My current PC is 6 years old. It is a Pentium D 925 proccesser sitting in a PN5-SLI Mobo w/ 3 gigs of ram and a nvidia 9600gt card, running WinXP sp3. I'm thinking of a $450 - $750 build around an AMD A10 chip. Any suggestions?
The main point of an A10-5800K is the integrated graphics. It makes a ton of sense if you're looking to build a severe budget gaming system running integrated graphics. But it doesn't make any sense to buy that if you're going to get a discrete video card. For the latter on a budget, you'd want something like an FX-6300, which skips the integrated graphics that you wouldn't use, anyway.
On the processor side, any modern desktop (as opposed to nettop) processor would be a huge upgrade over what you have. On the video card side, however, the Radeon HD 7660D integrated graphics would only be a modest upgrade over your current GeForce 9600 GT video card--which isn't six years old, by the way, so I'm assuming you upgraded to it well after buying your computer initially.
It's really a question of what you want to spend. If you're looking to spend $500 excluding peripherals (you'd keep your own monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), then integrated graphics is what you get. On a $600+ budget, there's room for a discrete video card that will double the performance of the integrated graphics and be a more worthy upgrade for you. So, which way do you want to go with your budget?
Also, can you assemble parts yourself, or will you need to use up about $100 or so of your budget to pay someone else to use a screwdriver for you? And are you going to keep old peripherals, or do you need a new monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and surge protector?
I can build the machine. I mostly play strategy (Starcraft, Civ 5, etc) and a few Rpgs (WoW, STO). I've got an xbox for the more intense games. I have upgraded the video card twice since building it. I am intersted in a cheap upgrade so I can play the new SimCity when it comes out. I do want the new system to last at least as long as the old one.
So do you want integrated graphics that will be cheap but only a modest graphical upgrade, or do you want a discrete video card for a bigger upgrade? That choice also affects what motherboard and memory you need, so I don't want to pick parts until I have an answer there.
I have seen a few mainboards that offer crossfire capabilties the work with the intergrated a10 chip, so if i want a little more omph in the graphics dept I can add a 7600 card.
Originally posted by Mondo80 I have seen a few mainboards that offer crossfire capabilties the work with the intergrated a10 chip, so if i want a little more omph in the graphics dept I can add a 7600 card.
Asynchronous CrossFire doesn't work very well. You really don't want to go that route. If you add a discrete card, you use that instead of the integrated graphics, not in addition to it.
How modest of a graphical upgrade are we taking about? If its only a 50% to 100% improvement I might consider doing the seperate chip and card option, but the a10 does way more than that I'll go with the cheaper option. It takes me 5 -8 minutes to load Civ 5, once it gets going its fine, never crashes. Also even on lowest settings DoW2 gets about 2 -15 fps. Space Marine and Darksiders runs fine for some reason. There are a few strategy games I would like to play but can because of my current setup.
IMHO, you should upgrade to an i5 Ivy Bridge instead of an AMD. From what I know, AMD cpu are always worst than the Intel couterpart. If you are planning to OC, look for the cpu with the "K" suffix at the end, they are easy to OC to like 4.3Ghz with a decent CPU cooler, but this might cost more than your budget the more I think about it since you will need a good motherboard for OC and a good CPUI cooler. If you are planning to play any recent games with your PC, you definitely need a descrete GPU so stay away from any integrated GPU. Also stay far far far away from SLi/Crossfire, its only usefull and worth the money if you play at stupid resolution, like anything higher than full HD res which is 1920x1080 or using multiple monitors to play your games. Else its just a BIG waste of money.
You shouldn't have any problem to build a budget PC with 500 to 750$.
I've been playing around on tigers site and made a decent theoretical system under 300 minus a video card, it is an AMD setup. What is a better value for gaming, AMD or Intel?
Originally posted by Mondo80 How modest of a graphical upgrade are we taking about? If its only a 50% to 100% improvement I might consider doing the seperate chip and card option, but the a10 does way more than that I'll go with the cheaper option. It takes me 5 -8 minutes to load Civ 5, once it gets going its fine, never crashes. Also even on lowest settings DoW2 gets about 2 -15 fps. Space Marine and Darksiders runs fine for some reason. There are a few strategy games I would like to play but can because of my current setup.
The graphics improvement would be a lot less than that. There are probably even situations in which a GeForce 9600 GT would outperform Radeon HD 7660D integrated graphics.
Your big bottleneck right now is your processor. Even modern nettop processors aren't far behind what you have. 3 GHz may sound fast, but the architecture is the problem, as NetBurst achieved high clock speeds by not doing very much per clock cycle. Turning down graphical settings usually doesn't do much to ease the load on the processor, either, so it's likely that you could turn settings up substantially without changing your (very low) frame rates.
IMHO, you should upgrade to an i5 Ivy Bridge instead of an AMD. From what I know, AMD cpu are always worst than the Intel couterpart. If you are planning to OC, look for the cpu with the "K" suffix at the end, they are easy to OC to like 4.3Ghz with a decent CPU cooler, but this might cost more than your budget the more I think about it since you will need a good motherboard for OC and a good CPUI cooler. If you are planning to play any recent games with your PC, you definitely need a descrete GPU so stay away from any integrated GPU. Also stay far far far away from SLi/Crossfire, its only usefull and worth the money if you play at stupid resolution, like anything higher than full HD res which is 1920x1080 or using multiple monitors to play your games. Else its just a BIG waste of money.
You shouldn't have any problem to build a budget PC with 500 to 750$.
Yes, a Core i5-3570K is a better processor for gaming than anything AMD has to offer. It's also more expensive. It's a question of your budget. On a $750 budget, you're better off going with AMD and putting the money elsewhere. On a $1000 budget, there's rarely any reason to look at AMD processors.
Aside from the ram, which I can always upgrade later, it seems like a pretty nice setup.
That would consist of buying a bundle for the sake of buying a bundle. Buy exactly the same parts individually and it would probably be about $100 cheaper. And even that still wouldn't leave enough room in your budget to fill out the rest of the system sensibly.
I have an old Antec server case, it has 4 5.25 bays, and 6 3.5 bays and an 850 watt power supply. This is goin to be the 2nd time iv'e gutted it and put a new board in there.
I doubt this would be considered thread necromancy, maybe triple posting, anyway I'm now looking for a $450 max build that will at least last me another 5 to 6 years. I don't do super crazy shooters, sports or racing games. I haven't decided on whether to get windows (7 or 8) or go Linux (I have a pc with Ubunutu on it)
With a little bit of tweaking (need to double check if that PSU is crap or not) this might suit your needs nicely. One thing I will say is that expecting a $500 or less PC to last 5-6 years and perform well on games as the release is asking a tall order (regardless of the genre).
Bit of an update. I bought an amd 8350, a MSI 970A-G46 9 Series AM3+ Motherboard and 8 gigs of ram from tigerdirect for 327. The only bad things i've heard about the board comes from overclockers and a few DOA reports, it's a well liked board otherwise. I've barly used Win 7/8, been with XP for years, how different of a change up are they, should i even try dipping my toes in Linux? Finally should i get an AMD grapics card to match with the CPU or stick wth nvidia because it doesn't matter (I saw a pny 650 for 130 over at bestbuy that peaked my interest (I've never had an issue with PNY before)).
Thats a good enough deal. Personally I have a hard time not getting the 990FX chip if I am getting AMD since the boards are pretty cheap. I was about to interject and say you definetly don't want an APU if you are planning to play RTSs. Definetly want a full processor instead of half of one.
On your budget I would go AMD videocard. When every buck counts, shouldn't pay a premium for a name.
Comments
The main point of an A10-5800K is the integrated graphics. It makes a ton of sense if you're looking to build a severe budget gaming system running integrated graphics. But it doesn't make any sense to buy that if you're going to get a discrete video card. For the latter on a budget, you'd want something like an FX-6300, which skips the integrated graphics that you wouldn't use, anyway.
On the processor side, any modern desktop (as opposed to nettop) processor would be a huge upgrade over what you have. On the video card side, however, the Radeon HD 7660D integrated graphics would only be a modest upgrade over your current GeForce 9600 GT video card--which isn't six years old, by the way, so I'm assuming you upgraded to it well after buying your computer initially.
It's really a question of what you want to spend. If you're looking to spend $500 excluding peripherals (you'd keep your own monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), then integrated graphics is what you get. On a $600+ budget, there's room for a discrete video card that will double the performance of the integrated graphics and be a more worthy upgrade for you. So, which way do you want to go with your budget?
Also, can you assemble parts yourself, or will you need to use up about $100 or so of your budget to pay someone else to use a screwdriver for you? And are you going to keep old peripherals, or do you need a new monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and surge protector?
Asynchronous CrossFire doesn't work very well. You really don't want to go that route. If you add a discrete card, you use that instead of the integrated graphics, not in addition to it.
IMHO, you should upgrade to an i5 Ivy Bridge instead of an AMD. From what I know, AMD cpu are always worst than the Intel couterpart. If you are planning to OC, look for the cpu with the "K" suffix at the end, they are easy to OC to like 4.3Ghz with a decent CPU cooler, but this might cost more than your budget the more I think about it since you will need a good motherboard for OC and a good CPUI cooler. If you are planning to play any recent games with your PC, you definitely need a descrete GPU so stay away from any integrated GPU. Also stay far far far away from SLi/Crossfire, its only usefull and worth the money if you play at stupid resolution, like anything higher than full HD res which is 1920x1080 or using multiple monitors to play your games. Else its just a BIG waste of money.
You shouldn't have any problem to build a budget PC with 500 to 750$.
The graphics improvement would be a lot less than that. There are probably even situations in which a GeForce 9600 GT would outperform Radeon HD 7660D integrated graphics.
Your big bottleneck right now is your processor. Even modern nettop processors aren't far behind what you have. 3 GHz may sound fast, but the architecture is the problem, as NetBurst achieved high clock speeds by not doing very much per clock cycle. Turning down graphical settings usually doesn't do much to ease the load on the processor, either, so it's likely that you could turn settings up substantially without changing your (very low) frame rates.
Yes, a Core i5-3570K is a better processor for gaming than anything AMD has to offer. It's also more expensive. It's a question of your budget. On a $750 budget, you're better off going with AMD and putting the money elsewhere. On a $1000 budget, there's rarely any reason to look at AMD processors.
Here you go:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1094289
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1095205
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102993
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167127
That comes to $729, before $45 in rebates. If you want to go Intel on the processor, that would add about $100 to the price tag.
Is 223 GB of storage capacity enough for you? If not, then you'll have to drop the SSD and get a hard drive of whatever capacity you need.
How does this sound?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5552097&CatId=7701
Aside from the ram, which I can always upgrade later, it seems like a pretty nice setup.
That would consist of buying a bundle for the sake of buying a bundle. Buy exactly the same parts individually and it would probably be about $100 cheaper. And even that still wouldn't leave enough room in your budget to fill out the rest of the system sensibly.
I did some more digging around and found this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5246454&sku=M69-7005
Are Gigabyte mainboards good?
I'm planing on keeeping the case, power supply, moniter (hannspree 22" (1680x1050)), backlit keyboard/mouse and my Bfg 9600gt 1gb card (for now).
With a little bit of tweaking (need to double check if that PSU is crap or not) this might suit your needs nicely. One thing I will say is that expecting a $500 or less PC to last 5-6 years and perform well on games as the release is asking a tall order (regardless of the genre).
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-gaming-do-it-yourself-computer,3364.html
Thats a good enough deal. Personally I have a hard time not getting the 990FX chip if I am getting AMD since the boards are pretty cheap. I was about to interject and say you definetly don't want an APU if you are planning to play RTSs. Definetly want a full processor instead of half of one.
On your budget I would go AMD videocard. When every buck counts, shouldn't pay a premium for a name.