Widescreen Gaming Forum

I am looking to upgrade my cpu, mobo, ram, and storage devices. I am a 3x1 Eyefinity user also. This is what I have found so far. Any criticism or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks :D

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646

AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition Deneb 3.6GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103923

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

The SSD is nice, as is the RAM, *but I would get 1600Mhz variant*.

However!

I would seriously spend the extra cash to go the Intel Core i5 route, the 2500k in particular. It will cost a little more, but the performance will be night and day.

Can't comment on that exact drive, but I like my 5000AAKS which is now my backup drive for my HD video and pictures off my camera (all 380GB of it), and it works fine, never had a problem with it.

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P8Z68-V Pro | 2600K | HR02 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 128GB M4 + 6TB | X-Fi > HD595 | AX850 | Tai Chi | PB278Q | G110 + Deathadder 2013
P8Z77-V | 3570K | Mugen 2 | HD5850 | 2x4GB Vengeance LP | 500GB | X-750 | Fractal R3 | U2212HM | G110 + G400
P8H77-I | G860 | 4650 | 2x2GB XMS | 320GB | CX500 | Prodigy | T22B350EW | MX518
DC3217IYE | 1x4GB Vengeance | 64GB M4 | TX-42VT20E

Why would you buy a Phenom II X4 975 and not a Phenom II X6 1100T ? there is no big difference in Price. But i would also reccomend the I5 2500k.

If you think 500gb are enough for you..... Me myself i've problems with my 500gb internal and 500gb external HDD ^^

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Unless video encoding, there is no cause for a hexacore CPU. Games barely use quads as it is.

I'd also recommend the 2500K route, but I'm feeling a bit anti-Intel at the minute, and I've been enjoying playing with an AMD based rig again. It's totally different overclocking the two. :D

With surround I will fourth the Sandybridge route. They are pretty sweet. AMD will do it, but the potential of the I series is alot higher.

Thanks for the quick and helpful responses all. I love the community here. Anyways, I am interested now in the i5 2500K, but could anyone help explain the reasoning as to what makes it so much better than AMD? I never bothered to get into all the technical details of CPUs or overclocking. Without much of a cooling system, can I even think about overclocking?

What makes the I7-2500k so much better than a Phenom II X4 970 or a X6 1100T ?

Well, thats not really important, what is important is just that it IS much bettter. As you can see here (just scroll down to "Performancerating Spiele (1680x1050)"

And whats about Overclocking... idk exactly how to OC a 2500k but im sure some1 here has one and can tell you :) But the k in 2500k means that it has an open Multipicator, 33x100mhz =3.3ghz so you can just put it as you like, 36x100mhz=3.6ghz. (if i'm not completly wrong^^)
So its kinda same like AMD Black Edition CPU's.... oh and for somethin like 30-50 euro you can buy a better CPU cooler and OC from 3.3ghz to 4ghz or even 4.5ghz without any big problems.

P.S wasn't there something... like... you need a special Mainboard if you want to change multiplier?

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We gonna send it to outa space!

P.S wasn't there something... like... you need a special Mainboard if you want to change multiplier?

Yes. P67 or Z68. H67/Q67 won't let you change multis, IIRC.

Intel have, in Sandy Bridge, a more efficient architecture than AMD with the Phenom II. That said, the Phenom II is no slouch - frankly, unless you're pushing the bleeding edge of overclocking, or are doing a lot of video encoding, you are unlikely to notice a great deal of difference.

I singularly fail to see much difference gaming on my Core i7 rig at 1920x1200 and my Phenom II rig at 1920x1080... but all is not equal in the GPU front there: the i7 box has (on paper) a significant advantage in terms of CPU, being OC'd to 3.8/4GHz (depending on how I'm feeling) above the Phenom II at 3.2GHz... but the i7 system has GTX460SLI as against GTX470SLI. Having said that, the 460s are OC'd to pretty much match the 470s in terms of performance, and have more VRAM. Nevertheless, unless I'm actually looking for a framerate difference, I can't honestly spot one. I guess I'd see a difference if I ran framerate counters all the time... but I don't. As long as the game is smooth and playable, I'm happy.