Need advice

[Croomy]

At the moment I've got a e8400 and a 8800gt and well, it's getting pretty out-dated. I have no clue whatsoever about the market and what upgrades would be the best. I mainly want to get ready for WoW:Cata and play the game on max graphics but also play css with a lot of fps. I generally want a new upgrade for my pc.

From the options I've seen, the gtx460 can/will bottleneck my cpu, so should i get a new mobo with an i5?

Or go for a completely different gcard?

Sadly my motherboard is awful and the bios settings are locked so I can't OC my cpu

So what in your opinion is the best viable option for me? Pref keep the budget under £200 but can probably stretch to £400 if need be.

p.s please post if you want more details.

First time posting on these forums, so if it's in the wrong section please move it, thanks!

 

[yggdrasil]

Yeah I would suggest upgrading to a 460 now that there price has dropped and getting a i5 system.

What else beside game do you use your system for?

I am unsure if you should wait for Intel's new 1155 socket to come out early next year or go for a 1156 socket tho...

 

[McDoogle]

I would also say go for a GTX460, at around £130, u cant go wrong, but i would get an AMD instead of an Intel i5. If you were going to go for intel, i would go for an i7 setup, but its too expencive and theres no way u can fit it into a budget of £200-400, u need at least £600 for that. Get a quad core AMD, doesnt have to be the black edition etc. But you will need a new PSU im guessing.

Going off the prices and items off dabs.com, heres a small list.

Asus GeForce GTX 460 768MB PCI-Express 2.0 HDMI - £125.63

Corsair Memory Builder Series CX500 500W ATX PSU - £47.15

Asus AMD Ultimate Bundle (Includes M4A77T Motherboard, Phenom II X4 955 & 4GB DDR3 [2x2GB] Memory : £239.99

Total : £412.77

You can cut that down to below £400 by getting the GTS450 instead of the GTX460 if you want.

 

[alienware]

Asus AMD Ultimate Bundle (Includes M4A77T Motherboard, Phenom II X4 955 & 4GB DDR3 [2x2GB] Memory : £239.99

The I3 bundle (I3 2.93 ghz, 4gb corsair Gigabyte UD2 H55) comes to less than £200.

Good luck getting that 955 to 4ghz.

Oh and as for the more cores are better.. The I3 uses Hyperthreading so your game will see four cores.

 

[McDoogle]

The I3 bundle (I3 2.93 ghz, 4gb corsair Gigabyte UD2 H55) comes to less than £200.

Good luck getting that 955 to 4ghz.

Oh and as for the more cores are better.. The I3 uses Hyperthreading so your game will see four cores.

lol i can see this is a AMD fanboy vs Intel Fanboy debate now

Dunno why, i just never liked the i3's. i5's are meh to me. and i7's are really good, but expencive

 

[SnW]

lol i can see this is a AMD fanboy vs Intel Fanboy debate now

Dunno why, i just never liked the i3's. i5's are meh to me. and i7's are really good, but expencive

No its NOT you are making it one, going by i5 is "meh" and i never liked i3 bla etc...

AlienALX is right about what he said...

and i7 are not that expensive ?!

 

[alienware]

Really? then check out my rig specs.

AMD Phenom 2 940 @ 3.5ghz

Corsair Dominator PC6400 4gb

Patriot SSD

Asus M3A32 MVP Deluxe.

Radeon 5770 Crossfire (about to be replaced with a 470).

750w Newton tech PSU

Noctua all over.

There ain't no fanboys here mate. Actions speak louder than words. If a spade is a spade call it a damn spade. We don't hand out wrong advice and we see things as they are. Fact is Intel are making better CPUs than AMD *right now* that fluctuates and changes of course, and the X6 1055t and 1090t are an option if you really don't want to go Intel but as I said, facts are facts.

If you want to buy something inferior go right ahead, but advice is given and if you choose to ignore it that's up to you. I would have an I3 or I5 right now (as they fall into my budget range) but I can't bring myself to buy either of them because it means loads of aggro, changing my ram and board and so on. For me the plain option is 1055t. However that's only because I would want something drop in and don't want to replace my board and ram.

 

[McDoogle]

Im not saying intels arent the better CPU's atm, cause they are, but on a strick budget of under £200 and possibly up to £400, it also depends on if hes wanting to use SLI in the future without buying a new mobo and possibly RAM, because the bundles dont offer SLI boards with them, or even ram for that matter, which can cost £90 for a decent set. Including a GTX460, even the very basic model brings it up to £430, which could be stretching it too far for him. While intels are better atm, they are also more expencive BECAUSE they are better, they may not seem so much, but on a budget of £2-400, a £130 mobo is expencive compared to the AMD equiv of £80.

This is just my opinion.

 

[alienware]

Im not saying intels arent the better CPU's atm, cause they are, but on a strick budget of under £200 and possibly up to £400, it also depends on if hes wanting to use SLI in the future without buying a new mobo and possibly RAM, because the bundles dont offer SLI boards with them, or even ram for that matter, which can cost £90 for a decent set. Including a GTX460, even the very basic model brings it up to £430, which could be stretching it too far for him. While intels are better atm, they are also more expencive BECAUSE they are better, they may not seem so much, but on a budget of £2-400, a £130 mobo is expencive compared to the AMD equiv of £80.

This is just my opinion.

I3 Clarkdale £75.14

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...hz-4mb-cache-73w-integrated-gpu-733mhz-retail

Gigabyte UD2 H55 £64.10

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/giga...(x16)-ddr3-1600-1800-2133-sata-3gb-s-vga-uatx

Supports Crossfire? YES. Supports SLI? No. Furry muff, so let's do the Russian thing and completely ignore that.

http://www.xdevs.com/eplugins/content/content.php?content.30

SLI on any motherboard.

Ram Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 1600mhz £57.72

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...600)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-165v

Arctic Freezer pro £16.91

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro-v21-s1366-s1156-s775-am3-am2plus-am2-939-up-to-130-watts!

Total - £213.87 4ghz pish.

In a few months time AMD boards will no longer officially support SLI. Nvidia are no longer making chipsets so you will be limited to using the hack any way. Infact any good AMD board worth its salts is Crossfire any way, the same as the UD2 H55. But that doesn't matter at all because you just run the patch.

Look mate. I'm not here to argue with you or to give you bad advice. I am giving you the absolute best advice that there is to give out right now. To do that I have to put any favoritism to one side and tell you where the best money to be spent is right now. I suggest you do the same. Put the favoritism to one side, read the writing on the wall and get the best performance for your money.

Do I like AMD? yes. I have been using their CPUs for about a decade (ever since the first slot 1 Athlon). However, it would make me a right asshole to give out bummy advice just because I have a soft spot for AMD.

 

[McDoogle]

In a few months time AMD boards will no longer officially support SLI. Nvidia are no longer making chipsets so you will be limited to using the hack any way. Infact any good AMD board worth its salts is Crossfire any way, the same as the UD2 H55. But that doesn't matter at all because you just run the patch.

Look mate. I'm not here to argue with you or to give you bad advice. I am giving you the absolute best advice that there is to give out right now. To do that I have to put any favoritism to one side and tell you where the best money to be spent is right now. I suggest you do the same. Put the favoritism to one side, read the writing on the wall and get the best performance for your money.

Do I like AMD? yes. I have been using their CPUs for about a decade (ever since the first slot 1 Athlon). However, it would make me a right asshole to give out bummy advice just because I have a soft spot for AMD.

You do have a good point lyk, didnt know about the chipsets on AMD's, suppose it would only make sence to fork out the little extra for an intel thats going to last longer.

 

[alienware]

1156 provides the most upgrade options now dude. AM3 is about to die out for the Fusion range and Bulldozer range.

AMD chipsets are really the only ones to consider if using an AMD cpu. The nvidia ones are absolutely awful and always were. That's part of the reason why they're not making any more.

Which really makes them no different to the Intel ones on 1156. On X58 you get out of the box Crossfire/SLI but you pay for it. The patch for SLI basically tells the drivers that your board is an X58 so does the same thing really.