I5 3450 and Radeon 6850. Or Fx 4100 and Radeon 6870.

[Guest]

As long as you mount the board properly, you wont have a problem with it breaking under the weight of a heatsink. The backplate on most aftermarket coolers (including the 212 EVO) serves to spread the weight.

not disputing what you're saying just putting this out for the OP

with a new system; cpu, motherboard, ram and gpu; it is usually a good idea to "breadboard" it before putting it in the case. (it is not a big deal to remove the PSU and a HD from an exisiting case) so that way if you run across a problem it can be a bit easier to troubleshoot and immediately removes the possibility of a short.

point being: it is a lot easier to install the cpu and heat sink outside the case than inside. when you get done "breadboard" then just remove the graphics card to mount it in the case (leaving the cpu/heatsink and ram on the motherboard).

 

[dissbelief]

If you can work a 7850 into your budget, you'll be a happy gamer for years to come. I bought my GTX 460 2 years ago and it still does well with modern games but its showing its age though. A 7850 would kill it and youll have the option to crossfire. Unless you need heavy CPU resources, any modern CPU will do. For gaming, pump all you can into the GPU. RAM, HDD, CPU, motherboard, etc all have little effect when it comes to your FPS. You can cherry pick benchmarks to show otherwise, but when you are gaming at 1080p, and you want more detail and higher FPS, only the GPU will do that.

 

[striiker]

I see your point now. ill look into getting the 212 if the case has room on the back (its an elite 430)

for the gpu, i can't afford a 7850 if i get an i5. and i wont be gaming all the time. and it still leaves me with not much money. and the sound of an i3 seems underpowered with its name, and with only 2 true cores. it wont be as good because most games are now using more cores so ect.

 

[zared619]

I see your point now. ill look into getting the 212 if the case has room on the back (its an elite 430)

for the gpu, i can't afford a 7850 if i get an i5. and i wont be gaming all the time. and it still leaves me with not much money. and the sound of an i3 seems underpowered with its name, and with only 2 true cores. it wont be as good because most games are now using more cores so ect.

In gaming, you won't notice much of a difference between the i5 and the i3. In other applications, such as photoshop, the i5 would be much better.

 

[striiker]

Hm, so an i3 + radeon 7850. or an i5 and 6870.

 

[zared619]

If you game more, than go with the i3 and the 7850. If you photoshop and do multi-threaded apps more, get the i5.

 

[lesliess]

Op, what did you end up getting? I'm looking into getting the i5 but don't have the budget for the 7850 either.