Eureka
Diamond Member
- Sep 6, 2005
- 3,822
- 1
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129179 with promo code for $70. And a quiet case to boot.
Where are you located? Microcenter, if you have one near you, will give you an i5 for 190 or an i7 for 290, and will take off 50 from a motherboard if you buy them together. i5 with an asrock extreme4 will run you 275 + tax, and is worth the extra effort since the extreme4 is a bit nicer.
I would not get an i7. Unless you need to do video editing or other cpu-intensive items very often, you can wait for the extra time it takes to do those things without HT. For gaming, it doesn't really matter as much. Just push the i5 up to 4.5ghz and you're set.
SSDs are cheap now; I've seen 256gb for 150 and 128gb for 80. You will see a much GREATER gain with a SSD than with an i7. It's no contention. Get a 600W power supply for around $50-60. Get a Radeon 7950 (which is going for $250 now).
To break it down:
i5 + motherboard: ~$300 after tax
memory: ~50 for 16gb, 30 for 8gb ddr3 1600
ssd: ~100 depending on what size you get and what deal you find
2tb hard drive: ~100
7950: 250
psu: ~60
P280: 70
That's only $930. You really want to have the SSD, and manage space on a second drive, because you will see HUGE performance gains. Right now my pc, with an i5 and ssd, will go from power button push to windows desktop in around 15 seconds (no joke, the window logo doesn't even finish loading). You can put stuff on the 2tb drive, your games or whatnot. In most computers now, the top bottleneck is the hard drive.
The 7950 is more than plenty for what you need, especially if your monitor is still 1280x1024. Even up to 1920x1200 the 7950 will do alright. If not, it's an extra $100, which puts your total at $1030. And if you must have an i7, that's only $1130 total for everything.
Do the SSD. Going from an i5 to i7, or having more RAM, doesn't compare to putting your operating system on a SSD. You can put your VSTs and audio stuff on the 2TB drive, by directing it in Windows.
Where are you located? Microcenter, if you have one near you, will give you an i5 for 190 or an i7 for 290, and will take off 50 from a motherboard if you buy them together. i5 with an asrock extreme4 will run you 275 + tax, and is worth the extra effort since the extreme4 is a bit nicer.
I would not get an i7. Unless you need to do video editing or other cpu-intensive items very often, you can wait for the extra time it takes to do those things without HT. For gaming, it doesn't really matter as much. Just push the i5 up to 4.5ghz and you're set.
SSDs are cheap now; I've seen 256gb for 150 and 128gb for 80. You will see a much GREATER gain with a SSD than with an i7. It's no contention. Get a 600W power supply for around $50-60. Get a Radeon 7950 (which is going for $250 now).
To break it down:
i5 + motherboard: ~$300 after tax
memory: ~50 for 16gb, 30 for 8gb ddr3 1600
ssd: ~100 depending on what size you get and what deal you find
2tb hard drive: ~100
7950: 250
psu: ~60
P280: 70
That's only $930. You really want to have the SSD, and manage space on a second drive, because you will see HUGE performance gains. Right now my pc, with an i5 and ssd, will go from power button push to windows desktop in around 15 seconds (no joke, the window logo doesn't even finish loading). You can put stuff on the 2tb drive, your games or whatnot. In most computers now, the top bottleneck is the hard drive.
The 7950 is more than plenty for what you need, especially if your monitor is still 1280x1024. Even up to 1920x1200 the 7950 will do alright. If not, it's an extra $100, which puts your total at $1030. And if you must have an i7, that's only $1130 total for everything.
Do the SSD. Going from an i5 to i7, or having more RAM, doesn't compare to putting your operating system on a SSD. You can put your VSTs and audio stuff on the 2TB drive, by directing it in Windows.
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