Been a long time since I built...

[snookay]

my current pc was built when half life 2 came out. It's old. I feels like websites are too much for it to handle at times. Websites such as netflix lol.

Anyways I want to build a cheap system. I've been out of the tech spec loop for quite a while. Are folks still fighting over AMD vs intel when it comes to building gaming consoles? I wont have much time for gaming. maybe a little B3, L4D2 and some of that LOLs. I dont expect I'll need killer specs for any of those.

[GroundZero3]

How much are you looking to spend? Do you need a monitor, os, keyboard and mouse?

[SoloCamo]

How much are you looking to spend? Do you need a monitor, os, keyboard and mouse?

On top of that, are you based out of the US?

[snookay]

I'm in the states. I browsed Newegg.com based on a bunch of reviews it seems like the Intel vs Amd fight is still in full force. From what i read people seem to think Intels are much better for gaming and AMDs are good for cheaper builds. In anycase the more I looked at the sight the concept of me building a cheap pc started fading more and more.

[ShyguyXPC]

I'm in the states. I browsed Newegg.com based on a bunch of reviews it seems like the Intel vs Amd fight is still in full force. From what i read people seem to think Intels are much better for gaming and AMDs are good for cheaper builds. In anycase the more I looked at the sight the concept of me building a cheap pc started fading more and more.

No, sadly its mainly Intels the only real sensible choice these days. AMD Screwed the pooch with their current generation CPU's, over hyped, and didn't make good on their claims.

The New AMD FX Series performs no better than prior generation and uses more power to do so.

The only saving grace is their 8 core CPU, but only for those actually needing it for multi core workstation like tasks.

AMD's Fusion platform with their "APU's", the AMD Llanos chips aren't bad, but realistically for what it costs, you can get a similar if not better Intel platform, with better upgrade potential.

Suffice it to say, AMD's Phenom II/Athlon II series when it was out, finally was able to match Intel's CPU's from the Core 2 Series, but Intel was already on to its 1st Generation Core i7 on Socket 1366, which is still able to hold its own with 2nd and 3rd Generation Core i3, 5 & 7 series setups. And Socket 1156 which was the Mainstream 1st gen Core i3, i5 and i7 CPUs as well.

1155 replaced 1156 with 2nd generation "Sandy Bridge" chips, and Socket 2011 replaced Socket 1366.

Right now for upgrade Potential Intel is the ONLY choice.

USB 3.0, SATA 3rd Gen, both on AMD and Intel platforms, but PCI Express 3.0 right now is only Intel, when Paired with Ivy Bridge Core i5/i7 CPU's on Socket 1155, or Sandybridge-E Series CPU's on Socket 2011.


what kind of budget were you looking at for the system?

[snookay]

thank you for the input shyguy. I'll put it to great use. Do other people agree with his statements? I personally have no reason to call him a liar and this is the type of feedback I was looking for.

[snookay]

and I had not decided on my budget. The more I research and look at hardware the more I'm willing to spend. However I am NOT buying a $250+ chip and 200 Mobo. It's not that serious for what I'll use the PC for.

[snookay]

What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7? - CPUs, Intel, pc components - PC World Australia

This felt informative.

[JPMiller]

I totally agree with ShyGuy, and I'm pretty sure most people here would...
Its not like it used to be where AMD and Intel fought back and forth for the crown, and there was actual competition.
AMD is now content with the lower priced/budget segment of the market and caters to a specific crowd.
Intel is the only real option for power users and gamers.
It all boils down to your budget and the things that matter to you...
SSD's for speed or standard HD's for storage capacity...
etc.
Anything current is going to be a huge leap in performance for you so it boils down to what you can spend and what it includes...
We need answers before we can suggest anything...

[snookay]

i really dont need/want suggestions. This has been enough help. Cheers.

[ShyguyXPC]

If your looking for budget gaming CPU's, check out the Sandy Bridge Pentium G series for Socket 1155, Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, CPUs / Processors, Processors - Desktops, LGA 1155, Pentium

These would be plenty for gaming, the G860, only a Dual Core, but is at least as good as AMD's Prior gen Phenom II Quad core CPU's in gaming performance. Considering its below $100 price tag, or even one of the lower speed 2.9 or 2.8GHz CPU's and even lower in price, these would be good choices for what your looking at.

When you listed in your initial post about "B3", I'm guessing you meant BF3?

for GPU choices though, AMD (ATI), is still a good competitor to Nvidia.

If your looking at budget gaming, I'd consider the Radeon HD 7750 cards, they're pretty good lower mid range, or upper budget range cards, and only pull 55W or so of power, so low powered, cool running, and would be plenty of performance for L4D2 and other games like it. Not sure how well it fares in BF3 and more taxing games like that, but its an option, and they usually go for the $100-110 range.

otherwise right now the best bang for buck in this lower segment, even for occasional gamers is the revised Geforce GTX 460 1GB cards, or the price reduced Radeon HD 6850's on newegg... or if your wanting a lower power consumption card, the Radeon HD 7770's, which are almost as powerful as the 6850.

I know you said you didn't need/want suggestions, so this is only just an example.

Not suggesting this per say, just showing an example of a good budget gaming build, thats not really all that powerful, but more than capable of what your looking at, and with some upgrade options and flexibility in playing other games down the road if you want.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case

Newegg.com - HGST Deskstar 7K1000.D HDS721050DLE630 (0F13178) 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - HIS iCooler H777F1G2M Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - Pareema 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model MD313C81609L1

Newegg.com - ASRock B75M LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Newegg.com - Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G860

Total with shipping comes to just over $480. a 64-bit Copy of Windows 7 Home Premium usually runs about $100.

With the Hard drive, since you've been out of the loop for a while, just so you know, that HGST, is a "Hitachi" hard drive, Hitachi Hard drives was bought up by Western Digital earlier in the year, and are now under Western Digitals Ownership, same thing goes with Samsungs Hard drive division (just the HDD's, not Solid State Drives), which is now owned and made under Seagate.

Also Hard drive prices went through the roof last year with the Flooding in Thailand and else where down there, entire manufacturing plants were flooded and shut down, so like the Oil markets, prices everywhere went up. Only recently have come down a tad, but still way more than they were a year ago.

as for SATA Drives, we're now in 3rd generation SATA, for standard Hard drives, its almost irrelevant, as they just can't run at those max bandwidth speeds, unless linking together in various forms of RAID. 3rd Gen SATA caters more to SSD's than anything, so 2nd Gen SATA is about the fastest you'd need for bandwidth, but as always 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gen SATA is all backwards compatible.

USB 3.0 is now as fast as SATA also, so if your ever thinking of External USB Hard Drives, look into a USB 3.0 drive, as its 10 times faster than USB 2.0 was (at least potentially, as its still limited to the actual HDD Specs in the external enclosure thats used), which is easily as fast as, if not faster at max speeds than SATA 2 was.

All current Intel Motherboards (Z75/Z77, B75, etc) come with USB 3.0 and SATA 3rd Gen, as well as Support PCI Express 3.0 when used with an "Ivy Bridge" based Core i5 or i7 CPU, Sandy Bridge based chips like the one listed above are still only PCIe 2.0, but its still more than you need, just mentioning the PCIe 3.0 aspect as far as future upgrades go for down the road in years to come.