Feb 18, 2011

The Hardwareguide (part 2 of 11)

The CPU (central processing unit)

Get a CPU that suits your needs. Most of the people buying high-end CPUs do not fully utilize them, and could have easily chosen something adequate for a lower price.

Most games utilize only 1 or 2 cores. A few modern games (future games mostly certainly) utilize more. Getting a CPU with more cores will not necessarily improve your gaming performance.

Modern hames are more GPU-bottlenecked. For better gaming performance, allocate more of your budget to GPU than CPU. Going higher than i5 brings little or no benefit in games.

Intel Core i5 and i7 CPU


Do not get hexacores yet. The i5/i7 CPUs are better than the AMD hexacores for the same prices, and the Intel hexacores cost too much to be justified.

Athlon II's are great for budget build. Phenom II's for mid-tier build, and the i5s for high-end. The i7s are for professionals/enthusiasts who can fully utilize the computer power.

AMD Phenom II X4 and Athlon II X4

The top CPUs (i7) usually have hyper-threading, allowing for more threads. This may give major boost in some programs, but may not necessarily improve gaming performance.

42 comments:

  1. Nice, info. Seems like the AMD's Chipsets kind of died out since the i7 came along.

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  2. I certainly gotta upgrade from my Core 2, because it's getting outdated.

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  3. Both Intel and AMD have exciting new releases coming up this year

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  4. I wonder what'll be in the next computer I purchase.

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  5. how much do you know about hard drives and calculating IOPS?

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  6. That's what I wanted to know, bro!, I asked about prices in my local computer shop, because I'm building a new pc, and i7 cpus are too pricey. I can afford a i5 though.

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  7. I still have an old dual core, no need for upgrading for now.

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  8. yeah intel is currently over amd in the CPU department though they normally flip every few years or so in terms of quality

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  9. I got a new i5 laptop last week..
    im very happy with it so far

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  10. Thanks for the tips! Didn't know that some games only use 2 cores!

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  11. I have an intel core 2 in my laptop, i've had it since february of 2008

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  12. intel pentium 4 2.8GHz dual core baby lol (8 years old... *cry*) but it WAS really really expensive when I first got it...

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  13. This was super informative. I think i'm rolling with the amd chip, it's just so much cheaper. Could you post about how to get the best value when overclocking?

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  14. had intell a while back, on AMD now

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  15. Always enjoy learning new things about computers. Thank you!

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  16. @HillDog, get a good CPU cooler.

    I'm running an i5 currently, able to overclock it to 4.03ghz.a bit overkill but I hope it lasts long enough. :)

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  17. I still have an old AMD Athlon X2 :(

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  18. Man i wish i had money for a Intel i7 :s
    I really need to hook my computer up if i want to play the next crysis game! :P
    I'm looking forward for a 100$ computer :)

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  19. The i7 is just amazing, got one here.

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  20. I got one of these CPUs and let me tell you, you notice the difference IMMEDIATELY!

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  21. I have no knowledge about computers so this helped me quite a bit. thanks!

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  22. yeah AMD had a cahcne but couldn't hang. too bad. intel needs more competition to make them strong.

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  23. running a intel atom. you must all be mad right about now

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  24. great info! would love to see an article on motherboard/cpu setup combos.

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  25. I'll be sure to be checking on your blog this summer when I'll be building a new machine.

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  26. So far I'm fine with my old dual-core but thanks for tips, going to remember this when upgrading

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  27. ive always gone back and forth between the two, but intel is just that step ahead i feel like right now.

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  28. wow, so much good info here, will read this blog !

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  29. Technology never ceases to amaze me with the speed at which it evolves. It's not a linear advancement, but rather exponential growth.

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  30. Thats some great info, im going to upgrade my current behemoth soon, thanks for posting this.

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  31. It's also very useful when Intel puts stars rating their own microprocessors.

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  32. very informative blog, im thinking about upgrading in the near future.

    following ;)

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  33. I'm looking into getting a new computer so this is a useful guide. Thanks!

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  34. great and informative post. Thanks!

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  35. Yeah I'm looking towards getting i7. Maybe not the most useful, but right now I have core 2.

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  36. Just had to look at this post again because it's so good and informative

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  37. God I dream with a pentium i7...

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