If you have no intention of ever playing any games other than sports games (NFL, baseball, golf only), or ever doing anything like graphics design/video rendering, will you get any benefit from having a dedicated video card?
Will you get any benefit out of an I5 or I7, instead of an I3?
To rephrase what scrimshaw said:
1: Get an i3, you don't need anything more.
2: You DO want a separate GPU, though you can live without one. If you don't get one make sure you get the i3 3225 as this has the HD4000, which is much better than 2500 (or even 3000). If you do get another GPU this makes no difference.
3: Start with 7750 as the first GPU worth purchasing. 7870 is probably as high as you will want to go as you won't get benefit from above this. What point exactly you pick depends on budget, specific games, expectations and the best deal you can get at the time.
No. Get an i3 3225. Heavy rendering may benefit from NVIDIA and CUDA. Basic box, i3 will last and last until the mobo dies.
i3 isn't enough. You need a quad for gaming, something like a 3470. GPU minimum 660 Ti, 670 if you can swing it.
ethereal88 on 11/01/2013 - 08:49
"No intention of playing games". Did your fat blind engorged ass miss that?
"..other than sports games"
But I guess this fits just fine in your world due to this:
There is no such thing as casual PC gaming.
If you can find one, you can always look at a cheap notebook with Thunderbolt. These are starting to come through and I've seen a few prototypes of external Thunderbolt video cards.
Soon we'll have a portable notebook to carry around with long battery life, and we'll be able to plug it in to an external video card when we're desk bound - best of both worlds!
Most manufacturers have promised gear this year.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/thunderbolt-graphics-technology-tu…
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20120913225824_El…
I agree this concept is great, and I like the NUC, but for anyone other than an enthusiast I think it is a bit early to jump into this.
Thanks all. Good advice.
If you don't use a video card, then your only choice is either crappy Intel HD3000/HD4000 graphics. They'd suffice for HD movies and playing games at low resolution (720p) and at very low settings. Won't be smooth though.
Core i7 does not benefit ANY sort of game, since most games actually suffer performance penalties from Hyperthreading (not optimised for it). Most PC games are GPU bound rather than CPU.
A Core i3 would be a good budget option for a casual gaming build,
A Core i5 would be best for heavy gamers.
Most sports games can already get by with a budget card like a Radeon 7770 or a Nvidia GTX650 (Ti). You will need to read the specification requirements on the game you intend to play.
($600) Intel Gaming/Multi-Purpose Config El Cheapo
CPU: Intel Core i3 3220 $117
Mobo: AsRock B75M-DGS $59
RAM: 8G Kit G.Skill-NT (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 $45
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB (ST500DM002) $60
GPU: 1GB AMD Radeon HD7770 $112
Case&PSU: Thermaltake V4 Black Edition w/ USB3 and 500W Litepower PSU $75
ODD: DVD burner $19
Peripherals: [ 21.5" LG E2251T / Microsoft Wired Desktop 600 / Logitech LS11 2.0 ] (+$154)
Total: $641
Note prices are taken from MSY parts pdf. http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf