Which system is over all better?

[Sherpa_Rage]

Before anyone wonders why I am asking this its because I know some very stubborn people who once they hear something one way they will not believe it any other way. So if I could get your feedback on the matter of these systems components and which is better for gaming, programming, music production, video editing, and other mid-high end stuff. Here at the two system builds:

Build #1
CPU: i7-950 @ 3.8GHz
MB: ASUS SABERTOOTH x58
RAM: 24 GB Crucial Tactical @ 1600MHz
GPU: GTX 670 4GB SC + GTX 560 TI 448 (Dedicated PhsyX)
PSU: Coolermaster Silent M Pro 850w
SSD: Samsung 840 250GB
HDD: WD 1TB Black

Build #2
CPU: i5-3470 @ 3.4GHz
MB: ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3
RAM: 8 GB Crucial @ 1333MHz
GPU: GTX 760 2GB
PSU: SILVERSTONE 450W 80 PLUS GOLD (Full Modular)
SSD: Crucail M4 256GB
HDD: WD 1TB Blue

I will withold my input so when I show this to my customer it will not seem like I was trying to influence anything. Thanks for your input/feedback.

 

[Neospiral]

Overall, the top system will perform better in all the aspects you mentioned, although you don't need a PSU quite that big. a good, efficient 750 or so would do the job fine.

 

[hefox]

I would definitely prefer the second one. You can increase easily the ram, you can add any low end/old nvidia graphic card for physics which probably is in total less than £100 and is much better than the first rig and more efficient.

 

[bob1033]

You would probably get better overall performance with the 1st build. Not sure what other advice to give other than try to maybe find a better brand of PSU than Coolermaster, CM is ok, but its not the best for what you can maybe get for a similar price.

 

[nostall]

The first build will probably be faster, BUT there is little to no upgrade path for your customer. The X58 socket is long gone. 24GB of RAM, though it entitles a person to bragging rights, is probably real overkill with 8 being optimal.
I am using 16GB and have yet to see more then 50% being used - and that was a seriously bad day for the PC with a big workload.

So I would recommend #2, even though the 1155 socket is reaching the end of life, it still has some upgradability, and the money saved on the RAM could be invested in less expensive video card for PhysX, though I would probably double up the 760's or even 660's and go with SLI.
Without SLI or a dual card config. the Silverstone PSU should work o.k.

If you use two cards, or simply want some wattage headroom, I would look at a Corsair TX750 or TX850.

 

[Neospiral]

The first build will probably be faster, BUT there is little to no upgrade path for your customer. The X58 socket is long gone. 24GB of RAM, though it entitles a person to bragging rights, is probably real overkill with 8 being optimal.
I am using 16GB and have yet to see more then 50% being used - and that was a seriously bad day for the PC with a big workload.

So I would recommend #2, even though the 1155 socket is reaching the end of life, it still has some upgradability, and the money saved on the RAM could be invested in less expensive video card for PhysX, though I would probably double up the 760's or even 660's and go with SLI.
Without SLI or a dual card config. the Silverstone PSU should work o.k.

If you use two cards, or simply want some wattage headroom, I would look at a Corsair TX750 or TX850.

Yep I agree with this. Just looking at the two builds one vs. the other, the top build is better. However if the builds can be played around with and added on to, the second one is definitely better than the first.

 

[drewhoo]

You mean someone wants to know whether a 6 core hyperthreaded i7 is more suitable than a 4 core non-HT i5 for video editing? Maybe you just need to give them this article:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/creativesuite/production/cs6/pdfs/adobe-hardware-performance-whitepaper.pdf

Not to mention the 670 > 760 in every respect...

And I disagree about the upgrade path for #2; You cannot upgrade to a 6-core processor on the LGA 1155 platform. You can get hyperthreading with a 4 core i7, but you will still be lacking 4 logical cores.

Edit: 24GB RAM is overkill for gaming, but it is an appropriate amount for video editing (<16GB is inadequate for video editing).

 

[hefox]

You mean someone wants to know whether a 6 core hyperthreaded i7 is more suitable than a 4 core non-HT i5 for video editing? Maybe you just need to give them this article:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/products/creativesuite/production/cs6/pdfs/adobe-hardware-performance-whitepaper.pdf

Not to mention the 670 > 760 in every respect...

And I disagree about the upgrade path for #2; You cannot upgrade to a 6-core processor on the LGA 1155 platform. You can get hyperthreading with a 4 core i7, but you will still be lacking 4 logical cores.

Edit: 24GB RAM is overkill for gaming, but it is an appropriate amount for video editing (<16GB is inadequate for video editing).

i7 950 is not 6 core CPU.

 

[drewhoo]

Well dang i must have screwed up the number when I looked for the specs. Um yeah I would go for the newer system, then though the i7 does have a HT advantage that would make it better for video editing.

 

[hefox]

Well dang i must have screwed up the number when I looked for the specs. Um yeah I would go for the newer system, then though the i7 does have a HT advantage that would make it better for video editing.

Actually i5 3470 might be better because it has Quick sync and because the motherboard has the LucidLogix chip, he can use even with the discret video card installed.

 

[hefox]

I think the conclusion would be that System no 1 is better value for money but there is no room for improvement where the system no 2 can be improved even more and is better overall except the video card which is a bit slower (around 5%). Also there are small things that we didn't consider like warranty left on these systems, additional motherboard advantages like PCIe 3, Lucid Virtu, sound quality, onboard video support, Intel's SATA 3, LAN and power usage where System no 2 is superior.