what kind of computer should i build?

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

I rarely game, but i would if i had another desktop instead of laptop. I do some video/audio encoding, watching a lot of HD, and basic other ****.

I do like to have millions of programs open at once and tons of windows and i hate any sort of lag. Slow start up and load times are like torture to me and so is lag or unresponsiveness. Instant speed and multitasking are important to me.

I do sort of enjoy over clocking and playing around a bit but not like all crazy into it. Just enough to figure out how far i can push things for a rock solid machine moderately faster than what i paid for.

in the past I've leaned toward AMD for their price/performance intersection. Get OC'ed speeds as fast or faster than any stock intel for a considerably less money than the high end Intel cards. But this was all years ago and i have been exclusively been using laptops for probably 6-7 years now.

For my style of computing and needs should it stick with AMD or is it finally better to go with an intel i7?

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[subzero 5,000+ posts]

an emachine should suit you just fine.

 

[Bassin Buick]

AMD CPU , ASUS Mobo , Corsair ram , ultra PSU , WD HDD's

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

amd pretty much focuses on performance on a budget, because their stuff can't even touch intel. I would go with an entry icore7 from intel, it should work really well for you.

 

[06goat 10+ year member]

I wish i kept up with the computer world, but then again to do that its almost like a full time job.

 

[Bassin Buick]

amd pretty much focuses on performance on a budget, because their stuff can't even touch intel. I would go with an entry icore7 from intel, it should work really well for you.

Honestly i've never had a AMD give me problems , every intel i've owned including this P4 3.8ghz that i'm on right now has givin me problems. They are nice , and in most senses , if you pit a intel and amd against each other the intel will usually win , but i've found AMD to be more reliable for less money. A high end AMD will smoke any mid level intel , and last longer while costing less. GO AMD!! :]

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

Honestly i've never had a AMD give me problems ' date=' every intel i've owned including this P4 3.8ghz that i'm on right now has givin me problems. They are nice , and in most senses , if you pit a intel and amd against each other the intel will usually win , but i've found AMD to be more reliable for less money. A high end AMD will smoke any mid level intel , and last longer while costing less. GO AMD!! :']

heh, no it won't.... AMD USED to be the top dog back in the anthlon X2 64 days,... but after Intel's Conroe (Core 2 Duo) they have NEVER come even close to being faster than the new intels. and it's because of that, AMD focus's on being budget. lmao they screwed up so bad that they had their phenom x4 quad core mostly ship with only 3 cores working, and their solution was just to relabel them as tri core processors instead.

I used to be a AMD homeboy, but if you want the best, along with the best mobo's on the market, intel is the way to go.

 

[12voltz+- 10+ year member]

im in the same position lookin to do build a comp as of now i have 2 HDD's picked i went with seagate sp? and still decided on the rest so much out there! iv always heard amd is the way to go but idk enough to pick for my self! lol

 

[Jh8909 10+ year member]

ok read the thread and one thing I don't see mentioned is your BUDGET. key factor there man.

 

[Bassin Buick]

well i can't really speak for Amd's made in the last year or so. The last 2 i had were great. i had a 7550 black edition and a FX-60. GREAT CPU's

 

[Jh8909 10+ year member]

well i can't really speak for Amd's made in the last year or so. The last 2 i had were great. i had a 7550 black edition and a FX-60. GREAT CPU's

I have a Phenom II quad core 3.2 I put in mine. over clocked to 3.8 and its stable.

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

amd pretty much focuses on performance on a budget, because their stuff can't even touch intel. I would go with an entry icore7 from intel, it should work really well for you.

like you think an i7 would be a better fit for how i actually will use my computer?

heh, no it won't.... AMD USED to be the top dog back in the anthlon X2 64 days,... but after Intel's Conroe (Core 2 Duo) they have NEVER come even close to being faster than the new intels. and it's because of that, AMD focus's on being budget. lmao they screwed up so bad that they had their phenom x4 quad core mostly ship with only 3 cores working, and their solution was just to relabel them as tri core processors instead.
I used to be a AMD homeboy, but if you want the best, along with the best mobo's on the market, intel is the way to go.

My last system before i went laptop-centric was athlon XP chips on nforce2 chipset boards back in the day...

you think intel is the way for me now?

ok read the thread and one thing I don't see mentioned is your BUDGET. key factor there man.

i'd like to stay around $1000... which is pretty much not realistic. I have nothing for a desktop other than a wireless keyboard and mouse and a 40" LCD for a monitor.

I'm thinking realistically between $1500-2000.

I know i want SSD and probably SATA 6Gb/s, quality case and a good modular PSU with enough power.. extra couple TB for mass storage, bluray burner and another fast cd burner.. I want a good graphics card with HDMI out that will play most games on at least medium or high... but for the amount of gaming i actually do i should probably spend $150 or less for video card...unless its a super deal for liek $200... but the graphics card has to do audio over hdmi!

 

[faulkton 5,000+ posts]

this place really is dead... it used to be 20 nerds ready to fight one another over who was giving me the best/worst advice.

 

[nateberrier 10+ year member]

i just bought an amd cpu/ gigabyte mobo combo from microcenter for 100 bucks, it was a dual core phenom 3.2 and the board let me unlock it to quad core. now oced to 3.5 stable quad with 2gb of OCZ DDR3. When you grab a hard drive make sure its seagate or WD, dont really trust the other brands. Also try to get one thats only dual platter instead of triple. and look for 16mb cache on the hdd. most any ram will work too on a budget. the biggest performance helper is a GPU of sorts even if its cheap. post budget. AMD isnt the best but they rock and roll on a budget. they also own ATI and there are performance benefits to be had for matching an ATI board with AMD cpu. sideport ram on a mobo is nice but can sometiems be pricy

 

[95BlackGA 5,000+ posts]

For what you want, you could get away with an AMD build, but your budget would allow an i5/i7 build.

i5/i7

Gigabyte/ASUS Motherboard

Corsair RAM (DDR3 (At least 4GB for the i5, and at least 6GB for the i7))

Corsair PSU/PC Power & Cooling (CMPSU-750TX is a good deal right now for a 750W, or the Silencer MKII by PPC which is what I'd prefer)

An Nvidia GTX465 or HD6850 (I'd prefer the 6850, more options with Built-in HDMI)

Crucial SSD (64GB C300 Sata 6Gbs, don't need much more for an SSD, just for OS which leaves about 35GB for main programs/games)

A few 1TB or 2TB drives for storage.

Case is pretty much just whatever you want. I prefer something that has great air flow, and can manage cables very well.