Tech and Talk > Gaming > PC gaming Tech > Gaming build for teenager

Gaming build for teenager

AMD????????

You're blowing my mind man.

For gaming I believe a 4.2 GHz quadcore is going to be better than an i3 dual core running a GHz slower. I've also read up on this CPU and it overclocks as good or better than Sandy Bridge (5+ Ghz on closed-loop coolers, or >4.5 on stock cooler).

Without jumping up to an i5-2500K or i5-3570K, I believe this is the best gaming CPU for the money.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

reply to Krisnatharok
I was just giving you some shit. Given all the times you tried to steer people away from them, I just got a kick out of it.

Honestly, in my opinion, I question whether a 16yr old needs a $130 mobo. 3 PCIX16 slots? 8 USB slots? USB3 headers? Does he really need all that crap? Just asking because personally I would take money out of there and put it into the GPU. You're sitting below a 560Ti right now and I would do what I could to try and get more like a 570.

My 2 cents.

reply to Krisnatharok
Gotcha. All makes sense.

My only comment on that whole thing would be that I find mobo quality is not directly proportional to price. It's much more associated with features than anything. That's why I asked if he needed all that extra stuff on there or not. Two boards with exact same features? Yes, I agree go with the more expensive/better name brand of the two.

And as an FYI, I have a 965Black with a 570 and I tear through Skyrim (ultra w/hi-res pack) and BF3 (mostly all ultra) just fine.

So thinking about the mobo some more, considering these--do you, or anyone else here, have any recommendations for an AM3+ mobo under $100? I have no personal experience with AMD so I am hesitant to go for a cheaper mobo:

• MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $90
• GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - $90
• ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $95
• ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $100

I'm hesitant to go any cheaper than this, although I know there are mobos out there in the $60-70 range.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

The Asus you listed was my one of my choices before I picked the crosshair formula.

ASRock is a solid choice as well.
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"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

reply to Krisnatharok
Take out 2 rear USB2.0 ports, Firewire, and the third PCIX16 and you can get the same board for $70 instead of $100. Also limit to 16GB RAM instead of 32.

»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···13157280

I'm a fan. I like my ASRock really well.

reply to Krisnatharok
Looks solid to me. That AMD is bad only if you're an Intel nut- swinger. That rig will blast most modern games.

reply to Dissembled

reply to Krisnatharok
That should be a pretty nice little system. I don't have anything against AMD. I've owned a few and never had any issues with them. For the price you pay, you can't beat it usually depending on the model.

I'm going to build a PC similar to this one for my wife in the near future. Just with a lesser video card, probably something in the 100 dollar range.

reply to Krisnatharok
Take the $60 difference and add it to your current $180 for GPU.

There's this for $250.

»www.amazon.com/MSI-N570GTX-Twin-···08809SUM

Make the kid chip in the extra $10.

reply to Krisnatharok
The 6870/560Ti are still the best bang for the buck on the market..

Although your AMD chip selection baffles me. The i3 Sandy Bridge keeps up with the FX-8000 series and beats everything else easily while costing less than what you have listed.

See this thread with good links for proof: »www.tomshardware.com/forum/34427···tel-core

I built a gaming PC for a friend who gamed on a single monitor with an i3/6870 and it played everything at near-ultra with 45-50 FPS on the most demanding games (BF3, Skyrim).

As far as cost, yours is ~$250 right now without an added cooler for overclocking to even get it close to the i3 in gaming performance, whereas an i3 and a good Gigabyte mobo (H77-DS3H) is ~$220 and it is good enough to run stock for the most demanding games. Normally, I'd agree that the AMD system may be justifiable, but from a purely gaming perspective, the i3 is a no-brainer. If you keep the same budget, you can actually kick it up to an i5 for the same price as you would pay (~$250) and keep the same motherboard.

Just my 2c.

reply to Dissembled

reply to Krisnatharok

Finally found a review at Ocaholic. It lags in traditional CPU benchmarking, as does the rest of Bulldozer chips, but in gaming it really shines and is pretty much on par with the i5-2500k and i5-3570k at 1080p, the unlocked Ivy Bridge CPU being about half again as much money. I feel vindicated with selecting the FX-4170 as a gaming CPU:

Street Fighter 4 (1920 x 1080 high details, 8x AA, 16x AF)
• Intel Core i7 (sic) 3570K 3.40 GHz DDR3-1600: 99.14 FPS
• Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30 GHz DDR3-1333: 90.76 FPS
• AMD FX-4170 4.2 GHz DDR3-1600: 90.48 FPS

Resident Evil DirectX10 (1920 x 1080 high details, 8x AA)
• Intel Core i7 (sic)3570K 3.40 GHz DDR3-1600: 76.0 FPS
• Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30 GHz DDR3-1333: 75.9 FPS
• AMD FX-4170 4.2 GHz DDR3-1600: 70.5 FPS

Crysis DirectX10 (1920 x 1080 high details, 16x AA)
• AMD FX-4170 4.2 GHz DDR3-1600: 25.02 FPS
• Intel Core i7 (sic) 3570K 3.40 GHz DDR3-1600: 20.16 FPS
• Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30 GHz DDR3-1333: 19.92 FPS

Again, I wish there were more reviews on this chip from a gaming perspective. Even this review baffles me--the GPU used was a GTX 285 and they mistakenly refer to the Ivy Bridge 3570K as an i7 and not an i5. The FX-4170 only has an OK showing where FPS are not an issue (older games or at low resolutions), but it's interesting to see it beat out every single CPU tested in Crysis while under high settings at 1920x1080.
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If we lose this freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment, those who had the most to lose, did the least to prevent its happening.

reply to Krisnatharok
It's such minuscule differences.

One thing for sure, I guarantee it will be the fastest computer your son has ever had.

reply to Krisnatharok
Is he going to play Guild Wars 2 with us?

In looking over your build again, I would advise an SSD for a boot drive at the very least. If you have not tried it, it is the single fastest upgrade that you can really "feel" in my opinion. It makes every day computing (which is at least 50% of everyone's usage I'd venture to guess, facebook, the like) so much faster.