Posts by Jonathan Bennett46

Timothy Kim60 said:It might actually come out on top if you're playing titles that are heavy on the CPU or rely heavily on single-core speed.

Even with that, I still lean toward the i3 for you. It'll handle an 8GB RAM upgrade much more easily, whereas finding a decent aftermarket cooler for those FX chips can be a bit of a headache.

Do you even really need a dedicated cooler for that AMD FX 8300, assuming you aren't planning on overclocking it at all?

Thanks, everyone!

Ryan Hayes82 said:1 x Intel Core i3-4170 Processor (3.70GHz,512KB,3MB,54 W,1150) Box
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Corsair, 1600MHz, CL11,Value, CMV8GX3M1A160C11
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x Asrock H81M-VG4 R2.0, Intel 1150 Socket H81
$669

I'm just passing along these suggestions to see what happens, though I don't think they're quite right for me.
Just for comparison, this dual-core Intel chip actually seems to perform a bit better than that eight-core AMD one, which I guess makes sense if you're looking at gaming performance.

Adam Moore3 said:Yeah, I figured that might be the case. People often say "400W" when they actually mean it's a 450W unit—just a bit of careless labeling or whatever. You can never really be 100% certain when you're dealing with power supplies. 🍿

I finally got a chance to double-check just now, and turns out it really is a Corsair 450 w VS series. Honestly, being a total amateur like I am, I figure 450W should be plenty to keep all the components running smoothly enough.

Adam Moore3..

I've got a Corsair 400W power supply in there, so it should handle everything without breaking a sweat.

I'm planning on throwing in an old hard drive too—I think it's around 350 GB—but honestly, common sense tells me I should just $17 pay the extra bit for a 1 TB drive instead.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. My main goal is just to build something where I won't have to spend a dime on upgrades for the next 5 or 6 years, unless something just decides to die on me.

Hey there,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some recommendations. I'm looking to pick up a motherboard, a processor, and a 500 GB hard drive, ideally staying under $500, though I could stretch it to $667 if necessary. I already have most of the other parts—some 4 GB DDR2 RAM and a 400 W power supply. My current GPU is an AMD Radeon R7 250 OC with 1GB of DDR5 via PCIe.

The build will mostly be used for gaming.

Thanks!

I called everyone, but they don't believe I'll be able to snag any more. So, I did a little digging on Craigslist, and I spotted some guy selling that processor for $167. It’s only been used for about six months, so I’ll probably reach out to him.

And hey, if I end up receiving a literal brick in the mail, I might just have to track him down at his house. That's how things go on Craigslist, I guess.

Timothy Kim60 said:... and then I'll pop it in. Intel Core 2 Quad Or you could just hunt around the used market for the same ones as the x6 core versions.
Check your motherboard's CPU support list.

Your motherboard uses standard voltage regulation, so I wouldn't recommend getting too aggressive with overclocking—it’ll just drive the voltage up too high. Honestly, you probably don't even need a massive, high-end cooler for performance reasons. It sounds more like you just want to quiet things down because that thing is loud as hell. Just aim for something that can keep it chill and silent. I don't really know what to make of this one. Throw in another 2GB of RAM and you're basically set for some serious gaming.

Hey there, so I've been hunting for that Intel Core 2 Quad, but it feels like they’ve completely vanished from the market since it's such an old chip. It's getting pretty tough to track down. Any advice? Does anyone have a recommendation for something in that same ballpark in terms of price and performance? Thanks!

Thanks, man, top tier advice right there.
Since I'm running at a resolution of 1650 x 1050, I think I'll just go with the 1GB options—they're a lot easier on the wallet. I wouldn't call myself much of a gamer, but it really bugs me when things start stuttering, especially since I have this bad habit of cranking everything up to High or Ultra settings by default.
I'll give it some thought. Thanks for all the suggestions, I might even take a look at some of those budget picks you mentioned.

Timothy Kim60 said:That motherboard RAM (the system memory) doesn't have anything to do with the VRAM on the graphics card (GDDR5). You just need to grab whatever RAM that specific motherboard supports (which would be DDR2 in this case).
As for the cards, GDDR5 is definitely faster than GDDR3 (on the same model). Regardless of what kind they use, they should fit into any motherboard, provided it has a PCI-E slot.

Oh, my bad—it looks like you actually know your stuff. I'm just browsing through some GPUs right now and was wondering which one you think is the better pick. From what I can gather, the main difference seems to be the clock speeds for the core and the memory, so I'm assuming a higher number means a better card, right?

http://www.ekupi.com/Graphics-card...gs-268410.aspx

http://www.ekupi.com/Graphics-card...gs-268406.aspx

http://www.ekupi.com/Graphics-card...D5-257647.aspx

http://www.ekupi.com/MSI-GF-GTX650Ti-...ca-275045.aspx

http://www.ekupi.com/Graphics-card...R5-272318.aspx

They're a little pricier since they come with 2GB, and over at ekupa, that was the only site I found that offered an online installment plan.

Timothy Kim60 said:Look, if you aren't planning on upgrading anything else for a while, you might as well just grab a 6670 with DDR5 or maybe a 7750 with DDR5—otherwise, it's probably not worth your money.

So, if I'm picking up some RAM, do I really need to worry about whether it's DDR5 or not?

I think I'm just going to pull the trigger on the GPU alone—grab an AMD Radeon HD 7850 and see if that gets everything running smoothly. I might also try updating the BIOS, though honestly, I've never actually done that before. If it doesn't work out, then I'll just look into upgrading the rest of the rig sometime in the next five years or so. I'm definitely not exactly swimming in cash right now.

Thanks so much.
I wasn't really planning on swapping out my CPU or motherboard right now, but looking at everything, it seems like I probably should. If I go with a beefier processor, would I also need to upgrade to a more powerful motherboard to better support the HD 7850?

Hey there,
I’m definitely not an expert on this stuff, so I was hoping you guys could help me pick out a decent graphics card for around $400.
Here’s what I’m running under the hood. My old card finally kicked the bucket—it was a Sapphire Radeon HD 4750 X2.
Power supply is a Corsair 400W, CX Series CMPSU-400CXEU, with a 12cm fan.
Processor is an AMD Athlon II X2 250, socket AM3, BOX, 2MB cache, 65w
Motherboard is an ASUS MA770-UD3, AMD 770, S. AM2+, 6xSATA RAID, DDR2 1066/800
HDD is a Samsung 500GB 7200rpm, 16MB cache, Serial ATA II-300
RAM is 2048MB (2GB) PC8500 Kingmax, 1066MHz, KLEE88F-B8KO6

The motherboard has a PCIe slot for the GPU.

Thanks!