what core processor would you recomend

[swynx]

I've been lookin at the bare bones kits on tiger direct lately I have pretty much every thing figured out besides the processor.

At first I was gonna settle with a dual core. They have high clock speeds I want 3.00+ but then I read some reviews saying get a quad core. But a lot of quads r under 3g. So I found the amd triple core at 3.1 gigs. It seems about right and for a good price.

I'm trying to build a computer that I can play most all games on. I know games like crysis 2 take a lot to play but for the most part I wanna play ror on high graphics or like dirt 3 or gta on high graphics. I'm just not sure which processor to get some ppl say quad cores r no good for gaming but then I see gaming comps with like an i7.

Over clocking has crossed my mind but idk if its for me. My price range for a bare bones kit with a 1gig ddr3 graphics card is less than 500. With an amd triple core 8 gigs ram a new tower with 500 watt psu and a 1 gig gpu I've got it down to 350ish $. I'm just not sure if a triple core at 3.1 will do what I need or if I should just get a quad core. I've also looked at a hex core (6) processor for amd but idk if it would be any good for gaming.

I'm not a hard core gamer but I do like playing all games at a decent fps rate I hate lag and I love to multi task on my computer. Have some java game up while watchim youtube and have trs site over there and a few email and chat clients open.

Thanks!!

 

[Original_Ranger84]

I don't know much about computers but I'm pretty sure the way cores are rated is that they do it by core. Like a quad core that does 2.5 gigs would be 2.5 gigs per core as in 10 gigs in total. (I think...? I'm not a computer guy myself).

Another thing is that my brother just built a computer with parts from new egg for like 800 in total and it can go toe to toe with his own that he built and he can run skyrim and crysis 2 at the same time with full graphics or something like that with no lag.

 

[Hahnsb2]

Most games and programs do not take advantage of more than 2 cores, at least a couple years ago they didn't, I've been out of the computer loop for a while, my machine is 08 era stuff and still handles everything I throw at it. For multitasking (ie: multiple programs) a quad core will help. The only reason I have a quad core (QX9650) is because I won it, otherwise a dual core was just fine for me. For RoR, CPU speed is king, especially when handling multiple vehicles, it's a physics heavy game. Either way if you know what you're doing, you can overclock your CPU for a nice boost. I run mine at 3.8GHz (factory clock is 3.0) and have for years. And since you mentioned GTA, mine runs it beautifully on pretty high settings (limited by GFX memory) with a QX9650, GTX260 and 4GB of RAM.

I don't know much about computers but I'm pretty sure the way cores are rated is that they do it by core. Like a quad core that does 2.5 gigs would be 2.5 gigs per core as in 10 gigs in total. (I think...? I'm not a computer guy myself).

CPUs are rated at the core clock, not multiplied by the amount of cores.

 

[BT2413]

Make sure you get a good video/graphics card or your cpu speed won't matter...NVIDIA make the best as far as my experience goes

 

[triumphrider-1]

What socket is the motherboard using?

 

[Original_Ranger84]

CPUs are rated at the core clock, not multiplied by the amount of cores.

And.... thats why I bought a prebuilt one. But my brothers making my next computer.

 

[Automobilie]

I would get a multi core processor simply so you don't get outdated in the future as easily. Games are starting to utilize multi core's more and more because everyone has them now, but the graphic's card is where you'll be bottlenecked. Besides, I'd rather run my quad at 30% rather than a single at 100%. Graphics card wise my mom's computer has a 5770 Radeon, 8Gb of RAM, and an Athlon II 3.0ghz quad processor. It's running minecraft pretty smoothly and Metro 2033 as well as my desktop from a couple years back that was an i7 920 and 4890 Radeon. I could run Crysis 1 on mostly high and Skyrim runs on that pretty well.
As for what parts to get, I'm not sure you can make a good gaming desktop with only $500 unless that's $500 on top of buying a bare bones kit.

 

[AllanD]

You should also look at the computer gamer kits sold on Newegg.com

I generally find that Newegg offers better deals than TigerDirect.

As for "performance" if you want real performance go with an intel based system.

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[AlexPresler]

I have a tri core black edition o.c.ed @3ghz and its awesome