Torn between two lovers; Help!

I would recommend I7 and GTX ... guessing that your a gamer since you wrote this from elemental forums

AMD FX B. series does not have as claimed 8 physical cores   it has 4 - however each core can handle 2 simultaneous threads on their own pipeline, except in the rare case.
That technologie is great and is likely to improve and benefit in the future.

Intel series also has 4 cores but instead of calling it 8 core tech it stayed humble- because it has only 4 physical cores
however it also runs 4 physical cores and has 4 logical cores aswell - 4+4 is 8 logical

Whatever processor you take doesnt matter however i would recommend intel.
 

The GTX card !
Mainly because it can handle game graphics on its own and does it on its own GPU - like physX all happens on that card.


AMD ATI cards can not do PHYsX on their own they will use your "processor" if the option is giving by game or driver the GPU can not do it.
For me personaly ATI cards - are media cards

If you want to use GTX cards on an AMD system make sure your motherboard has the tech for the card - if you plan to go for SLI or Xfire later - there are boards that can handle both paths.

I recommend GTX over any ATI 

tattyhat, I also agree with the suggestion for the I7 as in my experience the i series cores are more efficient per clock than the amd ones, but the latest amds are getting better, but still NEED about 20% higher clocks to equal the throughputs.

regarding the video cards it depends more on the games you want to play, ie FPS then the nvidia no fps then choose by your own preferences

but I am also going to suggest getting the highest speed ram you can as it is a lot easier to overclock and if you do NOT overclock it will still remain reliable at the stock clocks for a LOT longer than the low speed ram.

regarding the motherboards for intel cpus do NOT buy intel brand motherboards as the intel brand motherboards refuse to allow overclocking from personal experience and for overclocking ability on the i7 boards make sure you get the z77 boards so that you CAN try overclocking if you want.

harpo

Thanks very much guys, you have made my mind up for me.......thank God.  :)

 

I will go with the i7 and a X-something chip-set (none intel) motherboard, plus some good ram.

 

I have calculated the cost I have a little left over.  Could you recommend a Nvidia graphics card that is one above the GTX 660ti, or should I stick with the 660ti?

 

Thanks.

tatty from a quick check on the web the 670 is about 330 usd, but has 3gb ram and 384 bit buss width, wher the next gen 760 is going to have 2gb ram and 256 bit buss width but about 250 usd, suggestion is if you have the funds then the 670 would be the better is older tech whre the newer 770 is about the 550 usd

harpo

 

I am looking at a EVGA GTX670 that is at the right price.  So is this a good card?  It looks good in the graphic card charts, but you can't always go by them.  Some cards have problems, or don't perform very well.

Two GTX 660ti's

 

Me wallet could not stand de strain captain.  :)

the only advice I can give regarding paticular cards is to google the card for reviews and check the conclusions of the reviews.

harpo

 

I bought a PNY GTX650 and although it is good, there were better cards with higher cuda core counts and massive performance differences.Found out to late. Should have researched more, so I guess thats what I would be concerned with if buying.

 

Also, and I know you decided I-core, I have a Amd fx 8-core Black edition, which smokes, but I-core performs better in tests.I just love Amd is all.

Enjoy the new rig when complete, sounds cool, speaking of, what are you getting for sound?

Asus GTX 670 DirectCU OCII or top... extremely silent extremely cool and powerfull close to GTX680 with a liitle overclocking you get the 680 reference card easy *

The card has won several awards and it cant be heard under " torture" this card is nothing else but amazing.

here are video´s for u to check out 7 GTX cards tested : noise level of each check each and then listen to the asus card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-670-test-review,3217-14.html 
Asus gtx670 OCII and Top are almost equal while the top model has some flaws i would recommend getting the OCII instead of the top, the silent level will remain remains the same since they both have the same cooling unit, unless you like having a permanent a vacum cleaner as GFX card when you play a game that uses D11 and high settings to ultra settings.( and no the Asus card video is not missing sound, you just need to turn your speakers up 

One more thing if you plan on buying I7 do not use the stock cooler get something good and powerfull like Noctua or corsair liquid, you can use the stock cooler as paperweight or sell it on ebay it is more of a gimic that comes with the CPU like a 3,5 diskette with drivers on it in 2013 as example.
If you get a board or CPU that fits socket 1155 well at least the Intel i7 3770k Ivybridge should be socket 1155 - NHD14 from Noctua is the way to go its a monster make sure it fits into your case prob will have to messure things out to see if it really does fit.
The cooler is also rated with dozens of awards... and even liquid cooling like the ones from corsair cant compete with it ( that is if you overclock ).

Rams: nothing else to add watch the timings tho and compare them since passive coolers can make a difference.

Tower: make sure it has enough airflow one vent at the end of the case wont be enough

PSU: recommend 800+ or ++ watts up to 1000W if you want to add another card in the near future.
Even if the newer hardware isnt taking up as much power as old hardware you need to keep in mind if you upgrade to sli or xfire you need aditional power.

 

good luck 

I would say go with AMD. Just like Doortech I like AMD over Intel as well. 

Am I the only one that thinks an i7 is completely overkill for gaming?  I guess if you have money to burn..

They are, but not everyone is just playing shooters.  Any real time strategy game with significant AI presence has a hefty load on the processors, if it's a large scale game, the load is beastly.  Multiple cores make this for the most part a trivial difference between them, but the odd RTS can burn some serious juice.  When I'm doing stability testing for the SOA2 mod, I run 4 instances of Sins at once at 8x speed.  It's nice to be able to do it.

 

Chug presents itself a bit differently in TBS of course, but you should see a noticeable difference in AI turn times with advancing processor power.  Powering through the turn 30% faster can be a substantial time savings.

 

I call it future proofing.

 

I'm quite drawn to the GTX 760.  Looks like a very good card for less money then a 660ti

Generally speaking you can often get significant more value for money with AMD/ATI compared to Intel/Nvidia.

 

I recommend to read test reviews done by PC magazines before buying anything.... especially in the higher price range.

investing into a gaming pc these day´s is.
IT doesn´t matter what brand you choose, you either go with high end quality or the cheap stuff.
But that goes for everything -case, vents, cooler, mobo, cpu ,ram, gfx, psu and condenser build into them or the caoting of the module or base board itself.
Considering what performance you can get aut of a AMD chip compared to an i7 is not valid since you can only beat it significally if there is liquid nitrogen involved and even then the numbers are so small that it is more of waste of expansive LN to prove its better.
But if you have the money for the LN you should be able to buy an i7 anyway.

 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-760-review-gk104,3542-2.html 
Some 760 tests.
looks like the gigabyte windforce is quite good.