Now then,

After some tech advice.

Priced up two lots of PC parts for me to build my own computer.

I want it to be capable of playing most games at highest possible graphics settings or close enough without struggling.

Can't decide whether to go Intel or AMD....

I'm pretty sure all the parts other than CPU and motherboard will be capable and don't really want to change them, unless there is better performance for less cost!

If anyone could spare a moment to take a look and give me their advice I would appreciate it

AMD build: http://www.ebuyer.co...sts/list/160485

Intel build: http://www.ebuyer.co...sts/list/168235

Hard to make my mind up because i only wanted to spend £650ish and I was advised that the AMD processor would be cheaper, however there is £9 difference haha...

Ta

Edited 19 April, 201313 yr by Jonnyy

Before you start to convince yourself what you want. Have a look at overclockers UK, they have a overclocking bundle which are awesome, CPU motherboard cooler and RAM. If your gaming then the main components you need is high CPU speed, a decent cooler, around 8gb of RAM and obviously a pritty decent gfx card. I've always gone with AMD until recently I've purchased a gaming laptop. I use to have a AMD Phenom quad core 3.2ghz with 8gb of RAM and it never had problems with any of the games I threw at it.

I should of looked at the links first and can't edit but that looks like a decent rig, although you haven't got a cooler on it.

Yeah I have looked a few times, however most of the time it still works out cheaper to buy the parts separately

I build gaming rigs as a profession, in all honesty I'm not biased to any brand, nor I'm a fan boy for either.

Intel CPU- pretty much best on the market for performance

AMD cpu - pretty much the best performance for the price on the market.

Gfx cards you need a minimum of 1gb but has to be a good quality one.

You can get the 2nd best amd card for the price of a mid range nvidia card.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

You don't say what resolution you will be gaming at?

Either way the CPU and GPU will be fine at 1920x1200 and probably decent at 2560x1600 too.

Edited 19 April, 201313 yr by Chronicbint

A 120 Gig SSD seems a bit small. Presumably you'll be wanting to run your games from the SSD, and even if not then I'd be sorely tempted to go for a 256 Gig drive.

I've been researching SSD's lately and it seems that the Samsung ones are the current models of choice. This isn't their "Pro" version, and it will cost more money, but you really don't want to wish you'd bought a bigger disc drive.

http://www.ebuyer.com/409850-samsung-250gb-840-series-ssd-mz-7td250bw

I build gaming rigs as a profession, in all honesty I'm not biased to any brand, nor I'm a fan boy for either.

Intel CPU- pretty much best on the market for performance

AMD cpu - pretty much the best performance for the price on the market.

Gfx cards you need a minimum of 1gb but has to be a good quality one.

You can get the 2nd best amd card for the price of a mid range nvidia card.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Very difficult to find an opinion from someone who isnt a fan boy on the internet haha, think intel is definitely the one i'm at, graphics wise im just undecided completely.

You don't say what resolution you will be gaming at?

Either way the CPU and GPU will be fine at 1920x1200 and probably decent at 2560x1600 too.

For the time being 1680x1050, however ill get a better hdmi monitor in time so probably 1920x1080 or higher!

A 120 Gig SSD seems a bit small. Presumably you'll be wanting to run your games from the SSD, and even if not then I'd be sorely tempted to go for a 256 Gig drive.

I've been researching SSD's lately and it seems that the Samsung ones are the current models of choice. This isn't their "Pro" version, and it will cost more money, but you really don't want to wish you'd bought a bigger disc drive.

http://www.ebuyer.co...ssd-mz-7td250bw

Yes i thought that too, however plan is to have OS and current game installations on the ssd, then move them to hdd when i have got bored of them!

Although as you may have noticed i am slightly out of budget already and i wasn't going to purchase an ssd however thought it best to do so from the start.

Then again, i could sack buying an HDD for the time being and run on 240gb ssd for the same price for a month or two!

So many decisions!

Intel vs AMD I think is purely budget orientated.

Intel is the more powerful system but something that is all of 2% slower probably costs about half the price in the AMD line (assuming general quad core, for highly multithreaded tasks, ie not games which at most use 2-4 threads fitting easily within a quad core CPU, there are completely different considerations for each platform).

I'm building lots of top end servers right now, that have pretty high power CPU's and intel are beating the AMD on price/performance metrics by a long way at the moment. I do get discounts, but I'm not sure the AMD chips are all that at the moment. I'm comparing the chips to AMD's buldozers with 16 cores mind and say this mainly because not so many things are as well threaded as you'd like.

As a serious point though, if you can wait a couple of months, then you've got new processors from both sides, haswell from intel, which have significantly better performance in some areas and also new sockets and boards that use DDR5 memory.

This is all likely to up the system performance a lot.

Obviously there is always something new around the corner, so if not, I build a machine for somebody with an i7 3770k and a corsair closed circuit water cooler (H60 maybe). That will happily sit at 4.5Ghz all day long and not get too hot.

Edited 20 April, 201313 yr by cheezemonkhai

I recently built 2 rigs for a guy, an AMD FX-8350 rig, and an Intel I7 3770K

Spec's for AMD

AMD Fx-8350

ASUS sabertooth 990fx motherboard

8gb corsair vengeance ram

3GB XFX Radeon HD 7950 DD

250gb OCZ Agility

Western Digi green 2tb

Xigmatek Elysium Window

Sony CD/DvD writer

Corsair modular 750w PSU

XSPC RASA RX Water cooling Kit (RED)

15% OC on CPU and a 10% OC on the GFX

Spec's for INTEL

Intel I7 3770K

Gigabyte UDH5 motherboard

EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW

8gb Intel Patriot ram

250gb OCZ Agility

Western Digi green 2tb

Corsair Obsidian Series 650D

Song Cd/DVD writer

Corsair modular 750w PSU

Custom Water cooling loop (BLUE)

No Overclocks on anything.

Both performed amazingly, even with the overclock on the 8350 CPU the intel was still slightly ahead of the game, power draw was very little from the i7 where as the 8350 was drawing nearly 200-220W, performance goes to the Intel rig. However price for performance the 8350 wins hands down! its alot cheaper than the intel rig and perform's less the 6% slower than the Intel rig.

My vote went to the 8350 for the fight it put up, but the intel is faster hands down.

If built correctly AMD rigs are just as good give or take a little, and youll save some cash... If you want all out performance and your budget is a hefty one then id buy intel no question.

If you want a rig that can nearly keep up with the big boys and save a few pennys buy AMD.

Either way you wont be disappointed

Edited 21 April, 201313 yr by VRade

Intel all the way, AMD have been playing catch up for years.

You have to remember about one thing - if it is a gaming PC, go with a worse CPU but buy the best GPU you can afford.

If you want a rig that can nearly keep up with the big boys and save a few pennys buy AMD.

Either way you wont be disappointed

Well, you compare two different GPUs.

I'd go 3570K for a game rig. Can't justify 3770K just for gaming.

I use and build rigs for CAD but do play some games in a spare time. And hardly see the point of 4+4 (4 cores + 4 threads) Intel (or 6/8 cores AMD) for gaming. 2+2 is more than you need or just 4 cores.

Well, you compare two different GPUs.

I'd go 3570K for a game rig. Can't justify 3770K just for gaming.

I use and build rigs for CAD but do play some games in a spare time. And hardly see the point of 4+4 (4 cores + 4 threads) Intel (or 6/8 cores AMD) for gaming. 2+2 is more than you need or just 4 cores.

Granted with every year that is passing games will start to use more cores/threads

Battlefield 3 will use all 8 cores on a AMD machine and it will use the +4 hyper threads on Intel, granted it doesn't use them effectively.

My personal rig is only an I5 3570K and its perfect for the job.

Actually the 7950 & the 670 are in the same "performance" bracket,

Edited 21 April, 201313 yr by VRade

... granted it doesn't use them effectively.

Exactly. That is why I can't see the reason for more than 4/2+2 (home use).

My personal rig is only an I5 3570K and its perfect for the job.

I got two rigs - one with good old i7 930 and second with 3570K. First one is for work/leasure, second one is just for work and is brilliant.

Actually the 7950 & the 670 are in the same "performance" bracket,

Yes, but still there are many games that were "written" with specific platform in mind (AMD/nvidia).

Thanks for all your advice guys

Made my mind up

i5 3570k, gtx 660 ti, and then a few savings here and there on mobo and harddrives etc

Cheers guys very helpful as always

This should help you choose your graphics card; http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

It has been my go to guide for gfx for years.

Thanks for all your advice guys

Made my mind up

i5 3570k, gtx 660 ti, and then a few savings here and there on mobo and harddrives etc

Cheers guys very helpful as always

Very nice CPU and GPU combo

However I always recomend not to save on PSU and mobo. With mobo it's simple story nowadays, but PSU not so easy. Personally I only recommend Seasonic or its clones (such as XFX). I've heard too many stories about PSU taking down all other components. You can get a decent PSU (XFX 550W Pro) for under £50 and t's worth every penny (it comes with 5 years warranty).

Anyway - have fun with your new rig. I built mine for 3D design/FEA and I love 3570K to bits :love:

Edited 23 April, 201313 yr by lmb

Very nice CPU and GPU combo

However I always recomend not to save on PSU and mobo. With mobo it's simple story nowadays, but PSU not so easy. Personally I only recommend Seasonic or its clones (such as XFX). I've heard too many stories about PSU taking down all other components. You can get a decent PSU (XFX 550W Pro) for under £50 and t's worth every penny (it comes with 5 years warranty).

Anyway - have fun with your new rig. I built mine for 3D design/FEA and I love 3570K to bits :love:

I see, when i say savings, i mean i found better deals for essentially the same thing. Mainly, case & psu have been found as a combo at a good deal, coolermaster so will be good!