deskthority

I'm currently using a Toshiba Satellite Pro A200 w/ Intel T7250, ATi Radeon HD2600 and a slow 200GB hard drive. It's ok for surfing and old games but lately I'm even having trouble with Team Fortress 2 (gfx overheating). My work PC is also old, Intel DG965RY and c2d E6420. The problem with this motherboard is that it apparently doesn't support anything better than E6600 and only uses DDR2. Since these two are also taking up a lot of desktop space, I need a change.

I'm on a budget and can't really afford an i5 so I'm turning to AMD for a new desktop PC.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 125W was my first choice and AMD Athlon II X3 my second (costs 50% less). I'm not sure about the motherboard either - too many models to chose from! I narrowed it down to AM3+ for future upgrades and I trust ASUS the most. Any ideas? I don't intend to use two graphics cards.

What's a decent mid-range gfx card that'll allow me to play TF2 in full HD?

Thanks for the input.

Cheers

what's your budget?
As for video card I'd suggest a GTX 560 from Nvidia, best performance/cost product imo.
But really I'd buy an Intel system also if it costs a bit more.

I would skip the Phenom II 965 and go for the cheaper 955. Reason being I would overclock the 955 to 965 speeds with no more than an adjustment of the multiplier (should be no need to mess with voltages). That is unless I didn't want to overclock myself and the 965 was the same price or less than the 955.

Motherboard wise, AM3+ is a good choice for upgrading later if you so desire.

Graphics wise I would be looking at a 6770 at the minimum or a 6850. The NVIDIA 560 cards are great cards, but again, it boils down to budget as, at least in the UK they're more expensive than the 6770 and 6850 for various cards.


Edit: Forgot to add there's the AMD Llano platform was well. APUs with decent graphics on board. They also work like old hybrid crossfire and will work in tandem with any dedicated GPU you add. And have you considered the quad core Bulldozer chips?

can't you run tf2 with the integrated grphics of the i3/i5?

mintberryminuscrunch wrote:can't you run tf2 with the integrated grphics of the i3/i5?

You can. But the AMD Llano chips are cheaper and have much better integrated graphics compared to Intel.

I have an ATI 5870 and I totally regret buying it, I didn't have much choice because it was the time Nvidia released the first Fermi based cards which were using too much power. That's why that time I went for ATI.

ATI driver support is still ridiculus, things works only after they fix it, and they manage to break other things too with new updates.
It's funny also that they suggest to use preview drivers over stable ones: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pa ... river.aspx.

Yeah. AMD Drivers have a reputation for being poor. But I don't think they're anywhere near as bad as people like to make out. I've got a 5670 and I have never had any driver issues with it. I think the amount complaining about drivers compared to the amount who actually buy their cards is a pretty small ratio. And NVIDIA isn't immune to bad drivers either. Anyone remember the driver release that stopped the fans working and cooked the cards (might have been in 2010)?

I'm looking at RAdeon 6850 although spending 25€ more on a 6870 isn't that much of a big deal. The trouble is, I don't want to break 500€ at the moment so, if I took the Intel path, I'd have to get an i3-2100 for starters...

I'd probably go with something like this; http://i.imgur.com/WEoh9.png The HDD really jacks the price up though. I remember when 500GB drives were going for 30-35 quid in the UK. The A6 APU is a tri-core by AMDs usual method of locking a core, so future boards could provide core unlocking.

£427 works out to €510

I struggled to play TF2 on my i5 when I tried, even when I lowered settings and res :/

One of the reasons I'm now building a llano rig, so I can have a LAN rig without the need for a dedicated gpu

Brian's suggested build isn't bad, although I'd fork out a little more to get a quad llano chip

GeorgeStorm wrote:I struggled to play TF2 on my i5 when I tried, even when I lowered settings and res :/

One of the reasons I'm now building a llano rig, so I can have a LAN rig without the need for a dedicated gpu

Brian's suggested build isn't bad, although I'd fork out a little more to get a quad llano chip

I take it you were just using the i5 onboard? Source games aren't known to be particularly intensive, but even still, it seems Intel's graphic capabilities are severely lacking compared to AMD in the integrated department. I still remember when the AMD 780G chipset was released (2008) with the onboard HD 3200 which just completely smoked what Intel did with the GMA X3500 and GMA X4500. Intel still haven't caught up with onboard.

Which Llano APU did you go for? One of the unlocked ones?

In regards to the AMD APU, I chose the tri-core to allow for the larger capacity HDD, if HDD capacity isn't too much of a concern for the OP, then yeah, definitely drop the size (and price) of the HDD and put the cash towards the quad core.

GeorgeStorm wrote:I struggled to play TF2 on my i5 when I tried, even when I lowered settings and res :/

desktop or notebook version?

Desktop, although ofcourse you could have been referring to a SB i5, whereas mine was Clarkdale

Turns out I can get an i5 for about 600€ w/o disk drive which I already have from the old setup. Will think about it.

GeorgeStorm wrote:Desktop, although ofcourse you could have been referring to a SB i5, whereas mine was Clarkdale

Yep

I think it's bloody confusing and just plain mad that Gigabyte offers 20 (!!) different motherboards based on Intel's H67 chipset and 23 diff. boards based on H61. Why oh why do you marketing people torture us so!

In the end I settled for:
i3-2100 3.1GHz
Asus P8H67 Rev 3.0 full ATX
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
XFX Radeon 6850 1GB
Corsair TX650 V2 PSU

I have yet to pick a case... gonna be either Fractal Design Core 3000 or Fractal Design R3 Black Pearl.

EDIT: Correction, 2x 4GB 16GB would currently be overkill despite cheap RAM.

noooo the radeon.... noooo ;D

Just an idea. Maybe you should consider one of h67 matx boards and get fractal Arc mini since you are looking in that direction.

You wont be disappointed with i3 2100 its a great chip.

Thanks for the tip but it may already be too late since the order has been paid for! Will check the case.

there is also fracta Arc for normal atx motherboards.

Yeah, I noticed

Hi all,

I've been using my new PC since last friday and it's great

In the end I bought:
i3-2100
Asus P8H67 rev3.0
2x 4GB Corsair Vengeance Blue 1333MHz
XFX Radeon 6850 1GB
Corsair TX 650W V2 PSU
Fractal Design Arc case

Cost me about 550€ total.

I recently got a Dell XPS 15 inch laptop for 37%, it was a good deal, check out their presidents day sale.

I always thought "Radeon" was a washing powder (it was). I can't take AMD seriously, with their stupid codenames.

"Radeon" (Put two heaped scoops in the powder drawer, dial to 40 degree setting, and press start) :p
"Phenom" (Meant to make you think they're "Phenom"enol, but they aren't.)

Give me a break. Intel ANY day.

Well, when Intel decides to make a decent gfx card, I'll consider it. Until then, I'll stick with ATi.

Half-Saint wrote:Well, when Intel decides to make a decent gfx card, I'll consider it. Until then, I'll stick with ATi.

The build-in graphics in the sandy bridge cpus are pretty good but always stick with AMD if you want something better.

Nice build though, fractal makes great cases, I have the Define R3 and I love it.