Hi All, It's been awhile, but last time I was looking at a new pc. Car and hobby purchases put that on hold though. Now though I'd like to actually build a new pc. I was looking before at an Core i7 build, but that just seems too costly, A base model 97 build would cost me around 1000 bucks just for the main components, and thats not including some new monitors and such. What I have been looking at though is the AMD Phenom X4 9600, I've seen some kits around that are priced at under 400 bucks for a barebones, and come with half decent Mobo's and cases/HDD's etc. I'm looking at something around an Phenom x4 9600(Phenom 1, not 2) 12 to 16gb of ram, 2 to 3 terabytes, and ohh, what the hell, dual monitors for fun. Pricing this out should come just below 1000, less than that of a barebones i7 Has anybody had any experience with this CPU? I'm looking at some medium gaming on it, not crysis at top settings, but maybe crysis at medium settings! Cheers Ryan
One of my coworkers/friends has a Phenom II X4, but I don't remember the particular model. He's basically an encyclopedia of computer parts, and whatever he tells me I pretty much accept as fact. I'm told the Phenom II's fly, and they are extremely tolerant of overclocking. Personally, I see the i7 as more of a status symbol than anything else. The Phenom II X4s are more than capable of playing anything out right now. As far as the original Phenoms go, I wouldn't bother. The price discrepancy between the two isn't enough to account for the performance decrease you'd get with the original architecture (IMO).
AMD Phenom X4 9600 That is the first generation of Phenoms. THey are good, but compared to Intel's quad core lga 775 offerings, not by much, especially if you'll be doing video encoding. I would look into Phenom II CPUs. They are much better, use the newer DDR3 ram. Gigabyte makes some very good phenom II boards.
I can play Crysis at medium settings with my old 7950GT and my £45 Core 2 Duo E4400. I don't think you have too much of an idea about what makes a good PC, unless 16GB is a joke. If you want a whole new PC, get a i7 920, 6GB of DDR3 (tri channel) and a wait for the ATI Radeon 5870 to be released. The i7 will clock to 4GHz and will deliver unreal performance, it's quad core and hyperthreaded. i7 honestly doesn't cost that much. Core 2 Duo are more than capable of playing anything out right now, it doesn't mean that they're the path to go. Future proofing is the best thing you can do.
Hmm, Thanks for the advice, I think I'll stay away from the earlier phenoms. I'm looking at a AM2+ Based Phenom 2 X4 940 Black edition. I looked at something MA3 based, but I can't justify the price increase over the performance increase. I'm trying to build a half decent rig on a budget (cut from 1500 down to 1000) and I'd like to run cross fire based cards in it. So far this is what I've come up with (Using TD as a reference only) : CPU: Phenom 2 X4 940 Black http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4330959&CatId=3496 Mobo: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4960640&sku=A455-2409 PSU: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3622552&CatId=1483 CASE: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2337812&CatId=1842 And slap a few 120mm fans in there too. with that I'm looking at just over $400, add in a terrabyte ($90) optical drive (say $60ish) GPU ($200) and some ram (say $100) and you end up with something fairly decent I think. Whaddya Think? Ryan
Nice, I like that case bro. Its better than what I have (which is missing the side because of overheating) It seems like for a decent PC. It may work, let the pro's tell you All I do is HD video editing and Some gaming.
Bit the bullet on the specs I posted above, got a EVGA GeForce 9800GTX, 750watt PSU, and the Phenom II X4 Blakc Edition. In total, its a little under $800, which seems decent. Had some awesome customer service, now comes the fun bit! Ryan
Let us know how it goes. I would have recommended newegg.ca, but tigerdirect is just as good but tend to be higher on prices overall.
Worked out really well. I ended up going with a 24" LG lcd and a XFX Gefore GTX 250, not the 9800GT as previously stated. Putting it together was a snap, and it fired up without a hitch. Running Win7 x64 quite nicely. Windows performance rating is hovering around 7.2 (with exception of the hdd) happy with that. Now only if S.T.A.L.K.E.R would run without crashing!
Madhatter; Actually I've been looking around newegg and the prices aren't that bad compared to what I paid, the cpu is the same cost, the motherboard on newegg was 10 bucks more, and the rest seem to be within a dollar or two of each other, so I think it worked out pretty well!
I wouldn't call the i7 a status symbol, especially if you are going to use a multi-gpu setup. It has been proven that the only way to get good 3-Way SLI or Quad SLI scaling is with an OC'd i7. When gaming at 2560 x 1600, multi-card setups are a MUST, so those setups aren't simply a status symbol either. Just look at Cryostasis, STALKER:CS, and the venerable Crysis... These are just a few games that REQUIRE multi-gpu setups at 2560 x 1600 (especially Cryostasis). The Core 2 Quad and Phenom II just don't have what it takes. If you are doing 3-Way SLI or Quad SLI and you don't have an i7, you WILL be CPU limited. Check out this post from [H]ard|OCP: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1034527563&postcount=41 That being said, the Phenom II 965 BE is a magnificent chip, and has amazing overclocking abilities. For dual card setups, I'm sure it performs greatly (I haven't looked into it yet), but for multi card setups (3 and 4), i7 really is the only choice.
That's fine that you wouldn't call it a status symbol. It was an opinion. That's why I said "Personally, I...". He didn't say he wanted a tri/quad SLI setup, either, so I left that out of the post.
Nope, after much thought, I couldn't justify the costs of an i7 build for what I wanted, and what I needed. I priced out an i7 build, and I was looking at 1500 easy just for the rig alone, for 1100 and change I scored the Phenom based, with a new monitor, and money left over for a few little things!
Regardless, I was simply stating the facts. It's fine that you think it's a status symbol, but if someone who were even less educated about computer hardware were to read your statement without doing further research, they might think that an i7 chip is a total waste of money, which isn't true. It does have its place, and I know OP didn't mention a multi-gpu setup, so my target were those who were just reading this thread in an attempt to assess their own options for a possible build. I didn't mean any offense, if that is the way you took it.
Oh, I never said it was a waste of money. If I could afford an i7 I'd get one in a second. I must admit I'm partial to AMD, though.
