560Ti or Radeon 6870/6950 2gb model, either way grab a factory overclocked model with better fans, for the 560Ti something like the MSI HAWX or Twin Frozr II/III, for the Radeons XFX Dual Fan(aka Double Dissapation) with the XXX/Black edtion moniker(for the 6950 this means a core clock of 830) you should be able to get any of these for $250 or less....Or wait till march if you can, Nvidia and AMD are releasing new cards as we speak, its forcing the price of the current cards down #1 and #2 you never know what shows up :)
CPU-Core I7 2500k with an ASUS motherboard such as P8Z68-V or -V PRO CPU is ~$200 motherboard ~$170
Ram-8gb DDR3 1600 Gskill models ending in GBXL, GBRL, GBXM,GBSR, GBSR2 with timings of 9,9,9,24 @ 1.5v, this should cost around $60 or less, usually around $45 for 8gb its a hell of a deal :)
Power Supply-at least 38a on the 12v rail with 550+watts total, a good fairly low cost power supply if you need it XFX 650w ~$70
Now, if you want to trim back on the costs, there is some other Core I5 models in the sandy bridge line-up, but the 2500/2500k is the best $/performance one they have, another one, that is quite a bit lower cost would be Core i3-2130 its around $125, not near as fast as the 2500k but still way faster then the cpu you are currently using.
Another option would be to go the AMD route, this is a choice, nothing else, AMD 960T Black Edition with M5A99X EVO motherboard ~$120+ ~$150 or Athlon II x4 640 Zosma based or Athlon II x4 640/645/650 ~$70+(the difference bewteen the 2 640 models is the C2/C3 stepping are the older Athlon II whereas, the newest EO stepping of any AMD cpu is Zosma/Thuban based and tend to be somewhat faster clock for clock) if possible Phenom II x4 955 or above ~$110+ but they are really hard to find right now and inflated price. The Intel setup will be somewhat faster depending on what you are doing with it, but the AMD setup can save a few $ and still be a very fast upgrade for you.
So this is a choice left to you, in regards to what you really want/like. CPU wise, folks can say whatever they want, but it truly depends on what you are using it for, the AMD chips are not quite as good single core performing as the Intel equivalents, but either way, it depends on the user, thier opinion, and what they are doing. The price difference can be quite large, most things however are not able to capatilize(for the most part) in that price difference.
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February 15, 2012, 11:11 AM
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