Any Computer Gurus Here?
460 sc- http://www.frys.com/product/6373281#detailed
plain 460-http://www.frys.com/product/6335651#detailed
This card from Newegg is also an option. It has a better cooler on it so that you can clock it higher without as much heat. There is no taxes from Newegg as well
That makes it about the same price as the SC EVGA at Fry's My choice would either be the MSI GTX 460 Hawk or getting a 560 ti for about $200 from Newegg.
If the 560(non ti) is the same price as a 460, get it. Otherwise it doesn't seem worth the $30-40 for a bit higher clock speed with the same number of processing cores for the 560.
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also, the tech there recommended an amd 965 be. said for what im doing(some fps/rpg gaming, playing dvds, etc) i probably wouldnt notice a difference between it and the 2500k, and its quite a bit cheaper. also said it could be overclocked and that the amd might be a better choice, because amd is coming out with a new line of processors (bulldozer?) which can be used with the am3 style mobo, whereas the current intel mobos will not be compatible with the new line of intel processors (ivy bridge?).
i guess he was inferring that the intel mobo/processors will be obsolete in the not so distant future, but the amd mobo will be compatible with the future processors for the next generation or so. any thoughts on this? i dont need the very best, but i'd like something that will be able to play some of the newer games like mw3, bf3, and maybe some rpg like oblivion or swtor.
also, frys apparently price matches newegg and micro center so i may get all of my stuff from there.
An AMD Phenom II X4 would get you by but an i5 2500k blows it out of the water and will last quite a while longer. Not to mention that when you start overclocking it is common to get to about 4.4 or 4.5 Ghz on air then around 5 on water from what I can recall right now.
When you get into multi-card setups, the extra processing power of the i5 will come in handy to keep up with them. If you can swing the cash for an i5 2500k I feel it would be worth it in the long run. It is true that when you upgrade to Ivy Bridge it will require a new motherboard but it should be quite some time before that is necessary.
AMD's new Bulldozer line just dropped a few days ago and it is quite a disappointment overall. In highly threaded applications it keeps up but other than that the i5 still has it beaten.
coolermaster elite 430 case
msi p67a-gd55 motherboard
intel i5 2500k
xfx hd6870 gpu
antec earthwatts 650w psu
samsung spinpoint f3 1tb hdd
corsair 8gb ddr3 1600mhz ram
asus oem 24x dvd-rw
trendnet wireless n pci card
for sound i'll be using the stock sound on the mobo coupled with some decent 2.1 speakers ( altec lansing 2621). may decide to go with a better system and a soundcard later
they had a 90gb corsair ssd on sale at frys for 100 bucks. i think i'll wait a few months for them to get cheaper.
here are some pictures i just took. sorry about the bad quality





