New PC Advice

[PH]

Right, I'm finally sorting out a new PC for myself as my current setup is really starting to show its age (AMD 3200+, ATI X800XT PE, 2GB RAM).

Initially I was going to build a fairly low powered HTPC but after a re-think, due to the fact I only upgrade/new build every three or four years I'm looking to get a beefier system. The new PC will be used mainly for games, playing HD and other general use.

I would love some advice regarding processor and video card choice. Do I go dual or quad core, and if I go quad do I go the whole hog and get an i7 920. Looking at what I am going to use the PC for is there any benefit of choosing a quad over a dual core CPU?

Any advice appreciated.

[abigsmurf]

Core i7's offer very poor bang:buck at the moment, largely due to expensive motherboards. They offer about 20-30% better performance over core2s. There's rumours of a cheaper core i5 series coming soon but that could be 2-3 months away and the eternal curse of PC building is that there's always something better in a few months time. Core 2's are largely end of line now, any new CPUs released will probably just offer reductions in price and power consumption but there's unlikely to be many speed increases.

Quad core offers more of a performance boost than it used to but for most applications, the benefit over a dual core is still only slight. If you do video encoding (not decoding, few codecs support it), the benefit is huge.

For graphics card, the current hot pick is the 4770, very cheap for the performance (slightly less than 4850 at a much much lower price). The 4870 is the best choice for performance at the moment before the prices go insane. nVidia have some new GPUs around the corner but they're being a bit secretive and most of their recent stuff has involved deceptive rebadging, giving 2-3 year old graphics card a new name to make people think they're new models. Graphics cards are far more of a bottleneck for PCs now than CPUs so you get a better performance boost in gaming spending more on a graphics card than a CPU.

PC game graphics have stagnated a bit recently as both the 360 and PS3 have been maxed out (and most PC games are either designed to run on as many PCs as possible or to be portable to consoles). Something that can run crysis at 40fps+ maxed out should provide you with good gaming for 2-3 years until the PS4 and 720 hit.

[MattyD]

It depends on what you play of course, but a fast dual-core is usually better than a quad-core CPU. Very few games are programmed to use multi-threading properly so clock speed tends to be a lot more important, but quad cores tend to have lower clock speeds due to heat considerations.

[PH]

Thanks for the replies guys. Gives me something to think about.

[^Katsu]

I'm also looking towards getting a desktop as my LT is useless
In the most it will be used for browsing, music production, skype, live streaming and the occasional video production probably via Nero?

I have no plans to use for gaming whatsoever and not looking to spend a lot of money, but I am looking for a strong powerful machine with a reasonable display?

Any ideas?

[abigsmurf]

Always saves money building one yourself but as gaming isn't a worry at all for you, you'd possibly do well out of a pre-built store one, especially as you want a monitor.

Things you want :

4gb (minimum) RAM

Intel core2 either quad or dual, you want something powerful enough for 1080p decoding, either q6600 or e6700 or better. I'm not sure if Nero's video encoding supports multiple cores, if it does, you'll get a significant boost in encoding time using a quad core.

To help decipher the Intel codes; q = quad, e = dual, first number indicates the processor line (the higher the number, the more advanced the line is), the numbers after that reflect the speed compared to others in the line.

Graphics card: not a huge issue for you but at least ensure you've an nvidia or ATI chips not an intel one (avoid like the plague). Almost all current ATI and NVidia chips have hardware video acceleration that'll improve 1080p playback quality. Bear in mind, for a store bought system, the Power supply won't take a more powerful card, if you want to upgrade later, you'll have to get a new power supply.

HDD: You sound like you're encoding DVDs through Nero, you probably want a fair amount of space. I'd say look at 500gb+.

Monitor: Personal preference, have a play with a system on display, see if you're pleased by the monitor's performance. Recommending a specific monitor is tough.