amd phenom ii x4 965 or i7 860

[leosdaddy2008]

Hi, I am building a computer and is my first time build. I am having a hard time choosing a cpu. I mainly will be using it just for gaming, and I am not sure if I should go with the amd phenom 965 or the new i7 860. What is yalls thought?

[Masaki 7-11]

What kind of budget do you have (and do you need anything other than the parts, such as OS, monitor and/or peripherals)? For a gaming computer, the most important part that determines performance is the video card; although you'll still need a decent processor, the speed of the processor isn't too important once you are past a certain point. The Core i7 860 is an overall faster processor than the Phenom II X4 965 BE, however for gaming, it doesn't make much of a difference between the two processors since most likely your video card will be your limiting factor. The Phenom II X4 965 BE is quite expensive for the performance it provides; take a look at the Phenom II X4 955 BE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103674 or the Phenom II X4 940 BE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103471, both of which are good for gaming, have similar performance to the Phenom II X4 965 BE and cost a decent bit less.

[AMGrbaowska]

agreed, most games don't even take advantage of multiple cores yet, and the i7 is way expensive, sure its a little better than amd, but amd makes good quality stuff, i7s are still a little shaky in performance and stability. I would go with the 955 and then get an ati radeon 5870 with the extra money.

[glc]

The P55-based i5/i7 are far from shaky in either performance or stability. It's the X58-based i7 that has stability issues. Any one of them are today's top performers.

[AMGrbaowska]

Sorry, listen to glc, he is right. I had heard there was some problems with their stability, but wasn't aware it was specific to certain mobos.

[leosdaddy2008]

Ok here are the two choices I am looking at.



ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131392



CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006


AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103692

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

ASUS MATRIX GTX285/HTDI/1GD3 GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121335



2 for total of 8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

Antec Nine Hundred Two
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129058


The only two things i am looking at differnt would be the intel board and cpu.

ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131400

Intel Core i7-860
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115214

I'm trying to keep the build under $2,000 total. I want to have a good computer that I could upgrade in the future too. I have been thinking of running SLI setup later on.
Also I plan on running windows 7 and purchasing a blue ray drive for my optical drive and maybe a secondary plan cd-rom drive

[Masaki 7-11]

Have you taken a look at the new ATI cards? The HD5870 has better performance than the GTX285, has DirectX 11 support and costs about the same: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103084.

You can save over a $100 with pretty much no loss in performance by going with either a Phenom 955 or 940 BE instead of the 965 BE and by going with a 790GX motherboard such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131366

[leosdaddy2008]

I think I will go with that card instead. On that mother board is it crossfire ready? I was wanting to run dual cards in the future as a upgrade after I get it built. Thanks for the advise

[glc]

With that strong a video card, I can't see why you would have to run 2 of them. By the time you need more power, you probably won't be able to find a matching card without buying used - and you will have far newer generations of cards to pick from for a simple replacement.

[AMGrbaowska]

Yes, get the Radeon HD 5870, its Direct X 11, so its WAY more future proof.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by leosdaddy2008 I think I will go with that card instead. On that mother board is it crossfire ready? I was wanting to run dual cards in the future as a upgrade after I get it built. Thanks for the advise

All 790GX, 790FX and P55 based motherboards are crossfire compatible. Getting two cards to run in crossfire usually doesn't improve the perfromance as much as getting a new faster card, however if you were to get the HD5870 now for around $400 and needed a graphics card upgrade in a few years, you would most likely be able to get the HD5870 for half the price or less of what it currently cost; of course by that time most likely new faster cards would have come out.

[leosdaddy2008]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I will go with all your suggestions. Also, the other thing I really have no clue at all about is the ram. There are soooo many different brands. I just don't know what to go with. Is the ram I posted above fine to go with?

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by leosdaddy2008 Thanks for all the advice. I think I will go with all your suggestions. Also, the other thing I really have no clue at all about is the ram. There are soooo many different brands. I just don't know what to go with. Is the ram I posted above fine to go with?

Most ram companies make decent ram; there are of course series from each one that don't work as they should, but for the most part you shouldn't have any problems with most brands; read through reviews for the ram and you'll get an idea if it's good ram or not. G.Skill makes pretty good ram that's not too expensive and the set you posted above is good.

[glc]

When in doubt, look on the motherboard manufacturer's tested memory list. Asus calls theirs QVL.