Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Corndogman]

Hey guys, I'm thinking of upgrading soon. Right now I have a prebuilt Dell thats about 2 years old, but I have a radeon HD 6950 and a new 500w PSU in it, so basically I'm looking at getting a new mobo, CPU, RAM, and a case. I don't plan on doing any super intense gaming, I mostly just need to be able to multitask a bit (ie Fraps, livestreaming, skype, etc.) and get consistent 60fps in most games. I would however like to be able to run Planetside 2 on high settings, as opposed to the 20fps I get on low right now -_-. I'm looking to spend about $350 - $400.

I really don't know that much about Motherboards and processors, so I was looking at some of the combo deals on newegg such as:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1067524

Around $250 is ideal for me, leaving the rest for RAM and a decent case. But again Idk much about Mobo's and such so I'm totally open to suggestions on that. I'm leaning towards AMD right now because the prices seem way cheaper than comparable Intel CPUs. Also, whats the deal with these 6 and 8 core cpus I'm seeing? They aren't much higher in price compared to quad-cores with similar specs. Do they really offer that much better performance or is it just a money grab?

Help a noob out here; I'm still looking around so I'm open to any suggestions. Also I'd prefer a nice big case with dvd drive and all that jazz built in.

[Donut]

another planetside guy

ive heard planetside 2 is going to be intense like bf3. idk how accurate that is, but if you want to play it on high, you might want to do some research.

ram is dirt cheap though, so just grab 8gb of of ddr3, 1600mhz ram for like, 40 bucks.
E: 6 and 8 cores are a thing, but idk if id go that route. i think those are mainly for servers and rendering machines and whatnot.

[Warsaw]

The thing about the new AMD FX line is that while they claim "X no. of cores," they really behave as if they had half of that number. So really, that "six-core" CPU is more like a three-core; you actually get better single-thread performance by disabling half of the AMD cores (leave 0, 3,and 5 up but kill 1, 2, and 4).

I say go with an Intel i5 CPU, like this one:

Core i5-2310

Holy fuck, there is a dirth of decent budget Intel-socket boards. This is the best I could dig up without going as far back as the awful P67 chipset:

ASRock H77 Pro4-M or ASUS P8B75-V

It's roughly $280 for the CP/Mobo pair, but the $30 trade-off is well-worth the huge performance boost. RAM is dirt cheap, so don't worry about having to stash too much away for it; I recommend Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600, but 1600 G.Skill is pretty good...look at the egg ratings. As for case, what strikes your fancy?

Regarding Planetside 2, the settings are currently capped at Medium, so even if you set it to High you won't see any difference. There are also rumours going around that Planetside 2's highest settings will slow PCs to a crawl with intentionally high levels of detail so that when the game ages it still remains visually competitive. So just know that even with this upgrade, you still may not be able to run it full blast. If the rumours are true, you'll need much higher-end set-up.

[Corndogman]

Is 16 gigs worth it or just overkill? I've found corsair 8GBx2 for $60 on sale right now so I figure It's worth it compared to 40ish for 8gb.

[Warsaw]

I have 16GB for future-proofing. I say it's worth it. But I also still have four more RAM slots to fill up...hmmm...

[JackalStomper]

I've never even come close to filling more than half of my 8 gigs at any moment...

[Warsaw]

I haven't, either. But I also know that games are going to start getting more resource intensive really fast over the next few years as the current generation of consoles falls by the wayside.

[Patrickssj6]

Just load every map the game has into the RAM. No more map loading xD

[Corndogman]

Yeah, the 500w PSU was another concern for me, so thanks for the heads up on that. What are the advantages of a more expensive MoBo? Is performance affected at all or is more a matter of longevity?

I like Warsaws suggestion of:
- Core I5-2310
- ASRock H77 Pro4-M
I've always felt more confident with Intel but I was curious about those AMD's. I'm looking at ~$330 with those 2 and the RAM, tack on another $50ish for a case plus shipping etc. puts me at $400 which is fine by me.

Also, just so I'm sure, PSU's and optical drives are all standardized right? My current PSU and DVD drive will fit into a new case?

[Donut]

just out of curiousity, whats your issue with the p67 chipset? ive had it for over a year now, and i havent had any problems with it.