suggest me a build - Hardware & Software

Okay so here's the deal, I haven't been a computer nerd for about 6 years for various reasons, now I kinda have some time on my hands so I've decided to catch up on gaming as well as build a nice machine for video editing,photoshop, some 3d modeling and crap like that anyway would it be a good idea to put together: core i5-2300 (2.8ghz) ati HD 6790 1gb 4 gigs of ram (2x2gb ddr3 1333mhz) some 750gb hdd a 1600x900 monitor (probably samsung 2033sw) generic dvd burner I'm buying this stuff from here (Tunisia) so it's probably overpriced as shit, and there are no online shops. Anyway, what changes do you recommend ?? is that graphics card a bottleneck ?? Is the CPU total shit ?? Should I just go for a cheaper amd phenom II x4 ?? What motherboard would be best (and cheapest) ?? and how much would a comparable rig cost in us dollars ?? windows 7 64bit already covered probably plan to emulate my old ps2 games on it also [editline]12th October 2011[/editline] or I could go with this base configuration: AMD phenom II X4 955 3.2 Ghz ASRock M3A770DE 2x2Gb DDR3-1333 Radeon HD 6870 1gb how does it look ?? haven't picked the hdd psu case and ram brands because specific brands for those parts are hard to find here

I'd go for the am3 build due to the bottleneck, preferably with two pci-e slots and am3+ compability for future upgrades, and as always, spinpoint f3 for HDD. If you can add about 40 bucks to the gpu budget, then you should consider a 560ti. A 955 will be more then enough for games (photoshop shouldn't even be mentioned, considering that you merely need a good amount of RAM, even an athlon 250 can be used to work with 5000x5000 canvases), it will clearly not be as efficient as a 2500k within encoding and rendering, but i doubt that you'd be in an urgent need for that extra preformance. Rather do as i said and leave good room for future upgrading, and a strong gpu.

[QUOTE=naos;32741816]I'd go for the am3 build due to the bottleneck, preferably with two pci-e slots and am3+ compability for future upgrades, and as always, spinpoint f3 for HDD. If you can add about 40 bucks to the gpu budget, then you should consider a 560ti. A 955 will be more then enough for games (photoshop shouldn't even be mentioned, considering that you merely need a good amount of RAM, even an athlon 250 can be used to work with 5000x5000 canvases), it will clearly not be as efficient as a 2500k within encoding and rendering, but i doubt that you'd be in an urgent need for that extra preformance. Rather do as i said and leave good room for future upgrading, and a strong gpu.[/QUOTE] hmm, it has an am3 socket so I'll have to pick a new motherboard. Anyway, what's the use of 2 pci-express slots ?? I'm probably gonna stick with low budget cards even when I upgrade and can't afford a crossfire setup

You would need an am3+ motherboard in order to "future proof" for the next line of amd cpu's, as you don't seem to be able to afford a 2500k. And the two pci-e slots are basically so that you can just crossfire rather then buying a new gpu. It doesn't double the preformance, but it still gives you quite a preformance boost nonetheless, for an amount of money that will most certainly be less then buying a single gpu stronger then a crossfire setup. Not in all cases, but in a lot of them. Basically if you have a low budget, then you should in my opinion have a set up that you actually can build upon over time. If you are unable to buy a top of the line cpu at the moment, get something that gives you the opportunity to do it later, rather then having to completely replace the whole thing after a year or two (can probably be more, if amd sticks with their am3+ socket).

[QUOTE=naos;32742108]You would need an am3+ motherboard in order to "future proof" for the next line of amd cpu's, as you don't seem to be able to afford a 2500k. And the two pci-e slots are basically so that you can just crossfire rather then buying a new gpu. It doesn't double the preformance, but it still gives you quite a preformance boost nonetheless, for an amount of money that will most certainly be less then buying a single gpu stronger then a crossfire setup. Not in all cases, but in a lot of them. Basically if you have a low budget, then you should in my opinion have a set up that you actually can build upon over time. If you are unable to buy a top of the line cpu at the moment, get something that gives you the opportunity to do it later, rather then having to completely replace the whole thing after a year or two (can probably be more, if amd sticks with their am3+ socket).[/QUOTE] anyway, how long until AMD releases their new processors ?? I guess I could wait 3 months to get something better. And about that crossfire thing, if it isn't possible to crossfire different cards, I'll assume you're implying I should get the same card like next year or so and still get better performance than a newer, more expensive gpu, is that right ??

The am3+ cpu's are released any day now, not sure of the exact release date. And yes, what you said about crossfire is right, as of what you tell us, you wont be spending money on the high end cards that will outpreform an mid-end+ sli setup. It all has variables tho, so you should look up what cards scale good in sli/crossfire, and get such a gpu, as it will most likely be much more cost efficient.

[QUOTE=naos;32742348]The am3+ cpu's are released any day now, not sure of the exact release date. And yes, what you said about crossfire is right, as of what you tell us, you wont be spending money on the high end cards that will outpreform an mid-end+ sli setup. It all has variables tho, so you should look up what cards scale good in sli/crossfire, and get such a gpu, as it will most likely be much more cost efficient.[/QUOTE] they're out

I'll check it out when i get home then, fairly uncomfortable to make a build through the iphone.

[QUOTE=Shadaez;32742392]they're out[/QUOTE] holy fuck, now I'm gonna spend the whole evening reading benchmarks and shit [editline]12th October 2011[/editline] well from the benchmarks the new AMD cpus suck ass, they're even less performant than an AMD phenom II this sucks I seriously don't understand what the AMD guys were thinking [url]http://guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/19%20*[/url] [url]http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/14579-amd-fx-8150-och-fx-8120-bulldozer/1[/url]

On low resolutions the 980 seems to beat it by one to three frames per second on a handful of games when both are on stock clocks, which makes sense considering that games only seem to utilize up to four of the cores at most. Overclocked and on higher resolutions it seems to beat the 980 at most things, and also coming very close to the preformance of the 2600k. In other benchmarks, the 3.1GHz eight core preforms a bit better then the 980 does, despite having a by far lower clock. Do note that both the 980 and 2500k are more then enough to max out all todays games with ease. But, as youself mentioned, you will use your cpu to more then gaming, in which those eight more cores will beat the shit out of the 955 and 980, and most likely be more powerful then the 2600k too.

[QUOTE=disposabb;32743094]holy fuck, now I'm gonna spend the whole evening reading benchmarks and shit [editline]12th October 2011[/editline] well from the benchmarks the new AMD cpus suck ass, they're even less performant than an AMD phenom II this sucks I seriously don't understand what the AMD guys were thinking [url]http://guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/19%20*[/url] [url]http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/14579-amd-fx-8150-och-fx-8120-bulldozer/1[/url][/QUOTE] Yeah they're terrible. Stick to 955, anything more (960, 980, etc) is a waste of money.

I think I'm going to stick with the 955 and an AM3 motherboard, seriously, the new 265$ 8-core cpu is nowhere near good performnace-wise, and I was planning to go for that 115$ fx-4100

Well i didn't imply that you should get that cpu right away, considering your budget, rather make it available for upgrades. A motherboard that supports am3+ isn't all that much more expensive after all.