Age old debate AMD vs Intel

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Flipped Gazelle

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2004
6,666
3
81
Originally posted by: Imager
Originally posted by: soonerproud
Originally posted by: Imager
it ultimately comes down to the price. if I can put an i7 system together for $1500 or under then I guess sure! ATM don't see why that couldn't last me quite a few years.

If not, I totally see your point going Phenom route

You can easily put together a i7 at a $1500 budget, as long as you are smart about picking components and if 3 gigs of RAM is enough to get by on then get three 1 GHZ dimms and run them in triple channel memory mode. You can also save a little cash by recycling things like drives, cases, power supplies DVD burners, etc.

If I had $1500 to spend, I would damn sure have a i7.

can't recycle because the old system is a pass down. Otherwise yeah I could do it well below 1K even then, LOL!

need the i7 cpu, mobo, ram (pref 6GB) and at a min 4850 ati, and 2TB of storage along with a dvd burner and then a psu and a case to put it all in. Da case I've been looking at is the Thermaltake Element S!

Easy. Just rough, generic prices here, as I don't want to start any brand wars:

Core i7 - $250
Mobo - 200
Ram - 100
Video - 150
2 x 1TB HDD - 200
DVD - 30
PSU - 100
Case - 100

Total - $1130

Shop around, look for deals, you'll go even lower.

Joy! :D
 

Imager

Senior member
Aug 10, 2005
369
0
0
nice! Would be nice if I could order it all from one place to make things a lot easier! Like all from newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com for around that price. I'll have to dig deeper into it I guess.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,839
3,174
126
Originally posted by: Imager
nice! Would be nice if I could order it all from one place to make things a lot easier! Like all from newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com for around that price. I'll have to dig deeper into it I guess.

For the I7, invest in a decient board please.

Dont get the 200 dollar board unless its an open box board.

ASUS P6T DlX series are great.

Gigabyte UD5 series are excellent

Evga X58 series are also great.

I wouldnt get any other board except those 3 for the slightly budget orientated.

I would more lean on the giggy. Unless u can dish out 300-400 dollars on the higher end boards. :p
 

Imager

Senior member
Aug 10, 2005
369
0
0
Originally posted by: aigomorla
Originally posted by: Imager
nice! Would be nice if I could order it all from one place to make things a lot easier! Like all from newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com for around that price. I'll have to dig deeper into it I guess.

For the I7, invest in a decient board please.

Dont get the 200 dollar board unless its an open box board.

ASUS P6T DlX series are great.

Gigabyte UD5 series are excellent

Evga X58 series are also great.

I wouldnt get any other board except those 3 for the slightly budget orientated.

I would more lean on the giggy. Unless u can dish out 300-400 dollars on the higher end boards. :p

was looking into the Gigabyte UD3P - 1) because previous poster really recommended it and 2) from the reviews it seems to be VERY GOOD!

Not sure why that board being under $200 is bad...
 

LyNX31

Member
Mar 5, 2002
153
0
0
Originally posted by: aigomorla
Originally posted by: Imager
nice! Would be nice if I could order it all from one place to make things a lot easier! Like all from newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com for around that price. I'll have to dig deeper into it I guess.

For the I7, invest in a decient board please.

Dont get the 200 dollar board unless its an open box board.

ASUS P6T DlX series are great.

Gigabyte UD5 series are excellent

Evga X58 series are also great.

I wouldnt get any other board except those 3 for the slightly budget orientated.

I would more lean on the giggy. Unless u can dish out 300-400 dollars on the higher end boards. :p

i dont understand why a 200 dollar board is bad either.. i got the ud3r and it has been rock solid.. i got a combo deal for 6 gig ddr3 and the ud3r for $230. i would say don't spend more unless you really need to
 

Imager

Senior member
Aug 10, 2005
369
0
0
Originally posted by: LyNX31
Originally posted by: aigomorla
Originally posted by: Imager
nice! Would be nice if I could order it all from one place to make things a lot easier! Like all from newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com for around that price. I'll have to dig deeper into it I guess.

For the I7, invest in a decient board please.

Dont get the 200 dollar board unless its an open box board.

ASUS P6T DlX series are great.

Gigabyte UD5 series are excellent

Evga X58 series are also great.

I wouldnt get any other board except those 3 for the slightly budget orientated.

I would more lean on the giggy. Unless u can dish out 300-400 dollars on the higher end boards. :p

i dont understand why a 200 dollar board is bad either.. i got the ud3r and it has been rock solid.. i got a combo deal for 6 gig ddr3 and the ud3r for $230. i would say don't spend more unless you really need to

I agree dude and nice deal dude! Been lookin on Newegg.com and I've been able to put a i7 together for roughly $1200 minus the OS.

Now just gotta get the parts to get the current PC back up and running!
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
Originally posted by: taltamir
take your budget, lets call it X dollars. Put 2x/3 in the bank. use 1x/3 to buy a system now. Every 18 months use another 1x/3 to upgrade it. While your system today will be weakter than if you had spend X dollars buying it.
The first upgrade after 18 months will give you a more powerful system! and the second upgrade 3 years from now will be SEVERAL TIMES FASTER than a system costing X dollars today.

Upgrading every 4 years is plain stupid unless your budget is in the double digits (aka, buy a 50$ used ancient computer every few years; today it would be a p3/4 or an athlonXP based machine with 512mb of ram)

The less $$ the OP has available now, the less likely that strategy is able to work effectively. Let's say the OP has $1000 to spend. What can he get that is current for $333.33? OP has already stated that he's building a new PC.

that is utterly wrong... even on the 1000$ budget... if he bought a 300$ computer now (not bought components and built it, but a whole computer), it would be a P4 (or equivalent) machine with 2GB of ram... and 3 years from now it will be a machine BETTER than what he can buy now for 1000$.

If he bought components... than 300 components 3 years from now WILL give a better system than 1000$ in components today! Much better in fact.

People keep on deluding themselves into thinking that this is not the case, that they are "investing" in a computer, that it will last them years... and then they go and replace it for another 1000$ 1.5 - 2 years down the line...

Any budget for computers should account for TIME... and ANY budget that has allows for more than 100$ (maybe even less) BENEFITS from spreading it out more. Ideally upgrade INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS in a STAGGERED manner every 6-12 months. Or upgrade entire systems every 12-18 months.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
http://www.walmart.com/eMachin...Desktop-PC/ip/10858497

300$ PC... and thats not even buying components (which would be several times better)
it even has 2GB of ram... a 1000$ computer bought in 2006 would not have 2GB of ram. Even though the vista tax hurts more here it is still the cheaper buy...

Ofcourse at the 300$ range it is stupid to buy NEW... buy a USED PC from last year for 300$ and you get a lot more for your money.
 

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
PS... learn to format... people routinely THROW AWAY computers that are only 2-3 years old... that is because they have devalued to practically nothing, you can get those for free or cheap and then a quick reformat later you have a nice new upgrade (for the extremely budget limited)...

If you do have a decent budget, then use it and enjoy it... but if your budget is 250$ a year, then saving it for 4 years to buy a 1000$ is a horrible HORRIBLE waste of your money.
 

Imager

Senior member
Aug 10, 2005
369
0
0
Just as a statement....

My 4yrs was an estimate since that's what's been for me, about every 3-4 years. Before I would be a downgraded GPU, and then would need to upgrade that, but would suffer on the cpu and memory until I was able to upgrade. Last build I went a lil more on when I bought it and have been able to get by for the last 4 years without upgrading anything. Until now...
The mobo died, and I'm finding that the one I have is no longer being sold anywhere that I can find as I also can't find any socket 939 nforce4 boards for sale. So to pass this one down I need to get a cheap mobo/cpu/memory just to get this one back up and running.