Will my PC Run this? What CPU/GPU to get? What settings? System Specifications.

[zatoichi 10]

And can anyone help me out on what mobo to get? What does it need to be able to be compatible with a GTX card and an intel core i5 processor? Im have almost no knowledge on motherboards. Also how can I find out what kind of motherboard i have? I opened up my computer, i found the graphics card and power source but dont know about the motherboard.

i5 requires a mobo with a LGA1155 Socket to fit the CPU. Just google other people's i5 builds to see what mobo/GPU they chose.

For example, Jeff Gerstmann's new PC.

[Leon86 13]

Meh, it's not like the cpu is going to break the second you reach high temperatures, chips degrade because of high temps + high voltages, you dont overclock so your voltage is still low, dont worry about it.

You're cooling the chip on stock speeds with the stock cooler, if it's on right it's fine.

If you absolutely want aftermarket cooling from mycom I'd get the cooler master hyper 212.

[Nicholas 5]

Just ordered:

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor.

ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A1600C9

I already have a sound card, graphics card, and power supply. I can run ArmA 2 just fine, but would like even better performance so I ordered those 3 items. What do you think?

[froggyluv 2130]

Unless your a big AMD fan, I would have spent the extra $40 or so and bought the Intel I5 2500k. Awesome chip.

[Nicholas 5]

I'm an AMD fan. I feel that they have the best bang for your buck. But any other AMD fans wish to comment? Any owners of the 1100T out there???

[Kieran 11]

Also remember if your buying intels k' series they are really only good for overlocking, if your not going to Clock then get the ones without the K and it will be cheaper.

And if you are Cloking then make you get liquid cooling or lotsa fans to keep that thing cool

[sgt gul 0]

Meh, it's not like the cpu is going to break the second you reach high temperatures, chips degrade because of high temps + high voltages, you dont overclock so your voltage is still low, dont worry about it.

You're cooling the chip on stock speeds with the stock cooler, if it's on right it's fine.

If you absolutely want aftermarket cooling from mycom I'd get the cooler master hyper 212.

Guess you are right, i played Arma2 yesterday and it go towards 50 at some point but nothing to worry about. The point is, i never had any knowledge about this in the past, i just played and played nothing happened. And now i know about temp of CPU etc and i am scared to shit.:eek:

[pendragonuk 0]

I'm an AMD fan. I feel that they have the best bang for your buck. But any other AMD fans wish to comment? Any owners of the 1100T out there???

Have a look at my sig m8!

PS with a good cooler she runs sweetly at 4GHz!!!

[zatoichi 10]

Also remember if your buying intels k' series they are really only good for overlocking, if your not going to Clock then get the ones without the K and it will be cheaper.

And if you are Cloking then make you get liquid cooling or lotsa fans to keep that thing cool

The price difference between the 2500 and the 2500K is negligible, even if you don't want to overclock you're far better off getting the K and having that option down the road.

[Leon86 13]

And can anyone help me out on what mobo to get? What does it need to be able to be compatible with a GTX card and an intel core i5 processor? Im have almost no knowledge on motherboards. Also how can I find out what kind of motherboard i have? I opened up my computer, i found the graphics card and power source but dont know about the motherboard.

All motherboards have pci-e slots you can install a gpu in. You should pick a motherboard with the same socket as your cpu. If you want a modern i5 this is socket 1155.

If you pair it with a motherboard that has the Z68 or P67 chipset you can even overclock 400 Mhz (or more if you get a K chip).

When you find a 1155 board go to the mobo manufactuers site to see if the chip is supported (almost guarantied but maybe there's some lowpower boards that only support dualcores).

[endofwar 10]

I have 2 questions: I have a i7 2600 and frequency is 1.6G and this is normal? Turbo boost is activated only when he wants?

[solidsnake2384 10]

I was thinking this would be a good enough mobo for an intel i5. What do you think? Its cheap and it runs second generation intel i processors.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Biostar-H61ML-Socket-LGA-1155-Intel-H61-Motherboard-/170660519819?pt=Motherboards&hash=item27bc28df8b

Question: If a processor is labeled Sandy Bridge it means its second generation?

[Leon86 13]

cpu support list, the i5's are supported. You will not be able to overclock because its H61.

And yes, second gen means sandy bridge.

Dunno about the brand biostar, but for that kind of money, who cares, as long as it has some sort of warranty.

---------- Post added at 11:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 AM ----------

I have 2 questions: I have a i7 2600 and frequency is 1.6G and this is normal? Turbo boost is activated only when he wants?

yes, nominal speed is 3.4 Ghz, if the cpu has nothing to do it'll clock back to 1.6, this is called speedstep or eist.

The turbo means it clocks up from 3.4 to 3.8 for singlecore, 3.7 for 3 cores or something. This only happens when power use and thermal dissipation allows it.

[zatoichi 10]

I was thinking this would be a good enough mobo for an intel i5. What do you think? Its cheap and it runs second generation intel i processors.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Biostar-H61ML-Socket-LGA-1155-Intel-H61-Motherboard-/170660519819?pt=Motherboards&hash=item27bc28df8b

Question: If a processor is labeled Sandy Bridge it means its second generation?

The motherboard is one of the last places you want to go cheap on for a build.

[Leon86 13]

If it fits the budget maybe get a H61 board from asus or gigabyte, all H61 boards are quite cheap because they're completely devoid of features you dont really need like sata600 and sometimes usb3.

[solidsnake2384 10]

cpu support list, the i5's are supported. You will not be able to overclock because its H61.

And yes, second gen means sandy bridge.

Dunno about the brand biostar, but for that kind of money, who cares, as long as it has some sort of warranty.

---------- Post added at 11:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 AM ----------

yes, nominal speed is 3.4 Ghz, if the cpu has nothing to do it'll clock back to 1.6, this is called speedstep or eist.

The turbo means it clocks up from 3.4 to 3.8 for singlecore, 3.7 for 3 cores or something. This only happens when power use and thermal dissipation allows it.

What do you mean I wont be able to overclock? Lets say I bought an i5 already overclocked to 3.3Ghz it wont work overclocked?

[Leon86 13]

you cant buy a cpu overclocked, the overclock is applied on the motherboard. Intel only allows sandy bridge overclocking on P67 and Z68 motherboards.

[solidsnake2384 10]

I was thinking about buying this

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=opera&rls=en&q=intel+core+i5&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=12595043178749632029&sa=X&ei=rEkOTtmMNcT20gHp-936DQ&ved=0CIsBEPMCMAY

and maybe this motherboard instead

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-GIGABYTE-GA-H61M-D2P-B3-Desktop-Motherboard-Intel-/400225300869?pt=Motherboards&hash=item5d2f497185

or should I just stick with the biostar one?

[Leon86 13]

you wont notice it in performance, gigabyte has a name for good reliability, biostar is a much smaller brand, dont know much about them.

[solidsnake2384 10]

Ive heard their reliable also. I will most likely buy the biostar mobo. I dont care about the extra bling like what you said Sata600. I dont even know what that is.

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------

Another question. How well would that i5 that I posted run Arma 2?

[pendragonuk 0]

Things like SATA III and USB 3 is why your upgrading, fit one of the new SATA III SSD's and you will see a jump in game performance. If you don't get the 6GB SATA you will never see the benefit. These things will have to wait for the next upgrade. In the mean time you will still be grumbleing about the performance of ArmA not being quite what you were expecting.

As for MoBo reliability we all have our favorites but very few are duff. I like ASUS myself but I have used Gigabyte in the past.

[solidsnake2384 10]

Right now my processor is an E5700 with a crappy ASUS mobo and a GTX 240. If I were to buy the Biostar with SATA 2, an intel i5 2nd gen at 3.1Ghz, and a GTX 275 how much would my performance increase? I know the SSDs load textures faster and help load data faster but honestly I really dont want to spend extra money just because of that. Im not all that picky with stuff like that.

[Leon86 13]

Things like SATA III and USB 3 is why your upgrading, fit one of the new SATA III SSD's and you will see a jump in game performance. If you don't get the 6GB SATA you will never see the benefit. These things will have to wait for the next upgrade. In the mean time you will still be grumbleing about the performance of ArmA not being quite what you were expecting.

As for MoBo reliability we all have our favorites but very few are duff. I like ASUS myself but I have used Gigabyte in the past.

He's not upgrading because of sata600 and usb3, but because his cpu and gpu are very slow. A fast ssd will get you great results on sata300 as well. sequential read is slower but random acces wont suffer as that doesnt go over the sata300 speed on the best ssd's.

---------- Post added at 08:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 AM ----------

Right now my processor is an E5700 with a crappy ASUS mobo and a GTX 240. If I were to buy the Biostar with SATA 2, an intel i5 2nd gen at 3.1Ghz, and a GTX 275 how much would my performance increase? I know the SSDs load textures faster and help load data faster but honestly I really dont want to spend extra money just because of that. Im not all that picky with stuff like that.

The cpu is about twice as powerfull where arma is concered, the gpu 3 times. How much performance you'll gain depends on settings.

[solidsnake2384 10]

Currently Arma 2 gets about 25 to 10 FPS on normal settings.So with the new specs how well do you think would Arma 2 run on medium to high settings?

[Leon86 13]

On a singleplayer scenario you should be able to get 50 fps on average, generally staying over 30 fps on mostly medium settings.

With tweaking settings you'll be able to get better performance or better looks, whereas with your old system you had neither. Should be a large difference.

Found a good gpu deal yet? the ati 4890 is the ati equivalent to the 275, also go for 70eu secondhand here. In the us prices should be even lower.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Leon86