Need advice on components.

[Clone]

Well I plan on buying a new PC soon, my budget is roughly 800 GBP excluding Monitor mouse speakers etc. Just the tower. This PC will be used for mostly gaming.
I'm going to buy from Cyber Power Systems which seem to be a reliable company.

My problem is I cant decide between some of the parts.


For a start, I'm definately getting 8GB of RAM. That's the first problem, on the RAM option there's a choice.

Corsair Value RAM
Corsair RAM with Heatspreader
Kingston RAM with Heatspreader

1: Well, The last 2 are like 30 GBP more than the Value RAM. I was wondering if that's gonna make much of a difference if I get the value RAM.


Secondly, the processor. I'm stuck between:

Intel Core i5 2500K - Quad core 3.3GHz
AMD Phenom II X4 965 - Quad core 3.4GHz

2: Which of these would you recommend for me? Some people are telling me AMD isn't worth going for.


Now, the GPU. Again, I am stuck between two components from the 2 major GPU companies.

Nvidia GTX 560 Ti GPU
ATI HD 6950 GPU

3: Which of these would be the best choice? Again some people say that Nvidia is better than ATI or vice versa.


Lastly, the Hard Drive. I'm definately getting 1TB. But, SATA II or SATA III? I know that II is 3gbps and III is 6gbps but really is it that much of a differerence?

4: Is it worth Getting SATA III over SATA II? Is it that much better?


Advice and answers would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Aimzz]

I'd go for the 2500K CPU and the 6950, not sure about the choice of ram and HDD tho

[Wayne]

1. Heat spreader increases overclocking potential, if you are going to overclock memory components, i'd recomend them.
Otherwise, there's no use of a heatspreader other than make your ram look pretty.
I must warn you, that RAM overclocking is nearby useless in performance terms.

2.
Phenom II is an excellent choice, even through some people despise.

If your tendency is to run all games above 40 fps, choose Phenom II
If you tendency is maximize fps, core i5 2500K.

AMD has a much better cost benefit, but Intel is more powerful in terms of perfomance.
I have a Phenom II X6 1055T, and i'm very satisfied with it's performance.

So, none of them are the best, they both have benefits and drawbacks. Choose Intel if you want true performance or AMD if you want less performance with less cost.
Take your conclusions here
Performance comparison: X4 965 VS 2500K

3.
Both of them are good, but GTX 560 Ti is 6% faster, consumes less power and has a higher pixel rate.
So, choose GTX 560 Ti.

4. Choose SATA 3, because it's transfer speed is doubled compared to SATA 2.
WARNING: choosing SATA 3 means you must install windows vista or 7, due to 64mb cache.

[Ben.]

I'd go for:

Value RAM
AMD Phenom processor
GTX 560
SATA III if what Wayne says is right!

[Julio.]

I'd go for:

Value RAM
AMD Phenom processor
GTX 560
SATA III if what Wayne says is right!

Exactly what I'd go for.

The most common bottleneck in a PC is the Hard Drive, people spend a fortune on Graphics Cards and Processors, but if you cannot access the information stored quickly, nothing will run quickly, it's as simple as that.

Very little point in Overclocking RAM, get the value one.

Tend to pay more for Intel than AMD, so I prefer AMD, but, your call

[Clone]

I actually made some reconsiderations.

I've decided to get an Intel Core i7 2600, and a 64GB SSD along with a 1TB SATA-III drive.

Also, I'm gonna get only 4gb of value ram, and later when I save up, I'll upgrade to 8gb 1600mhz ram

What you guys think?

[Ragdoll]

You shouldn't buy 8GB of RAM. 4 is fine enough. Unless you want to render movies and stuff related to that. Most games might have "4GB of RAM" on their requirements.. but it's never true. The most demanding games barely go above 2.5 (and that's an exaggeration too). They say 4GB just to make sure you have some left over for other Windows/Mac services.

[Clone]

I already settled on 8GB as I will be doing stuff like picture and movie processing and alot of gaming.

[Ragdoll]

I already settled on 8GB as I will be doing stuff like picture and movie processing and alot of gaming.

Your choice .

[Alessandro]

If i would be on your place,I would definitely thought about getting SSD more than regular drive. It is a way more expecive,but more faster too aswell.