~$1500 Gaming PC, AMD or Intel Processor

[CrunCher910]

I have about 1500 dollars to spend on a gaming pc. I will be playing games such as wow/wc3/sc2/d3/css/hon. Now I would like to save as much money as possible but I wouldn't mind spending 1500 on a computer. I don't plan on doing any video editing or anything like that. I'll be playing on a 23 inch monitor at 1920x1080 resolution.

So my question is: Phenom 2 x4 965 or the i7 920. I've looked at benchmarks and what not and it seems the phenom is not only better bang for buck, but sometimes beats out the i7 in gaming, but loses in non-gaming. I also plan on using a 4890 or a new dx11 card. I'm leaning more towards the phenom since I wouldn't really get 100% use out of the i7, and with the extra cash I could get a better video card(improve my gaming fps i guess)

Forgot to mention I do not plan on OCing(first time build, and i would be nervous if my processor ended up frying/dying)

 

[Darkrage]

Go for the phenom if your goal is only gaming. For what I have seen the i7 and phII are pretty close in gaming performance.

 

[Darkrage]

or you could wait for the i5's and see how they stack up.

 

[kyotousa]

d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Well you don't really need to even spend that much, then, unless you need a monitor and OS with that $1500 budget.

I also think you should get the Phenom 955 over the 965 and save yourself a few bucks should you go Phenom II.

Your other option is to wait and build an Intel LGA1156 machine (when they release), which will be cheaper than current Core i7 but more expensive than Phenom II, and should easily fit in your $1500 budget.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Phenom 720BE / AM3 Motherboard

Hard to imagine 4870s 1Gb dropping much further in price. The XFX at $145 looks nice - with 2 you will be a gaming monster for the most part.

From what I have seen with SSDs in stripe RAID you will gain little performance (but I may be looking in the wrong places). I'd also like to see what gain (if any) is seen in FPS in SSDs vs. mechanical. Faster load times are nice but once the game has booted not sure what massive gain would be seen.

 

[TemjinGold]

Originally posted by: kyotousa
d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

Those are some pretty crappy SSDs you are recommending then...

OP: Since you are interested in saving money but also in getting the best bang for your buck, I would do as the rest have recommended and go for a Phenom II. You have $1500 to play with so I would get either an Intel G2 or an OCZ Vertex (not Turbo) SSD along with a storage drive if needed. The case I would spend in the $100 - $150 range. When are you building it? I ask because Evergreen is right around the corner but a 4890 on sale can be had for closer to $150 (I just got one for that price myself.)

 

[Scotteq]

Originally posted by: Darkrage
Go for the phenom if your goal is only gaming. For what I have seen the i7 and phII are pretty close in gaming performance.

True, insofar as in benchmarks which are GPU dependent, we do find that the CPU doesn't matter much.

Understand that all you're determining at that level is whether or not the available CPU power limits the southbridge/graphics from performing to their potential. So gaming benchies are more a test of whether a processor is "good enough" rather than an reliable indicator of one or the other's (real or perceived) superiority.

 

[Phynaz]

Gaming?

Phenom X3

 

[SlowSpyder]

For a strictly gaming machine the PhII packs plenty of power... the tri-cores save you money and will give you all the performance you need. A PhII 965 would certainly play any game out there... and since you're new to the overclocking thing, the Black Editions make it so very, very easy to overclock if you so decided to in the future... go into the BIOS and raise the multiplier by one, easy as that. You really can't go wrong with the PhII or i7.

 

[Eureka]

Phenom II... games are more GPU dependent than CPU dependent, so unless you're really pushing your graphics power (SLi/XFire), you won't notice a difference between a Phenom II and a i7. You probably won't notice too much of a difference between a X4 and a X2, either, but quads are cheap and there are games that do utilize all 4 cores.

EDIT: I noticed you don't plan on OCing... in this case PhII easily, since the i7s shine when overclocked.

 

[A5]

I built a full system with i7-920 and a 4890 (and 24" monitor) for $1520. No reason to not go i7 if that's your budget.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

i7 9xx from what i've heard will run dual gpu's better.. with the X58 chipset, you get the option of running either dual ATI/AMD cards or Nvidia cards.

AMD's are a great bang for the buck but ??? have a hard time getting past 3.8Ghz ??? with a 64bit OS ???

The Intel Q9550 paired with a Gigabyte UD3 or P (no SLI just X-Fire) with some DDR2 1000 is a great combo as well. If you have a Micro Center nearby, see about their 169$ Q9550 deal. I bought one and am loving it! The Q9550 machine in my sig, is by far my cheapest and most rewarding investment to date. 169$ Q9550, 119$ UD3R, 50$ DDR2 1000... the rest is preference..

Good Luck!

 

[Yukmouth]

I had to make this choice a short time ago as well, CrunCher910. I went with the X3 based on the fact that its so cheap and performs so well when overclocked.

Shortly after the X965 came out :| .... anywho. Kinna pissed on that one as I'll overclock my cell phone if I can and I know those 965's have a lot more head rom than my x3.

I mainly game and encode video/audio. Games are still geared towards dual proc cpu's so the X3 is a nice medium. With your budget, there's no reason to go anything less than quad-core. It's a more future proof solution and the most recent quad core 965 ensures you a good overclock without raising the voltage's and voiding AMD's replacement policy.

Overclocking is nothing to be afraid of. You'd more likely make a door step out of your motherboard doing a bios flash than causing harm via overclocking.

If you're worried about overclocking, buy the PHII 965 Black Edition. These come at a stock 1.4volts, anything less comes at 1.325 to 1.350v and wont get you much past 3.2ghz.

@ 1.4volts you'll be at the peak voltage these cpu's are covered under and should get to about 3.8ghz without changing as much as a multiplier as slow spider stated. That's a big positive for a gamer.

 

[CrunCher910]

thanks for the replys guys. the 1500 is for everything except mouse/keyboard/speakers

I'm really leaning toward the phenom 2 x4 965 black edition. As for OCing, what I plan on doing is not OCing for ~2-3 years, and if I need to I can OC.

I also have a question about raid0, is it more beneficial to buy 2 500 GB HDs than buying just 1 TB HD, the price difference comes out to be ~50-60 more. And how important is the 16 and 32 MB cache on them?

@yukmouth
So if I do OC my cpu the warranty only expires if I raise the voltage? How high can you OC before having to raise it?

 

[kyotousa]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa
d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

Those are some pretty crappy SSDs you are recommending then...

OP: Since you are interested in saving money but also in getting the best bang for your buck, I would do as the rest have recommended and go for a Phenom II. You have $1500 to play with so I would get either an Intel G2 or an OCZ Vertex (not Turbo) SSD along with a storage drive if needed. The case I would spend in the $100 - $150 range. When are you building it? I ask because Evergreen is right around the corner but a 4890 on sale can be had for closer to $150 (I just got one for that price myself.)

I guess OCZ summit is pretty crappy then 2x$120 + $70 for a 1tb. Sounds about right to me.

Actually you can just get 2x OCZ 30gb Vertex for even cheaper price 2x$100 I guess you recommended a crappy SSD as well...

 

[kyotousa]

Originally posted by: CrunCher910
thanks for the replys guys. the 1500 is for everything except mouse/keyboard/speakers

I'm really leaning toward the phenom 2 x4 965 black edition. As for OCing, what I plan on doing is not OCing for ~2-3 years, and if I need to I can OC.

I also have a question about raid0, is it more beneficial to buy 2 500 GB HDs than buying just 1 TB HD, the price difference comes out to be ~50-60 more. And how important is the 16 and 32 MB cache on them?

@yukmouth
So if I do OC my cpu the warranty only expires if I raise the voltage? How high can you OC before having to raise it?

Yes it's faster if you buy 2x 500gb and run raid 0, but if you run your data like that. If there's a hd failure everything is gone.

That's why I recommends 2 small drive for just system install and weekly files and 1 big drive for storage.

 

[TemjinGold]

Originally posted by: kyotousa

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa
d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

Those are some pretty crappy SSDs you are recommending then...

OP: Since you are interested in saving money but also in getting the best bang for your buck, I would do as the rest have recommended and go for a Phenom II. You have $1500 to play with so I would get either an Intel G2 or an OCZ Vertex (not Turbo) SSD along with a storage drive if needed. The case I would spend in the $100 - $150 range. When are you building it? I ask because Evergreen is right around the corner but a 4890 on sale can be had for closer to $150 (I just got one for that price myself.)

I guess OCZ summit is pretty crappy then 2x$120 + $70 for a 1tb. Sounds about right to me.

Actually you can just get 2x OCZ 30gb Vertex for even cheaper price 2x$100 I guess you recommended a crappy SSD as well...

Summit is indeed a crap drive. Read the new Anand article for proof. When I said Vertex, I meant a 120gig, not two little ones. Since SSD drives get faster as they get bigger, there's no reason to mess with two tiny ones. The point is to pay a good couple hundred for a strong SSD, not a pittance for a sucky one.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
i7 9xx from what i've heard will run dual gpu's better.. with the X58 chipset, you get the option of running either dual ATI/AMD cards or Nvidia cards.

AMD's are a great bang for the buck but ??? have a hard time getting past 3.8Ghz ??? with a 64bit OS ???

The Intel Q9550 paired with a Gigabyte UD3 or P (no SLI just X-Fire) with some DDR2 1000 is a great combo as well. If you have a Micro Center nearby, see about their 169$ Q9550 deal. I bought one and am loving it! The Q9550 machine in my sig, is by far my cheapest and most rewarding investment to date. 169$ Q9550, 119$ UD3R, 50$ DDR2 1000... the rest is preference..

Good Luck!

AMD does hold the best value in the gaming market over Intel. Its just a fact. Their Phenom 2 X4's are incredible GAME performers, which is what matters to most of us. At 3ghz, quad core, total of 8.5mb of on-die cache, decently priced unlocked multipliers, AMD is offering a killing at a street price of only $169.99. Without a doubt if I was building a computer with a good budget I'd still go with the AM3 Phenom X4's.

Going s775 right now is a VERY bad idea as there wont be any upgrades for it.

Any mention of Microcenter in null. Most of us don't live around us so that price of $169.99 for the Q9550 doesn't mean anything. If I did live near one you bet I'd buy it or when they had the Q8200 for $99.

Edit: If you need more than 3.8ghz, you are running some SERIOUS CPU limited tasks and you must have a dual/triple GPU system. If the OP doesn't have that, it doesn't matter.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Scholzpdx

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
i7 9xx from what i've heard will run dual gpu's better.. with the X58 chipset, you get the option of running either dual ATI/AMD cards or Nvidia cards.

AMD's are a great bang for the buck but ??? have a hard time getting past 3.8Ghz ??? with a 64bit OS ???

The Intel Q9550 paired with a Gigabyte UD3 or P (no SLI just X-Fire) with some DDR2 1000 is a great combo as well. If you have a Micro Center nearby, see about their 169$ Q9550 deal. I bought one and am loving it! The Q9550 machine in my sig, is by far my cheapest and most rewarding investment to date. 169$ Q9550, 119$ UD3R, 50$ DDR2 1000... the rest is preference..

Good Luck!

AMD does hold the best value in the gaming market over Intel. Its just a fact. Their Phenom 2 X4's are incredible GAME performers, which is what matters to most of us. At 3ghz, quad core, total of 8.5mb of on-die cache, decently priced unlocked multipliers, AMD is offering a killing at a street price of only $169.99. Without a doubt if I was building a computer with a good budget I'd still go with the AM3 Phenom X4's.

Going s775 right now is a VERY bad idea as there wont be any upgrades for it.

Any mention of Microcenter in null. Most of us don't live around us so that price of $169.99 for the Q9550 doesn't mean anything. If I did live near one you bet I'd buy it or when they had the Q8200 for $99.

Edit: If you need more than 3.8ghz, you are running some SERIOUS CPU limited tasks and you must have a dual/triple GPU system. If the OP doesn't have that, it doesn't matter.

Yeah-- I love that I'll be able to take my X3 and move it to an AM3 mobo that accepts DDR3 ram whenever I feel like it. And then from there I can upgrade the processor if I need to to the newest AM3 proc out there. Great value.

Great value on the AMD mobo's too. Optical out, Crossfire, running RAID0 right now, etc...great bang for buck.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I still say he should, if going AMD, get the Phenom 955 over the 965. The 955 is $50 cheaper, runs cooler, uses a bit less power, and has the same overclocking headroom as the 965. And at stock performance there isn't going to be a real world difference between the chips, so you might as well save that $50. Even the Phenom 945 would be a good buy.

 

[Yukmouth]

Originally posted by: CrunCher910
@yukmouth
So if I do OC my cpu the warranty only expires if I raise the voltage? How high can you OC before having to raise it?

Short of you using the CPU as a tennis ball to play catch with your dog, you're not going to void your warranty. It's pretty hard to kill a CPU with the fail safe's in place on motherboards these days so don't sweat, you'd have to circumvent multiple protection options in order to do so. Many motherboard manufacture's support this activity believe it or not. My MSI board has something called an " Easy OC Switch" located on the motherboard itself, which is in essence, a switch that overclocks the frontside bus raising the overall frequency of the CPU in the process. (Overclocking for dumbass's)

The one thing you must make sure you abide by is good cooling, I'd tell this to anyone, overclocking or not. Stock coolers are horrible and usually loud no matter what CPU you buy, learn it, remember it. Long gone are the days of motherboards that aren't smart enough to shut down *before* temps get to high, you'd be hard pressed to kill a phenom before reaching 1.5 volts; which you won't come close to doing being so new to overclocking I'm sure.

Overclocking is nothing more than reaching peak theoretical performance of a processor within its same family of processors. I bought a 2.8ghz cpu, and I'm getting 965 numbers with this core because this family of cpu's is meant to scale this high. Whatever you choose to buy, AMD/Intel did all the work. You're just someone who now knows AMD/Intel at times puts a model number and a multiplier on chips that are quite equal to eachother in potential.

If you can build a computer, you're more than capeable of sniffing out the max opperating frequncy of your CPU within safe opperating voltage's.

You don't put blood sweat and tears into a custom built car just to drop a stock motor into it do you???

No way bro, overclock that b*tch, she was made to run fast.

You have million's of articles on the net that prove it's a safe option as long as you keep your voltage's in check, so feel free to scour those and learn some new tricks. Many say the max voltage for a phenom II is 1.40v. Being that 1.4v is about the average voltage of many mainstream CPU's of the past and today, you're really not risking a thing.

cusideabelincoln seems to think that the 955 can scale just as well as the 965, though I've not heard much debate on this topic. Anand did a review of the 965 and stated it was much easier to reach 4ghz with it over his 955/945 sample's. Based on that info, I was hoping the 965 is indeed a better scaling batch of CPU's over their multiplyer locked counterparts. I'm not at all sure though, newest/latest dose not always mean the greatest when it comes to overclocking.

The Phenom II is a pretty sure thing no matter what series you decide on though, that's certain.

 

[emilyek]

$1500 is a solid budget. And you should overclock. The chances of really hurting anything are very slim. I too was once paranoid about such a thing; but that was 5 or so self-built and OCd systems ago. As long as you don't go full retard on adding Vcore, it's harmless.

Get a quad phenom 2, a medium-upper range mobo (no need for the most expensive $3-400ASUS or whatever), some 4890s in Xfire, a nice all-aluminum case, a solid PSU (but not a 1500W one or whatever) a nice big monitor and top-end accessories.

And don't waste money on super-expensive SSDs or Raptors or other super-enthusiast pieces. You won't notice a difference.

 

[kyotousa]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa
d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

Those are some pretty crappy SSDs you are recommending then...

OP: Since you are interested in saving money but also in getting the best bang for your buck, I would do as the rest have recommended and go for a Phenom II. You have $1500 to play with so I would get either an Intel G2 or an OCZ Vertex (not Turbo) SSD along with a storage drive if needed. The case I would spend in the $100 - $150 range. When are you building it? I ask because Evergreen is right around the corner but a 4890 on sale can be had for closer to $150 (I just got one for that price myself.)

I guess OCZ summit is pretty crappy then 2x$120 + $70 for a 1tb. Sounds about right to me.

Actually you can just get 2x OCZ 30gb Vertex for even cheaper price 2x$100 I guess you recommended a crappy SSD as well...

Summit is indeed a crap drive. Read the new Anand article for proof. When I said Vertex, I meant a 120gig, not two little ones. Since SSD drives get faster as they get bigger, there's no reason to mess with two tiny ones. The point is to pay a good couple hundred for a strong SSD, not a pittance for a sucky one.

Crappy drive as in drive failure?......Isn't SATA II's transfer rate 300mb? So what's the point. While 2x 60gb OCZ summit will put out avg of 460mb/s

 

[TemjinGold]

Originally posted by: kyotousa

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa

Originally posted by: TemjinGold

Originally posted by: kyotousa
d3 as in diablo 3? it won't come out till 2013 which means it won't REALLY come out till 2015 lol.
All the blizzard games are pretty PC friendly and I was getting 60fps with CSS on my A64 single core. So, you probably could put together a PC with under $1k and play all these games...i donno wats hon tho.

But if you wanna spend it all
CPU + stock HSF + mobo + 4gb DDR3 Ram -$350
SSD x2 Raid 0 + 1tb WD = $300
Case = $200 - $300
Power Corsair 550watts = $50
ATI 4890 - $200

get a speaker and head phone - $300
Blu-ray + dvd burner - $120

YAY

Those are some pretty crappy SSDs you are recommending then...

OP: Since you are interested in saving money but also in getting the best bang for your buck, I would do as the rest have recommended and go for a Phenom II. You have $1500 to play with so I would get either an Intel G2 or an OCZ Vertex (not Turbo) SSD along with a storage drive if needed. The case I would spend in the $100 - $150 range. When are you building it? I ask because Evergreen is right around the corner but a 4890 on sale can be had for closer to $150 (I just got one for that price myself.)

I guess OCZ summit is pretty crappy then 2x$120 + $70 for a 1tb. Sounds about right to me.

Actually you can just get 2x OCZ 30gb Vertex for even cheaper price 2x$100 I guess you recommended a crappy SSD as well...

Summit is indeed a crap drive. Read the new Anand article for proof. When I said Vertex, I meant a 120gig, not two little ones. Since SSD drives get faster as they get bigger, there's no reason to mess with two tiny ones. The point is to pay a good couple hundred for a strong SSD, not a pittance for a sucky one.

Crappy drive as in drive failure?......Isn't SATA II's transfer rate 300mb? So what's the point. While 2x 60gb OCZ summit will put out avg of 460mb/s

I don't want to be mean but you clearly have no clue what you are talking about when judging SSDs so I'm not going to argue.