Best Gaming Spec ~500, which one?

MrMatt · 23 Jun 2009 at 20:44

I am soon going to be spending around £500 on a new gaming rig. case, psu and dvd drive are already sorted so its just cpu/ram/mobo/gpu/hdd. I have been toying with dual core/triple core/quad core and am hearing mixed things about all of them. The computer will be mainly for gaming and general browsing, music etc., no photoshop or encoding will be done.

I WILL be overclocking this system as much as possible so this has been taken into account.

These are the 2 setups i have come up with:

#1, Intel Dual Core

CPU - Duo E8500 - 137.99
GPU - XFX HD 4890 1GB - 139.99
MoBo - Asus P5Q Pro - 101.99
HDD - Western Digital 640GB - 53.99
RAM - Kingston HyperX 2x2GB DDR2 - 37.98
Cooler - Titan Fenrir - 33.34

Total - 516.79 inc shipping

#2, AMD Tri Core

CPU - AMD Phenom II Tri Core 720 Black Edition - 105.00
GPU - XFX HD 4890 1GB - 139.99
MoBo - Gigabyte UD4P AM3 DDR3 - 107.99
HDD - Western Digital 640GB - 53.99
RAM - OCZ Gold 6gb DDR3 - 62.99
Cooler - Titan Fenrir - 33.34

Total - 514.79 inc shipping

So i basically have a few questions:
a) with overclocking potential taken into consideration which will perform better in windows and in games?
b) if going for the amd setup what are the arguments for a quad core instead of the tri core and will it perform better in games?
c) i am leading towards the amd as it seems to be more for the money, seems a little more futureproof and has ddr3, is this correct?

thanks for the help

Matt

95thrifles · 23 Jun 2009 at 20:46

Id go for athe AMD, and stick with the spec you have come up with, looks good

cmndr_andi · 23 Jun 2009 at 20:49

Tri core setup looks VERY good - for £105 for the X3, there is not a quad that can touch it. If you upgraded to a quad you would have to reduce your graphics card to a 4870. Even then, the quad will not play games any faster than the X3.

However, the AM3 is not triple channel memory capable - so get this RAM instead.

AM3 is indeed still active while s775 is pretty much end-of-life, definitely a better prospect IMHO.

siumatfung · 23 Jun 2009 at 21:46

save another 300£ and get an i7

wupwup · 23 Jun 2009 at 22:05

ithe intel might give slight better preformance now but has no expansion. the amd will be just as good, has the advantage of ddr3 and will have big expansion potential in teh future

icey_haj · 23 Jun 2009 at 22:10

wupwup said:
the intel might give slight better preformance now but has no expansion. the amd will be just as good, has the advantage of ddr3 and will have bug expansion potential in teh future

Bug expansion? We going to be using cockroaches as RAM in the future?

nbkpsycho · 23 Jun 2009 at 22:18

icey_haj said:
Bug expansion? We going to be using cockroaches as RAM in the future?

pmsl

I would go for the AMD route personelly as it has the best upgrade potential.

user1453 · 23 Jun 2009 at 23:13

you don't need triple channel ram for the amd system as the tri core amd processor only has a dual channel memory controller

icey_haj · 23 Jun 2009 at 23:27

user1453 said:
you don't need triple channel ram for the amd system as the tri core amd processor only has a dual channel memory controller

Yep. Go for the AMD option, but with this RAM.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-165-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

wupwup · 23 Jun 2009 at 23:32

icey_haj said:
Bug expansion? We going to be using cockroaches as RAM in the future?

big expansion sorry. what with the new 6core processors suposed to be coming out for the am3 socket

reflux · 24 Jun 2009 at 00:39

icey_haj said:
Bug expansion? We going to be using cockroaches as RAM in the future?

lol