darosk wrote in post #9797406
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I ama gamer. My brother suggested that 5770 because he knows that. As far as AMD vs. Intel, to be honest I don't know much about the technical differences and am going solely off my brother's recommendation because he's a firm proponent of AMD chips (he's quite a computer enthusiast, built 10-20 custom PC's in his spare time).
The main reason for this (at least historically) is because AMD gave you nice 'n high *native* clock speeds for considerably less than a comparable Intel chip. An Intel chip at 2.6ghz might be slightly more than a comparable 3.2ghz AMD chip. And for gaming, it's mostly about the clock speed.
Factor in that AMD chips overclock nicely....it's much easier to get a 3.2ghz chip up to 4.2ghz than the Intel chip starting out at .6ghz slower.
IOW, for gamers, clock speed has always been of critical importance. But with the move to dual and now quad cores, programs like Photoshop can utilize lots of cores for processing with out outrageously high clock speeds. Great for heat and power management too!!
If you read benchmarks, the latest i3/i5/i7 chips pretty much destroy comparable AMD chips. It use to be that AMD dominated the sub-$200, but the i3 and i5 changed all that. When you can get an i3 at Microcenter for (now) $90, there is not an AMD chip on the planet that will do what the i3 can do for that price. Same deal with the i5's.
It's not that the AMD chips are bad; they're not! Just that the new i-Series of Intel chips has really left the competition in the dust.
Actually the stock fans for both the AMD and Intel chips are fine....unless you are really trying to cut down the sound OR if you want to overclock.
Zalmans are quality fans, as is that one. Once you decide on a chip (and hence socket form), then pick an aftermarket fan-sink accordingly. Zalmans make about the best low-profile HSF's, among the ones I've seen up close.
Thanks for your suggestion, I'll have to research a little more into the chips because my knowledge is a little sketchy. I am trying to keep costs down as much as possible, but at the same time if the benefits outweigh the costs then I think I can afford to stretch a little.
From all the benchmarks I've seen, the i5/i7 quads are totally worth the small extra cost.
Overall, even though I am a gamer, I would be using this rig primarily for photo editing. Thanks for the helpful comments, guys.
If the games are 3+ years old, you may find that the $50-70 vid cards do them pretty close to perfection.
(not a misprint!)
