New PC advice

[smn_1010]

Hi all,

For a while now i"ve been thinking about buying a new PC and below is the specs of my current system (which i have been satisfied with for a long while until lately):

Intel Pentium D 3.00GHZ
RAM: 2GB
HDD: 250GB
Palit 9600GT sonic edition

and here are the specs of the PC ive been thinking of buying:

Intel Core 2 Quad - Q8300 2.5Ghz
RAM: 4 GB
HDD: 1 TB
and as for the video card, i read a lot that the 9600 GT would work very well with a better CPU than my old Pentium D and that its been "held back" by that CPU.

so, should i buy this PC?
will i still have good performance with video games if i install my 9600Gt to the new PC?
or should i buy the XFX GTX 260 which i've been "eyeing" for a while too but not sure if it's worth it?

Thanks a lot for any advice provided.

 

[ksampanna]

The core 2 quad is a series on its way out. Instead of those, I'd say get an i5-750, 4 GB DDR3. Price would be higher but absolutely worth it.

You should get a slight increase in frame per second if you used your 9600 gt with the new system. However, the improvement would be nothing compared to the one you'l get by getting a new mainstream GPU. Yes, the GTX 260 would be oodles better than the 9600 GT for gaming, certainly worth its price. Better still, get the HD 5770 1 GB. Same price as gtx 260, almost same performance, comes with Dx11, & support for upto 3 monitors.

It would be great if you gave us your budget & other details like potential usage of system; so that we can offer suggestions for the entire new build.

 

[capt_taco]

I agree, don't go with a socket 775 quad-core at this point. It's on the way out. Depending on your budget, I would go:

Low/mid budget
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4
GPU: HD5750
RAM: 4GB DDR3

High budget
CPU: Intel i7 930
or
CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 Thuban 1055T (six-core)
GPU: HD 5850 or 5870
RAM: 4GB DDR3

Also -- in either case, the Seagate Barracuda and Samsung Spinpoint are the most highly rated hard drives, and they're basically the same price as anything else, so I'd go for one of those.

 

[enzo matrix]

I completely agree with the above post but I must also point out that if your budget for the CPU is less than $200, AMD processors will provide more performance/$ than the intel at that pricepoint.

This is the CPU you selected:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115207&cm_re=q8300-_-19-115-207-_-Product

In most applications, this CPU will perform better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103702

This CPU will always perform better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103809

Socket 775 is not "dead" as people put it. Even socket 1156 and 1366 will be replaced with a newer socket next year. But any CPU under $200 in socket 775 will be outperformed by a similarly priced socket AM3 CPU.

 

[capt_taco]

I completely agree with the above post but I must also point out that if your budget for the CPU is less than $200, AMD processors will provide more performance/$ than the intel at that pricepoint.

Agree with you as well, except ... well, I don't think there's ANY price point where you can buy an Intel CPU and not have a similarly-performing AMD version available for cheaper. Unless you get into the $500-plus i7 processors where AMD just doesn't have anything quite as fast. But most people don't really have a good reason to spend that kind of money on a CPU anyway, IMO. Once you're above $300 or so, you're really getting minimal return for the extra dollars.

 

[enzo matrix]

Agree with you as well, except ... well, I don't think there's ANY price point where you can buy an Intel CPU and not have a similarly-performing AMD version available for cheaper. Unless you get into the $500-plus i7 processors where AMD just doesn't have anything quite as fast. But most people don't really have a good reason to spend that kind of money on a CPU anyway, IMO. Once you're above $300 or so, you're really getting minimal return for the extra dollars.

Agreed. I just want to avoid arguments because above $200 there is a lot of debate as to which processors are the best.