Current hardware flashships

[Dirty Dan]

I just realized today that my current rig I've had for 80% of the time I've played at the ville...and it's showing its age playing battlefield.

I'm hoping that I can get some feedback on what the flagship technologies are for each category so I can have a reference point. I only start to follow components when I need them because otherwise it makes me too sad looking at all the goodies if I cant afford them.

For example - I'd like to know what the middle-high range processor currently is, something in the 200-300 buck range for the CPU and what socket it is.

Here are the particular items I'm interested in upgrading & the key benchmarks I'd like to understand

-CPU (socket)
-Video card (slot, speed benchmark)
-Ram (speed)
-Solid state drive (are there speed variables and mobo requirements I need to worry about?)

[The Domer]

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

[NerevarineKing]

What I use:
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116506
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231308

(My video card is a bit more dated than the rest of my build, so I didn't bother putting it here)

[Dirty Dan]

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

boom, cheers

[Boss Llama]

In addition to logical increments, I like Tom's Hardware's "Best... for the Money" listings, updated monthly, which do price for performance comparisons and charts equivalencies across manufacturers:

GPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... ,3107.html
CPU: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... ,3106.html

[Tilgasse]

i5 3570 K Is prom all reviews a phenominal chip

The new generation of CPU's dont seem to bet getting much love.

Basically Alizee posted some excellent info.

RAM I read an interesting article this morning. For Gaming RAM at about 1600-2000 seems to be the sweet spot from a price performace standpoint.

[Dirty Dan]

Does anyone have any intel on when the next set of cpus and GPUs will be released, particularly if they will be disruptive to the market in terms of CPU socket or PCI standards? I feel like in addition to understanding the current spectrum in the link above, to maximize value you it helps to look at the pipeline of releases and standards. Even if I got 'existing' items their price would likely be affected by significant releases.

[Tilgasse]

Not 100% sure.
I think next CPU archetecture is set for 3rd Quarter '14.

GPU's are on a 8 month or so dev cycle. (Interesting Factoid AVOID nvidia Products with an Odd Number at the Frint i.e. 300/500/700 the're 99% re-branded boosted cards of the previous generation.)

PCI-E Standard was just revised so I dont see that changing withing 5 years or so.

Basically if you wait for the better thing to come out you'll wait forever.


My rig still max 's most games but I am finally bottlenecking at the RAM

780i Sli MoBo
Q6600 @ 3.2gHz
4gb RAM @ 1000 mHz
2 GTX660's (SLi)
1 GTX 275 (Physx)
64g SSD for the OS
1TB WD Black for Steam