[fliegenaffe]

I'm thinking of building a budget gaming pc and was considering getting an AMD Phenom II x4 965 or an AMD Phenom II x6 1045T. I can't really stretch to an intel processor so would either of these be fine for playing modern games eg Skyrim,Battlefield 3 etc on fairly high settings? I'll be buying a Sapphire HD6850 1gb graphics card to go with it.

EDIT - I apologise if I have posted this in the wrong section

[LJx]

I would go intel anyway rather than investing in a dead platform, those two CPU's are no better than intel Pentiums for gaming anyway which probably cost less

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by LJx

I would go intel anyway rather than investing in a dead platform

Intel's Socket 1155 is nearly at the end of it's life as well, there's the Ivy Bridge refresh to come for the i3s/Pentiums/Celerons but the next generation will be using Socket 1150.

But yes, if you're using a seperate graphics card then unless you're getting a discount on the AMD stuff the Intel processors at the same price are unfortunately all-round better. They're both faster and more efficient so with all else being equal they are better bet.

Benchmark Results: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim : Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?

[fliegenaffe]

If you don't mind me asking,what intel chip would you recommend that I buy? Bearing in mind that I'm on a budget,the Phenom is about £80 on Amazon,whereas the i5 2500k is £165

[fliegenaffe]

Also will the Sapphire HD 6870 still work ok with an intel CPU? I've heard there's an unwritten rule that ATI cards should be used with AMD CPUs and Nvidia cards uses with intel CPUs

[bryanchicken]

Originally Posted by fliegenaffe

Also will the Sapphire HD 6870 still work ok with an intel CPU? I've heard there's an unwritten rule that ATI cards should be used with AMD CPUs and Nvidia cards uses with intel CPUs

I've got that card with an intel cpu. They're not linked

[fliegenaffe]

Ok it's pretty much decided then,I'll go the intel route for the CPU. After the advice on here, as well as reading reviews on the net,I thought it'd be the best idea. It's going to put me (or should I say my missus) £150 over budget,but at least I'll know that it's going to be a good system.

[fliegenaffe]

Just one more thing. I'll probably overclock the CPU and was wondering if anyone could recommend a decent cooling fan? I'll be using a midi-sized tower so won't have huge amounts of room. I've looked at some of the cooler master fans and they are HUGE. I was contemplating getting a Corsair H80 liquid cooler

[EndlessWaves]

Originally Posted by fliegenaffe

I was contemplating getting a Corsair H80 liquid cooler

Doesn't make any sense on an i5, for the same cost as the CPU and cooler you could get an i7 with stock cooler which even at normal frequencies often comes pretty close or overtakes the overclocked i5:

Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 3570K & Core i7 3770K Review - Processing Performance - Cinebench

And there's plenty of overclocking headroom on the stock cooler.

You don't seem to have decided on your priorities yet, are you looking at overclocking to a view that it might offer better value for money or do you just fancy it as a cool feature that it's worth paying a little extra for?

Originally Posted by fliegenaffe

If you don't mind me asking,what intel chip would you recommend that I buy? Bearing in mind that I'm on a budget,the Phenom is about £80 on Amazon,whereas the i5 2500k is £165

You can get an i3-2120 from Amazon for under £90

[fliegenaffe]

I'll settle for the i5 and keep the stock cooler

[LJx]

Originally Posted by fliegenaffe

I'll settle for the i5 and keep the stock cooler

It will still perform like a champ