Hi any Techies out there

[BungalowBill]

My current system Comprises of

Asus M2N-E M/B
Athlon 64 x2 4200+ CPU,
Win 8 O/S,running in 64 bit
2 Gb RAM 667, ( awaiting on delivery of 4Gb 800Mhz Ram)
2x 160 Gb WD HDD
40Gb or there abouts HDD
Radeon X1950 Pro Graphics Card ( which Win 8 does not recognize)
500w xigmatek/ nrp psu


I am rebuilding bit by bit and have a nrp 1000w PSU on the way and will be upgrading to a i7 3770k cpu or maybe AMD FX8150

Obviously the choice of CPU will depict what M/B I choose and and maybe a 1-2 Tb HDD instead of the 3.
Q1- What decides whether one goes for 4-8-16 or 32 Ram

Q2 - I am tossing up between the Radeon 7870 & Nvidia Gforce GTX 650 Ti graphic cards. Will either one of these suit the system at the moment?

I am not a heavy gamer but my son likes to do graphics.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated

 

[dingo07]

A1 - what you plan on doing with the machine - 8MB is standard and less should not even be considered. Whether you need 8-16 is the real question based on what memory intensive rendering apps or financial programs you'll be running - it has no effect on gaming

A2- yes, but if you can afford more, the 660Ti or better should be looked at

Have a read through this for a better understanding of where the latest GPU's stand - http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451.html

 

[BungalowBill]

thanks dingo, it all boils down to money and holdens versus fords

cheers

 

[dingo07]

definitely a Holden... 😉

 

[scragnoff]

Basing around the link shared by dingo07, I suggest going for the i7-3770K for your CPU and the GTX 650 Ti for your video card.

If you can squeeze it into your budget, go for an SSD as well. You'll be amazed at its speed compared to the HDD.