Another rig, for a student/gamer

ok thanks.

and its not that I want to spend all the money I have I just want to make sure im getting the best parts I can for around 2500, since I can afford to spend it now. and newegg ran out of my graphics card so I have to wait anyways :(
 
ok cool, is there a link or could anyone describe in simple terms how to differentiate between 2 processors or 2 video cards? I know obviously a 2.5GHz is slower than a 3.5GHz? but I dont understand what the "L2 and L3" caches mean? Then maybe I could determine myself instead of bugging you guys with suggestions

Thanks :P
 
NinjaYeti said:
ok cool, is there a link or could anyone describe in simple terms how to differentiate between 2 processors or 2 video cards? I know obviously a 2.5GHz is slower than a 3.5GHz? but I dont understand what the "L2 and L3" caches mean? Then maybe I could determine myself instead of bugging you guys with suggestions

Thanks :P
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I thought the processor was decided on?
 
On a processor, L1/L2 and L3 cache is a small amount of memory on the processor itself. It holds a small amount of data so the processor doesnt have to keep hitting the system memory=faster access. The biggest difference in the 2500K and 2600K, the 2600K has Hyperthreading.
 
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We have excellent 101s in every sub-forum.
For CPUs http://www.computerforum.com/cpus-overclocking/announcements.html
It is not compulsory that a 2.6 is always faster than the 3.5GHz.
It also depends on the architecture like how many instructions a processor completes in each clock cycle and also how much work an instruction can do ie how descriptive the instruction set is.
So the best way to judge a CPU's performance is field testing ;) ie benchmarks. Or you can study the instruction set and then also see the average instructions per clock cycle and then also the application architecture and judge the performance of the CPU, but I prefer benchmarks ;)
Checkout the 101s for more information.


And also most of the questions asked here can be found on the internet if you know how to search, but that does not mean we would stop answering those, ask away as many genuine on-topic questions you have. :D
 
ok thanks,

and the processor was decided on, but I thought the processor would help render times, so since im a little under budget I was asking in case I wanted to use the extra money to get a faster one, but I might just stick with what was suggested :)
 
As we have told you many times, for a home desktop PC the Intel Core i7 2600k would be the fastest in gaming and second in applications which use all the cores of the processor.In that case the i7 980x would perform better but it costs a lot more and isin't worth the difference in anyone's opinion.
 
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also, you should keep some of that money saved if you want as therre is a new intel i core line known as ivy bridge (current 2600k is sandy bridge) which should be a good improvement over sandy, but we can't say it will be worth it to upgrade yet.
 
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