AMD quad or Intel i5/7 quad opinions?

Now i know, yes, this is a Mac forum, so why am I talking about building a PC?

well I know a lot of you good people know a good thing or two about this, and came from a Windows background (I never owned a Windows box properly, so I never really "switched".)

so yes, is there any specific things i need to think about when buying a CPU? socket size? clock speed? overclocking?

and what is this FSB people keep talking about?

appreciate any help received.

First thing to consider is what you're going to be using it for.
Do you want a speed demon just because?
Plan on overclocking for the fun of it - it can be work and takes some reading and learning.
A gaming rig (requires better video card than CPU), one for ripping and encoding (requires a better CPU than GPU), an HTPC (need a B-R drive), just an everyday computer?

Need to know what it is you want to achieve before you even start putting together a list of parts. And if you're just looking for an everyday machine - forget it - you can't build one for the price that any of the manufacturers put one together for. On the other hand - those $3-5K overclocked gaming rigs - one of those you can build for around $2-$2.5k. The $2k manufacturers machines can be built for maybe $1.5k.

FSB is talking about the bus speed or the highway your data moves on and what's the speed limit on the highway. Most folks are looking at the speed of their RAM when talking about this.

cheers bob.

the main reason I would be building it is because I am looking for a decent gaming alternative to my iMac, which doesnt cut it.

ideally it would be able to play something like Shogun 2: Total War on full resolution, with all the lovely graphics goodness turned on. Rec. Specs:

Shogun 2 Total War System Requirements

Total War: Shogun 2 Minimum System Requirements

CPU - 2GHz Intel Dual Core processor, 2.6GHz Intel Single Core processor , or AMD equivalent (with SSE2)
MEMORY - 1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista/Windows7)
VIDEO - 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card (shader model 3)
HARD DRIVE - 20GB free hard disk space
OTHER DETAILS - 1024×768 minimum screen resolution

Total War: Shogun 2 Recommended System Requirements

CPU - 2nd Generation Intel® CoreTMi5 processor (or greater), or AMD equivalent
MEMORY - 2GB RAM (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows7)
VIDEO - AMD Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series graphics cards or equivalent DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
OTHER DETAILS - 1280×1024 minimum screen resolutionShogun 2 Total War System Requirements

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Inevitably, this machine would be faster at encoding as well, due to the quad core grunt. Is it worth going for an i7 quad for this, or will i be better off saving money on the CPU (go for something like a phenom II) and really splurge on the GPU?

and so in terms of RAM, is the speed at which you can run it dictated by the motherboard or CPU? is triple channel memory a good choice?

sorry for the amount of questions, really appreciate the help, ive been struggling with these questions for a while.

First thing to do is to decide on an approximate budget for a rig. For a reasonable, not top of the line, gaming rig I'd suggest starting around $1500 - not sure how that translates to Euros (and/or the price difference for parts between here and there).

At $1000 budget for a gaming rig - I suggest re-thinking. Yes, you can build a better mouse trap at that price - but not much better and a lot of work. When making recommendations to my non-technical friends with this sort of budget, I more often recommend an off the shelf unit that's got the CPU and RAM, and then upgrade the video card. The only problem here is that most of these low to middle of the road off the shelf machines have what can only be described as junk power supplies (and proprietary - meaning a lot of the times you can't go buy an off the shelf power supply because they won't fit inside the case - pitr).

The new quad core i7 is definitely worth going for if you want ripping/encoding power and speed. Depends on how much of this you're doing. If you're only doing it once every week or two - not very important. As a former long time AMD fanboy, I just can't justify the reasoning for going with their CPUs at this point in time. Intel has been in the lead on this side now since the introduction of the P4 3.2 Ghz chip (back in '03) and have not allowed AMD to gain any ground on them. Intel is just blowing them out of the water. An AMD based machine is not worth squat for resell a month after you've built it. For a gaming rig you plan on keeping at least a couple of years, then AMD could be worth a look.

Yes, the FSB of the motherboard determines what RAM you would use. I have not researched the impact of dual vs triple channel memory related to a gaming rig, but if I were building one for myself, I'd probably opt for triple, just because I could.

Since you're just starting out on your hunt, you might want to spend some time on some overclocking sites to see what sort of systems are being built currently at varying price points. That'll give you some good ideas of motherboards, chipsets, CPU, GPU and power supplies to be looking at. One of our sister sites is overclockers.com.

After about 12 yrs of building my own high end rigs - typically was building a new one every 9-12 months, the only thing I've built personally in the last 5 yrs is my current HTPC. I stay up on the current tech a little bit, but not enough to really start recommending parts. And it always took me about a month and many hours of research before I placed an order for my own rigs.

More:

The starting point of a rig is the motherboard/CPU combination and whether you plan to overclock it or just run it at stock speeds. Overclocking is another hobby and whether you want to spend time doing that or just playing your games is another question. Overclocking requires at the very least more money spent on a better motherboard, better RAM, better cooling, better power supply; not to mention the time it takes to really learn what it is you're doing and why.

A decent gaming rig can be built and run at stock speeds without adding this next step hobby onto the top of it. And save yourself a few hundred in the process.

Some very good info indeed bob! unfortunately i need to "spread some love" though.

I'll probably go for the intel processor then: i need this thing to be as futureproof as possible, and possibly resellable.

I already have a few of the parts i can use (I have a case from an old G5, a few hard drives lying around, and an optical drive) so im saving money on all these fronts.

so i think ill go for an i7, still a bit of researching on the GPU and motherboard front.

Ill definitely check out overclockers.com too.

thanks alot for your help

robduckyworth said:

so i think ill go for an i7, still a bit of researching on the GPU and motherboard front.

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Just a recommendation from someone who's built a lot of gaming rigs over time... stick with Gigabyte motherboards, particularly their "Ultra Reliable" series with solid state capacitors and redundant BIOS.

I've seen the other vendors churn out some real crap over time, but in my opinion, Gigabyte is the most consistently excellent.

Again, just my never-to-be-humbled opinion....

I will humble your opinion! what do you mean by "redundant bios"?

robduckyworth said:

I will humble your opinion! what do you mean by "redundant bios"?

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Basically there is a backup BIOS on-board - so if you flash the BIOS wrong (or something like that), you don't trash the board.

ah i see. thanks for clearing that up.