Building a ''super'' DUALCORE PC for under 1k

[Suomalainen]

Hi, new to these forums. As the title says, I am building a new computer. I decided I would put my money into an SSD and Vid Card instead of a super 8 core processor that I will never really benefit from. (feel free to correct me if i'm wrong) But, i do not think I will get any signifigant performance boost from going crazy with a processor. I play a 2D MMO game, surf the web and watch videos. Sometimes I'll play starcraft2 and The Old Republic.. But not very often.
I do not see how spending $100 - $200 more for a 4 - 8 core processor would make much sense to me.

Anyway, here is my future build and I would greatly appreciate any constructive feedback. (I will most likely wait for the prices to drop a bit more before buying)


Gigabyte mobo - Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-A75-UD4H FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Gigabyte HD7950 Graphics Card -Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

AMD A6 3.6ghz dual core - Newegg.com - AMD A6-5400K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7540D AD540KOKHJBOX

Corsair 240gb Force SeriesGT SSD - Newegg.com - Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F240GBGT-BK 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Corsair Vengeance 16gb RAM 4x4 DDR3 1600(only 4x4 dual channel ram I could find. Oh well, extra $30) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233198

Antec Case - Newegg.com - Antec Eleven Hundred Black Super Mid Tower Computer Case

Power Supply(675w) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153126

Asus dvd burner - Newegg.com - ASUS DVD Burner 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS

 

[Suomalainen]

Not to mention, if for whatever reason I thought I needed more cores.. I could always purchase the same processor for $70 and run two physical processors under windows ultimate.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any kind of constructive feedback. Do you guys think it this is a good build? I think it's the best build I could do for under $1,000.
Tell me what ya think

 

[Peter.Cort]

If you only play SC2 and TOR are the most demanding games you play, you don't need a fast gpu... at all. Also you can only run 2 physical processors if the motherboard has 2 sockets, which are really only found in server motherboards, which the one you picked out is not. Personally I'd go with an i5 Ivy-Bridge processor, cheaper GPU, only 8gb of ram, 16 is totally overkill for what you're doing, and put the money you've saved into a better quality psu. The one you have is fine, but there are higher quality ones out there.

For what you're doing you'd benefit much more from a faster processor than a faster gpu.

 

[Suomalainen]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Now, when you say faster processor are you speaking of the ghz speed or more cores? The processor I picked out I wouldent consider to be slow at all at 3.6ghz, which is faster on paper than the I5's. (Thats assuming I will not benefit from the multithreading ofcourse)
16gb of RAM was not my original plan at all, however I couldent find any decent 4 memory sticks thats compatible with my CPU. I want to occupy all of my RAM slots on my mother board reguardless if its 4gb or 16gb. I know I will never need 16gb and maybe not even 8gb, but the sticks I picked out are pretty okay and only $30 more tops..

As far as going with a cheaper graphics card, I like the idea of being able to throw any type of game at my computer without worries. And chances are, I will wait a couple of months before buying these parts. These arent exactly new to the market, so I'm assuming the prices will go down signifigantly in the near future.

 

[PP Mguire]

You need to have a look at my article here to shed some light on the situation.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/

AMD cores are slower per clock than Intel. As was said, you should rethink your strategy here.

For starters, you would be better inclined to buy an i3 3220 which would run circles around that AMD APU.

The next thing I'll point out, is for the price you can almost buy a 670 but for what you want to do spending slightly less on a 660ti would benefit you more. In a lot of games the 660ti is pretty on par or even slightly better than the 7950 for less cost.

There is no reason in the world to have all RAM slots filled. Actually, this can cause issues on weaker AMD CPUs. You are MUCH better off with 2 4GB or 2 8GB sticks. As was said, there is also no reason to have more than 8GB of RAM unless you want to do heavy CAD, Photoshop, 3D, Director, or rendering work. No game today uses more than 2.5GB of RAM.

I also will 2nd the PSU notion. As much as I trusted my Toughpower I would not recommend anything other than Corsair, Sesonic, or Antec for a PSU these days. I believe for the same price you can get a Corsair TX650 which is much better quality. Again, quality over wattage.

That Corsair SSD is decent, but I would recommend more on the lines of a Samsung 830 or 840pro. I'm guessing you want more SSD space than storage space which is fine. Then again, with everything you have listed currently you could get away with having a 128GB SSD.

My final words here will be, Newegg.com is a US based only site. Your prices over in Finland will probably be higher so you will probably have to rethink your setup to adjust accordingly.

 

[Peter.Cort]

Why do you want to fill all the ram slots? you don't unlock any magical powers or speed by filling up all 4 slots. It's only 30 or so more for the 16gb of ram, but spend 50 on ram and you've got 30 you can throw at a processor.

And on paper and in practice the i5 is faster. you can't look at just the clock speed as that is only relevant when comparing processors with the same core architecture. The sandy-bridge and ivy-bridge are much faster than the processor you picked out.

a sandy bridge 2500k is about 3 times faster than the 5400k.
2500k PassMark - Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.30GHz - Price performance comparison
5400k PassMark - AMD A6-5400K APU - Price performance comparison

And you said that you don't do much in teh way of games, but then you said that you want to be able to play any game... so which is it? If you only keep playing the games that you listed then you don't need a $300 GPU. Even so you don't need a $300 GPU to max out most games today.

Edit: Seconded everything PP Mguire said.

 

[Suomalainen]

Very interesting information, thank you very much! I will definetly look into things a bit more.

About RAM: From what I understand, atleast with the newer Intels, you will sometimes take a performance hit if you do not occupy all RAM slots. Not sure if that is the same with AMD, I only assumed so.

 

[Suomalainen]

Alright friend, I threw together an intel piece if you care to compare it to my original.



Asus Mother: Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

660 or 650 Vid Card: Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-3664-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti FTW Signature2 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
650: Newegg.com - EVGA SSC 02G-P4-3653-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Corsair TX power supply: Newegg.com - CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

I3 3.4ghz ivybridge CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i3-3240 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i33240

DDR3 2133 8gb memory (assuming i was wrong about occupying all ram slots?) Newegg.com - MSI Z77 MPOWER Optimized DDR3 2133 8GB Kit (2 x 4GB) Dual Channel 240-pin (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Module Model AVD3U21330904G-2CM

Same SSD, Same DVD, Same Case

 

[PP Mguire]

Very interesting information, thank you very much! I will definetly look into things a bit more.

About RAM: From what I understand, atleast with the newer Intels, you will sometimes take a performance hit if you do not occupy all RAM slots. Not sure if that is the same with AMD, I only assumed so.

That is backwards. For both and all platforms you take a hit in performance with all slots occupied. For instance, my POS board is rated at 2400MHz OC but I can't even do 1866 with all slots occupied no matter how many volts I send to the IMC. AMD CPUs have a weaker IMC so they either can't do 4 sticks or requires a higher IMC voltage for stability. Both platforms take a hit in maximum speed they can do with all slots occupied unless you have a super cooling system and you can feed the memory controllers the amount of volts required.

Alright friend, I threw together an intel piece if you care to compare it to my original.



Asus Mother: Newegg.com - ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

660 or 650 Vid Card: Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-3664-KR GeForce GTX 660 Ti FTW Signature2 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
650: Newegg.com - EVGA SSC 02G-P4-3653-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Corsair TX power supply: Newegg.com - CORSAIR TX Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

I3 3.4ghz ivybridge CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Core i3-3240 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2500 BX80637i33240

DDR3 2133 8gb memory (assuming i was wrong about occupying all ram slots?) Newegg.com - MSI Z77 MPOWER Optimized DDR3 2133 8GB Kit (2 x 4GB) Dual Channel 240-pin (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Module Model AVD3U21330904G-2CM

Same SSD, Same DVD, Same Case

No point in a Z77 board with a CPU that can't overclock. Drop that and grab an ASRock H77 Pro4.

660ti or 650ti depending on how much you want to spend. Just take note that the 650ti is considerately slower than the 660ti.

PSU is good.

You don't need 2133 memory. It's a 50/50 shot whether or not the XMP profile will work so the speed doesn't require extra tweaking for stability. Not only that, but anything over 1600MHz is diminishing gains. In other words, you wont notice the difference unless you are staring at synthetic benchmark numbers.

I would go with 8GB of Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz.

 

[PP Mguire]

I was saying go with it if budget permits because it never hurts to have 2 extra cores, but an i3 will do perfectly fine as of right now. I wasn't saying just change your mind, but IF you have the money it wouldn't hurt to go for an i5 3330.