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Building a new PC

B

boom314

Senior member
So i have to get some new parts after my power supply blew out.

I currently have a Phenom 9850 Black Edition and 4gb ram. I am looking at going towards an Intel build. I have a 9600GT that I plan on reusing with the new setup.

I am looking at getting a new CPU, motherboard and some DDR3. I want to spend $300 at most for all of this. My boot drive is SATA3 so I would like to have something with a few of those plugs available. I was looking at the Core i3-2120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

I am not sure what a good motherboard would be that would allow me to upgrade to a i5 or i7 in the future.

What would you guys recommend? I dont do any hardcore gaming or video editing. Just a general PC with some light gaming and something that I could watch a good HD movie through. Perhaps with a Blue Ray drive later.
 
Me personally, if you don't do heavy gaming you may not need even the i3-2120. A SB Pentium like the G620 or even a Celeron G530 should do those tasks quite well. It all depends on what games you want to play.
 
Do you live near a Micro Center? If so, you can get a Core i3-2100 with a Z68 chipset motherboard for $155+tax.
 
Zap said:
Do you live near a Micro Center? If so, you can get a Core i3-2100 with a Z68 chipset motherboard for $155+tax.
Click to expand...
If his profile is accurate, he is a 320 mile (6 hour) round-trip from the Philly Microcenter.
 
the most graphics intense game on my computer is far cry 2. ill check out that g850. what is the difference between the h67 and z68 chipsets?

I wish there was a good computer store around here, all we have is best buy, and staples and they don't have much
 
boom314 said:
the most graphics intense game on my computer is far cry 2. ill check out that g850. what is the difference between the h67 and z68 chipsets?

I wish there was a good computer store around here, all we have is best buy, and staples and they don't have much
Click to expand...

Technically, an H67 allows you to utilize the SB IGP. A Z68 allows you to overclock a "K" model processor, and also features Intel's Smart Response Technology (SRT) which basically enables you to use a small SSD as a fast cache for common applications.

I bought an H61 board, wish I had've bought an H67 in retrospect. I'll probably choose to sell it at a loss so I can use the onboard video. Don't care about overclocking, so I don't need a Z68. SRT is nice but a little too costly for me.
 
what is IGP? I might want to do mild overclocking to have this compare to my current cpu. Would I need the z86?
 
boom314 said:
what is IGP? I might want to do mild overclocking to have this compare to my current cpu. Would I need the z86?
Click to expand...

IGP is integrated graphics processor, a GPU core on the cpu die. Btw, SB is not like AMD, only the "K" model processors have their multipliers unlocked. The i5-2500k, for example, retails for around $230. Anything less and you're stuck at the preset speed 🙁
 
boom314 said:
the most graphics intense game on my computer is far cry 2. ill check out that g850. what is the difference between the h67 and z68 chipsets?

I wish there was a good computer store around here, all we have is best buy, and staples and they don't have much
Click to expand...

A Z68 board does everything that an H67 board will do, plus it allows for overclocking and SRT (SSD caching). Overclocking support doesn't matter much if you're getting a locked chip like the G850. SRT might matter to you if you want to get a smallish SSD, but honestly you would be better off spending the price differential between H67 and Z68 on a bigger SSD.
 
mfenn said:
A Z68 board does everything that an H67 board will do, plus it allows for overclocking and SRT (SSD caching). Overclocking support doesn't matter much if you're getting a locked chip like the G850. SRT might matter to you if you want to get a smallish SSD, but honestly you would be better off spending the price differential between H67 and Z68 on a bigger SSD.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
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