CPU & GPU advice

Hello Everyone,

I am upgrading my pc and was confused if I should go for i7 or core 2 quad. Moreover I also wanna know which GPU to go for. I need a decent gaming pc.

I currently have the following -

- Intel Pentium D 3GHZ
- 325 GB HDD (almost full so i m out of space)
- Intel motherboard (945GNT maybe)
- Geforce 8500GT
- Sound blaster Audi 2
- TV Tuner card
- 2 GB RAM
-450 watt power supply
- thats all i can remember

Now i7 would cost (incl motherboard) around $580 where I live. And that is no joke. Whereas a core 2 quad with a decent motherboard should cost approx $380. (Again thats an estimated price).

I usually use my pc for a bit of software dev (.net) and gaming. I am not a hardcore gamer but ya I do like to play latest pc games on my pc.

I will also upgrade my graphics card as well and I am more of an Nvidia fan than Raedon. I thought Geforece GTX 250/260 should be a fine choice. Again my budget for graphics card is around $200-$220.

What do you guys suggest ? Is it really worth going for i7 or should core 2 quad do the job for next several years. And which GPU should enable me to play latest games at least for 2 years. (Won;t be going for SLI). Do you think 2 different cards like my current one and Geforce Gtx 2?0 can connect in SLI. I can't buy two cards though.

Please tell me what to do.

Thank you,

GR

I take it that you are an Intel fan eh?
You can get a whole lot more cpu if you went for an AMD Phenom II,sure the i7 is better but the phenom's price per performance ratio is much better than both the C2Q and i7.

I did some research and got feedback that most apps do not take full advantage of all the cores of the CPU. I think inspite of having quad core cpu (like core 2 quad or i7) there is a chance that it may not benefit that much. This is because of softwares and games that still either rely on single processor approach or 2 processor and not quad.

I am not running a heavy server or anything like that. I want to play latest games and use it for general purposes like watching movies and so on.

Do you think I should go for Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHZ ? If so, can you also suggest me a good motherboard to balance it out.

I'm glad you did some research so you won't look at me cross eyed when I say NEITHER to your original question lol. A Duo core will do you just fine. Also as sonic pointed out, there are better deals on AMD's right now than there are on Intel's. From a performance per dollar standpoint, the AMD's are currently beating Intel. As for GPU's the ATI's are beating nVidia in the same performance per dollar manner.

If you are a fanboy for Intel or ATI let me know and I won't waste time looking for deals on those, otherwise, I'll include them in the next post after I look at what's on sale right now lol. Also, are you in the US? If so newegg rocks for price.

ANd in answer to your SLI question: No. You have to have two like GPU's to run them in sli.

Your 3GHz intel C2D is the same price as an new egg 3GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition.
AMD Phenom Vs. Intel Core 2 Duo
Oh and btw more and more apps are going multi core,this is because most new CPU's are multi core so support is a must,even windows vista supports multicore boot mode,(speeds up your system boot)

Even look at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDet...st=Combo.212580
AMD's C2Q fryer,the 955, and an ASUS board for 280$

Edited by sonicjet, 13 July 2009 - 06:23 PM.

I am an Intel and Nvidia fan. Sorry to disappoint you guys but I will be buying Intel Processor and Nvidia GPU. I don't live in the US, so prices of products here will be a tad higher.

Do you think my choice of Core 2 Duo 3GHZ & Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 is good ?

Actually, the Phenom II X2 550 will perform roughly the same as a 3GHz. Core 2 Duo and cost about $50 less. Since you're not in the U.S., the difference may vary a bit. Differences increase with quad core setups. The i7's are currently winning in the performance category, but they are very expensive and many apps don't take full advantage of three or four cores. This will change over time, so, if you want to future proof yourself, go for a quad. As for graphics cards, a GTX 260 would work well and fit within your price range. A GTX 250 is nothing more than a rebranded 9800 GTX+. Depending on the games you play, a GTX 260 may not have the speed for the high-end games in two years unless you decide to SLI the cards. As for the motherboard, this largely depends on what is available where you live. If you go i7, I suggest getting an X58 board from Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, or XFX.

I have decided to go for Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHZ. And going beyond GTX 260 is unlikely as i would need to shell out more $$$ for that. But I think GTX 260 would be ok for a while or so.

I just need a motheboard that would go well with this config. My budget for motherboard would be around $170. Can you recommend good mb for that. Is a mb that supports DDR3 ram a better option?

The chip you selected is an awesome chip. If you get the notion, you will be able to over-clock the hell out of it. As to a MoBo...........

$170 buys a lot of MoBo. DDR2 as opposed to DDR3 can be debated. For a while it was easy as DDR3 RAM was so expensive. I paid almost $600 for 8GB's of DDR3 about 16 month's ago. Right now it would cost me about $130, (yeah, I feel stupid lol). DJBPace spec'ed some DDR3 on another thread that was only $10 more for a 2X2GB set (4 GB's total) than a comparable DDR2 set. in light of that, I would go DDR3.

Anyway, here is a nice looking board in you price range. It may not be the best bargain lol but I have to take my daughter to the pool and just ran out of time to look any further. It's the best one I have found so far but I'm still on the first page of the list at Newegg lol. It has the p45 chipset which is rock solid for reliability.

Stay away from nVidia boards and nVidia chipsets.

I came across a board Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R. I think I would like to go for that. It is costing me $130 here. What do you say?

Link

I started to post that one, but did the other one because it (the other one) had DDR3 RAM and I thought you wanted DDR3. The gigabyte is fine. It has the same P45 chipset as the ASUS I showed you.

What country are you in? That one is $115 here in the US from Newegg.

I live outside US, so here the prices of stuff is a bit higher. Can you imagine, I am getting a XFX GTX 260 for $290 here whereas in new egg you may get GTX 275 (dunno which company) for $200 or so.

Anyways, GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-UD3LR Link here is a DDR3 capable board. But somehow the price of this board in newegg is lower than the DDR2 one which i posted above.

I am confused if I should go for DDR3 (though expensive RAM) or DDR2 capable one (I am not getting DDR2 with speeds higher than 800mhz). For DDR3 I am getting 1333 Mhz which some people say is not that fast either.

Final Decision: Choose 1 of the three GPU.

(1) Palit 896MB GTX 260 ($232)
(2) XFX Black Edition GTX 260 ($275)
(3) Leadtek 896MB GTX 275 ($284)

Please advice ? I have to choose one the three. What should I do ?

I don't know how much more DDR3 is where you live, but here it's only about $10. I think at that little of a price difference it's way past time to switch if you are upgrading or building. The cost will only go down from there. So will the timings on DDR3. IMHO it will get better and cheaper while DDR2 for all practical purposes, (IE economic lol), has topped out. There is really no economic reason for companies to spend money improving DDR2, so they won't. Just imagine how much of a nicer 8 track tape player they could build now using the latest electronic technology lol but what company would bother to do it? While maybe a little bit of an extreme example to use as a comparison in another way it really isn't.