Computer upgrade time!

**PGeo36** · November 03, 2012, 10:16 AM

My current computer build has been causing me way too many headaches so it's time to start fresh since it's black November on Newegg right now.

I'm only gonna get a new Mobo, Ram, PSU, and CPU. Here's what I'm thinking about right now. Thoughts?

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131754
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819106009
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145345
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017

I'm not very knowledgeable with PSU's so if someone has a better one that's fine, I just need 24A on 2 12V rails and at least 450W for my current GPU. Not 100% sold on the Mobo too so if someone has something better please share.

+Reps for the help

**Totalheadache** · November 03, 2012, 01:27 PM

I'd not get that cpu. Get the cheapest intel cpu that you hit around 4.5ghz on (worth investing in an aftermarket cooler).

My choices of psu are antec/corsair. I have heard seasonic are a good brand in the us. Other brands are ok ofc, just make sure they come with 3/5yr warrantys.

Re the psu it does depend a bit on your future plans...lets say for example you want a new gpu. Generally 550w is there or thereabouts for most mid/end gpus so yeah a 600w does leave you some room for future upgrades. One you chose looks fine again ocz wouldnt be my brand choice, not heard anything bad though.

Personally i'd go for a 650w antec/corsair with a good warranty.

I have seen a few Rosewills on newegg but not familiar with the brand...they look good though.

And re mobos I either go for Asus or Gigabyte generally. If you do want to sli/xfire at some point then you want x16/x16 pci lines. Oh and one that is easy/good to oc on.

**PGeo36** · November 03, 2012, 07:15 PM

Originally Posted by Totalheadache

I'd not get that cpu. Get the cheapest intel cpu that you hit around 4.5ghz on (worth investing in an aftermarket cooler).

You're an intel guy I assume? Intel chips are too expensive for my budget, and I've never had a problem with amd chips myself.

**paradamed** · November 03, 2012, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by PGeo36

You're an intel guy I assume? Intel chips are too expensive for my budget, and I've never had a problem with amd chips myself.

It is not a matter of being an intel guy. Intel chips are superior without doubt. Ive read some reviews of the latest amd chip which were terrible. In one of them an overclocked amd processor (whatever name the last amd processor is), overclocekd at 4,8 or 5ghz, couldnt remember was slower than an 3770k at stock speeds. This pretty much proves amd is crap in terms of processors. Even though the bottleneck for a gaming pc depends more on the graphics card than the processor buying an amd processor will keep you outdated from the start. You dont want to spend your hard earned money on an outdated processor. I would choose the i5 2500k, which is the best cost benefit processor at the moment. You cant miss with that one. Highly overclockable and wont bottleneck whatever graphic card you put in your system. The most modern and fastest processor, the i7 3930k wont give you more than 10 fps in games compared to the i5 2500k, just to give you an idea.

**The Hedge Knight** · November 03, 2012, 05:54 PM

Interestingly Seasonic make quite a few corsair PSU's (or used to, others are made by Channel Wells).

**Crazyeyesreaper** · November 03, 2012, 07:34 PM

OCZ is on the skids with the company potentially closing its doors so avoid them untill better news comes down the pipe currently they are bleeding money due to massive product lines and bad management and are laying off a large chunk of their work force.

**PGeo36** · November 03, 2012, 08:18 PM

What about this one from SeaSonic? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151095

**Crazyeyesreaper** · November 03, 2012, 09:02 PM

this is about $5 cheaper
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371059

its the same unit as the one you linked above just badged as an Antec with a cheaper price.

**PGeo36** · November 03, 2012, 09:16 PM

Unfortunately it's not, it only has 1 12v rail, I need 2 for my card, the other one has it.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · November 04, 2012, 12:26 AM

Originally Posted by PGeo36

Unfortunately it's not, it only has 1 12v rail, I need 2 for my card, the other one has it.

uh wrong you dont need 2 12v rail you seem to misunderstand what that means

inside PHYSICALLY both those power supplies are the SAME UNIT.

dont make me break out image after image and 20 reviews to do so as i will. rest assured they are the same

Antec High Current Gamer 620w Modular
Spec
Type
ATX12V / EPS12V
Maximum Power
620W
Fans
1
PFC
Active
Main Connector
20+4Pin
+12V Rails
Single
PCI-Express Connector
2 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Power Connector
6
SLI
SLI Ready
CrossFire
CrossFire Ready
Modular
Modular
Efficiency
Up to 87%
Energy-Efficient
80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Over Voltage Protection
Yes
Input Voltage
100 - 240 VAC ±10%
Input Frequency Range
50/60 Hz
Input Current
9 - 4.5A
Output
+5V@24A, +3.3V@24A, +12V@48A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.5A
MTBF
>100,000 Hours
Approvals
UL, cUL, CE, TUV, CB, FCC, GOST-R, CCC, C-Tick, BSMI
Dimensions
3.4" x 5.9" x 6.3"
Weight
4.2 lbs.

Seasonic
Spec
Type
ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91
Maximum Power
620W
Fans
120mm ball bearing cooling fan
PFC
Active
Main Connector
24Pin
+12V Rails
2
PCI-Express Connector
1 x 6-Pin, 1 x 6+2-Pin
SATA Power Connector
9
SLI
SLI Ready
Modular
Modular
Efficiency
>87%
Energy-Efficient
80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Over Voltage Protection
Yes
Input Voltage
100 - 240 V
Input Frequency Range
50/60 Hz
Output
+3.3V@24A, +5V@24A, +12V1@24A, +12V2@24A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.5A
Dimensions
6.3" x 5.9" x 3.4"

The Antec unit uses a slightly different fan setup and has updated wiring but in terms of the units design platform and specs they are the same.

the Antec unit has better PCIE power plug arrangement as well those are the plugs that hook to your GPU, the 12v rail is just the voltage supplied. regardless the simularities have been noted as tada they are the same damn unit I am just saving you $5 give or take.

As for passmark its honestly one of the WORST metrics for measuring performance for both CPUs and GPUs that said not all AMD chips are bad, their lower end chips at least overclock which helps but in many games CPU holds back a good GPU and AMD tends to hold back alot,

Starcraft 2
Dragon Age Origins
Civilization V
Shogun 2
Skyrim (modded)

among others that said the AMD chip isnt bad the 4170 is decent for its price as intel doesnt have much to compare it to but for the most part if you scale up AMDs CPU lineup the FX chips tend to fall a bit flat the 8350 fixes this somewhat but not often enough.

Intel is priced higher yes. intel also offers better performance and Bolkonsky here on the forums has a 4100 overclocked with a 660ti and hes noticed its hold back his GPU in a few titles. so its something to keep in mind.

Budget constraints means compromises must be made to get the best performance possible at your obviously lower price point and an AMD chip with a better GPU will help in a number of titles but their will always be big AAA games that will run like crap just because your on an AMD cpu sadly.

**Bolkonsky** · November 06, 2012, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Crazyeyesreaper

As for passmark its honestly one of the WORST metrics for measuring performance for both CPUs and GPUs that said not all AMD chips are bad, their lower end chips at least overclock which helps but in many games CPU holds back a good GPU and AMD tends to hold back alot,

Starcraft 2
Dragon Age Origins
Civilization V
Shogun 2
Skyrim (modded)

among others that said the AMD chip isnt bad the 4170 is decent for its price as intel doesnt have much to compare it to but for the most part if you scale up AMDs CPU lineup the FX chips tend to fall a bit flat the 8350 fixes this somewhat but not often enough.

Intel is priced higher yes. intel also offers better performance and Bolkonsky here on the forums has a 4100 overclocked with a 660ti and hes noticed its hold back his GPU in a few titles. so its something to keep in mind.

Budget constraints means compromises must be made to get the best performance possible at your obviously lower price point and an AMD chip with a better GPU will help in a number of titles but their will always be big AAA games that will run like crap just because your on an AMD cpu sadly.

This is very true. FX is good value, it'll get you playing games for a bit of a better price than Intel. However as soon as you jump into the mid range chips Intel's performance increases almost exponentially over AMD's. AMD counters this by ridiculously high overclocking capabilities on all their chips. 4170 and 8350 are the two best but if you're gonna spend the money on the 8350 just buy a slightly lower frequency Intel chip. The only AMD chip I can truly recommend for budget builds is the 4170. (When I bought mine the 4170 didn't exist yet so I got the 4100, but the 4170 is more or less the same thing just clocked higher.) Now I've got mine at 4.6 Ghz with a Xigmatek aftermarket cooler and I'm getting 60fps in games that aren't CPU intensive, with my GTX 660 Ti. As soon as I get into CPU intensive games (Total War, Skyrim, and Battlefield) I'm still getting good performance, but I see a drop of about 20%. And that's with it overclocked. I'll get 55-60 fps in the plains and woods of Skyrim, but the second I go into a populated area with more agents, tracking, and stuff like that, it plummets to 45 fps. Like Crazyeyesreaper said, Civ 5 bottlenecks for sure as well, I have some issues with that one (~35 fps on maxed settings) and Dragon Age it just brute forces and I'll get 60 fps, but it's definitely struggling for that when it really shouldn't be considering the age of the game. (Now 3 years old.)

When you consider the price of the chip, it's still a good deal, but I wouldn't get any other one, just take that money and buy a mid-tier Intel chip, over a high-tier AMD chip.

**PGeo36** · November 03, 2012, 11:27 PM

I'm not debating that Intel has faster CPUs when you compare their best to AMDs, that's a fact and has been for the past couple generations. However, AMD in terms of price to performance ratio has consistently beaten Intel. All things being equal, you will end up paying more for an Intel chip.

Price-performance sorted by overall performance. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html#cpuvalue

**PGeo36** · November 04, 2012, 12:37 AM

Like I said, I'm not very knowledgeable on PSUs. Thank you for clearing that up.

**Totalheadache** · November 05, 2012, 09:31 AM

yeah i am an intel guy until amd produce something that is worth me spending my money on

that said i'd suggest an amd chip to my bro who is a casual gamer and would most likely use it for footy and the odd skyrim etc. i on the other hand like to get the most out of my cpu.

that also goes for nvidia cards, but again am not overly against amd cards either just for me high end single gpu tends to be better all round on nvidia. (not much in it). certainly i'll have a good look at next gen amd as am going to upgrade soonish for more vram.

some cpu reviews here might be usefull

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_categ...rocessors.html

p.s have a media pc running an old amd athlon 2 core and it's still going strong so pretty pleased on that score. (even though i had to bend some of the pins

)