HD 4870 or HD 4850 and E8400 or E8500?

[Saturn]

I've been thinking this over for a couple of weeks and I'm still not sure. Should I go for a small hit on performance and save some cash to buy more components? Or should I just go all out. I think the E8500 is worth it as it's only $20 more. The GPU has me stumped. Is the preformance boost enough to warrant the extra cost? This PC I'm building can be upgraded in the future (hopefully). Should I save money now and pay later when I have a higher income? Or should I go for as much performance as possible and not have to worry as much about the future?

LINKS:
HD 4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121258

HD 4850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121253

E8400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

E8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

[Roman Clone]

Don't get the E8500. Too overpriced, and as said many times before, the E8400 can be overclocked well.

4850 Is better is supposed to be already better than the 9800 GTX, if that's all the power you need, than go with it...

[B. Ward]

I'll have to agree with Roman Clone on this one. The 4850 will be sufficient for you especially with you having the intention of upgrading later. Go with E8400. The only difference between the two is a x9 multiplier and a x9.5 multiplier. That's 20 bucks saved. There's not even any sort of noticeable difference between the two processors. With the core architecture 1333fsb at 3.0gHz is more than enough power. Save the money now for future upgrades or investment in other components. The way the market is at the moment, certain "top of the line" components will drop in price considerably.

[HansDuet]

e8400. e8500 is not worth the extra prize. And HD 4870

[Saturn]

I know most people don't like AMD, but what do you guys think of this?:

AMD Phenom 9950 BLACK EDITION 2.6GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 140W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103273

I read that this can easily be OC'd to 3.4GHz and it's A QUAD CORE. Input.

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

Quoting Maximum PC, "The 4870 uses GDDR5 RAM which is capable of double the shader clock tranfers than GDDR3 memory(can't remeber for sure, Id have to find the magazine)." Hence, the 4870 is much faster than the 4850 which uses GDDR3. Just look at some benchmarks and it is very clear.

And yes, the Phenom would be a good choice but you need to see what your mobo supports. It doesn't support both Intel and AMD procs.

[Freddie]

I've been thinking this over for a couple of weeks and I'm still not sure. Should I go for a small hit on performance and save some cash to buy more components? Or should I just go all out. I think the E8500 is worth it as it's only $20 more. The GPU has me stumped. Is the preformance boost enough to warrant the extra cost? This PC I'm building can be upgraded in the future (hopefully). Should I save money now and pay later when I have a higher income? Or should I go for as much performance as possible and not have to worry as much about the future?

I believe the HD 4870 is well worth the extra money. Since your looking to future proof as much as possible you should invest your cash into the parts that will give you the biggest improvement in performance. As for the CPU go with the cheaper E8400 and overclock it a bit, if your going to use the standard Intel HSF don't be to greedy with the overclock.

You may also need to upgrade your power supply.

[Saturn]

Why can't I go two days without changing my mind? I think I'm getting a q6600 2.4 Ghz and OCing to 3.0 Ghz. Heard you could do so on stock voltage. Sounds good for a quad. Should I get OEM version and buy aftermarket cooler or retail? I'm sure the retail fan would work fine...hopeully...

[B. Ward]

The Q6600 can go to 3.0 on stock voltage. I have one I run at 3.0gHz 24/7 on air. It replaced the E6600 I had doing the same thing. I recommend getting an aftermarket cooler regardless if you go OEM or Retail. The retail fan won't keep it as cool, but is sufficient as a temporary fan until you get an aftermarket one.

[Saturn]

Alright I'll just get OEM then buy one of those monster looking fan/heatsinks.

[Freddie]

Alright I'll just get OEM then buy one of those monster looking fan/heatsinks.

I suggest the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7, it cools a lot better then the stock Intel HSF but its also a lot quieter. If you want something a bit beefier, look at the Tuniq Tower 120, both are good coolers and good value for money.

You can Google for reviews of these products if want to see how these preform.

[Roman Clone]

I could see why Arctic Freezer Pro 7 is so cheap: It kinda broke when I tried installing it...

[Freddie]

I could see why Arctic Freezer Pro 7 is so cheap: It kinda broke when I tried installing it...

Yeah, my only gripe with the Arctic 7 is the installation, those locking pins were a pain in the back side to fit and secure.

[Rush Limbaugh]

Am I missing something here. Your not going NVEDIA?

[Roman Clone]

Am I missing something here. Your not going NVEDIA?

Well, first off, it's Nvidia

But as said before, ATI's only way to beat Nvidia is to be at the best when it comes to Priceerformance.

[Ummagumma]

Right now the smart money is going to ATI. A tiny bit lower performance figures for a substantially lower pricetag.

[B. Ward]

Incredibly true. As an avid nVIDIA and eVGA guy, I'm looking at getting a few ATI cards to run crossfire just because of the price difference. Seems like the best buy at the moment.

[Saturn]

As long as it makes my games look pretty and is not to exspensive I don't care what brand it its.

[Rush Limbaugh]

I want the best performance and i believe that Nvidia gives you that and since i paid 320 for my last 8800GTS320 overclocked im sure I can get a GTX6400 cheaper than that now. Better to have one great video card than two not as good.

[Rush Limbaugh]

he Geforce 8800 GTS 320 has a minor advantage in performance and a major one regarding its pricing. The pricing of the Geforce 8800 GTS with 640 MB positions it directly against the Radeon HD 2900 XT. Don't forget to factor in the much louder reference cooler of the Radeon card, though - Nvidia's solution is much quieter.

Thats why i went with it last year. Here its well under 200 bucks now and its cheaper than the ATI cards and out performs them.