Should my friend replace this?

alienware

alienware

Banned
Hey all.

I have a friend who bought some PC stuff for a mental PC quite a while back (the best money could buy at the time, basically) and he has never managed to use it because of a crappy motherboard (I'm looking at you EVGA !).

OK. He then tried to build another rig leaving that one alone and that one went wrong and most of it was sent back.. Now he has the following.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600

MSI P7N Diamond 4 way SLI (basically among the best 775 boards on the market, brand new in the box)

4 GB Patriot Viper DDR2 @ 1066mhz

Intel X25V SSD (190/80)

He is going to get a GTX 470 (probably) and has a Phantom on order and is considering an NH-D14.

OK. Now I spoke to him tonight and he says he wants to basically sell it all off (before even using it) and get an I5 or something.

Now. I have tried to explain that his chip will pass 4ghz without even breaking a sweat and at that sort of speed from a very good chip like that it would be absolutely crazy to chuck it all in the bin and go I5 unless he wants to sit in the corner with a roll of paper towells furiously pulling his pud whilst running benchmarks.

What do you guys reakon? I said that if he had money to burn he should instead throw a pair of 460s into the thing and have done.

He only really needs it for gaming and I am pretty darn sure that a GTX 470 in there or a pair of 460s would show the same kind of visual gaming results (IE enough min FPS and 60 FPS at the limiter) as an I5 machine.
 
well the i5 is a quad that can reach 4ghz easy

and is a newer chip

get him to sell the parts of the rig he dident finish if he has anythin left

then bench on that e8600
 
All of the parts worth anything on the second one he attempted were sent back for refunds and the damaged board (Foxconn Destroyer) was sold for a huge profit (being a $450 board he sold the new returned RMA one for $250, $30 more than he paid for it and my 9950 that he thought was dead).

I personally can not see the point in selling off a brand new E8600 that will clock to those speeds and then throwing loads of cash at DDR3 and *another* new motherboard. That's not chump change we're talking about, it's going to be around the $400 mark minimum and I think he would be better putting that into a pair of 460s.
 
Possibly. But, it has to be as fast as my rig and that's more than enough tbh.

Try and remember this is a very close friend of mine. Hence I am trying to make him see some kind of sense before he spends loads more cash.
 
Yeah true. He has a 5850 ATM but wants something with strong Physx.

The 8600 should fly past 4ghz easy really. The 8400 could very easily and the 8600 is much faster as a base speed. Most of the games he would play will only use two cores any way (big Fallout fan ETC).
 
if a game used all 2 cores say 80%-100% it wouldent leave any % for the 460's hence a bottleneck? correct me if i am wrong mate.
 
i5 for longevity (even tho its a dead socket) but the current for a year would also be fine but maybe he is better waitin off see what sandybridge brings to the table next year
 
Ah good point ! Forgot all about that. Yeah buying now would be pretty crazy, especially when he has some decent components !
 
And the DDR3 on a newer GPU would better but also more expensive...an upgrade now while his current card is worth what it is would save him some money and an upgrade down the road if he was to sell his current GPU now get newer GPU with better memory and the newer CPU would better for the same reasons.

IMHO, it boils down to sell high now and buy cheaper now (he would be spending less of his own money) or sell for less later and spend more of his own money upgrading.
 
AlienALX said:
Hey all.

I have a friend who bought some PC stuff for a mental PC quite a while back (the best money could buy at the time, basically) and he has never managed to use it because of a crappy motherboard (I'm looking at you EVGA !).

OK. He then tried to build another rig leaving that one alone and that one went wrong and most of it was sent back.. Now he has the following.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's EVGA's fault? You did say

I have a friend who bought some PC stuff for a mental PC quite a while back (the best money could buy at the time, basically) and he has never managed to use it because of a crappy motherboard (I'm looking at you EVGA !).

OK. He then tried to build another rig leaving that one alone and that one went wrong and most of it was sent back.. Now he has the following.



Maybe you should try talking him into letting you help him build it along with your guidance.

Oh...not being smart. With the two failed attempts on his part could suggest that he needs your "building" help also.

Not saying your friend isn't capable...just trying to help you look after your friend
biggrin.gif
 
Option 1: OC to 4GHZ, get a decent 470, enough for all games atm (very few games using all 4 cores) and wait for Sandybridge.

Option 2: Sell everything, buy an i5 / i7 1156 system - AMAZING deals going on at the moment, can be had cheaper than C2Q, will get enough juice for next

1 - 3 years

Option 3: Sell, buy an i7 1366 system (any) - the most expensive, but most future-proof and powerful option.

Option 4 (silly, but still an option): Buy Q9550 / 9650, then follow steps from option 1 (all modern games will run smoothly.)

Personally, I'd go for option 2 - it is the best "bang for buck" option - but if I was on budget, or non-hardcore gamer, I'd stick with option 1, and if I had a better job, I'd already have bought an i7 and didn't have to read these forums
smile.gif
 
Hey guys Im AlienALX's friend he is speaking about. I appreciate all the thoughts on this thread and will take all in consideration! Thanks Tutt!
 
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