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Which processor for low profile gaming pc?

J

JTKTR

Member
Quick question -

Building a mATX computer, looking to pick a processor and I'm stuck between:

i5 650 - $140
i7 860 - $200

I also have the option to get a 661 for 200 but that seems a bit steep considering the 650 performs at pretty much the same level

Frankly I'm leaning towards the 650 because it will still trump my AMD X4 in pretty much everything. But the idea of the quad core is pretty enticing and I don't mind spending more for the i7. However the i7 is a power hungry beast, something I wanted to avoid because that my X4 warms up my room enough as it is. I was hoping to move away from the ridiculous heat output.

Thoughts?
 
It really depends on which games you'll be playing, and whether you'll be GPU or CPU bottlenecked, so we'd need to know what graphics card you'll have, and what resolution you're going to play at. What case are you getting, what CPU HSF, and how many case fans are you going to have?
 
i dont want to upgrade from my 4870 yet. Trying to keep in the budget. I already have a liquid cooling set up and I plan to mount my radiator on top of the case (so ideally, only one 90 mm case fan).

I play a handful of games ranging from fallout to civ 4 playing at 1650 x 1050. And the case is a thermaltake that my friend gave me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133044
 
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just get the i7, the other chip is not worth 140.

what kind of motherboard are you working with? just get a nice top-down CPU cooler and undervolt the i7.
 
I would get the 860 as well. If the 60 dollar difference doesn't break your budget then go for it.

My htpcs do alot of transcoding and ripping bds and dvds to m2ts so the extra oomph does it help.
 
If you don't have any USB 3.0 devices and aren't planning on doing any high speed data transfer (why would you with a mATX system?). There is no reason to get a USB 3.0 board. I would say, hold out until USB 3.0 is in everything, then get it. Early adoption will always screw you in the end.
 
Another vote for the i5 750. Unless you need hyper threading there's no real difference, and for gaming HT tends to hurt more then it helps. As far as USB 3 and SATA 6 there's no real point now. There are only a handful of USB 3 devices and the fastest drives today can barely max out SATA 3.

-Wes
 
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