Help appreciated

Looking at getting a new comp...any suggestions I'm not.........technically inclined tbh. looking at <$2000 but maybe as much as $2500 as absolute max.
Suggestions and places to get the components
NO ARGUING!!!!!
Best for money's worth would be appreciated (naturally)

Grab an AMD processor. Best bang for your buck!

any more discriptive like a particular one I can look at/for?

Well AMD are about due to release their new 8 core CPUs sometime this qaurter if you want to wait for one of those that said they are said to be the AM3+ socket meaning they will fit all existing Mainboards on the market. If you dont want to wait the currnet best of the AMD breed is the 1100T its a 3.3ghz 6core with a 9mb L2cache with a heap of overclock available (Seen stable clocks as high as 5ghz)you should be looking about $220 for it.

There is a couple of Mainboards you can look at for future proofing as well depending on your choice of manufacturer be it ASUS or Gigabyte for ASUS its the Crosshair formulas all the way they have 6 USB3.0 connections 4 on the Back 2 Midboard( simple extention leads for the front IOs) plenty of expansion and ability for Xfire.
http://www.asus.com.au/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/Crosshair_V_FormulaThunderBolt/#specifications

Gigabyte their top of the line is the GA-990FXA-UD7 and all i can say is its a BEAST!!! just have a look
http://www.gigabyte.com.au/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3880#ov

RAM im never really fussed over just get something with good clock speed and latency there is plenty of choice out there.

HDD i would most likely look at a SSD for the OS and select stuff with something like a WD Caviar 2TB for your main storage.

Video cards i would just get one or two 6970s they are more than enough to run anything on the market today.

PSU get something with grunt and stability Corsair or Silverstone with anything about 1000watts will be more than enough.

Cases are a real personal choice but currently i love the Corsair Graphite collection they are great.

Cheers dude really usefull I'll check em out and see where I can get em and price wise...
with cases any particular air flow limits depending on internals or is that a choose internals first then sort out the fans and what not?

slatosniper wrote:Grab an AMD processor. Best bang for your buck!

lol.


No seriously. Enough jokes.
Grab an intel.

i7 Sandy bridge. 2600K best bang for your buck + it has an unlocked multiplier.
Intel architecture beats AMDs hands down.

*Cores & clockspeeds matter not, if the architecture lags.
-Also BC2 only uses up to 4 cores.
-Intel has a 6 core CPU with 12 threads atm.


For GPUs.

If you & your games prefer / run best on Nvidia.
- GTX 570 is best bang for buck.

If AMD (AMD has a slight lead on Nvidia).
-6970 or 6970 Crossfire if you can afford.


RAM:

12-16gb of 1600mhz.
More is better, you can disable the paging file (providing you have no programs that are SPECIFICALLY designed to run on the paging file).
Also you can make a ram drive and the "virtual ram drive image can be loaded into ram on boot" will give way faster performance than even an SSD. (good for games)


HDD:

1x 2tb cavear green for media.
1x 500gb for programs and other crap.
1x SSD 64-120gb+ for games.
1x 64gb SSD for Windows / Other OS.


PSU:
700W will be fine.







*The DONT NEED list:
-NIC *Motherboard ones are fine these days.
-Sound card *Same as above, unless you are running special audio equipment. Currently the number of games supporting X FI are decreasing so it is a waste of $$$.
-Water cooling.






Apparently new parts will be avaliable in last quarter of 2011. So you might want to hold off until they arrive.
(Will drop current prices and also perhaps the new equipment will give an edge over current tech)


EDIT * Will be interesting to see hows AMDs new 8 core processor compares.

Buy a computer full stop. you won't take ANY of this information in.
as long as it has the latest requirements for gaming
and a good graphics card -.-

This thread is going to get out of hand/boring.

Anyway.

My current build is AMD and ATI based.

Motherboard is a ASUS Crosshair V Formula - $500. VERY VERY good motherboard. Has 2 PCIE x16 slots for Xfire. Various overclocking abilities etc.

RAM - 8GB GSkill Ripjaws - $150. You can get cheaper I think but these are decent for the price.

HDD - 40GB SSD for OS and 1TB WD Caviar Black 6GB/s for programs etc

Case - Coolmaster HAF X - $350. Very good case with large amount of airflow and space. Good cable management.

CPU - Currently have a AMD Phenom X4 955 3.2GHz OC @ 4.5GHz - $170. I am going to be getting an 8 core AMD when they are released.

CPU Cooling - Corsair H50 Closed water cooler - $100 You wouldnt need one of these if you aren't going to OC it.

GPU - x2 5770's Which would still run BF3 at ultra with 30-40fps. Not sure of the price as they aren't sold anymore.

PSU - Silverstone Strider Gold 1200W PSU. I fucking love this thing. $400. Probably go with the 850W version for $310.



In all seriousness. You want to future-proof you computer rather than upgrade it and having it last only for a year and a bit.

My new build will last me around 2-3 years with an upgrade of CPU. My PSU will last around 4-5 years.

bleachy wrote:Buy a computer full stop. you won't take ANY of this information in.
as long as it has the latest requirements for gaming
and a good graphics card -.-

This thread is going to get out of hand/boring.

this !
if you're not technically inclined most of the stuff posted won't make any sense to you.

here's what you really want to consider if you want to play BF3.

1. quad core cpu either from AMD or INTEL (6 cores or more is wasting money as nothing requires it currently)
   
   
2. beefy graphics card ( Radeon 69XX or higher / Geforce GTX 560 or higher)
   
   
3. 4 gigs of ram (minimum)
   
   
4. 600 watt PSU
   
   

you want to focus your spending on the CPU and Graphics

strikens got it going on.
its all down to personal preference.

now boys put your egos away

well even though this ALMOST became a pissing contest....thanks for the info guys will look around and I may hold off, my current rig may play bf3 at an av. grade we'll just have to wait and see....Beta will be helpfull!!!