$1,000 Gaming System. (No Accessories needed)

[Coldkilla]

Helping brother build a new PC. He's a heavy gamer, and has had plenty of reliability issues in the past (with parts failing etc). I aim to get his system as reliable and as fast as possible.

Here's the current build idea: (Not planning to overclock)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358

CPU: i7-920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202

RAM: Corsair 4gb XMS3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145260

PSU: Antec 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371015

GFX: eVGA GTX 285 1gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130480


Total: $994.58 Shipped.


Does not need:
-OS/Case/HSF/DVD Drive/Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse/HSF Adaptor/HDD


I've personally never delt with AMD or ATI, so I'm not sure whether or not to go down that route. If the price can come down, great - but I'll stick with the $1000 budget. If its possible, I'd replace a part with a better one. However I hope to stay extremely close to $1000 and not go over much.

 

[MisterDonut]

Might be better off with a 5870 than the 285. From all the average benchmarks i've seen the 5870 scores higher (but my ati fanboy friend tells me the drivers are still eh...). Go with the Corsair TX650 or TX750 (I think the 650 is the better build). And you have a LGA775 socket motherboard selected...won't fit a 1366! One of my friends LOVES his P6T Deluxe V2 Motherboard, and another has the cheaper EVGA X58 SLI LE (Loves that too). Be aware of the mobo you choose, as you might want to get memory that will match (tri-channel vs. dual-channel), and any CFX/SLI capabilities for future use (If he really is a hardcore gamer ). With no plans to overclock, be aware of bottlenecking (I don't know too many people that don't overclock, so I don't know of any bottleneck effects thus far). And I didn't calculate budgets for the things I listed so...cheers

 

[Coldkilla]

Woops on the motherboard!

I can say that he's running 32-bit Win7 atm. I own 64-bit myself but will probably go back down to 32 due to some of the incompatibilities with some games I own.

Will triple channel help out that much in a 32bit system? Considering 4GB is pretty much the limit anyway, how will a triple channel setup help if its going to knock that number even higher?

SLI is most likely not in his future tbh, he leaves his system builds and upgrades to me and I don't see em' that much.

 

[Firsttime]

Do you have a decent HDD to use? I didn't see that anywhere.

 

[Coldkilla]

Oh yes I did forget to mention that as well. His is pretty decent atm.

 

[MisterDonut]

Hm, not many games I own have problems with the 64-bit version of Windows . To be honest, a few of my friends don't use past 4g of RAM, but better safe than sorry amirite. Triple channel is just more popular (at least in my community) with the new 1366 socket motherboards. I would keep my options open for SLI/CFX in the future because if bigger, badder games get released, you don't need a whole new card. You just slap another card on and start showin' 'em who's boss. Just be wary of any bottleneck possibilities. Also forgot to mention that when is this build going to be made ? If you hold out until Nvidia FINALLY releases, you could see some badass cards by the company or a typical ATI price drop , win win. And I forgot to mention, I read a review on the G.Skill ECO series the other day. If you're going dual channel, that's the memory to get

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

Benchmarks show that the i7, i5 and Phenom II x4 all perform in the same ballpark in games. I really don't see the reason for getting i7 if you just want to game. Seriously. Search up benchmarks for games on overclocked i7 compared to overclocked PhenomIIx4. They're either the same, or too close to even matter. If your bro is heavy into gaming, put the budget more into the video card(s)--yea, plural.

$1,000 eh?
A better gaming machine for the money. Better as in not even close (because dual HD5850's >>>>> GTX 285).

Mobo: Asus M4A79XTD EVO
CPU: Phenom II x4 955 Black (3.2Ghz)
RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x2Gb) DDR3 1600
$344

GPU: HIS HD5850 @ $314 (x 2, in crossfire!)

PSU: SeaSonic 750W @ $99

$1,041. You get crossfired 5850's.

Very best,

 

[MisterDonut]

I would've recommened AMD, but saying "AMD is cheaper" would be as far as I could advise, haha. Still clueless on the performance of AMD processors/motherboards. But yeah, benchmarks DO say that they perform just as well, and I would shoot for that unless you are an Intel fanboy. Two 5850's would sure give your brother multiple brain orgasms...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Well, if he's not overclocking, the i7 860 (1156 socket) has a turbo mode of 3.4Ghz IIRC I'd start looking at benchmarks of all different types of games, and the ones he plays to see what CPU performs the best. And from there, start thinking of the upgrade path of that particular socket. 775lga is the end of the line. Personally I think 775 still is competitive with a little overclocking. But socket longevity is key. I remember jumping on an AMD 939 socket at the very end of the line. What was discouraging about that was the chips didn't have a OCing headroom beyond 3.1Ghz for my particular choices. So you want a lasting socket. Next, look into the GPU. Then when choosing RAM the only thing that low latency memory will do is keep your minimum fps from dropping as much as say higher latency memory timings, so gravitate your choices around low voltage memory.