Any ideas on an affordable desktop for gaming?

spakkker

Hi , just added link to conclusion on my last post as you must have been typing! It's verdict on q8300 says it all!
Amd quads are at least cheap if not the most efficient and seem to give the most "bang-for-dollar".
That i3-540 barebones doesn't say what motherboard - maybe you can find out? Plenty of decent,reasonable m/boards available ,no need to get a poor one. A little bit of overclocking is easy -it's free performance- so bear it in mind even if no plans to o/clock now and reason you want to know what m/board.
The 540 system isn't bad price at all. The 2 earlier systems are athlon quads worth considering if need save money ,shame the step to phenom is so big as cpu only £40 more than i3-540.
The last para is worth noting.
Here's a cpu list but these scores assume the cpu is working flat out -not always/hardly ever the case. eg.New 6 core amd shut half their cores off when not needed !
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

AndyJT_2

spakkker wrote: »

Hi , just added link to conclusion on my last post as you must have been typing! It's verdict on q8300 says it all!
Amd quads are at least cheap if not the most efficient and seem to give the most "bang-for-dollar".
That i3-540 barebones doesn't say what motherboard - maybe you can find out? Plenty of decent,reasonable m/boards available ,no need to get a poor one. A little bit of overclocking is easy -it's free performance- so bear it in mind even if no plans to o/clock now and reason you want to know what m/board.
The 540 system isn't bad price at all. The 2 earlier systems are athlon quads worth considering if need save money ,shame the step to phenom is so big as cpu only £40 more than i3-540.
The last para is worth noting.
Here's a cpu list but these scores assume the cpu is working flat out -not always/hardly ever the case. eg.New 6 core amd shut half their cores off when not needed !

Well the q8300 is out of the race then!

the i3-540 motherboard is listed as 'Intel H55 Chipset Motherboard' (hope this makes sence to you doesnt to me ) On that cpu list the AMD II 640 quad core ranks better that the INtel Core i3-540.

The AMD 640 is in a cheaper barebones with a AMD 880G motherboard. Decisions decisions. Is it Worth getting the AMD and spending the extra 30£ on a Graphics card?? Although on the website it says Integrated ATI Radeon 4250 graphics. Does this mean I cant put in a separate graphics card??

Thanks and thanks again

spakkker

You can use graphics card as long as there's a pci-e slot for it to go into -these are standard now. I know it seems a shame to buy onboard video and not use it.
Motherboard desc. not enough -like saying it's a 2 litre car.
The 640 scores better when all 4 cores are loaded and working , if they aren't then it may not do as much as a faster dual core with both cores flat out. This will depend on the progs/games you plan on using. If you half the score to compare it as a dual core it's not fast.
Google for cpu comparisons and enter the games you want into the search -plenty out there, maybe too much!
Those power supplies may not like a power hungry card so think about power needs of any card you're looking at ,ati seem better for this.
The linked conclusion puts it a close call but doesn't consider overclocking ,which i3 is v.good for but needs a suitable m/board -will often go to 4ghz.


http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782-2.html

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html or this http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

"Is it Worth getting the AMD and spending the extra 30£ on a Graphics card?? " I don't know -I'm not a gamer!