Budget Build advice

Squirreljester said:
And now the 2500k proc is out of stock, what in the hell?!

Wow, that's insane about the recall... well, that shoots my getting a new computer order in by today to hell. I guess we'll wait and see what happens with this.
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Yeah good idea.
 
I'm tempted to scale back my build for now, pick up a first gen clarkdale setup.... it will save me probably $100 - $150. Do you think the Sandybridges are really worth waiting for?
 
from what ive seen its well worth waiting for Sandy bridge but at the same time its really hard to tell when things will be panned out enough feel confident in the hardware. At the same time they did say it will be at least 3 weeks before we see fixed versions of the boards & longer for new boards.
 
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Yeah, the article says February for replacements and March for new.... I may wait a year for Sandybridge stuff to go down in price a little, and to stop being cutting edge. :)

If you had to go back to Gen 1, what would you suggest? Clarkdale i5-650? And would it be possible to pick up a motherboard/proc with the same 8GB of DDR3 I picked?
 
I'm still reluctant on recommending any first-gen Core i5 processor; Sandy Bridge is still better performance-wise and the recall, which focuses on the boards, will take a few months at most.

I recommend an AMD Socket AM3 system as it is cheaper yet still effective for your needs. The RAM will work regardless.
 
i would go to AMD for now since its cheaper but that is just me. Thats what I had to do Im not going to toss any money around till Sandy gets fixed up
 
I was so happy with Sandybridge too, damn it.

I haven't really looked at AMD, now I gotta learn about that whole line, grr. hehe
 
Danny Bui said:
Wouldn't get it. The stated numbers on the specs page for that SSD is actually not representative of real world usage. So the performance of that SSD is actually much much lower in real world usage than what is stated in the specs page. This is different from Crucial, Corsair, and Intel SSDs where the real world numbers are actually posted.
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How do you figure this.. Corsair posts the same numbers as OCZ does for there sandforce based drives.. Also the same numbers as G.Skill, A-Data, Patriot, & The slew of other manufacturers using the sandforce chipset..

And the Vertex 2 is not a bad drive & you will be happy with its performance.. If your looking at about the same cost per GB for a intel or crucial then I would get one of the others, But cost per GB is imho the most important factor when purchasing an SSD because basically ALL SSD's are blazing fast compared to mechanical drives, but way more expensive as well..

Lately though the Crucial c300 (which is current top dog imho) has been seen for about 100 bucks more then once. That compared to the vertex 2 at 105 the crucial is the way better buy.. But dont pay too much of a premium for the c300 or an intel over the vertex2..
 
Squirreljester said:
I was so happy with Sandybridge too, damn it.

I haven't really looked at AMD, now I gotta learn about that whole line, grr. hehe
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It depends on what you want to do at this point & price. I wouldnt spent ALOT of money right now till sandy. give us a budget & we can do something for you.
 
I would like to stay under $700, as that's the limit for the card I'm putting it on. Remember, I don't need a really powerful system. You can use everything I've already listed (minus the monitor) for what I'm already getting.
I really don't play any of the new games on it, I just don't have time. The only really big thing I want to run is a VM with 32-bit XP on it to run some of my old games like Balder's Gate, Vampire Mascerade, Warcraft 2, etc.

SSD is out because of price also. I'd love to have one, but I'll wait a year until they get REALLY good price/GB.

Anyway, I was looking at AMD's stuff, and I don't need a 6-core, but I can swing a 4-core Phenom II, here's the proc and motherboard I found, but again, I haven't really done much research on AMD's line so I may be way off.

MSI 880GMA-E53 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Item #: N82E16813130308 $99.99 /w $20 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130308

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor DZ965FBGMBOX $159.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
 
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I would say go with this it will give you a chance to run Crossfire if you want in the future. I didnt see where the 965 black came with a MIR

AMD Phenom II X4 955
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G

Newegg Promotional Gift Card - $10.00

Grand Total: $264.86
 
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bastage said:
How do you figure this.. Corsair posts the same numbers as OCZ does for there sandforce based drives.. Also the same numbers as G.Skill, A-Data, Patriot, & The slew of other manufacturers using the sandforce chipset..
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My mistake there: thought that Corsair didn't make Sandforce based SSDs.
bastage said:
And the Vertex 2 is not a bad drive & you will be happy with its performance.. If your looking at about the same cost per GB for a intel or crucial then I would get one of the others, But cost per GB is imho the most important factor when purchasing an SSD because basically ALL SSD's are blazing fast compared to mechanical drives, but way more expensive as well..
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I'm not getting into this same discussion again.
 
@4LC4PON3 Sorry, the proc doesn't have a MIR, mistake of my quick copy/paste, just the MOBO has it. I edited the post.

Why pick the 955 over the 965?
 
Squirreljester said:
@4LC4PON3 Sorry, the proc doesn't have a MIR, mistake of my quick copy/paste, just the MOBO has it. I edited the post.

Why pick the 955 over the 965?
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The performance boost of the 965 is not worth anywhere near the $20 to $30 price difference over the 955.
 
like eagle said its not worth the extra 20.00+ for 200MHZ when you can just overclick a hair and get 200mhz free
 
I'll take your word for it, but that makes sense, the extra 200mhz is just a couple OC ticks. :)

Also, there's an open box for that motherboard for $30 less, woot! hehe
 
Be careful with that open box motherboard. In many cases, the only thing that it has is the board itself -- don't expect any accessories, drivers CD, or even the I/O backplate. And should it not work for any reason, you only have 30 days to exchange it.
 
Like tiraides said above open box can be tricky. I wouldnt trust an open box with my life. Some people have gotten good open box's but others get stiffed. Plus you wont get the accessories as tiraides stated above. Just a board.
 
Enjoy I think you will be happy with the 955 performance you might even forget about sandy Bridge. The 955 is still a good CPU. I might even do that myself gab another 955 & Mobo & call it a day. I cant wait for sandy bridge its going to take way to long & I dont have the patience
 
4LC4PON3 said:
Enjoy I think you will be happy with the 955 performance you might even forget about sandy Bridge. The 955 is still a good CPU. I might even do that myself gab another 955 & Mobo & call it a day. I cant wait for sandy bridge its going to take way to long & I dont have the patience
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That is what I am thinking. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a 2500k, I am not patient enough to wait even though I know it would be the better setup.
 
Yeah, but really how much better can it be? You can look at numbers all day long, but in the end you really have to leverage what your usage will be, and if a couple 100 Ghz will be worth that $100 difference... plus it's new tech and the motherboard manufacturers are trying to update their BIOS's.

I think it will be at least 6 months before things settle down, at the minimum.
 
The 955, 975 & 1100T all got spanked by SandyBridge. There was no comparison really.

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But is it worth it if I'm not doing extreme OC'ing or heavy gaming?

And the problem is that the i5 is sold out everywhere, and will probably be more money when they get more in.
 
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To the op, if you have a microcenter near by they will price match online retailers, if you ask. I got my phenom 2 965 from them 6 months ago for $10 less then the 955 with a free mobo. I havnt recieved one of their flyers yet but they must have some kind of deal going on.

My computer is a 965 @ 4.0 with sli gtx260's and it may be somewhat dated as compared to whats out now but it flies. (Installed two 32gig ssds which made it a beast)

Weigh all your options. Whats fast to you may be slow to the hardcore guys, just be patient and order what you feel comfortable with and youll be fine.
 
My current computer is a P4 2.8Ghz HT socket 478 on a P4P800S motherboard, a Radeon HD 3850 AGP video card, in an 8 bay tower I've had for probably 10 years.... so I think it's about time to do a full upgrade.
I do have a 5 year old 17" LCD that I would like to upgrade as well.
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an AMD build will easily be faster then your current build. Your Rig is HIGHLY outdated.
 
I kinda figured as much haha

I posted that as a baseline for what I'm working with right now, and for what I use it for, it's a little slow, and some games a choppy.'

I also see from that link that I can get the Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/U with the AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition for $273, $10 more than Newegg's AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor and the same motherboard.... would that be the way to go?

It also seems microcenter is devoid of P67 motherboards.
 
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@ microcenter. I wish I had a microcenter near me to get these great deals. that is a killer deal on the 965 & mobo. That same 965 & mobo on newegg will run you Grand Total: $287.85

965
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/U
$213.00

or

1090T
Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/U
$263.99

its really up to you. If you dont need 6 cores go for the 955 since its cheaper
 
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They have i5-2500k's for $179, but they have no P67 motherboards, so it's kind of pointless to get one there.... but I wonder if that's because of the recall though, now that I think about it.
 
If you noticed tho you cant order the 2500K doesnt allow you to. The reason being is that there are no boards to go with the CPU so they wont sell you jsut the CPU
 
I could add it to my cart, but for some reason the Illinois stores aren't in my list (which is where I live), what's up with that?!

And, should I just get an i3-650 clarkdale instead of the AMD, since those graphs seem to show even the i3's outperforming the AMD's?
 
Squirreljester said:
I could add it to my cart, but for some reason the Illinois stores aren't in my list (which is where I live), what's up with that?!

And, should I just get an i3-650 clarkdale instead of the AMD, since those graphs seem to show even the i3's outperforming the AMD's?
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Like I stated a few times in other threads, some of the newer games are now starting to scale well with more physical cores. That i3, on the other hand, is more appropriate in business systems that involve no gaming at all whatsoever due to the following reasons:

1) It (the i3) has no Turbo Boost feature, which means that you're very much stuck at stock speed unless you happen to find a mobo that can heavily overclock that CPU successfully

2) HyperThreading does not improve the performance of games much (if at all), and may even hinder the gaming performance. It is only dual-core (but quad-threaded, which is a very poor substitute for a true quad-core CPU).

The i5-650, on the other hand, is a total waste of money even though it has a Turbo Boost feature: It is extremely expensive for a CPU that has only two physical cores. In fact, it costs nearly as much money as the quad-core i5-760.
 
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Squirreljester said:
And, should I just get an i3-650 clarkdale instead of the AMD, since those graphs seem to show even the i3's outperforming the AMD's?
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The Core i3-2100 is the Sandy Bridge Core i3, not even close to the Core i5-650.

In any case, the i5-650 is a total waste of money since it costs $185 yet is only a dual-core CPU. That's a huge ripoff considering that you can get an AMD six-core for LESS than that price.
 
The Phenom II hex-cores are more beneficial for Photoshop and video editing than they are for general gaming and web browsing/streaming.
 
Squirreljester said:
NewEgg and microcenter both don't even have the i3-2100 listed anywhere.
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And the i3-2100 is unlikely to be sold at stores even after the Sandy Bridge CPUs go back on sale again: That CPU will likely become an OEM-only part. Moreover, it is the least desirable Sandy Bridge CPU even if it is sold in stores: It is only a dual-core CPU, and it has no Turbo Boost at all whatsoever. Thus, you're permanently stuck at stock speed with that CPU even if the mobo allows overclocking.
 
Understandable... maybe the AMD 6 core is the way to go, since I can get it cheaper at microcenter, price is definitely a concern for me right now, and I don't even play any of the games in that graph (I used to play WoW but not anymore).

Also, if I get a 6 core 125watt proc, will my Antec 650watt PSU be enough still?
 
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