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Which PC would you buy (2 choices)?
I am thinking about buying either one of these 2 PCs:
Intel® Core™ (Ivy Bridge) i7-3770 3.40GHz Quad-Core Processor
AMD Radeon HD 7970 GDDR5 3072MB DirectX 11 Graphics
or
AMD (Piledriver) FX-8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (4.00GHz Turbo Speed) Eight-Core Processor
AMD Radeon HD 7950 GDDR5 3072MB DirectX 11 Graphics
The first one costs £850 and the second one £650 and their other components are the same so I did not list them. I could afford the first one, but I am wondering will there be a big difference in performance. I plan to play games on 1920x1200 resolution, mainly MMOs, but also single player games like Skyrim and new games that are about to release.
I am having difficulty deciding, what would you do in my place? Keep in mind that I don't want to build the PC myself.
Comments
The i7 is the best CPU you can get, the AMD one is the most flexibile budget CPU. Which one is best? i7 hands down, it'll give you better preformance in any game you play, the AMD is a contender if you have to sacrifice other bits of the PC to get the i7, otherwise... yeah... not even a fair fight.
PS: By flexible I mean AMD has a odd habit of having backwards compatible sockets so if you get that AMD one day you could run a better AMD CPU on that socket but with certain features disabled (or restricted processor bandwidth, depends on the generational gaps).
I would say go AMD I almost always gone with AMD and always been happy. Special with the money you save.
If you could pay a little more to upgrade the GPU in the second one I'd say the AMD hands down because the GPU matters more than the CPU (When comparing two high end CPUs anyways) for gaming.
If not, I'd probably still go with the AMD. I like intel but its mainly what I use for work and 3D modeling. For gaming the performance gain over the AMD is pretty pointless. Its like buying a Ferrari over a Chevy volt when all you're using it for is to drive back and forth to work daily.
He's already stated he doesn't want to build it himself which is why we were picking one of the two listed. While I agree the sensible answer is neither I gots to respect someones choice considering it may be based on factors that may be personal and such.
Just because you're unwilling or unable to build a computer yourself doesn't mean that you should seek out a cheap junk one when you can get a decent computer built to order for the same price. In the US, for example, I could understand someone buying a computer from Cyber Power PC with reasonable parts, but not buying one and picking a "standard" junk power supply.
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In my experience, don't buy AMD. I know lots of people swear by it but Ive had NOTHING but problems.
I just bought a new intel CPU and my PC's performance went about 10 times as what it did with a 6 core AMD processor. I'm really starting to hate AMD and their horrible gaming performances, so I'll never buy from them again.
Intel all the way (and I used to ONLY buy AMD, always liked them but lately it's been just garbage).
if its mostly for gaming the i7 will win almost always hands down.
now i have a amd fx-8120 myself and the reason i picked it is cos i dont only play games with it but i do a lot and i mean a lot of multitasking.
to make it short the amd fx series is almost always lower in performance vs the i7 when it comes to gaming but it shows its power when multitasking.
so yeh if its mostly game performance youre concerned about and you do have the cash id go for the i7.
if you intend to run a lot of big programs at the same time id rather go for a amd fx
Listen to Quizzical and ignore everyone else giving you an answer based on the limited info you've given.
It's a common misconception that the only parts that really matter are the CPU, RAM and GPU. Without knowing the rest of the components there is no way anyone can give you a proper answer.
It's not just a misconception.. it's a MASSIVE mistake to make.
Your main mistake here is that you say all the other parts are the same.. which isn't possible (unless something new has come out recently that I'm not aware of).. the motherboard has to be different because the I7 and AMD chips use different sockets.
oh well forgive me for trying to give a educated guess by the limited amount of info he gave....and maybe not all of us have this misconception youre talking bout but we actually tried helping with the limited amount of info he gave us?
just saying "ow ignore them all" yeh thats great to say makes me feel awesome as a system admin irl lol guess that'll teach me of actually posting in a thread instead of lurking as i always have.
I didn't say anyone here has that misconception. But like you've said yourself.. it's a 'guess'.. and that's not what anyone wants when buying something. Just saying everyone needs more info to be able to give them a proper answer. The problem is with the info we have, not the answers/opinions.
I didn't mean to offend anyone anyway or be nasty.. so I'm sorry if it came across like that. I should have picked my words better.
dont get me wrong i totally agree that cpu+gpu+mainboard doesnt mean you have a good pc, a crap powersupply can make you have a headache for days cos you cant figure out bad performance or instability. so i do agree with that we would need more info on the other components to properly advice the OP.
it just came off a bit like everyone who was pitching in his opinion didnt know bout the misconception.
When the OP said pick between either option A or B why do people ask if there are more options? It's a black or white question, intel vs AMD, instead of giving him a direct answer you an Quizz are splitting hairs about system specifics which fall outside the scope of the thread. Short version: Either give an answer and show arguments for your choice, abstain from posting or at the very least don't insult other people's intelligence, some of us here like staying on topic after all.
Yeah, that's the right way to properly help someone. Do the bear minimum.
Yeh, like I said. I picked my words badly. Instead of saying 'ignore everyone else' I should have just said something like 'Everyone will be able to give you a more accurate answer with more information'... or something like that.
I know I was at fault there.
^This^. PC's are not hard to build and there are lots of books and videos, out there, to walk you through it.
It's extremely probable that there are more options.
The original poster wants to get a new computer, and presumably wants a good value for the money. He clearly doesn't know what he's doing; otherwise, he wouldn't insist that all other components are the same when there is no motherboard that can accept both a Core i7-3770 and an FX-8320.
So there are two ways to take this question. One is to answer the literal asked question of, given two bad options, which would you prefer? That's treating it as an esoteric question with no real-world significance, kind of like asking, if you had to have either a hand or a foot amputated, which would you prefer? That's fine if you believe that your answer will have no bearing on anything.
But if you suspect that the person asking the question might actually choose the option you pick in the real world, then it's wholly inappropriate not to point out that there are better options. That leads me to the second option: take the question as meaning, "I want to buy a new computer; what should I get?"
Even if the question is of an Intel processor versus an AMD one, I'd typically recommend looking at a Core i5-3570K for the Intel processor or an FX-6300 for the AMD one.
It would be good if he gave more info. But he asked a simple question and most people answered the question he asked.
Its fine if Quiz wants to ask for more info, but it does not invalidate everyone elses responses. To me if the OP wants a more detailed answer he might ask. Maybe he just wants a simple answer to his question?
I just assumed when he said that all the other components are the same that they are preformance-wise/specs-wise equal ( in your example: the motherboards would lets say one be gigabyte with the 1155 socket and a asus asrock with the FM1 (I think it was), besides the sockets the boards would be highly comparable in all other aspects). You assumed that he being a noob at building computers doesn't know enough to have all the other components the same preformance wise.
Taking things too literally could be a curse and as for the i5-3570k, why not a i5-3570 standard? I doubt he'll be overclocking his CPU anytime soon.
If you are a millionaire or don't care about money (Send me your cash), I'd pick the first one.
Otherwise, the second one. The performance in most games should be MORE than adequate.
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2