Easy to understand PC requirements

[Jetranger]

My Lord, ya'll way ahead of me in terms of all this computer hardware stuff !!!

I'm still Operating on my Grandpa's Trusty ol' 1957 Izas Computer that takes up an entire room !

Put this Rascal together myself now, took me about 5 years

Check out my Flight Yoke in the photo, stole that puppy off sum ship while on Tour

I really dunno jack about computers, but this is the best I could do .

Jetranger

[OldAirmail]

Mr Jetranger, you look older than I thought.

[OldAirmail]

There's an interesting article on Tom's Hardware that I had glanced at - Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: November 2013.

But I had paid little attention to one of the charts that Tom's Hardware is always packed with - Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart.

From Tom's;
"Here is a resource to help you judge if a CPU is a reasonable value or not: the gaming CPU hierarchy chart, which groups CPUs with similar overall gaming performance levels into tiers. The top tier contains the highest-performing gaming CPUs available and gaming performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there."


This chart has Intel on the left side, and comparable AMD chips on the right. If you have no bias or preference for one or the other, this chart could help you run down the best CPU for the money.

An example;
Intel

Core i7-980, -970, -960
Core i7-870, -875K
Core i3-3250, -3245, -3240, -3225, -3220, -3210, -2100, -2105, -2120, -2125, -2130

AMD

FX-9590, 9370, 8350, 8320, 8150, 6350, 4350
Phenom II X6 1100T BE, 1090T BE
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 980, 975

Now you can use the "comparables" check out the prices.

Intel Core i7-980 = $1,000

AMD FX-9590 = $360

(BTW - I have an Intel i5 CPU because that was what was on sale at the time)



There's no question that Intel has the top tier all by itself. But we can't always afford to buy into the cutting, and money bleeding, edge.

So if you have to save money in one place to afford, say a more costly motherboard or more memory, then this chart is VERY interesting.

[OldAirmail]

Looking into the FX-9590 CPU I came up with this.

Frequency 4700 MHz
Turbo frequency 5000 MHz
Data width 64 bit
The number of cores 8
The number of threads 8
Level 2 cache size 4 x 2 MB shared exclusive caches
Level 3 cache size 8 MB shared cache

Not too bad for only $360, compared to the Intel Core i7-980 at $1,000.


And for those who like to overclock - "The processor has unlocked clock multiplier"

[OldAirmail]

A possible motherboard to go with it;

ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

[G.K.]

Nice suggestions

That AMD chip looks a monster, a little over my budget though. Perhaps if I get a mobo with the right socket I can upgrade to that cpu in a couple of years?

decisions, decisions....Mmm

[G.K.]

Coincidence or perhaps my PC has taken offence at the thought of being replaced.....it packed up a couple of days ago. The fans switched on, the LED lit up on the mobo but nothing else. No signal to the screen and then the light on my mouse went out

Intermittent fault though because it decided to work today....bad connection somewhere.


OK, I have a PC shop down the road, 5 mins walk away. He has an Asus Z87 board in stock. He has i5 processors too, plenty of ram and everything else I might need. He'll do the mobo, chip, ram and Win7 for £419......I am sorely tempted. OK it's a bit more than I can get it online but I'm thinking convenience of having local support. I like to support local traders too. To top it all off I'm in credit with my elec supplier, I need to adjust my standing order, they owe me nearly a grand!!!!...Aaaaargh decisions. I want it now

I must be getting old. I now resist impulse buying (just a little)......musn't take it too far though.

[OldAirmail]

I know and understand that feeling.

This is an emergency, so duck your head down, bring your fists up, and come out fighting.


The Asus Z87 is the newer big brother of the motherboard that I have, the Asus P67 Sabertooth. I was very impressed with mine, and I'm sure that your new MB will be as good. So I'd say go for it.

I have an i5 2500K. I had the choice of overclocking it, which would be very easy with this chip & board combination, or buying a better chip later when the prices come down.

Get it if you can, you can always find food later.

[G.K.]

I knew you'd understand


........I'd better buy the missus a bunch of flowers as well.

[OldAirmail]

What works for me is to show her the dead computer (a few tears can't hurt too). Then tell her that you'll just have to spend your evening out with the "boys" drinking your sorrows away.

[G.K.]

OK.......I have now purchased from my local PC supplier:

Asus z87 mobo, crossfire , 1150 skt.
i5 processor
8 gig of ram
win 7 64bit

All a bit late, I was going to do it before christmas but I figured it might be cheaper after. All in at £384 so yes, it was cheaper.
I was going to use my existing DVD drive but that won't work cos it ain't SATA. I'll have to pop down and get a new one of those as well. No problem, it's only a 4 minute walk.

Plenty of room for upgrades with this mobo: Graphic card/s, i7 can all be added as, when and if I feel the need.

This is the last transmission from the 8+ yr old rig..........I may be back via a tablet if it all goes wrong

.........signing out.

[OldAirmail]

Congratulations. You and Fozzer have made it to the world of super computers!

You mentioned that you can't use the old DVD drive, so I'm assuming that it's PATA. Is that true of your old had drive?

If so you can buy a PATA to USB adapter to transfer most of your files to the new system.

[Fozzer]

Congratulations. You and Fozzer have made it to the world of super computers!

You mentioned that you can't use the old DVD drive, so I'm assuming that it's PATA. Is that true of your old had drive?

If so you can buy a PATA to USB adapter to transfer most of your files to the new system.

If G.K's computer is anything like my vast collection of old computers, the various CD ROM+CD Re-Writer+Floppy Disc Drives, and Hard Drives will be the old IDE drives with multi-pin plugs and sockets and ribbon cables...mostly no longer available..been there...tried it!

I use this to transfer data from my old IDE+SATA Drives onto my new computer via USB...>>>





Paul...Time to throw all the old "stuff" away!

[G.K.]

The new PC is now up and running. Quite painless but there was some swearing. The I/o port cover (thin sheet metal thing on the back) was a right pain to fit.

The old mobo was an Asus a7n8x deluxe. It had ide and sata sockets, my old hard drives were sata, the CD drives were ide. Not a major problem a new sata DVD drive was 18 quid.

New machine is currently doing a windows update. Next is to install zone alarm and avg anti virus then I'm ready for busine

Sent from a nexus 7

[G.K.]

He He, new machine back online.........