building a new pc

[Gary406]

im building a new pc for myself but i want advice 1st since i dont wanna rush into it.

been looking at building a AMD phenom 6 core CPU

OR

intel i5 , quad core cpu

which would be the best ? the amd 6 core OR i5 quad core

ram will be 8GB DDR3 minimum and a Gforce 1 gig grafics card , not decided which card yet just wanna decide which CPU for now...

[ToddM]

Hey matey! I can help a lot when it comes to PCs. What do you plan on using it for? What's your budget?

Things like that would help a lot! Generally the AMD hexcores of today are quite similar in performance to the 4 core I7s. Once applications start to require more cores though that might change, although its probably a long way away.

In fact I'm currently trying to relocate my i7 950, GTX 460 SLI PC to get some cash for my summer holiday if you want a gaming rig.
whats the full spec of it. how much u looking for, really i wanted to build my own pc to my spec,

was looking to spend 400-500 building my own

[sirwiggum]

I built my PC around a motherboard with an AMD Phenom processor.
Plenty of cooling allows it to be overclocked too, though for what I use it for it never really gets stressed to the max.

Are you looking to use it for gaming or high end CAD?

[Gary406]

i dont game (yet) but its something i want to get back into when i make the right pc.

usually im just doing multi internet things, recording cds , and browsing web and the pc i have now is sh*t.

[lozz]

ithink unless your your using a pc for gaming high end stuff goes to waste,
the Dual core one ihave does the job, running 2 burners etc,

im going to get something abit more powerful shortly but iwill just buy an upgrade kit,
idont know what board/prossesor to go for yet tho- maybe this one wouid be good enough,

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asrock-Motherboar ... 5d2eb75855

[Gary406]

lozz make your own, its very easy and u can probably get a better spec than that for same money,

[ToddM]

lozz make your own, its very easy and u can probably get a better spec than that for same money,

Yeah, deffo. Gary set me a budget mate I'll knock out a decent rig and find you some good prices on the parts as well
Normally what I'd look at for component choice help is a channel on youtube called "timetolivecustoms" - the fella there is quite good, honest and always gives great, lengthy reviews of different components. There's a forum at which he resides - overclock3d.net, full of nice and helpful people and there's often competitions allowing you to win different components/laptops etc.

If you're just going to use the PC for internet stuff people might say you shouldn't go for such high end stuff but it doesn't mater, after all you want something that'll be at least decent in a few years time. What games are you thinking of playing if you do? Cos you can get a pc for £50 that'd sort out your browsing in a jiffy When you say i5 quad core do you mean the new Sandy Bridge ones based around the 1155 socket?

[Gary406]

well ive upgraded mine. what a diffence, unreal

it was

Amd athlon x64 dual core 2.2ghz
1 gig ddr2 ram
NO Video card

and now its

Amd athlon x64 dual core 3.0ghz
4 gig ddr2 ram
sapphire 4850 ht videao card

cost me £15 for the ram. £40 for the cpu & £20 for the video card. the vid card is a beast..... so £75 . not bad really. will keep this for a few years now me thinks.....

[ToddM]

well ive upgraded mine. what a diffence, unreal

it was

Amd athlon x64 dual core 2.2ghz
1 gig ddr2 ram
NO Video card

and now its

Amd athlon x64 dual core 3.0ghz
4 gig ddr2 ram
sapphire 4850 ht videao card

cost me £15 for the ram. £40 for the cpu & £20 for the video card. the vid card is a beast..... so £75 . not bad really. will keep this for a few years now me thinks.....

Or you could've just overclocked that same processor and saved £40
It's basically like chip-tuning a car, not hard at all!

Great upgrade for the money I guess, just make sure your power supply can handle the new components (Especially the graphics card)

[OdinEidolon]

Gary - tell us what kind of computer you have now, what kind of computer you want, what's your budget, what you gonna do with it.
Think if you really want a cheaper desktop or if a laptop could be useful too.
Do not waste monay on 8GB of RAM as it's pretty useless as long as you don't Photoshop or CAD. 4GB are more than enough for at least 2 years.
Video cards strenght isn't measured through how much video RAM they have, even if this is what they're gonna make you think. Video memory >512MB is pretty much useless if your monitor isn't up to a decent resolution - so that's another thing you are wanting to tell us.

Now you're asking for a suggestion about the AMD exacore/ Intel i5. Performance wise they are on par, depending on the application. The AMD will win in >4 core multi-threaded application while with the Intel you'll probably get a better user experience due to the slightly faster core (again - frequency is only part of the story). Power consumption number should also interest you.
Now you want a fast user experience in a decently cheap PC. What in my experience I am going to suggest is that no matter what kind of multicore you are gonna choose, as long as it's better than a crappy Atom, HDD performance will matter the most for the simple user experience ("Wow, this system feels FAST!").
So better save on the processor and get a decent SSD for your OS data, imho. That's what I did two years ago and I'm still pleased with it.

For what you have said you do - surfing, burning etc - you could just do the cheaper upgrade out there: get a proper (free) operative system and you PC will fly again. Nothing difficult to do I can assure you, I've helped tens of inexperienced people to install their own Linux OS and none of them were disappointed in the end (no kidding).

[Gary406]

im gonna keep this pc for a while now i think. for the price ive paid to upgrade it would be silly not to keep it...

Amd athlon x64 dual core 3.0ghz
4gb ddr2 800mhz ram
512mb ati radeon 4850 HD video card
500gb sata3 HDD
650watt atx power supply

its running really really quick . next i need a good monitor i am using a HP 19" TFT now (not the widescreen version)

laptops are out of the question, i bloody hate the things

[Gary406]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/24-acer- ... 0cd-m2-2ms

think i will be getting this monitor...

[ToddM]

Dunno mate, looks alright but as far as monitors go I'll never step away from Samsung ever again and I've had some bad experience with an Acer last year. By the way if you're going to play heavy games that big resolution might have a dramatic effect on the performance from the 4850.

[Gary406]

can sum1 just verify this for me.

this is a diagram of my ram slots. . . . . . currently i have a stick in A1 and A2 . which means one in yellow channel and 1 in the black channel

is this running right ?

[OdinEidolon]

im gonna keep this pc for a while now i think. for the price ive paid to upgrade it would be silly not to keep it...

Amd athlon x64 dual core 3.0ghz
4gb ddr2 800mhz ram
512mb ati radeon 4850 HD video card
500gb sata3 HDD
650watt atx power supply

its running really really quick . next i need a good monitor i am using a HP 19" TFT now (not the widescreen version)

laptops are out of the question, i bloody hate the things

Man that's a good PC, no need to change for anything. The CPU isn't the best out there as it's pretty old, but nothing to worry about. If I really wanted an upgrade on that system I'd get a good SSD for the OS, not bigger than 64GB, they are pretty cheap.
Other than that if your system is running slow (which it isn't from what you say) I'd probably reinstall the OS and/or install a proper one, as I said. You can have both on the same machine. If you decide for the latter just let me know and I'll be happy to guide you through the possible difficulties of installing a new OS.

can sum1 just verify this for me.

this is a diagram of my ram slots. . . . . . currently i have a stick in A1 and A2 . which means one in yellow channel and 1 in the black channel

is this running right ?

It depends on your MOBO, some have the dual channels on A1A2 some A1B1. Check your mobo manual if you have one, if not just tell us what mobo you have. You can also check if your ram is running in dual channel by using some system information program - there are loads out there. Just google "am I running my RAM in dual channel" and I'm sure you'll find out something.