| starcraft said: So you're figuring I could add in a screen with the extra $250? Two other questions. Is the GPU overpowered given the resolution/size of my screen, and why is the CPU so cheap compared to (what appear to be) comparable Intel processors? |
I figured since you're building a PC for family use, you really ought to buy what you need rather than use the entirety of the budget. So I went with something which wasn't over the top in terms of performance but which would work very well for what you wanted to do with it.
The GPU well, its overpowered from a casual perspective but its just right if you feel like just putting the game on and cranking the settings to max and not worrying about it. You could cut that in half if you wanted and use an HD 5770 for $160 but since you had the budget for it, why not get something decent? The reason why the CPU is so much different to Intel is because Intel have a monopoly and their CPUs are faster. However I doubt you really need that performance so the Phenom is the best quad core for the money.
That GPU is on special and so is the HD 5770 below it for $160. The thing is I cannot say how long you'll have to wait for the HD 6xxx series to come out and what their performance / price ratio is going to be like because the price is likely to be fairly high anyway. I know that the announcement date is in 7 days (American time) on the 19th but availability is an open question. Since I didn't know, I figured it was best to use what was there rather than make assumptions, especially when you could end up waiting a few weeks without getting more than 10% extra value from the incoming GPUs.
Tease.
