Which Computer Should I Buy? - Techies Wanted!

[JediArron]

So I am looking to buy a PC, I have designed two online, I am spending around £900 for the PC, so they're prpretty high spec. One of them has an ATI Radeon Graphics card, the other a Nvidia graphics card.

Here are the specs for:

Computer A -

• Intel i5 3570k Quad Core 3.40 GHz,
• 1155 Gigabyte Z68AP-D3,
• 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2,
• Integrated Sound Card,
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler,
• DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
• 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
• No Secondary Hard Drive,
• ATI HD 6970 2048MB,
• No Monitor,
• CiT Mars Midi Tower Gaming Case with 2 x Blue LED Fans & LED Display,
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TXUK,
• No Operating System,
• No Additional Software,
• Logitech Keyboard and Mouse Deskset,

- It uses a 2048 MB ATI HD 6970 graphics card, and a different fan.

Computer B

• Intel i5 3570k Quad Core 3.40 GHz,
• 1155 Gigabyte Z68AP-D3,
• 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2,
• Integrated Sound Card,
• Corsair Hydro H80 High-Performance Liquid CPU Cooler,
• DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
• 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
• No Secondary Hard Drive,
• Nvidia GTX570 1280MB,
• No Monitor,
• CiT Mars Midi Tower Gaming Case with 2 x Blue LED Fans & LED Display,
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TXUK,
• No Operating System,
• No Additional Software,
• Logitech Keyboard and Mouse Deskset,

- It uses a 1280 MB graphics card. It is cheaper than the ATI graphics card, however is only 1280 MB, compared to 2056 MB. As it is cheaper, however, I am able to buy a Corsair CPU liquid cooler.

Also,

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

says the Nvidia 570X is better than
the Radeon 6970, despite it being cheaper. (It is higher ranked and if you click the invidual graphics card
name, it also has a higher G3D mark - which basically shows how much the graphics card can take before
Frame rate/performance drops - so the higher the better

Do you think it takes into account the difference in memory between the graphics cards?
And do any have any advantages over the other?
Which one would you personally go for and why? ^_^

Thank you.

[Dioz]

I would advise that you do not look for computer advice on this site. The members are ill-informed about technology here.

So, basically, go to Overclock.net and create an account there.

Then go to this part of Overclock.net and post this exact same thread there.

You'll get recommendations for your system, as well as they will help you lower the price of your PC too by suggesting other parts.

It's well worth it. Teenspot isnt the place for tech talk really. Which is unfortunate.

-

But to answer your thread..

Video card memory does NOT matter. Do not look at how much memory is on a video card. You should look at the model number.

For Nvidia it is like this..

Low end is: GTX550

Mid range: GTX560

High end: GTX560 Ti / GTX570

Ultra: GTX580

Extreme: GTX590 / GTX690


For AMD:

Low: HD7570

Mid: HD7650

High: HD7750

Ultra: HD7870

Extreme: HD7970


For your PC...

I would go with a GTX570 (What you called the 570X)

The 6970 runs hot, so it would be louder (The fan would get very loud) but the GTX570 would be quieter.


Before you do anything however.. I highly recommend you go on this YouTube channel and take a look at some of his videos regaqrding the parts you want in your case.

Also, if you are building this PC yourself you'll save £200-400 over the price of buying online a pre made PC.

Building a computer is simple really. Just follow guides on YouTube from people like Linus Tech Tips.

Here, just check out these sites below

TimeToLiveCustoms

LinusTechTips

OC3D

Overclock.net

NCIXCOM


Make sure you look through all of the above and ask question to them all before you buy anything for your PC. It might save you a lot of money and end up with a faster PC.

[DJSuperNova]

So I am looking to buy a PC, I have designed two online, I am spending around £900 for the PC, so they're prpretty high spec. One of them has an ATI Radeon Graphics card, the other a Nvidia graphics card.

Here are the specs for:

Computer A -

• Intel i5 3570k Quad Core 3.40 GHz,
• 1155 Gigabyte Z68AP-D3,
• 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2,
• Integrated Sound Card,
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler,
• DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
• 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
• No Secondary Hard Drive,
• ATI HD 6970 2048MB,
• No Monitor,
• CiT Mars Midi Tower Gaming Case with 2 x Blue LED Fans & LED Display,
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TXUK,
• No Operating System,
• No Additional Software,
• Logitech Keyboard and Mouse Deskset,

- It uses a 2048 MB ATI HD 6970 graphics card, and a different fan.

Computer B

• Intel i5 3570k Quad Core 3.40 GHz,
• 1155 Gigabyte Z68AP-D3,
• 8GB DDR3 Corsair 1600 single module x2,
• Integrated Sound Card,
• Corsair Hydro H80 High-Performance Liquid CPU Cooler,
• DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
• 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
• No Secondary Hard Drive,
• Nvidia GTX570 1280MB,
• No Monitor,
• CiT Mars Midi Tower Gaming Case with 2 x Blue LED Fans & LED Display,
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TXUK,
• No Operating System,
• No Additional Software,
• Logitech Keyboard and Mouse Deskset,

- It uses a 1280 MB graphics card. It is cheaper than the ATI graphics card, however is only 1280 MB, compared to 2056 MB. As it is cheaper, however, I am able to buy a Corsair CPU liquid cooler.

Also,

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

says the Nvidia 570X is better than
the Radeon 6970, despite it being cheaper. (It is higher ranked and if you click the invidual graphics card
name, it also has a higher G3D mark - which basically shows how much the graphics card can take before
Frame rate/performance drops - so the higher the better

Do you think it takes into account the difference in memory between the graphics cards?
And do any have any advantages over the other?
Which one would you personally go for and why? ^_^

Thank you.

Why not build it yourself? You can probably save cash and use even better parts that way.

[Frostick_Zero]

Here's my $0.02

1 - Find parts a whole sale price that way you spend less on parts.
2 - Buy a 2TB HDD since you can get them for around $100
3 - I would go with a full size case because I built my rig with a mid and the top of the case doesn't have alot of room when the PSU is in it.
4 - Buy a 850w Corsair Power Supply Unit. I was gonna go with a 650w PSU but I asked some people and alot of them said go 850w to 1,200w. Most said go for the 1,200w because that gives you room to use higher end GPU cards.
5 - Make sure the PSU is fully modulated. I find my rig runs cooler due to less cords in it and you cna hook up cords that you need later.
6 - I would go with a 6 core CPU instead of the Quad Core. I've had bad luck with Intel CPUs so I whent with the AMD 8 core inn my rig and I clocked it to run 2 cores and I have been able to throw every thing at it so far.
7 - I noticed that you didn't say that the comps have any case fans and if they do or don't I wold get 2x 120mm 90CFM case fans
8 - Make sure the comp you get or build has USB 3.0.

[ace_the_bunny]

@OP: I, personally, would go with the ATI card'd one, because I'm a fanboy.


@Frostick_Zero, re 6: you clocked it to what ... that doesn't make sense.

[Frostick_Zero]

@OP: I, personally, would go with the ATI card'd one, because I'm a fanboy.


@Frostick_Zero, re 6: you clocked it to what ... that doesn't make sense.

The mother board that I use lets me chose if I wanna use 2 cores, 4 cores, 6 cores or all 8 cores. I changed it to run on only 2 cores for the moment

[PhotoshopYourFace]

The mother board that I use lets me chose if I wanna use 2 cores, 4 cores, 6 cores or all 8 cores. I changed it to run on only 2 cores for the moment

That makes absolutely no sense at all. Why would you restrict it to 2 cores. Do you not realise most games now make use of all 4 cores?

I know you went down the silly route with an 8 core AMD Bulldozer CPU, but dont be so idiotic to disable 6 cores.

[ace_the_bunny]

That makes absolutely no sense at all. Why would you restrict it to 2 cores. Do you not realise most games now make use of all 4 cores?

I know you went down the silly route with an 8 core AMD Bulldozer CPU, but dont be so idiotic to disable 6 cores.

I could understand doing the reverse of what you did, ONLY to save power when not needed...

but that's just plain stupid. Why would you spend the money on an 8 core processor and only use 2...
That's like buying a car with 7 gears, and only using the first 2 gears to drive around (going like, 20 miles an hour)

[Frostick_Zero]

I could understand doing the reverse of what you did, ONLY to save power when not needed...

but that's just plain stupid. Why would you spend the money on an 8 core processor and only use 2...
That's like buying a car with 7 gears, and only using the first 2 gears to drive around (going like, 20 miles an hour)

Yes its to save power but also I only use 8 cores once a week or once every 2 weeks and like I said I don't have any games that have made me need up up it to 4 cores yet. Also when I got my CPU it was on sale so I paid the same price for my 8 core CPU that a 6 core CPU cost.


I will also add that you saying its just plain stupid to use 2 out of 8 cores also holds nothing because there are people out there that have PSU that are 1kw to even up to 1.6kw that they will never use the full amount. So going by what you said that what they paid for is plain stupid that they are only using a fraction of what the PSU can put out.

When it comes to computers people spend money on parts that they will never max out or they aren't powerful enough for what they wanna do.

To me its plain stupid that people pay $800 to $1,200+ for rent per month for a place that they don't own when it cost $100 to $275 per month when you own your place or place and land.


You do realize that there are people that have a vehicle that has 5 to 7 gears but they only use the first 2 or 3. Also here if your going 6 to 12 mph over he speed limit here you get a ticket and your car impounded for 1 month. So you saying that holds nothing




I see that your custom comp or what ever has a 1000w PSU and I'm pretty sure your not using almost all the 1000w of power it puts out so why did you buy it when you use some of that power that it puts out?

[Dioz]

1000W Power supply = Futureproof, no need to upgrade for a long time.

600W Power supply = Need to upgrade if you upagrade anything else in the system requiring more power.



Just go on Overclock.net, and make a thread in their AMD section saying you've disabled 6 cores on your CPU, see what actualy professionals have to say.


I might add, my Quad core cpu is faster even than your 8 core cpu.and... Video card too

Also, might as well say it.. Watercooled.

[Frostick_Zero]

1000W Power supply = Futureproof, no need to upgrade for a long time.

600W Power supply = Need to upgrade if you upagrade anything else in the system requiring more power.



Just go on Overclock.net, and make a thread in their AMD section saying you've disabled 6 cores on your CPU, see what actualy professionals have to say.


I might add, my Quad core cpu is faster even than your 8 core cpu.and... Video card too

Also, might as well say it.. Watercooled.

Ofc your CPU is gonna be faster because your overclocking yours. I haven't even bothered overclocking mine.

As for your video card yea because you probably dropped around $200+ on it.

And for he liquid cooling. Meh. On airwhen I am using all 8 cores I only hit 20C (68F) to 30C (86F) range. Haven't seen it pass 30C under loads.


I will find out soon if I have to up the cores that I am using with this game that I just bought.


I will admit that I am digging the black and blue look on it.

[ace_the_bunny]

I'm not even going to actually reply the replyies. I'm just going to again say, having a Bulldozer, and only using 2 cores is stupid. The PSU argument is stupid.

[Frostick_Zero]

Back on topic if your going Intel go with the i7 series

[Dioz]

i7 series? That could mean any i7. Which would be bad.

i7 = For video rendering, audio editing, professional work, high demand 3D applications like Maya and Autodesk.

i5 = For gaming, overclocking, general PC work, meant for your average high end PC.

i3 = The higher end i3's are just as good as i5's for gaming, meant for office work, and light PC usage.


Right now, the best value and performance would be still Sandybridge/SB-E processors from Intel. They arent as fast as Ivy Bridge, but they run a lot cooler once you overclock them.

So, as I said before..

Best i7 = Intel Core i7-3960X

Best i5 = Intel Core i5-2550K

Best i3 = Intel Core i3-2120

The K at the end means it is unlocked and can be overclocked. Which is better, but about $50 more in price.

The X means it's an extreme processor.. dont need to know more than it's usually $900+

For AMD.. well.. they are nowhere near as good. At stock a Intel i5 2500K is faster than a AMD 8150 at stock in gaming and most application except high end video and 3D rendering.

If you MUST get a i7, please consider using it for folding@home if you arent going to be doing video rendering. Same goes for the AMD 8 and 6 cores.

Blah, rant/whateverthiswas.. over.