Building a gaming rig. First timer.

Again, I was only making suggestions and staying within a budget.

I don't think much about upgrades honestly...because i "always" replace the entire box every 2-3 years. Case, motherboard, etc. I typically keep the current machine 100% intact and just give it to somebody else in the family and upgrade other things. Therefore, the upgrade-ability of lack thereof between Intel and AMD isn't a big deal to me. I just try to go with the best bang for the buck CPU...and lately for me it's been Intel. I had numerous AMD boxes back in the Athlon X2 64 days when they were stomping the P4's.

My last build was purchased in June of 2009 and built in July 2009 and I went with an Intel Q9550 with the larger L2 cache. It was $200 even and overclocked very easily to 3.20ghz on the stock air cooler with almost no increase in temperature whatsoever. At the time, there wasn't anything available from AMD which could match that performance for that price. And I wanted to stick with DDR2 RAM and got some nice 4-4-4-12 timing ram now running at 1:1 with my CPU.

Also, don't forget to factor in the cost of the operating system on this new box. That can easily add $100-$300 depending upon which version (upgrade or full, as well as home premium, professional, enterprise)

Heroxoot said:

Upgrading is always better than from scratch.

I don't think so. As I said, I have other uses for the fully configured computers around my house. They can even be sold outright since they are fully functioning boxes. And I can keep the old ones running and transition over to the new boxes over time versus having to cut and run on any particular day. And it gives me lots of spare older equipment to test with...which is important for a systems admin like myself.

And with hardware changing as rapidly as it does...I don't want to get a brand spanking new CPU and plop it into a 2 year old motherboard. I would rather have a new mobo with fancy new bells and whistles. And when I change CPU's and mobos..I often have to change the RAM. And if I am changing the RAM, CPU and MOBO...the case and the power supply aren't that much more expensive. I think you can see where I am going here.

But everybody is different and not everybody is going to agree with my stance. But it's worked out very well for me and I haven't regretted many new computer decisions in my past.

Heroxoot said:

pparks1 said:

Heroxoot said:

The phenom x4 beats the core2duo E8400, but obviously less than an i7.
You picked a 7500, and I am unsure how intel cpus go, but I though higher number was a better cpu? Yes this chart uses the Phenom quad BE, but its still better. all around.

Yes, I understand. But I wanted to keep the box at $550 or less. The Phenom Quad BE runs around $160 and also comes with it a more expensive motherboard. You can see that I picked one of these on the nicer build.

The E7500 is not as good as an E8400..this is correct. However, it is also cheaper by $40 and has a cheaper mobo to boot. This combination got the price down and as you can see from your same chart of benchmarks...outside of the x4's...the Core 2 Duo's are scoring better than the other AMD chips.

EXACTLY! So he gets an athlon II x4 620. Its 100 bucks and can be changed easily. Intel destroys every cpu they make with the need of a new socket type. Even though the LGA775 was used for a long time, they messed it up between the p4 and the core 2 quad. If the mobo doesn't support it, it does not work. However if a AMD board supports the phenom II it can support the Athlon II. It also supports athlon x2 and phenom x2 on am2+ socket boards. I use a athlon II x4 620 and it works amazing for gaming. Going AMD also means he can use a ddr2 or 3 motherboard with his quad core. The possibilities for upgrades are possible without changing much.

Well not really. Getting an E7500 leaves you with room to upgrade way up in to the Core 2 Quads, which are still great processors today. Like I started with an E8200 on a 750i motherboard with DDR2. Upgraded the CPU to a Q9550, upgraded the motherboard to a 790i and DDR3 RAM a few months later, still with my Q9550. Now if I wanted to upgrade again, I could just pick up an i7 and decent motherboard, keeping everything else I have. So it's pretty much the same for Intel as you described for AMD.

Everlong said:

Well not really. Getting an E7500 leaves you with room to upgrade way up in to the Core 2 Quads, which are still great processors today. Like I started with an E8200 on a 750i motherboard with DDR2. Upgraded the CPU to a Q9550, upgraded the motherboard to a 790i and DDR3 RAM a few months later, still with my Q9550.

Now see, for me...I wouldn't be able to justify upgrading from the E8200 to the Q9550. I mean, you essentially go from a 2.66Ghz dual core to a 2.83Ghz quad core. I don't think that I would find that much difference to justify this. (and I have a Q9550 at home and an E8400 at work...so I have some experience with these levels of CPU's) But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once. But hey, it's just me.

pparks1 said:

Everlong said:

Well not really. Getting an E7500 leaves you with room to upgrade way up in to the Core 2 Quads, which are still great processors today. Like I started with an E8200 on a 750i motherboard with DDR2. Upgraded the CPU to a Q9550, upgraded the motherboard to a 790i and DDR3 RAM a few months later, still with my Q9550.

Now see, for me...I wouldn't be able to justify upgrading from the E8200 to the Q9550. I mean, you essentially go from a 2.66Ghz dual core to a 2.83Ghz quad core. I don't think that I would find that much difference to justify this. (and I have a Q9550 at home and an E8400 at work...so I have some experience with these levels of CPU's) But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once. But hey, it's just me.

Play GTA 4 on an E8200, then try it on a Q9550 with double the cache and 2 more cores and you'll see a difference

Well obviously it wasn't just that one game I bought it for. It helped increase fps in a few games, especially while I had SLI.