I've read that SC2 doesn't benefit from more than 2 cores, so I went to look for CPU's with 2 cores.
Now there's Intel and there's AMD.

Another issue is the RAM. I already own a 1GB DDR2-800 stick dual-sided single channel. My budget is low, so I had to choose my build carefully and had to base it on my RAM.

My display runs at a maximum of 1680x1050, so I decided to look for benchmarks about video cards that can run the game at the maximum FPS possible at this resolution with maximum detail in large battles - 4x4 or 6x6 or whatever.

I'm also concerned about Wattage needed for the system, because I'm a 12h/day computer nerd, so the lower, the better.

Ok, so this is what I found:

Build 1:
ASRock A770DE+ (apenas DDR2) (CPU até 140W) (para AMD)
AMD Athlon II X2 250e (AD250EHDGMBOX) (A770DE+ requer BIOS P1.50) (3.0Ghz 45W)

Build 2:
ASRock P43DE (apenas DDR2) (para Intel)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (BX80570E8600) (P43DE todos os BIOS) (3.33Ghz 65W)

Which one comes cheaper?

Which of these video cards would be better for which build for 1680x1050xUltra?

ATI Radeon HD 5830 (175W) (DirectX 11)
ATI Radeon HD 5770 (108W) (DirectX 11)
ATI Radeon HD 5750 (86W) (DirectX 11)
ATI Radeon HD 4890 (120W??) (DirectX 10.1)

Other stuff you can recommend me? I'm too confused about DDR2 and DDR3 and how the CPU benefits from them and whatnot. Did I pick the better motherboards for the CPUs/GPUs I specified, provided that I have to make use of that DDR2-800 RAM?

Hi. Thanks for answering. I will then wait a bit for better video cards at a cheaper price and fair wattage.

I have other questions and found 2 other CPU's for chosing. Adding to those I already found, we have:

AMD Athlon II X2 265 (ADX265OCGMBOX) (A770DE+ requer BIOS P1.70) (3.3Ghz 65W)
AMD Athlon II X2 250e (AD250EHDGMBOX) (A770DE+ requer BIOS P1.50) (3.0Ghz 45W)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (BX80570E8600) (P45DE requer BIOS P1.60) (3.33Ghz 65W)
Intel Celeron E3500 (BX80571E3500) (P45DE requer BIOS P1.60) (2.7Ghz 65W)

However, I have no idea about their performance/price ratio, except that the 3rd one is stronger than the 2nd one.

What about OS's?

XP 64
Vista 64
7 64

Is there a reason why XP 64 isn't recommended? Are there any differences between Vista 64 and 7 64 in terms of Starcraft 2?

And, finally IDE related stuff. Is there a way I can connect my old HDD and DVD IDE Drives on these motherboards?

ASRock A770DE+ (apenas DDR2) (CPU até 140W) (para AMD)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=A770DE%2b

ASRock P45DE (apenas DDR2) (para Intel)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P45DE

---

Q u o t e:
Now there's Intel and there's AMD.

---

If you want the most bang for your buck forget about buying AMD. Get one of the new Intel Sandy Bridge CPU's. No clue what your budget is but if you can afford an E8600 you'd go for either Core i5 2500K or even top-model Core i7 2600K. Their build-in Intel HD 3000 GPU's are at least as good as an ATI HD 5450 and if that's not fast enough you can still buy better without havin' wasted your money.

---

Q u o t e:
Another issue is the RAM. I already own a 1GB DDR2-800 stick dual-sided single channel. My budget is low, so I had to choose my build carefully and had to base it on my RAM.

---

I don't see an issue here because today RAM is cheap, most of the time it's cheaper then the mainboard .

The new Sandy Bridge chips recommended above use the new socket 1155 and all available boards require DDR3 RAM. The cheapest board i could find at my region is the ASUS P8H67-M LX which runs DDR3-1333 Dual Channel. Under NO circumstances i'd go below 2 Gigs of RAM, better get 4. Check for Dual Channel kits from Kingston, Corsair or G.Skill.

If you really want to keep your old drives the mainboard needs more feature which makes it cost. The ASUS P8H67-M would be the needed step-up then.

---

Q u o t e:
What about OS's?

XP 64
Vista 64
7 64

---

HUH?
If you don't have at least 4 Gigs of RAM it's not even worth thinking about using a 64 bit OS.
Keep your current OS if you want to save money.

My budget is the following:

- keep my IDE HDD if possible
- keep my IDE DVD if possible
- keep my 1 GB DDR2-800 if possible
- Performance of 1680x1050xUltra (60 Hz) on SC2 in considerable large battles
- No excessive CPU over GPU or GPU over CPU quality
- Lowest power wattage possible

I have really no idea about CPU prices and what all those numbers, specifications mean. If I can save my current Windows XP 32-bit which I already know is not so demanding on the CPU, the better. It also spares me additional RAM I won't have to spend! I thought that 32-bit OS's wouldn't make use of more than 1 core, SC2 runs better on dual-cores...

---

Q u o t e:
My budget is the following:

- keep my IDE HDD if possible
- keep my IDE DVD if possible
- keep my 1 GB DDR2-800 if possible
- Performance of 1680x1050xUltra (60 Hz) on SC2 in considerable large battles
- No excessive CPU over GPU or GPU over CPU quality
- Lowest power wattage possible

I have really no idea about CPU prices and what all those numbers, specifications mean. If I can save my current Windows XP 32-bit which I already know is not so demanding on the CPU, the better. It also spares me additional RAM I won't have to spend! I thought that 32-bit OS's wouldn't make use of more than 1 core, SC2 runs better on dual-cores...

---

32 bit OS's only limit is that they can't handle more then 4 Gigs of RAM. The number of CPU cores is not an issue. The SC2 PC requirements are :

Minimum:
* Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
* 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
* 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
* 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)

Recommended:
* Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
* Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
* 2 GB RAM
* 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

Translates to: if you want good SC2 performance 1 GB of RAM won't do.

In terms of game performance nothing beats having enough RAM and a good GPU matching your CPU power. Having little RAM will force your system to swap to and from your harddrive more often than needed. This slows the whole system down including game performance.

To my understanding an ATI HD 5450 is better than the above recommended ATI HD 3870. The new Sandy Brigde CPUs come with a build-in GPU whose power level is similar to an ATI HD 5450 so you have one point less to worry about. Power consumption is also lower then with a separate GPU board. Test have already been done about this, check on the internet for reports.That in any case you need to keep your drivers up to date is prolly something nobody needs to tell you.

Check at your region what this combo will cost you:

ASUS P8P67-M Mainboard -> has the IDE connector you require
Intel Core i5 2500K (boxed) -> comes with build-in Intel HD 3000 GPU that equals an ATI HD 5450 GPU
2 GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel RAM Kits
i.e. KINGSTON ValueRAM DDR3-RAM (KVR1333D3N9K2/2G)
or CORSAIR XTREME PERFORMANCE XMS3 TW3X2G1333C9A

btw: you did not state what MainBoard/ CPU / GPU / Power Supply you currently have. Are CPU / GPU / RAM upgrades possible and which? Would your old PSU be able to handle new components at all? Check these points first. A CPU GPU or RAM upgrad can cost a lot less then building a new system.

I'm checking prices on this site:
http://www.kuantokusta.pt

Intel Core i5 2500K 3,3GHz - 211,10€ - 234,00€
Asus P8P67-M - 118,03€ - 143,90€
KINGSTON ValueRAM DDR3-RAM (KVR1333D3N9K2/2G) - 24,00€

My motherboards are all old, they're about from year 1999 to 2003 design range, they only support AGP video cards.

I have no idea if my current PSU's will work on these new machines at all, sorry.

My best CPU is a Athlon XP 2700+ that gives me constant IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors all the time, tested on 2 different motherboards.
My second best CPU is a Athlon XP 2600+ that locks the entire computer, tested on the same motherboard.
The third CPU is Intel Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz, never game me errors, but this one isn't mine and is bellow SC2 requirements.

My best video card is a Ati Radeon x1950 pro 512MB but never had the chance to test it and it's AGP anyway.
My second best is Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 Ultra 256MB, it is on the Pentium 4 comp, never gave me problems.

All RAMs on these machines are DDR, not even DDR2.

I see. No upgrades then.

Btw: i don't know how you tested that Athlons but just pluging in your harddisc won't do. Windows installations are CPU-specific which means an Intel installation can't run with an AMD CPU and vise versa. The least needed to make a system work after such a CPU swap is a repair install.

---

Q u o t e:
I'm checking prices on this site:
http://www.kuantokusta.pt

Intel Core i5 2500K 3,3GHz - 211,10€ - 234,00€
Asus P8P67-M - 118,03€ - 143,90€
KINGSTON ValueRAM DDR3-RAM (KVR1333D3N9K2/2G) - 24,00€

---

The price you noted for the mainboard is too high; the site you named tells me 93,61€ - 116,50€. Together with the CPU and RAM you go for approx 330€ - 370€. In case you also need a PSU which is pretty likely when yours is as old as the rest check for models with 400W and higher. The LC Power 420W 6420 seems ok for your needs at 32,50€ - 35,60€. Altogether you should be done with 400€.

And in case the build-In GPU's power won't be enough in the future all you need to do is buy a new GPU while you can keep the rest of the system.

Edit
Quick cross-check to previous top selection further up:

ASRock P43DE -> 62,85€ - 64,00€ -> Asus P8P67-M cost is 31 - 52 € higher
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 -> 277,41€ - 284,00€ -> Intel Core i5 2500K cost is 50 - 66 € lower

Together the old top selection costs about as much as my suggested combo plus (almost) the Kingston RAM kit while it delivers more computing power at less power consumption and: a good GPU is already included while old top selection had none.

What about AMD Fusion? They seem to offer better graphics at cheap wattage, or am I wrong? I just skimmed through the news.

(I solved the problem about AMD Athlon XP 2600+ locking up. Apparently, I had the FSB speed incorrectly set. It was running at 333 MHz, instead of 266 MHz. Turns out that it's not a 2600+ but a 2000+, it was overclocked all this time and I didn't know it. I'm posting on this system right now.)

---

Q u o t e:
What about AMD Fusion? They seem to offer better graphics at cheap wattage, or am I wrong? I just skimmed through the news.

---

Hard to tell today. AMD Fusion CPUs are brand new and up to now only notebook versions of the chip are available.

Alright, after an extensive research I did these last days, my main concern is now wondering if everything would fit in a tower and run without any problems with the given components below, if they are interchangeable on the proper AMD or Intel motherboards.

I am also worried about case size, if everything fits in there, not only physically, but also if it has the right number of connectors for those PSU and MB.

The GoodRAM is the one I have, so I listed it as €0. I'm undecided if I get 1 more GB or 2 more GB ram.

Thanks so much for the help so far.

---

Q u o t e:
ASRock A770DE+ (AM2+, AMD 770, AMD SB710, DDR2, 2x PCIe 2.0 x16/x4, 24 pin ATX, 8 pin 12V, 1x ATA133, 6x SATAII, 3x USB 2.0)
€70,00 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=A770DE%2b

ASRock P45DE (LGA775, P45 Express, ICH10, DDR2, 1x PCIe 2.0 x16, 24 pin ATX, 8 pin 12V, 1x ATA133, 6x SATAII, 3x USB 2.0)
€68,05 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P45DE

---------------------------------------------------------------

AMD Phenom II X2 565 Black Edition (HDZ565WFK2DGM) (A770DE+ BIOS P1.70) (3.4Ghz, 1MB+6MB L2/L3 Cache, 2000 FSB, 80W)
€137,21 - http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=728

AMD Athlon II X2 265 (ADX265OCK23GM) (A770DE+ BIOS P1.70) (3.3Ghz, 2MB Cache, 2000 FSB, 65W)
€66,75 - http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=720

AMD Athlon II X2 250e (AD250EHDK23GM) (A770DE+ BIOS P1.50) (3.0Ghz, 2MB Cache, 2000 FSB, 45W)
€83,10 - http://products.amd.com/en-na/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=721

Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (BX80570E8600) (P45DE BIOS P1.60) (3.33Ghz, 6MB Cache, 1333 FSB, 65W)
€281.85 - http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=35605

Intel Pentium E6800 (BX80571E6800) (P45DE BIOS P1.60) (3.33Ghz, 2MB Cache, 1066 FSB, 65W)
€103,41 - http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42811

Intel Celeron E3500 (BX80571E3500) (P45DE BIOS P1.60) (2.7Ghz, 1MB Cache, 800 FSB, 65W)
€63,07 - http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42773

---------------------------------------------------------------

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1024MB EE (2x 75W 6pin PCIe, alimentação 450W +12V-24A) (210mm, DirectX 11)
€179,85 - http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-1371-AR

XFX Radeon HD 6850 Standard Edition (1x 75W 6pin PCIe, alimentação 500W) (1GB DDR5, 235mm, DirectX 11)
€170,75 - http://xfxforce.com/pt-br/products/graphiccards/hd%206000series/6850.aspx?

Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 (2x 75W 6pin PCIe, alimentação 500W) (1GB GDDR5, 240mm, DirectX 11)
€199,00 - http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=0001&pid=338

---------------------------------------------------------------

GoodRAM 1GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5 (GR800D264L5/1G)
€0 - http://www.goodram.com/pub/File/Datasheet/1GB%20DIMM/GR800D264L5-1G_128x8.pdf

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5 (KVR800D2N5/2G)
€32,20 - http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR800D2N5_2G.pdf

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5 (KVR800D2N5/1G)
€16,75 - http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR800D2N5_1G.pdf

---------------------------------------------------------------

1Life ps:jet 600W 120mm (ATX v2.2, 1x 20/24 pin MB, 1x 4+4 pin 12V, 4x SATA, 2x 4pin PATA, 1x 6 pin PCIe, 1x FDD, 19/19A)
€26,10 - http://www.1-life.eu/hard/hard_jet600w120.php

LC-POWER LC6600T 600W 140mm (ATX v2.3, 1x 20/24 pin MB,1x 4+4 pin 12V, 5x SATA, 3x 4pin PATA, 2x 6 pin PCIe, 1x FDD, 17/19A)
€46,70 - http://www.lc-power.de/index.php?id=250&L=1

---------------------------------------------------------------

NOX ZEN (Exposed 1x 5.25', 1x 3.5';Hidden 1x 5.25', 6x 3.5'; 390Hx175Wx415D mm; I/O 2x USB 2.0, 1x Audio HD; fan 80mm rear)
€22,25 - http://www.nox-xtreme.com/products_uk.php?cat=1&type=0&id=63

---

---

Q u o t e:
Alright, after an extensive research I did these last days, my main concern is now wondering if everything would fit in a tower and run without any problems with the given components below, if they are interchangeable on the proper AMD or Intel motherboards.

I am also worried about case size, if everything fits in there, not only physically, but also if it has the right number of connectors for those PSU and MB.

---

On mainboard, CPU, RAM and PSU i already gave you advice and prices in posts above. When you decide to buy new components don't go with anything below or older than that. You get more performance with current hardware for the same prices you listed and very likely less.

Interchangeability: don't worry, beside the CPU's everything is interchangeable.
Number of connectors: that PSU has more than you need.

On GFX cards: at a price below 200 € the GTX 460 is the chip to go for.

Case: a medium sized tower is fine, just make sure it comes with at least two fans, one in front and one in rear plus - if you don't want them to annoy you with too much noise - check they are at least 120mm in size. My personal preference in cases are those fully made of aluminium to further spread heat towards the outside. Good cases are made by Cooler Master or Lian Li.

I think my concern is trying to get the most out of a two core CPU with the highest frequency possible. Triple-core or more don't seem to benefit much of an improvement and I noticed they have less cache per core, and consume more wattage from my understanding. So, since Starcraft II (honestly I don't really plan to do anything else with the computer, anything else I'll do will be 'side-effects' use) was designed to pull a lot from the CPU, but at the same time, not benefiting from more than two cores, and adding to that the RAM module I already have, I tried to trim down my number of choices.

I'll be honest, I haven't investigated that much about Intel Core i5 other than the embedded graphic card that comes with it which is still lacking for what I intend it to do (1680x1050xUltra), and decided to look around reviews and came up with those 3 choices which seem for me the better approach.


Here's some calculations I've done.

€219,80 - Intel 1155 i5 2500K Box (3,30Ghz)
€23,95 - Kingston PC3-10600 2GB CL9 (2x1GB) DDR3-1333
€118,05 - Asus P8P67-M
€179,85 - EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1024MB EE
€46,70 - LC-POWER LC6600T 600W 140mm
---------
€588,35

vs

€281,85 - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (3,33Ghz)
€16,75 - Kingston ValueRAM 1GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5
€0 - GoodRAM 1GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5
€68,05 - ASRock P45DE
€170,75 - XFX Radeon HD 6850 Standard Edition
€26,10 - 1Life ps:jet 600W 120mm

---------
€563,50

However, one of the CPU is 95W with 4 cores at 3,30ghz, the other 65W with 2 cores at 3,33ghz. The price difference is tempting, but I'm not sure if I'll be saving that much energy in the long run.

edit - oops.

---

Q u o t e:
Here's some calculations I've done.

€219,80 - Intel 1155 i5 2500K Box (3,30Ghz)
€23,95 - Kingston PC3-10600 2GB CL9 (2x1GB) DDR3-1333
€118,05 - Asus P8P67-M
€179,85 - EVGA GeForce GTX 460 1024MB EE
€46,70 - LC-POWER LC6600T 600W 140mm
---------
€588,35

vs

€281,85 - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 (3,33Ghz)
€16,75 - Kingston ValueRAM 1GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL5
€68,05 - ASRock P45DE
€170,75 - XFX Radeon HD 6850 Standard Edition
€26,10 - 1Life ps:jet 600W 120mm
---------
€563,5

However, one of the CPU is 95W with 4 cores at 3,30ghz, the other 65W with 2 cores at 3,33ghz. The price difference is tempting, but I'm not sure if I'll be saving that much energy in the long run.

---

Interesting how you mix and match things. Your second list has a 9€ cheaper (and weaker) GPU and a 20€ cheaper PSU. Putting them in the first list the price shifts towards the i5.

If energy saving is a real concern i see no way around the Sandy Brigde Intel CPU. Check out some reviews on the internet. This i5 performs better at less power consumption compared to other CPU lines.

by the way: list 1 contains 2 GB of RAM while list 2 has only 1 GB.
EDIT: ah i see you fixed it ;)

I don't know where you're seeing the reviews, I'm looking at both ark.intel.com and www.anandtech.com I'm also checking prices at another site, www.alientech.pt - they seem to be the cheapest overall, and they have most of what I'm looking for.

Looks like Sandy Bridge is indeed good at power saving, except some of the CPUs. I saw some at Intel site that aren't available yet, only 35W and also with 2 cores. The gaming reviews on anandtech don't exist, which is a shame. Do you know when they become available?

Intel Core i5-2500K 4 cores 4 threads 3.3-3.7Ghz 6MB Cache - 95W (turbo dual core 3.6Ghz - Launched)
Intel Core i5-2500 4 cores 4 threads 3.3-3.7Ghz 6MB Cache - 95W (turbo dual core 3.6Ghz - Launched)
vs
Intel Core i7-2600S 4 cores 8 threads 2.8-3.8Ghz 8MB Cache - 65W (turbo dual core 3.7Ghz - Launched)
Intel Core i5-2500S 4 cores 4 threads 2.7-3.7Ghz 6MB Cache - 65W (turbo dual core 3.6Ghz - Launched)
Intel Core i3-2120 2 cores 4 threads 3.3Ghz 3MB Cache - 65W (Announced)
Intel Core i5-2500T 4 cores 4 threads 2.3-3.3Ghz 6MB Cache - 45W (turbo dual core 3.2Ghz - Launched)
Intel Core i5-2390T 2 cores 4 threads 2.7-3.5Ghz 3MB Cache - 35W (turbo dual core 3.1Ghz - Announced)
Intel Core i3-2100T 2 cores 4 threads 2.5Ghz 3MB Cache - 35W (Announced)

They all come with graphics that I won't use and i3 doesn't have turbo which I don't think it's important. I don't know if 2.5Ghz is good for what I want, though.

edit: (Ignore: Looks like turbo only works on a single core. On 2 or 4 cores applications, turbo won't work and will use default speed. So, it looks like i5-2500T is quite below Starcraft 2 requirements and is a costly processor.) Found something about how turbo works, http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/prozessoren/2011/test-intel-sandy-bridge/4/ - There is a value for single core turbo, a dual core turbo and a quad core turbo. So, if I understood it right, the i5-2500T has a standard 2.3Ghz, a single core 3.3Ghz, a dual core 3.2Ghz and a quad core 2.4Ghz. Now that I know this, that estimated price at intel makes more sense, and it seems the ideal candidate for me. Actually, both i5-2500T and i5-2390T are the ideal.

Another thing, but not that important right now is the low number of supported CPUs on LGA1155 socket. I wonder how long will this last. Intel is pretty quick at changing sockets.

AMD on the other hand, allows me to insert a Phenom X6 on the same motherboard that could use a AMD Sempron, for example. It's a bit more flexible and future proof. When I say future, I don't mean edge technology, but I can be mostly sure the system will last long enough until a definite system change is really necessary.

Look at that list: http://www.asrock.com/mb/cpu.asp?Model=A770DE%2b

edit: Damn CPU reviews... they're all crap, they're confusing and unhelpful. Finding a balance of average FPS on a determinated CPU/GPU is more complicated than I thought, and they list a few screen resolution examples using a single video card in all CPU tests. Not helpfull! And Starcraft II is benchmarked so little times.

Added some more cpus

Here's a quick review reguarding Sandy Bridge CPUs computing performance and power consumption:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-efficienct-32-nm,2831-4.html

Here another very extensive test from a german magazine:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/prozessoren/2011/test-intel-sandy-bridge/
Even if you don't understand german the graphs as under "Performancerating" tell tales on their own.


The mentioned Turbo feature works in all Sandy CPU's. It's used to keep the separate cores at optimal speed. Those capital letters at the end of the CPU name are still important. I haven't seen a complete list yet but the most important to know is:

CPU's ending with K have the HD 3000 GPU guild in while all others have the smaller HD 2000 GPU. K CPU's are also the only ones whose multiplikators are 100% customer selectable thus providing full overclocking support.

All CPU's ending with S and T have increased power saving features where the T's have the most power reduction. But here reduction in power usage also means reduction in speed and thus performance. I won't touch them!


When you don't care for the build-in GPU - which seems to be the case - look for those Sandy Chips without a capital letter at the end. In our case the Core i5 2500 would be it then which reduces the CPU's price slighty by 10 to 15 €.


Regarding the new Intel socket: upon release of the first Sandy Bridge cpu at the end of 2010 Intel stated that they only intent to keep the new 1155 pin socket for general purpose and the 1366 pin socket for highend systems. All other sockets are said to be retired this year.

Thank you about that turbo explanation. I still don't know what I call of 'standard' ghz means in comparison with turbo. Is this turbo working automatically, like, the cpu auto-adjusts itself or something?

---

Q u o t e:
Interesting how you mix and match things. Your second list has a 9€ cheaper (and weaker) GPU and a 20€ cheaper PSU. Putting them in the first list the price shifts towards the i5.

---

The PSU is cheaper but it only has 1x 6 pin PCIe which fits on HD 6850, while GTX 460 requires 2x 6 pin PCIe, I couldn't find a cheaper PSU.

Speaking of which. I've already mentalized I'm going to pick that XFX Radeon 6850, because it's slightly cheaper than GTX 460, the performance is actually better for the resolution I'm going to work with, but not on higher ones but I don't care that much, and it's wattage usage, if the reviews aren't wrong, is fairly better at load peak, and pretty much equal when idle, and combining to what I've said about PSU's, I'm going to save about €30.