Help selecting a new system

[AlexDenne]

Good afternoon all, i am hoping someone can help me.

I am looking to buy a new PC, predominantly for gaming, my benchmark being Battlefield 3 in ultra settings, 1080p and hopefully still strong for BF4 when it comes out.

I have two quotes pending at the moment and I was wandering if you could look through the specs. and advise.

Please note I know a thing or two about PC's but my knowledge is VERY limited some please try to avoid blowing my mind with things I don't understand

Please see below:

Intel Quote:

CPU: 2085 - NEW! Intel Core i5 3570K
CPU Overclocking: oc43 - 4.3Ghz - Moderate Overclock
CPU Cooler: 3015 - Xigmatek Loki SDS963
Operating System: 11019 - Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard: 4173 - NEW! Gigabyte Z77-HD3
RAM: 5041 - 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: 6028 - 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 7003 - 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: 8096 - NEW! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB
Sound card: 10001 - Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: 17044 - NEW! Zalman Z11 Plus
PSU: 18045 - NEW! 450W Corsair VS

Total: £692.30

AMD Quote:

CPU: 1061 - NEW! AMD FX 6300 Black Edition
CPU Cooler: 3015 - Xigmatek Loki SDS963
Operating System: 11019 - Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard: 4170 - NEW! Gigabyte 970-DS3
RAM: 5054 - NEW! 8GB Corsair 1866mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: 6028 - 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 7003 - 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: 8083 - NEW! NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB
Sound card: 10001 - Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: 17024 - Xigmatek Asgard
PSU: 18046 - NEW! 550W Corsair VS
Warranty: sc-1 - 3 Year SureCare Warranty

£675.09

£650.00 was my budget really but as you can see I have already gone past it but if i am upgrading I may as well do it properly.

I have done some internet searches and have seen a lot of conflicting and contradicting information (which the internet is famous for!)

Your guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Alex.

 

[manofchalk]

Of the two, the AMD build will perform better when it comes to graphics. Its a 660Ti against a 650Ti, which is a massive jump in performance, but the CPU will present issues. You will be somewhat bottlenecked by it in large multiplayer games, you can overclock to alleviate this, but it still wont compare to the Intel build in terms of CPU grunt.

If you want to drive up details, go for the AMD.
If you want not so good graphical settings but more stable performance in large online games, go with the Intel.

 

[AlexDenne]

Of the two, the AMD build will perform better when it comes to graphics. Its a 660Ti against a 650Ti, which is a massive jump in performance, but the CPU will present issues. You will be somewhat bottlenecked by it in large multiplayer games, you can overclock to alleviate this, but it still wont compare to the Intel build in terms of CPU grunt.

If you want to drive up details, go for the AMD.
If you want not so good graphical settings but more stable performance in large online games, go with the Intel.

Thank you very much for your reply.

It seems the website does not give my the option to overclock that build. When you say large online do me mean x64 players? I think i can live with x32 player servers as that is what I am used to on my Xbox. Apart from overlocking (or getting an Intel CPU) is there anything else i can do to avoid this?

Unfortunately if I add the 660 ti to the Intel build the price goes through the roof.

Thanks again for you help

 

[Gennaios]

the 3570k is way better for gaming!on the other hand the gtx 660 is way better than the gtx 650!in case you pick the second one dont get the gtx 660!get one 7950 as its within the same price range and performs better in most games and has +1gb of vram!think about it!

 

[AlexDenne]

the 3570k is way better for gaming!on the other hand the gtx 660 is way better than the gtx 650!in case you pick the second one dont get the gtx 660!get one 7950 as its within the same price range and performs better in most games and has +1gb of vram!think about it!

Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately i would be unable to get an i5 as it just blows my budget way out of the ball park i would would assume the FX 6300 would be better than an i3?

I googled the whole 7950 vs. 660ti and all i saw was fanboys from each side saying 7950>660ti or the opposite, no real information (which is a common problem on the old internet). The one thing i did see is the 7950 is ideal for larger resolutions but i will not be playing any bigger than 1080, so based on this what is the best option?

Thanks everyone.

 

[g-unit1111]

the 3570k is way better for gaming!on the other hand the gtx 660 is way better than the gtx 650!in case you pick the second one dont get the gtx 660!get one 7950 as its within the same price range and performs better in most games and has +1gb of vram!think about it!

Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately i would be unable to get an i5 as it just blows my budget way out of the ball park i would would assume the FX 6300 would be better than an i3?

I googled the whole 7950 vs. 660ti and all i saw was fanboys from each side saying 7950>660ti or the opposite, no real information (which is a common problem on the old internet). The one thing i did see is the 7950 is ideal for larger resolutions but i will not be playing any bigger than 1080, so based on this what is the best option?

Thanks everyone.

Here's a benchmark that may help you make your decision easier: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647

With Catalyst 13.1 the Radeon gets a huge speed bump that allows it to exceed the 660TI in just about every single category.

 

[AlexDenne]

the 3570k is way better for gaming!on the other hand the gtx 660 is way better than the gtx 650!in case you pick the second one dont get the gtx 660!get one 7950 as its within the same price range and performs better in most games and has +1gb of vram!think about it!

Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately i would be unable to get an i5 as it just blows my budget way out of the ball park i would would assume the FX 6300 would be better than an i3?

I googled the whole 7950 vs. 660ti and all i saw was fanboys from each side saying 7950>660ti or the opposite, no real information (which is a common problem on the old internet). The one thing i did see is the 7950 is ideal for larger resolutions but i will not be playing any bigger than 1080, so based on this what is the best option?

Thanks everyone.

Here's a benchmark that may help you make your decision easier: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/550?vs=647

With Catalyst 13.1 the Radeon gets a huge speed bump that allows it to exceed the 660TI in just about every single category.

Thanks for that it is really helpful. So for the overall the Radeon is the best choice, I do see that battlefield runs a lot better with the Nvidia card but I will be running at no higher than the 1920x1200 ultra so I will still be getting 60-odd FPS which is fine.

I think I have made my decision, thank you.