Amd 1090t or i7 2600k?

Ahh I see. I assumed she was a teenager. My bad.

Ok, now I've done it. Was talking with the niece re: researching a rebuild for her box and suggested she look in on this thread to see what I've come up with. Between "I am building my niece" and "she will never know the difference" and "I'm assuming your niece is fairly ignorant" she has taken matters into her own hands. This is what she came up with. I'm impressed.

1 ASUS P8H67-M EVO LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
with 1 Patriot 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Model PGD38G1333ELK $220.98
1 Patriot 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Model PGD38G1333ELK $99.99 (yes, I know)
1 Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Processor BX80623I72600K $329.991
1 Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal (SSD) $134.99
1 CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V $89.99
1 ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $16.991
1 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $139.991
1 APEX TX-381-C Black Steel Micro ATX Tower Computer Case $24.99
1 Scythe S-Flex SFF21G 120mm Case Fan $16.99
1 DellTM* UltraSharpTM* U3011 30"W Monitor $999.00 (YIKES)

She chose that mobo because the onboard graphics uses up to 1.7 gigs of system memory and can support up to 2560x1600 res through the DisplyPort video port - hence the monitor (yikes again). I had to go to the Asus website to see that for myself. The K series processor because it's unlocked and as she puts it "even I can OC it with the software that comes with the mobo". The memory because it was on sale with the mobo and Patriot claims it to be Sandy Bridge and chipset certified. I expect her to pull the trigger on this tonight after she looks around for a cheaper monitor with DisplyPort and 2560x1600 res. Next time I'll let her do the research first. I know this is an OC'ers forum, so again, thanks for the feedback…….I think?

Onboard graphics with 8gb ( or 16? did you list it twice on purpose?) of ram and a 2560 x 1600 monitor. Bad idea.

why is that a bad idea? onboard should run 2d stuff just fine even at that resolution and im not sure what 8 or 16gb of ram would have to do with it.

why is that a bad idea? onboard should run 2d stuff just fine even at that resolution and im not sure what 8 or 16gb of ram would have to do with it.

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and as she puts it "even I can OC it with the software that comes with the mobo"

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Overclocking becomes more difficult with more ram. And onboard graphics are garbage. Even with 2d. And especially at that res. Also having 8 Gb of ram with that processor, and an ssd creates a very unbalanced system.

Younglin said:

Overclocking becomes more difficult with more ram. And onboard graphics are garbage. Even with 2d. And especially at that res. Also having 8 Gb of ram with that processor, and an ssd creates a very unbalanced system.

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overclocking on sandy's is basically just raising the multi. shouldn't have much problem, i'm running 12gb and 200*21 on my 970. no worries here.

onboard graphics are not garbage, just garbage at 3d. what problems would she have specifically?

what part of a 2600k + 8gb + ssd would be very unbalanced?

what part of a 2600k + 8gb + ssd would be very unbalanced?

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They would be bottle necked by the onboard graphics. And they are garbage. To me at least. Considering she will be doing photo and video editing I would consider onboard graphics useless. But I have high standards. And the more ram you have the more stress the controller is under. So OC'ing can be more difficult and less stable.

i do a lot of photo editing, semi professionally. a good video card has no impact on that. for video editing, yeah if you are doing HD stuff an nvidia card can help tons in adobe premier but that's a very specific thing.

anyways it seems like she has pieced together a very nice rig for herself, all GPU issues aside.

anyways it seems like she has pieced together a very nice rig for herself, all GPU issues aside.

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Disagreed.

Photoshop will make use of a decent VGA card quite well IIRC.

Also: remember that Aero on its own will keep the GPU busy. I'd seriously look at even a low to mid end dedicated GPU like an HD4550 or GT210, which comes in at a mere $40-ish.

David said:

Photoshop will make use of a decent VGA card quite well IIRC.

Also: remember that Aero on its own will keep the GPU busy. I'd seriously look at even a low to mid end dedicated GPU like an HD4550 or GT210, which comes in at a mere $40-ish.

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on my system with CS4, there is literally no difference at all between my dusty old x800pro and my 8800gt. my current rig with an x800pro would blow the doors off of a q9650 + 8gb + 2x580gtx in photoshop.

adobe premier, yes there is are incredible improvements there with NV gpus. but that is specific to high end HD work afaik.

futhermore, i have never seen a GPU review where they tested performance in photoshop. not even with cs5 out. if there were big differences between cards, would the review sites not highlight that?

check out this thread, it's a little old but it is still relevant. it seems as though as long as your card/onboard supports the colour depth your monitor requires, has the proper hook ups, and is at least 256mb, you are all set: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1004&message=23757195

google around for "photoshop video card" and you will see thousands of threads where this exact topic is being debunked.

It's really a personal thing to for me. Onboard graphics just cannot perform well enough for even my average day. Not even thinking about gaming. Just my usual browsing and the way I setup my desktop, onboard graphics are worthless to me. They may be good enough for her but still trash IMO. I think she should at least get a low end card like a 5700 series card. But that's just me.

Well, this has been a great thread for us, considering considerations we weren't considering at the time we were considering other things. Did I just type that?

After combing the net for some real world comparisons of the new graphics capabilities built into the Sandy Bridge processors (GPU duties on the processor as opposed to a separate GPU chip on the mobo) plus the new capabilities of the H67 chipset - vs. - a discrete graphics card,
the most independent performance and benchmarking reviews we can find is that the Sandy Bridge + H67 "works as advertised". Including 3D and heavily loaded apps like Photoshop.

Not a whole lot of independent data out there because it's still new. Looks like were gonna give it a shot with the on-board graphics, and hey, can always add a card if life calls for it. Here's some of the "as advertised". Let's see......graphics on the processor, memory controller on the processor, all we need now is the chipset the processor. Thanks for all the input and feedback.