To0
2nd August 2011, 12:05
I've been asked to spec a PC to go with an Nvidia 570GTX and cost about £400.
The graphics card needs a 550W PSU minimum so I was htingking something like this:
PSU (http://www.ebuyer.com/204353-ocz-stealth-xstream-ii-600w-psu-3x-sata-2x-pci-e-ocz600sxs2-uk) @ £55
Case is unimportant apparently so something cheap like this:
Case (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108273) @ £12
All new machines are DDR3 so:
8Gb Mem (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/195372) @ £51
Hard drive, pretty much spend whatever to get what you need, a few years back I suggested spending £100 on the largest drive possible but with 1tb drives costing £35 you should probably buy them as you need them.
1tb Spinpoint (http://www.ebuyer.com/173804-samsung-hd103sj-spinpoint-f3-1tb-hard-drive-sataii-7200rpm-32mb-cache-hd103sj) @ £41
With £160 spent we now spend the remainder on the MOBO and CPU. Because the graphics card has already been purchased there is no advantage to getting a new A8 from AMD and the onboard graphics cant play with the external solution. Likewise the sandy bridge from intel offers up wasted silicon if we go down that route. Looking at performance from these chips from Toms (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-2010/compare,2433.html?prod%5B4788%5D=on&prod%5B4757%5D=on) (core i5 2500k vs Phenom II X6) we can see that the Core i5 rips the piss out of the AMD at a fractionally higher cost.
The breakdown is here:
AMD
CPU (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/204933) @ £138
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/197546) @ £90
Total System cost: £386
Intel
CPU (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251596) @ £163
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261353) @ £81
Total System cost: £403
Final comments
The Intel route is sadly the better option on offer. There are very few examples where the extra 2 cores in the AMD will make a difference but it might be that BF3 is one of these areas, certainly it can be seen in the multi gpu tests that the more cores the better for previous version of the engine (more so than any other engine). Having said that, this machine pisses on the the console spec from such a height that unless they've gone for a Crysis killer for graphics this rig will blast through BF3 with no issue. As ever there are compromises to get the Intel rig. The mobo is seriously below par and before purchasing it would be STRONGLY recommended to check the website and check if the memory will work before buying. Alternately, spend £10-£20 more and get one of the newer, better specced Gigabyte boards like:
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/259409-gigabyte-ga-p67a-ud3p-b3-p67-socket-1155-gb-lan-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-p67a-ud3p-b3) @ £100
As they offer far better flexibility.
Hope that helps and for the love of god speak to me before buying this as the best deals change daily and that can make a huge difference to which specific part to get!
For reference
Here is a single core comparison of processors essentially the linked graph shows the efficiency of a single core. You can see that the new Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 are head a shoulders above the rest.
Comparison (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/All-time-based-values-added,2779.html)
The graphics card needs a 550W PSU minimum so I was htingking something like this:
PSU (http://www.ebuyer.com/204353-ocz-stealth-xstream-ii-600w-psu-3x-sata-2x-pci-e-ocz600sxs2-uk) @ £55
Case is unimportant apparently so something cheap like this:
Case (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108273) @ £12
All new machines are DDR3 so:
8Gb Mem (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/195372) @ £51
Hard drive, pretty much spend whatever to get what you need, a few years back I suggested spending £100 on the largest drive possible but with 1tb drives costing £35 you should probably buy them as you need them.
1tb Spinpoint (http://www.ebuyer.com/173804-samsung-hd103sj-spinpoint-f3-1tb-hard-drive-sataii-7200rpm-32mb-cache-hd103sj) @ £41
With £160 spent we now spend the remainder on the MOBO and CPU. Because the graphics card has already been purchased there is no advantage to getting a new A8 from AMD and the onboard graphics cant play with the external solution. Likewise the sandy bridge from intel offers up wasted silicon if we go down that route. Looking at performance from these chips from Toms (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-2010/compare,2433.html?prod%5B4788%5D=on&prod%5B4757%5D=on) (core i5 2500k vs Phenom II X6) we can see that the Core i5 rips the piss out of the AMD at a fractionally higher cost.
The breakdown is here:
AMD
CPU (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/204933) @ £138
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/197546) @ £90
Total System cost: £386
Intel
CPU (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/251596) @ £163
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/261353) @ £81
Total System cost: £403
Final comments
The Intel route is sadly the better option on offer. There are very few examples where the extra 2 cores in the AMD will make a difference but it might be that BF3 is one of these areas, certainly it can be seen in the multi gpu tests that the more cores the better for previous version of the engine (more so than any other engine). Having said that, this machine pisses on the the console spec from such a height that unless they've gone for a Crysis killer for graphics this rig will blast through BF3 with no issue. As ever there are compromises to get the Intel rig. The mobo is seriously below par and before purchasing it would be STRONGLY recommended to check the website and check if the memory will work before buying. Alternately, spend £10-£20 more and get one of the newer, better specced Gigabyte boards like:
MOBO (http://www.ebuyer.com/259409-gigabyte-ga-p67a-ud3p-b3-p67-socket-1155-gb-lan-8-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-ga-p67a-ud3p-b3) @ £100
As they offer far better flexibility.
Hope that helps and for the love of god speak to me before buying this as the best deals change daily and that can make a huge difference to which specific part to get!
For reference
Here is a single core comparison of processors essentially the linked graph shows the efficiency of a single core. You can see that the new Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 are head a shoulders above the rest.
Comparison (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/All-time-based-values-added,2779.html)