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I don't like AMD much, Intel outperforms lately, but I know you're trying to be cost-conscious... but I still think you could find a similarly priced Intel that will be better. Also why do you need 8 gigs? Are you going to be rendering 1080p videos, rasterizing giant pictures in Photoshop, and calculating Pi to the billionth digit all at the same time? RAM is cheap, but I'd advise just getting two sticks of 2g and have 4g, with 2 slots to spare later to expand if you ever need to. But really, don't you only have a 32-bit OS? You can't even use more than 3.5g if you don't have 64-bit Windows 7.

I've got the OS covered and holy shit more RAM = better than

Actually, that was a lie, I'm going to need to steal a 64-bit OS from somewhere. I have an old IPFW ID (don't ask), do you think that will work?

Riot if you can find an intel quad core for less than 95.99 with comparable speed I will get it (and change my mobo) for you.

I almost guarantee you you won't notice a difference between 4 and 8 gigs.

As for processor, you're not going to find a quad core or even a good dual core for that cheap, but I guess ya get what you pay for. It's not going to play a lot of the newer games that well, but I guess Starcraft 2 probably won't be THAT demanding. I feel like this is basically a budget processor that won't be remarkable in anything it does, but if you're fine with that you'll be happy if price is a bigger concern than performance. I'm just the type to wait an extra two weeks for the second paycheck and buy something nicer, but that's just me.

FYI, if you have valid key for 32-bit Windows 7 (and likely Vista, too), you can install the 64-bit version with it. The licensing is the same. You'll just need the install media, and I'm sure you can find that :)

^^^ True that. You got the Windows 7 from IU, so you should be able to use that key as long as you can get the 64-bit disc however you manage to "acquire" it.

EDIT: Also I'm assuming you're looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103706 and this one doesn't have an L3 cache which can really affect gaming performance. I would just personally wait a tiny bit longer or splurge a little more on a slightly higher priced model, but whatev it's up to you. If you must stick AMD, don't cheap out and spend an extra 50 or so that you'd be spending in RAM and go for a Phenom: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I figured a fast dual core would be better than a slightly slower quad core for desktop computing anyway.

Also, this may only apply to scientific computing, but apparently Intel cheated on the benchmarks vs AMD: http://www.agner.org/optimize/blog/read.php?i=49

BigBadOrc wrote:I figured a fast dual core would be better than a slightly slower quad core for desktop computing anyway.

Also, this may only apply to scientific computing, but apparently Intel cheated on the benchmarks vs AMD: http://www.agner.org/optimize/blog/read.php?i=49

Fast dual core is better than slower quad core. Not that much even uses all cores and stuff just isn't optimized for it even still. Like I said, unless you're doing crazy graphic rendering and stuff, lots of ram and quad core aren't going to matter at all.

As for benchmarks, just check out charts and Tom's Hardware and stuff. For instance, http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009 ... ,1401.html

The AMD Phenom X4 I linked up there is like 88 fps, whereas this i5 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product) is around 103 fps and is $40 more expensive.

I used to buy only dell computers (in fact, got one 2 years ago for a media center pc that is fantastic), but in 2007 I bought this from SirPhobos http://www.indyddr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2440

Starting at $120
Thus started my computer building phase, I first got a harddrive, a cooling fan, free video card and more ram from Fry's on Black Friday in 07 for $125.
Then I bought a new video card a week later from Kyler for $50.
Then I bought a new case and graphics card for $200
AND this past Black Friday I bought 2 500gig HDs, 4 gigs of ram (the blackfriday special on ram), new motherboard, new intelcore2quad processor for around 400$.

About $800 total into my computer, no longer has original parts, now running Windows 7 64bit, planning on adding more ram and sli'ing graphics cards someday

Eh don't waste your money on SLI. I have it, it's probably not worth it unless you can find a second card for really cheap. It's usually better to have one good new card then two mediocre old cards.

well my card is kind of outdated I think (geforce 8800gt) I thought one more stacked on it would be nice, and since it is a discontinued series I thought maybe I can find it for cheaper....

My computer was finally built and Windows 7 64-bit installed last night. Didn't run into a single problem setting it up and I am very thankful for that. No weird bullshit incompatibility issue that required me to use some band-aid fix posted on some Russian forum - everything was pretty much plug and play.

Anyway, stats:

2.8ghz AMD Quad-core (Athlon II, I think)
1gig 256-bit interface GeForce 250 GTS
4gig 16000 DDR-3 Rammie rams

OMG HOW MANY FPS DO YOU GET IN CRYSIS

I don't know but I can actually run shit like Fruity Loops / Counter-Strike / Third Strike now and it's pretty nice.

yeah the w7 x64 beta was wonky but now the official w7 x64 works surprisingly well with everything, first time I've had a system running flawlessly and quickly