I have been planning a build for the last week or so and I have just come up on a big sticking point. Its my first build for a while, and I have sold all my previous ones to date, but this one I am going to keep. My sticking point is whether to go for the i5 as its cheaper or the i7 for better performance but more importantly future proof. I am sure both will play the games and do the work fine, but I really do want the PC to be future proof. I stated my budget is £700 to £1500, large range for complicated reasons would love any advise you can give Budget: £700-£1500 Main uses of intended build: Gaming - Call of Duty MW2, Crysis, Battlefield Bad Company 2, football manager 2010 Work - Multiple applications, browsers, email client, IMs etc. Nothing in itself extensive but just lots of bits Parts required: Everything Going for a complete upgrade. Monitor not required as that is already decided. Previous build information (list details of parts): Previously had a dell dimension 5000 which was very old and more recently an Acer Aspire 5920G (T7500 (4 MB L2 cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB), 2GB RAM, NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT with 1GB turbocache, 250GB hardrive) Monitor resolution: 1920 x 1200 pixels Storage requirements: Nothing particular but 1TB is fine (Samsung F3) will you be overclocking: yes/no (delete as required) Yes Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): None I can think of Extra information about desired system: Thanks for any help. I really appreciate it.
i7 860. Best of both worlds imo. You get the full 8 (logical) cores, lower power consumption and heat, better turbo mode, cheaper mobos and cheaper RAM kits. Yes you wont be able to upgrade to 6 core CPU's later, but really a 860 will be more than enough for the next 3-4 years realistically (and why I stumped the extra cash over the 750 myself).
got myself an 860 too and im perfectly happy with it. 4ghz with ease and couple with my 285gtx runs all my games at max settings comfortably. Having said that, I will be getting a Fermi card
This depends more on what you'll use it for than anything else. If you plan on a lot of workstation heavy processing - video editing, rendering etc - then you're playing to 1366's strengths. If on the other hand you're a casual gamer who never does any video editing, then 1366 and the i7 860's HT will be wasted on you. It looks to me like you fall into the latter category; no mention of heavy-duty film editing nor rendering for Pixar. So I'd save the cash and go 1156. That said, I'm unconvinced by the case for the 860. It's near-as-dammit the same price as the 920, but lacks triple-channel memory and support for Gulftown. The memory bandwidth compared to 1366 is severely limited so your £1500 computer can kiss goodbye to proper SLi/Xfire implementation should you wish at a later date. If you're going to buy a 1156 processor, at least buy the 750 and save yourself enough cash to make it worthwhile over 1366. Both are as future proof as computing goes at the moment, so that's sorted. Roughly, an i5 750 build will cost you £650; CPU: Intel Core i5 750 £149 CPU Cooler: Titan Fenrir £29 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 £82 RAM: OCZ Obsidian 4GB 1600Mhz DDR3 £86 HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB £64 Chassis: Personal choice - just let us know what you pick and we'll let you know if it's a big mistake. GPU: ATI 5850 £230 / 5870 £318 OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64 PSU: Corsair HX650W £40
I disagree, it's been shown in practically every review that the 860 is faster than the 920 because of it's far superior Turbo benefits and better overclockability (from a considerably lower TDP). The difference between triple and dual channel memory barely makes a difference, even in synthetic benches and it's also been proven x8 PCI-E 2.0 provides plenty enough bandwidth for Crossfire setups. Add in the fact your essentially getting 4 extra cores over a 750 and the £50 premium over the i5 doesn't seem so hard to swallow. Yes you cant upgrade to Gulftown, but do you really need to when your rocking a 920 or 860 anyways?
If your budget can be that big I'd suggest going on the other side of the fence than PureSilver has shown and go with a full 920 build. Yes, its specialty may be video editing and rendering and such as he said, but it will still perform beautifully in games and allow for future additions such as SLI/Xfire and Gulftown 6 cores (as he also said) which all in all would make it more future proof, not to mention that starting out as a faster and more powerful machine than a 750/860 build will allow it to hold its own longer down the line even if you add nothing. As for a decent build, check the February buyer's guide here on B-T, or just look around in people's sigs. PureSilver seems to have a good build in his and I'm sure would be more than willing to comment on any good points or things to avoid since he has first hand experience with it. (Okay so I'm being lazy here. PC at work only has some old version of IE with no tabs and makes browsing a pain) Of course, this is all if you think you can justify spending the extra cash. edit: "it's been shown in practically every review that the 860 is faster than the 920 because of it's far superior Turbo benefits and better overclockability" The FPS of the overclocked 920 is still max in that review, even compared to the overclocked 860. Seeks has said that he will be overclocking so we can assume that he will see similar results.
This I agree with this given the price of the 860~920, but the motherboards cost far, far less. +rep However if you're rocking the 6GB kit it's still "more" than 4GB for heavy multitasking with the upgradability that 8GB from 4DIMMs won't afford you, not to mention the extra PCI-Express lanes. If you don't care for either, the 860+P55M-UD2 is certainly your answer. Imo you won't be able to upgrade to Gulftown for anywhere near the price of a performance-value CPU. Intel will command such a technological and performance advantage it will be £300-400-500+ CPUs. Plus, we don't even really need 8-thread, let alone 12!! We still recommend the i3-530 which is effectively a DUAL core Pick apart our gaming workhorse and enthusiast overclocker machines to suit your need: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/02/03/what-hardware-should-i-buy-february-2010/3
Typo That build looks decent, however I'd deffinitly invest in a better PSU, if he plans to do some good overclocking and using either the 5850 or 5870 he'd require a better PSU anyways. Also worth to make his PSU more future proof. ___ Have you got your keyboard and mouse sorted? Also, in terms of case what size are you hoping for? like massive, mid tower etc? Anything fancy or just simple look with good cooling to house your hardware?
Thanks for the advise guys, and sorry for causing a bit of contraversy. The reason I said the i5-750 was simply because I thought it was a better overclocker from reading both these forums and customPC. This was initially my thought however is it worth the extra £300-400 it would cost me? I am not sure on that myself, and was one of the reason I asked here. The 860 which I had not really thought about seems a good compromise and seems a popular choice., but how good an overclocker is it compared to the 750? In terms of performance is there a major difference between 750 - 860 - 920? They will (or at least should) all run the games and work that i require very smoothly at a decent FPS and graphics level... @Zero_UK: Which PSU were you thinking? I was thinking the Antec TruePower TP-650. Apart from the PSU thats an amazing build PureSilver I appreciate the effort (+rep)
I'm sure any choice would work very well, at least for this year and the next, and then be decent for another couple as well. Between the 860 and 920 there seems to be a little debate as to which is better, but both would pull their weight longer than the 750. Just my opinion but the 750 should be last on the list between the three. As far as overclocking they're all supposed to be quite potent. The 920 has its own thread here for overlocking and Bit's reviews of the 750 and 860 also show that they are quite capable. With any of them it sounds like you can expect a 30-40% OC on air with ease.
Sorry for the errors - having grabbed from another recommendation I made I then got interrupted and accidentally left things half-done! It should be fixed now; I can offer 920 recommendations too (or have a look at BiT's What Hardware section) - I still recommend the 920 if you can spend £900+ because the price difference between it and an 860 just isn't great enough to justify the crippled memory bandwidth and PCI-E lanes; i5 750 + Gigabyte UD2 + OCZ Obsidian 4GB CL9 DDR3 = £317 i7 860 + Gigabyte UD3 + OCZ Obsidian 4GB CL9 DDR3 = £399 i7 920 + Asus P6T SE + OCZ Obsidian 6GB CL9 DDR3 = £466 Those aren't the best prices I can find but they're relatively equal in terms of parts brands etc, with the exception of the processors because I cannot find an OEM 860 at any of the stores I use. For my money, £149 is a good reason to drop down to 1156. But for £67 - the cost of a single hard-drive - you might as well do 920, which offers an extra 2GB of memory already. For that price difference you wouldn't even be able to raise the 860 to 6GB of memory, though each to their own, I suppose. All the other components can be the same (even the PSU - think Corsair 550-650W) so for that miserly difference I'd stretch for the 920. To quote from the end of that review; When that review was conducted, the motherboards for the 860 were superlatively expensive (the tested one was the Asus P7P55D at £185), whereas the one BiT now recommends is just £90-100. So the system has gotten better value; so too however has the 1366 which was tested with the P6TD (£203) whereas the P6TSE can now be had for £140, or the X58 version of the UD3 they recommend for the 860 (the UD3R) for just £135. In addition, since OP says he'll be overclocking, the only advantage (Turbo) is wiped out. If you cannot stretch the extra £60 or so, don't. But otherwise, and especially if you're overclocking, I don't see why you wouldn't.
920 is still far and away the best cpu you can buy in all honesty. 860 for its cost is just not there. 750 is best gaming if you dont want 920. Fact is either 750 or 920 is perfectly fine just depends on budget if you have none a 920 would be my choice. 920 will last you 3-4 years without any issues. Then once gulftown drops in prices you can drop one in and it will last 3-4 years more
STOP having an 860 vs 920 war. The arguments above happen on all forums of this sort and there is no real answer to sway towards either. As has been previously said, each processor has its benfits and draw backs but i would always go with the 920 for reasons i don't know myself. If i had that money i would buy this. Coolermaster Cosmos S - £143.33 Intel Core i7 920 D0 - £218.75 Asus P6T -£169.40 Corsair GB XMS3 - £119.98 Titan Fenrir - £29.35 XFX 5870 - £308.81 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 - £60.17 LG 22x DVD-WR - £16.67 Corsair HX750 - £112.55 Asus Xonar D2X - £85.75 Windows 7 HP 64bit - £81.16 MOUSE AND KEYBOARD IF NEEDED Saitek eclipse II - £29.25 Genius Ergo 555 - £26.44 ( the click on this mouse is a little hard compared to some mice but the Agama software included makes this worthwhile as you can program each button to do anything e.g. i've programmed one of the five profiles avialable to continue clicking the left click when i hold it down i.e. i can make an M9 and G3 automatic in cod 4 etc. or i can string one of the buttons to do "22 leftclick" for no scoping ) all of that including mouse and keyboard comes to £1417.27 including TAX and delivery without some of the features like sound card and mouse keyboard etc. £1275.22 I do reccomend the saitek eclipse II and i'm sure many people on this forum would agree. As 3DGAMEMAN says "a kick ass product" that would be my choice hope that helped
I definetly see your point Silver and it has given me a lot of thinking to do. A lot of it may come down to what specials are on offer at the time from scan. What do you guys think of the Antec1200 for the case?
My uncle has a Antec 1200, it's a fantastic case. Looks very nice, really good performer, includes dust filters on intake fans which is always a big plus fan controllers the lot. It's a big case, but it's fine on a desk if there's room or on the floor - just need to clean the dust filters a bit.Just be 100% sure if you get a 5870 that the card will fit into the case, I think it's okay but there is only an issue when a 5970 comes into play. I think Geoboy has given you a good build there. The power supply he's recommended is a modular PSU so it will make it easier on cable management with the ability to take unused cables out. However, if you want to save yourself £20 then there is the Corsair 750wTX. With the Antec 1200 you'll have more than enough room to to some good cable management. But if it's not really a concern then just grab the modular. The only change I'd say to this would possibly be the motherboard to the next model up the PT6 Deluxe. From every review since it's release it's been one of the top 3 the one to buy. It's overclocking abilities and over all performance is everything you could want. It fits well into your budget and the best thing is that Bittech and forum members have had a lot of experience with this board so there's always going to be rich advice on any help with overclocking or tweaking. Adding links: Case:Antec 1200 £111.72 - Sale price, might want to buy soon with 5 day super saver delivery = free shipping CPU:Intel Core i7 920 D0 - £218.75 Mobo:PT6 Deluxe. £214.05 RAM:Corsair GB XMS3 - £119.98 CPU Cooler:Titan Fenrir - £29.35 GPU:XFX 5870 - £308.81(£10 cheaper and XFX is a very nice brand ) HDD:1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 - £60.17 Optical drive:LG 22x DVD-WR - £16.67 PSU:Corsair HX750 - £112.55 or Corsair 750wTX £91.36 OS:Windows 7 64bit - £81.16 Total: £1284.30 __Changed brand of GPU and removed sound card - the onboard sound is all you'll need unless you where investing in £700 speakers. With prices as they are now, I'd say thats a damn good set up which is future proof. I hope you have a 24" monitor or something to truely experience the quality of it. It still leaves you a good £200 to play around with a mouse and keyboard and maybe a headset? I'd recommend keyboard: Logitech 110, Logitech G11, Logitech G15, Saitek Eclipse 2, Saitek Cyborg then razer ones etc... Mouse: Razer Copperhead, Logtiech G5, Logitech MX518 etc. Headset: Creative Gaming Fatality. Hope any of this helps.
Got my gaming mouse already not a keyboard, but have a decent keyboard that I like, although may look at getting a Logitech keyboard as I like them. Headset already sorted as well got a very nice plantronic. In terms of the monitor thinking of the Dell 24" UltraSharp but wondering what the opinion is on that? It is a great monitor I know that much but is there a better one for the price (As the Dell US monitors are expensive!) Thanks for all the help
I'd disagree with not needing a Soundcard, the difference i noticed with my Creative Fatal1ty Xtreme Gamer Soundcard and some decent headphones (not the Fatal1ty ones, they are average at best) was immense.
I have heard the difference is quite vast but I think thats something that can be added at a later date ps. Are you named after Abhorsen from the Sabriel/Lireal/Abhorsen series?
