well with an i5, and 6GB of RAM to go with it. It's possible that I won't be buying a new power supply as the one I have in here is more powerful.
If I don't go with the i5, I'd probably go with something like this. Better price, more powerful. Only thing it lacks that the i5 does take advantage is the dynamic overclocking to fit work loads. Would I really notice any performance problems if I have an Nvidia graphics card and an AMD CPU?
Last edited by Supa; January 2nd, 2010 at 06:55 PM.
After reading a some reviews on these new MSI boards i'm impressed. They outperform the competing boards in the same price range most of the time, and use less power. The only downside is they lack a BIOS backup feature (the G65 does at least, not sure on the GD80).
i5 4670K @ 4.5Ghz | ASUS Maximus VI Hero | Venomous X | 8GB Mushkin Radioactive @ 1820
EVGA Geforce GTX 680 SC @ 1125 | 500GB WD Velociraptor | 1TB Spinpoint F3 | 500GB SG 7200.11
Corsair TX-650 | Antec 1200 | Win 7 x64 / Fedora 20 KDE x64 | Gaming on 47" LED 1080P TV
What I really need help finding are a motherboard that goes well with an i5, and 6GB of RAM to go with it. It's possible that I won't be buying a new power supply as the one I have in here is more powerful.
Since Lynnfield uses dual-channel RAM, you want either 4GB or 8GB. You don't need any fabulously expensive RAM, most DDR3-1600 kits will do.
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If I don't go with the i5, I'd probably go with something like this. Better price, more powerful. Only thing it lacks that the i5 does take advantage is the dynamic overclocking to fit work loads. Would I really notice any performance problems if I have an Nvidia graphics card and an AMD CPU?
In almost every single benchmark or performance indicator you care to name, the Core i5 750 is faster than the Phenom II X4 955. It's certainly more efficient, uses less power, and uses a more efficient architecture than the Phenom II.
As for Turbo Boost, I would much rather have a permanent overclock and turn Turbo Boost off than leave it at stock with Turbo Boost on. It will certainly give better performance, but depending on the voltages and clocks you settle with, it will use a little or a lot more power.
Alright, can someone link me to some decent (preferably cheap) RAM kits?
@ Mr. Pedantic: I'm not very hardware literate, so it wouldn't bother me if I had a more power CPU than a more efficient CPU, sin I could save quite a bit more on the Phenom II.
EDIT: What's better, and Nvidia GTX260 or an ATI HD 5770?
Last edited by Supa; January 2nd, 2010 at 09:10 PM.
@ Mr. Pedantic: I'm not very hardware literate, so it wouldn't bother me if I had a more power CPU than a more efficient CPU, sin I could save quite a bit more on the Phenom II.
There is no situation where the Phenom II uses less than 40W more than the Core i5. That's about $20 a year, absolute minimum, much, much more if your CPU spends any time idle.
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Alright, can someone link me to some decent (preferably cheap) RAM kits?
I like G.Skill, but Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, Mushkin, Patriot, OCZ, etc all offer very good, reliable RAM.
EDIT: What's better, and Nvidia GTX260 or an ATI HD 5770?
Performance-wise, a GTX260 is better, especially the BFG one you have, which may perform almost the same as a GTX275/HD4890. However, the 5770 offers DirectX11 support, Eyefinity, etc. which may/may not be worthwhile to you. If you don't find your current 260 intolerable, I would stick with the card you have.
Scratch all that, I'll probably go with the GTX260 and the AMD Phenom II X4, seeing as from what I was told, the HD 5770 isn't JA compatible. :/ It needs to be JA compatible.
Last edited by Supa; January 3rd, 2010 at 02:44 PM.
A Phenom II should do you just fine if your main purpose is gaming. If you don't want to spend that much on a i5/i7 setup, its the next best option since socket 775 is dead now. Though your rot really going to be saving that much. At the resolutions most people game at (1280x1024 and higher) the difference between the 955 or 965 and the i5-750 is about 1-7fps most of the time.
That said though, the i5 is a lot faster at other things like multi media encoding, photoshop, ect... and does use a good bit less power. Read some reviews and decide if the difference is big enough to justify the extra cost of the i5 first.
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