Adam Moore3 said:The 955BE isn't even on shelves anymore. If he's actually going to sell his gear just to pick up a used processor that offers basically zero performance gains, he's just spinning his wheels. And when he finally does buy something, I bet he'll just grab a single unit instead of going for a CF setup.
I had to. It remains my favorite processor to date; I've developed a strange sort of attachment to it🙂, despite it being typical AMD junk🙂
Adam Moore3 said:Maybe someone actually bought it, but the guy who posted the ad just couldn't figure out how to download it...
Then he is just like me.🙂
Moving on to the actual hardware. You are looking at an HD 7790 or an R7 260X, which will give you maybe 10 to 15 FPS more than a 6850. However, if you go for an R7 7870 or even an R9 270X, you are looking at a minimum jump of 30 to 35 FPS. It is much better to invest in one decent card. Buying two 6850s is a poor decision. It isn't worth it from any angle.
Your friend should sell that old Phenom setup and the current GPU. He ought to pick up a Phenom II X4 955 BE paired with a GTX 660 or an R7 7870 instead. Then, he can overclock that 955 as high as it will go.🙂
Dammit, looks like I'm headed out to the mall right when I was actually hoping to stay put. What a joke. Honestly though, I don't mind it too much; that's why they all start hopping around like rabbits in Battlefield.
I even went as far as thinking that certain bots within the game—you know, the artificial intelligence—were actually running on some incredibly complex lines of code.
I’ve been hearing a lot about these mechanical keyboards lately. I haven't actually used one myself, nor have I ever even seen one taken apart. I just know they cost an absolute fortune. What's the actual catch?
At the end of the day, a keyboard is a keyboard. You have the same keys, a similar layout, some have lights and some don't. So, frankly, what is the point? It seems somewhat illogical to me how anyone claims to gain an advantage from them. I get mice. You deal with millimeter-precise movements, different weights for better balance, various sizes, soft versus hard grips, and so on. But this?
Jack James65 said:What about this setup? Would it work?
Intel Core i5-3550, Ivy Bridge, 6MB 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 NVIDIA GTX 770 Keeping the same motherboard (don't really want to buy a new one) 1TB Western Digital
This memory setup is my absolute strongest.🙂
It’s almost as if he thinks the s1366 socket requires triple channel memory. Clearly a misunderstanding.
😂
I fail to see the fixation on that specific motherboard. It’s fine—it performs its function just like any other board on the market—but I can't quite wrap my head around why someone would be so adamant about choosing that one specifically.
Now, comparing an Intel Core i7 directly to a Celeron... honestly, that just leaves me even more perplexed than before.
It’s probably for the best that he didn't track down some DDR2 RAM and insist on using it. That would have been a disaster.
Having high-end gear won't suddenly turn you into a pro gamer.🙂
I’m consistently at the top of the FPS leaderboards, and I do it all using a basic Genius mouse and keyboard combo $93.
It really just comes down to muscle memory and getting used to your setup. I’ve owned everything from a Razer DeathAdder to various Logitech gaming mice $167 and whatnot, and honestly, none of it made a difference. It’s a total waste of money; skill is built through practice, nothing else.
With AMD APUs, RAM speed is essentially everything. Since the integrated graphics pull directly from the system memory, performance is tied entirely to how fast that memory can move. It’s just basic logic—they share the same pool. However, you really start seeing the impact once you get into the A8 or A10 series. Take the A10-7850, for example; jumping from 1333MHz to 2133MHz can swing your frame rates by as much as 10 FPS in games. It's a significant delta.
Intel's high-speed memory offers absolutely no practical advantage. Unless you are pursuing some sort of extreme overclocking project, it's essentially useless.
Both Fotron and OCZ make top-tier power supplies. We don't carry XFX in our current inventory, so my advice would be to just go with that last configuration we discussed. It’s easily the most balanced setup.
Or rather, you have your mouse, keyboard, and a DVD-RW drive, but more importantly, the case 🙂, the RAM, and the power supply are all distinct components.
Intel Core i5 4440 3.1,6MB,LGA 1150 BX80646I54440SR14F $445 $445 MSI B85M-E33,1150,D3,S3,U3,HDMI,VGA,mATX B85M-E33 $143 $143 Patriot Viper3,1600Mhz,8GB (2x4GB) Red PV38G160C9KRD $205 $205 Fractal Design Arc Mini, white with window, no PSU FD-CA-DEF-R4-WH-W $243 $243 Corsair ModXStream Pro, 500W OCZ500MXSP-EU $153 $153 Gigabyte R9 280 WF3 OC, 3GB GDDR5, HDMI, DVI GVR928WO3D-00-0 $624 $624 WD10EZRX Caviar Green 1TB 64MB IntelliPower WD10EZRX $141 $141 Apple DVD±RW 24x black, bulk SH-224DB/BEBE $41 $41 AOC LED 23" I2367FM, VGA, 2xHDMI, audio i2367FM $386 $386 Genius Gaming KB-G265, keyboard, USB 31310056107 $60 $60 Microsoft Windows, gaming mouse, black 31010167101 $68 $68
Subtotal before tax: $2007 Sales Tax 8%: $502 Total: $2508
Don't talk nonsense when you clearly don't know what you're talking about. If we importers have this card in stock, then Best Buy has it too; they come by every single day to pick up inventory from us.
I've put together a complete build over at the local tech hub. Everything is in stock and ready to go right now. Assembly and testing are on the house.
Fractal Design Arc Mini - a top-tier, beautiful case with a plexiglass side panel and 2x120mm fans. Fotron Aurum gold 500w - high-end gold-rated power supply.
Monitor: Aoc 23 led ips i2367fm featuring built-in speakers. It's Full HD, obviously. I use one myself and I'm quite satisfied with it. Just plug it in via HDMI and you're set—both video and audio work instantly.
Price: $8,256.34 for cash. Add 5% for credit cards; Denny's offers up to 36 monthly installments.
Pick out your own mouse and keyboard. I didn't include a dvd-rw drive.$40 If the price is too steep, we can just pull the SSD or swap in a cheaper graphics card.
briskmason6 said:mellowtiger83, I have to say, I’m liking your suggestion... the i5 costs about the same as an x8 but it's superior and more powerful. Honestly, I won't even need to overclock the CPU if I pair it with the r9 290—which is total overkill—plus an SSD is always a smart move. So, with this setup, should I be able to run everything on max settings at 60 fps? It definitely seems like a much better path than going with the FX 8 and the r9 280 x.
Absolutely for the next few years, and all the upcoming titles...
Which card are you picking up and what kind of financing are we looking at? Maybe I could put a build together for you over at my place near the IQ Center.
You need an SSD, and if you have enough room in your budget for an extra HDD, go that route; buying a single hybrid drive is just a more expensive way to get the same result.
If you're looking at something like an i5 4560 or a 4440, there’s really no reason to blow money on a high-end B85 board. An H81 is plenty. You still get your USB 3.0, you still get SATA 3.0, and the performance difference is non-existent. You want the K-series i5 specifically for the clock speeds, which means you'll need a decent cooler anyway. It's better to stick with a standard i5 and put that extra cash toward a better GPU.
Most cases out there just cram in cheap junk like those Zalman Z3 or ZM Mini series. Honestly, the build quality is terrible and they look ugly. I had a Z1 once and I'm never touching one again.
Avoid the AMD FX series entirely. An i5 will eat it for breakfast, and an i3 would handle it just as easily. Besides, that entire chipset is end-of-life and has been hitting its limit for ages.
By the way, if you're careful with the assembly, you can fit an r9 290 in a nice case.
Here is a quick list based on what Insight usually has in stock—they're pretty much always offering credit or installment plans on everything they carry.
i5 4440 quad Core s1150, 3.1GHz ASUS H97 Pro4 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Crucial 1x8GB Gigabyte Radeon r9 290 SanDisk 120GB SSD 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD Corsair VS650W Corsair Spec-01 Case
Dell 23 Monitor Full HD
And you'll still have $167 left over for peripherals.
Keep an eye out on eBay for an R9 270X or a GTX 760 and save some cash; they don't need to be brand new.
By the way, the link you shared shows a Gainward GTX 660 Golden Sample 2GB GDDR5 listed for $333 under the used items section, which comes with a 1-year warranty.
Why all the arguing, guys? Both setups are solid enough, though I don't quite get the obsession with that generic Chiftec Libra case. For heaven's sake, just pick him a decent gaming chassis to stay within the budget.
And honestly, what's with the FX 8 series? An i5 would eat it for breakfast. It runs cooler, draws half the power, and so on and so forth.
btw Amd fx is a losing game. Any money you save on the CPU itself, you'll just end up bleeding right back into a beefier cooler and a higher-end motherboard just to handle the overclocking.
If you want an alternative, a 750k or 760k series paired with an a88x chipset is actually a pretty sweet deal. You get the CPU and motherboard combo for less than the price of a standalone i5, and those chips overclock easily to 4.2-4.5ghz.
What is the point of even looking at an R7 250 when the R7 260 is only 100$67 more expensive? It makes zero sense. I’m siding with the i3 here. It is objectively superior in every single metric compared to those old AMD Ryzen 5 750k or 760k series chips, especially when you actually try to play games.
The i3 is an unfairly overlooked processor. It packs 2+2 cores, and honestly, that hyper-threading tech is nothing short of a miracle.
So, the motherboard has four RAM slots. Right now, two are occupied by 2x2GB sticks. If I were to throw in a single 8GB stick, would it actually function properly using three slots? I really don't feel like running experiments on this. Theoretically, it should work, given we're dealing with an Intel Z77 chipset, if that matters at all.