Hardware Advice

[Killarag]

Hi peeps,

Looking at changing from a gaming laptop back to a desktop.
Got some old parts from my old desktop. Spec below;

CPU: AMD FX-6 6100 Black Edition 6 Core 3.3Ghz Socket AM3+ 8MB L3 Cache
HDD: Kingston 120GB SSD for OS & Gettings 2TB HDD for general storage
MOBO: Asus M5A97 PRO 970 Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
PSU: [SIZE=11.1999998092651px]OCZ 750W[/SIZE]
RAM: [SIZE=11.1999998092651px]4GB Mushkin DDR3[/SIZE]

So the CPU, PSU, RAM & MOBO cost me £60 for the lots. The SSD cost me £41.
Pretty cheap so far I think for a starter machine.

I am looking to get a Graphics card soon but not sure what one to go for. Nvidia or AMD?
Any advice would be appreciate :)

Thanks.

 

[veneficium]

I would side with an AMD gpu. That seems like a high wattage psu. I don't recommend a bulldozer processor unless you don't want to be able to run anything cpu intensive like arma 3.

 

[Killarag]

I would side with an AMD gpu. That seems like a high wattage psu. I don't recommend a bulldozer processor unless you don't want to be able to run anything cpu intensive like arma 3.

Okay. Well the PSU & CPU as I say was super cheap for the time being.
I can always change the CPU in the near future.

 

[veneficium]

Okay. Well the PSU & CPU as I say was super cheap for the time being.
I can always change the CPU in the near future.

Okay. Well the PSU & CPU as I say was super cheap for the time being.
I can always change the CPU in the near future.

Have you looked at any benchmarks for graphics cards? That's the best way to decide what to buy I'd say.

 

[vey]

4gb ram is kinda bad. Try to get 8 if u r gonna spend some dolla. I use 2 sticks of g.skill 1866 4gb I think.

For your GPU I would suggest nvidia. I have had AMD from 2010 to late 2014 and had some weird graphical bugs. I'm using a gtx970 right now.

FYI patching drivers with AMD gpu's used to be super gay.

 

[Helios]

i wouldnt advise getting a 970 because of their vram layout, and alternatively you could get an R9 290x or 290 which both have a lower price than the 970 (by around £20 most of the time, mind), while still being able to hold up with todays games

that said you could get a cheaper 960, but it only has 2gb of memory instead

8gb minimum imo if you're going to be running intense games and stuff, 4gb is barely passable for any 64-bit business

processor seems fine but i run intel a lot so idk much about am3/am3+ sockets

 

[Arzalis]

If you're going to stick at 1080p a GTX 970 is fine. 980 is obviously ideal, but far more expensive.

The 970 knocked AMD out of the best price to performance category for now. Unless you just really like AMD, there's absolutely no reason to get an AMD card atm.

 

[Xari]

yea even with the marketing blunder (970 practically uses 3,5 GB VRAM rather than 4) it's still a beast, you get a little less than a Titan's performance for 3 times as cheap.

 

[Decaro]

6 core CPU? Not very useful unless you're into video editting. A lot of games don't even take advantage of quad-core, and given console stagnation the best option would probably be a high frequency duel-core.
Also get more RAM. More RAM always = better performance. 4 GB is about the max expected for 32 bit OS, recommended for 64 bit is 8 GB but optimal is 16 GB.

 

[Vorti]

You really don't need a beefy processor unless you're doing something intensive and dedicated with it like video processing. Same reason I advise against people getting i7s, I got a high end i5 and it suits me pretty perfectly and I didn't have to drop obscene amounts of money on it. That said, I don't play video games as much as a lot of people here, but the ones I do play are often intensive (Arma and so forth), so you may want opinions from people who play a lot of games if that's what you're aiming for.

I would get 8GB of RAM if I were you, I have 8GB and my computer sometimes struggles a bit on memory especially when I'm using Chrome as I often do.

 

[Zippo Raid]

my advice - get the top-rated card/parts in general from the past few years nothing incredibly new, they're waaaay cheaper and no games even nowadays have put my machine through the works even on ultra-high and i haven't upgraded it in like 4 years lol (and even then the parts I bought were old). you'll save yourself some money cause all of those flashy components aren't worth it to me till I see a game that truly makes them weep

 

[Arzalis]

I'd eventually jump up to some form of i5 (4690k ideally) and 8+ GB of ram. If/when you do upgrade, stay away from the Z97 boards for now. Everything related to them is just overpriced for a minimal performance gain.

 

[veneficium]

6 core CPU? Not very useful unless you're into video editting. A lot of games don't even take advantage of quad-core, and given console stagnation the best option would probably be a high frequency duel-core.
Also get more RAM. More RAM always = better performance. 4 GB is about the max expected for 32 bit OS, recommended for 64 bit is 8 GB but optimal is 16 GB.

Cant stress enough that bulldozers are garbage for gaming.

 

[popo]

Im not very tech savvy when it comes to comps so i got an open question for someone who is.

How important is the age of your comps mother board? I've been slowly upgrading / reviving a dell XPS 410 for years now. Pretty much every component in the thing has been replaced with newish parts except the cooling fan and mother board.

Is the fact Im using a 7 year old mother board holding back my comp? (guessing yes) Or is it not that big of a deal if all of my other components are new

 

[LGL]

Im not very tech savvy when it comes to comps so i got an open question for someone who is.

How important is the age of your comps mother board? I've been slowly upgrading / reviving a dell XPS 410 for years now. Pretty much every component in the thing has been replaced with newish parts except the cooling fan and mother board.

Is the fact Im using a 7 year old mother board holding back my comp? (guessing yes) Or is it not that big of a deal if all of my other components are new

Mobo age is important insofar as older boards won't be able to accept newer CPUs , newer RAM, and newer GPUs

 

[Arzalis]

There's also the issue of normal aging on hardware. The older your motherboard is the more likely it is to die on you eventually. You'd likely have a hard time finding something that will fit all your current parts as well when it does eventually die on you. It's better to upgrade it every so often.

 

[popo]

alright word thanks for the tips guys