nerrawg
Distinguished
- Aug 22, 2008
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Some decent suggestions here regarding pricing and builds. One thing you will need to keep in mind is of course upgradability and overclocking - 2 factors that have been mentioned but from what I have read not fully considered for your sake EABlair. Here is thing about value - some parts on your pc you probably will not have to upgrade in a long time and others quickly be surpassed - I'm sure you know this already. You really should consider how often you want to upgrade and what you're system requirements are - here are just some examples to put the "real" long-term in perspective:
Lets assume that your system requirements (or wants) is to always be able to play the newest games out there, preferably at the max details, but not necessarily:
If you buy a good case, cooler and PSU, you probably won't have to replace them often to increase performance - so lets look solely at what you do need to replace often if you want to increase performance: CPU, MOBO, RAM and GFX
In March 2007 you could have bought:
$331
CPU AMD Athlon X2 3800+ AM2 $82
Motherboard MSI K9N4 Ultra-F $59
RAM Wintec AMPO PC2-6400 1 GB $70
Graphics XFX GeForce 7600 GT $120
=Playable at max settings most games 2007 (1024x768)
$805
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 $230
Motherboard MSI P965 Platinum $135
RAM Patriot eXtreme Performance PDC22G6400LLK $160
Graphics EVGA GeForce 8800GTS PN: 320-P2-N811-AR $280
= Playable all games 2007 (1600x1200)
$2655
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 $970
Motherboard Asus Striker Extreme $330
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1000 PC2-8000 $235
Graphics 2x GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB ($560) $1120
= Playable all games 2007 (2560x1600)
In March 2008 you could have bought:
$563
CPU AMD Quad Core Phenom 9500 $190.00
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H $100.00
RAM Wintec Ampo DDR2 PC2-6400 - 2 GB $43.00
Graphics HIS Radeon 3870 ICEQ Turbo $230.00
$1333
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 $540
Motherboard Asus P5N-T Deluxe $250
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB $128
Graphics EVGA GeForce 8800GTX, 768 MB $415
$2320
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 $1060
Motherboard Asus Striker II Formula $320
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB $100
Graphics 2x Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX - GV-NX88X768H-RH $840
In March 2009 you could buy:
$420
Intel core 2 duo E7400: $120
Gigabyte EP45-DS3: $100
2 x ATI Radeon 4830 : $150
G Skill 2x2GB PC8500 DDR2: $50
$645
AMD Phenom II 940: $215
ATI Radeon 4870 1 GB $190
Gigabyte 790 UD4H: $140
G Skill DDR3 6GB: $100
$860
Core i7 920: $280
ATI Radeon 4850 X2 $280
Gigabyte X58 UD3 $200
G skill DDR3 $100
Now whats important to take from this is that if you bought the cheapest of these systems and (important!) overclocked each of them you would see funny things:
2007 bargain system plays all 2007 games, 2008 system bargain plays all 2008 games, 2009 bargain system plays all 2009 games.
So you have to buy 1 bargain system each year: $331 + $563 + $420 = $1314
So in three years you spent a total of $1314
If however you had bought the most expensive system in 2007 it would cost you $2655, hehe and guess what .... It gets trashed like a pikey up against the overclocked bargain 2009 system. lol lol lol - so you would have wasted a lot of money there, in fact it only beats the bargain 2008 system so you lose 2655- 331-563= $1761 - ouch!
What if you bought the medium range systems? Well the 2007 medium system gets trounced on by the 2008 bargain system, so that doesn't give you much value. The 2009 bargain system also beats the 2008 medium range system.
So in the end your guess is as good as mine - will the 2010 bargain system trounce the 2009 medium range option? I don't know actually because the processor price isn't as divergent in the choices you guys made. I just did this comparison to make a point that you actually save crap loads of money if you can be assed to upgrade your system every year and not spend much more than 500 bucks on CPUs, MOBOs, GFX and RAM.
A point well worth mentioning is that even though the Phenom II 940 is a brilliant comeback by AMD, it is pretty obvious that in the long run the X58 platform will upgrade much better than the AM2+ platforms and eventually it will get that killer 6 core i7 with 32nm architecture.
All in all I have to say that what ever you chose from the below proposals looks good to me, just remember to buy a killer case, cooler and PSU so you don't have to buy those for another 5 years at least - you'll be happy
Lets assume that your system requirements (or wants) is to always be able to play the newest games out there, preferably at the max details, but not necessarily:
If you buy a good case, cooler and PSU, you probably won't have to replace them often to increase performance - so lets look solely at what you do need to replace often if you want to increase performance: CPU, MOBO, RAM and GFX
In March 2007 you could have bought:
$331
CPU AMD Athlon X2 3800+ AM2 $82
Motherboard MSI K9N4 Ultra-F $59
RAM Wintec AMPO PC2-6400 1 GB $70
Graphics XFX GeForce 7600 GT $120
=Playable at max settings most games 2007 (1024x768)
$805
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 $230
Motherboard MSI P965 Platinum $135
RAM Patriot eXtreme Performance PDC22G6400LLK $160
Graphics EVGA GeForce 8800GTS PN: 320-P2-N811-AR $280
= Playable all games 2007 (1600x1200)
$2655
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 $970
Motherboard Asus Striker Extreme $330
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1000 PC2-8000 $235
Graphics 2x GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB ($560) $1120
= Playable all games 2007 (2560x1600)
In March 2008 you could have bought:
$563
CPU AMD Quad Core Phenom 9500 $190.00
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H $100.00
RAM Wintec Ampo DDR2 PC2-6400 - 2 GB $43.00
Graphics HIS Radeon 3870 ICEQ Turbo $230.00
$1333
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 $540
Motherboard Asus P5N-T Deluxe $250
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB $128
Graphics EVGA GeForce 8800GTX, 768 MB $415
$2320
CPU Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 $1060
Motherboard Asus Striker II Formula $320
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB $100
Graphics 2x Gigabyte GeForce 8800GTX - GV-NX88X768H-RH $840
In March 2009 you could buy:
$420
Intel core 2 duo E7400: $120
Gigabyte EP45-DS3: $100
2 x ATI Radeon 4830 : $150
G Skill 2x2GB PC8500 DDR2: $50
$645
AMD Phenom II 940: $215
ATI Radeon 4870 1 GB $190
Gigabyte 790 UD4H: $140
G Skill DDR3 6GB: $100
$860
Core i7 920: $280
ATI Radeon 4850 X2 $280
Gigabyte X58 UD3 $200
G skill DDR3 $100
Now whats important to take from this is that if you bought the cheapest of these systems and (important!) overclocked each of them you would see funny things:
2007 bargain system plays all 2007 games, 2008 system bargain plays all 2008 games, 2009 bargain system plays all 2009 games.
So you have to buy 1 bargain system each year: $331 + $563 + $420 = $1314
So in three years you spent a total of $1314
If however you had bought the most expensive system in 2007 it would cost you $2655, hehe and guess what .... It gets trashed like a pikey up against the overclocked bargain 2009 system. lol lol lol - so you would have wasted a lot of money there, in fact it only beats the bargain 2008 system so you lose 2655- 331-563= $1761 - ouch!
What if you bought the medium range systems? Well the 2007 medium system gets trounced on by the 2008 bargain system, so that doesn't give you much value. The 2009 bargain system also beats the 2008 medium range system.
So in the end your guess is as good as mine - will the 2010 bargain system trounce the 2009 medium range option? I don't know actually because the processor price isn't as divergent in the choices you guys made. I just did this comparison to make a point that you actually save crap loads of money if you can be assed to upgrade your system every year and not spend much more than 500 bucks on CPUs, MOBOs, GFX and RAM.
A point well worth mentioning is that even though the Phenom II 940 is a brilliant comeback by AMD, it is pretty obvious that in the long run the X58 platform will upgrade much better than the AM2+ platforms and eventually it will get that killer 6 core i7 with 32nm architecture.
All in all I have to say that what ever you chose from the below proposals looks good to me, just remember to buy a killer case, cooler and PSU so you don't have to buy those for another 5 years at least - you'll be happy
.
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