or maybe this card

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Grafisch...eon+HD6000

Most games are VGA limited in FULL-HD or above, and this won't change with dx11 for sure. Quad-core would be nice if you would have the extra money, but if you don't, I highly recommend to spend your money on a stronger VGA graphics card, so an i3 + 560Ti combo would be a much better choice.
And don't worry about the dualcore thingy, the SandyBridge i3 is really fast with the hyperthreading, you will get the same framerate in 95% of the games. Just make sure your PSU can take the 560ti.

ps.: of course we can always say that you should wait for ivy-bridge because it will be faster, but this cycle never ends:)

Why not the i5? and i can put the things together but my knowledge is kinda limited VGA is unknown to me


im not an overclocker i used to abit years back but i want it stock

OK, I put it like this: I don't care if you get the i3 or the more expensive i5 because it wont make much difference in games, but get the 560ti instead of the 550ti :) The i5 eats 95W max, while the i3 eats only 65W max, so I thought you could save money and also use the "extra" power to feed a stronger VGA video card.
Dunno how strong your PSU is, but if its 6 years old, you need a new one anyway, or you will burn your shiny new hardware in no time:)

My PSU crapped out few weeks ago now use a CM extreme power plus 500W

But ok i missed your point then ;)

ill google it i guess i dont know what vga is thought you ment the old cards but that was agp hahaha

when I said VGA I meant the video cards.. sorry. The point is that if you want it future-proof the 550ti is not enough, get the 560ti at least.

here is a test where you can see the difference between the 550ti and the 560ti (1680x1050 & 1920x1200). Yes it's +80€ compared to the 550ti, but that's why I told you to save money on the CPU (if they can give you the combo for less money with an i3) because the video card is what matters the most:

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware...iew-8.html

your post was really confusing to read. it took me a double-take to realize what it was you were trying to say. I've never heard the term "VGA card" before, but that's not very, uh, correct. I'm not really sure what you mean by "quad," either, but I presume you're referring to quad-core processors.

also, more to the point, the i5 is incredibly cheap and the i5-2400 seems to be a better bargain than the 2300 in most cases.

Yea sorry, I'm not sure what else could be quad when we are talking about CPUs, but you were right about the gfx card, I just realised that you can't use "VGA" for the graphics card in English, sorry again:(

He can buy a combo which includes an i5-2300.. and yes the 2320 or a 2400 would be a better buy, but the 2300 is what's in the offer.

err it's not really so much about English, but I don't really care--just letting you know. I also hadn't seen the other post by Sun Tzu where he mentioned the VGA thing already.

as for the quad core stuff, well, it's all about context. you just started saying "quad" in your second sentence without any clear indication you actually were talking about CPUs so it was a bit weird. I've got sort of a pet peeve additionally, probably, because of the tendency people have to refer to things without units.. but ultimately I was able to figure out what you meant.

Yes it was confusing indeed, but I use VGA on a daily basis in hungarian when we are talking about graphics accelerators, and quad also means quad-core. Sorry again.

Dunno... With the combo you posted above you would be safe for several years for sure (by safe I mean that you would be able to play any new game coming out with moderate framerates), but I would invest a little bit more money and get a stronger Quad-Core and more RAM, something like this:

- Intel ® Core ™ i5-2500K @ 4x3,3Ghz (192,90€)

- Corsair XMS3 GDDR3-1333 8GB Kit (53,90€)

Also like kapca said, watch out that you have enough resources with your PSU, else you won't be able to enjoy your new system for a long time...

With a stronger VGA he will get 15-20 fps more in average, while you will get +3-4 fps with a quad core i5... better to spend the extra money on a 560ti, because the 550ti will get outdated much faster than the i3.

How about getting a stronger CPU and a 560Ti???

:D

yea but if money and power is not an issue why stop there? The i7-2600k + GTX560ti-SLI combo is even better;)

if you're wanting to "future-proof" then I don't know why you'd buy memory rated for DDR3-1333. I bough 2x4GB 1600 CL7 for like $50 (XMS3), and I'm running it at 1866 9-9-9-24.. probably the same as buying 2x4GB 1866 CL9, but cheaper.

iirc the H61 do not allows RAM speed higher than 1333Mhz.

well, I don't know about that, but then why buy that motherboard, if the idea is to be forward compatible? for me personally, I don't think I'd buy a weird looking combo deal like that from some plain looking website in the first place, and I thought the point here was to get input, not necessarily to go ahead and buy that exact product, but hey.

yea, and @ #15, I did warn him about that:)

i used that site many times before.
Also my knowledge is very limited on whats new i thought it was interesting for a few years now i just want shit to work :)

anyway i have a few houses to go see once im settled im ordering so its subject to change

i thought 4gb ram would be enough :O

it very often is enough, however it's so cheap right now that skimping out on getting an extra 4 isn't justifiable.

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Grafisch...eForce+GTX

ill take this card then reached my budget for now

Will run smooth pretty much everything for years:)

ps.: Don't forget that it's a cheap combo because you can't upgrade it much! (they just want to get rid of the mainboards without usb3 support or the small 2x2GB memory kits, etc)

if i keep it running stock is another cpu cooler needed?

No, you don't need a custom cooler, the stock cooler will do just fine. It's not silent, but keeps the CPU cool even on hot days, and you can't overclock that mobo or that CPU, so you will run it on stock whether you want it or not:p

FYI: from the sandy bridge chipsets, only the p67 and z68 can overclock CPUs, and only the CPUs with a "K" at the end of the model number can be overclocked (i5-2500k, i7-2600k, etc...), you may overclock the rams with the non-K CPUs, but that's not much.
Things will change with the Ivy Bridge, because you will be able to overclock every model.

I recommend a Samsung Spinpoint drive instead of the Seagate, not because they are faster (they are the same) but because they are more reliable.

Unless you get a board that OC's and a 2500K it will NOT last you years if you want to play newer games properly.

I'm cruel but it's true.

PS Kapca is right about the motherboards and K's. Not about the default coolers though, last week we tried to slightly OC a mate's new 2500K. I didn't like those temps one bit...

it's a i5-2300 in a h61M board, he can't oc it and the stock cooler will be enough, even a 2500 runs fine with the stock cooler if you don't oc it, but the 2300 stay pretty cool with it.
That system with the 560ti will run everything smooth, and yes, perhaps he will need to use lower res in heavy titles like crysis or wont be able to turn on anti-aliasing in the newer titles 2 years from now, but everything will run just fine with the normal settings, and i5-2300 is more than enough to feed the 560ti.

I could also start that he should buy a 2500k with a gtx570 and 8Gb ram, but obviously he picked that setup because it's cheap, so it's useless to tell him what would be better....yes you right about it won't be 120fps after a few years, and I also never buy medicore hardware, because I always regret it , but that's me and I won't force my enthusiasm on him:)

"I didn't like those temps one bit..."

You or it? They can run at fairly high temperatures without a problem. Even if they hit 80-90c under super heavy load (like LinX) it's fine unless you do LinX 24/7 for years.

75 - 80 when running BF3 or other multicore supported games that are quite new.

I know it can handle it but you also have to consider the long term effects. When I was younger I told myself the cpu could handle it once, yet that CPU started to degrade after 2 years.

Best is to aim for 65° C while gaming as a max and 70° C for stress testing imo if you want your CPU to last a little.