• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

7 years and time to upgrade!

A

Avalon88

Member
...and I need your advice/recommendations 🙂

Ok, here is what I've come up with so far.

Case : CoolerMaster CM 690 II
P/Supply : Antec Signature SG850W
Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-X58-UD3R
CPU : Intel i7 950
CPU Cooler : Noctua NH-U12P-SE2
RAM : Not sure...what do you recommend?
GPU : Radeon HD5870 (Asus or Gigabyte..not 2 sure,does it really matter?)
HDD : Samsung 1Tb Spinpoint F3

I want to be able to run the latest games at 1920 x 1080 and preferably maxed out settings (ie Crysis etc). What I want to know is;

1) Are there any compatibility issues with this mix of components?
2) Will a setup like this handle Crysis @ maxed settings? If not, what do I need to improve?

Open to suggestions, so please put forth what you recommend. Price isn't too much of an issue, but not up for costs of SLI/Crossfire or anything like that.

Thanks
 
PSU is way overkill, especially since you're excluding SLI/Xfire.

i7 is nice and all but I'm assuming you're mostly gaming so it's wasted resources, get yourself an i5 750/760 instead and then you can pick a less expensive mobo and ram and spend more on the GPU or just save the cash.

As for RAM, it's fairly simple. Mushkin, GSkill or Corsair tend to be favorites. With an i5, get a DDR3 1600 4GB dual channel kit. With an i7, get a DDR3 1600 6GB triple channel kit. Mushkin Blackline/Redline or GSkill ECO tend to be good picks.

Compatibility is fine so far.

Crysis maxxed depends, what do you consider playable? Anand's bench shows the 5870 getting 40something FPS on Crysis with fairly high settings on a rig that will be very similar to yours. If you want better than that, you're looking at a 470/480 or a SLI/Xfire solution.
 
Waiting 2-3 weeks for the AMD 6000 series to release will give you more graphics options, and lower prices on existing cards. Rumored unveiling dates range from the 12th to 21st of October.

Agree with the i5 750/760 recommendation. If you want to go with a 1366 chip I'd get a 930 instead, less money and you can overclock to compensate. If you go the i5 route, you can put the CPU/mobo/RAM savings towards a SSD.

Agree as well on the PSU. Even if you were planning to SLI in the future you probably only need 750W, unless you're going to run GTX 480s.
 
Another vote for i5 and lower PSU. You could wait for the 6k series. It could Drop prices significantly in the 5k series and possibly nVidia's 4xx series. It's likely to be narrowly better than the 4xx series so I would assume price point will be a little higher.
 
Ok, so how much do things change if I said I would like to do video editing with the same rig? I forgot to mention this 😱. It'd be all HD video. Would the i7 be the more sensible option then?

I'm a little confused that you can run 1156 m/board and i5 and still have, I'm assuming, a top rig for gaming? Wouldn't the CPU be a little bit of a bottleneck if you're putting a monster video card on board and playing intensive games like crysis/crysis2? I'm no expert so correct me if I'm wrong...

And regarding the PSU, it gets such good reviews and I always think the more power the better...expansion/upgrades etc..

Also...why not 8Gb? Why are 6Gb kits so popular at the moment? If I'm running Video editing software, possibly photo editing software as well, the more the better?
 
Last edited:
Avalon88 said:
Ok, so how much do things change if I said I would like to do video editing with the same rig? I forgot to mention this 😱. It'd be all HD video. Would the i7 be the more sensible option then?
Click to expand...

Maybe an 1156 i7 like the 870, because video editing does benefit from HT.

Avalon88 said:
I'm a little confused that you can run 1156 m/board and i5 and still have, I'm assuming, a top rig for gaming? Wouldn't the CPU be a little bit of a bottleneck if you're putting a monster video card on board and playing intensive games like crysis/crysis2? I'm no expert so correct me if I'm wrong...
Click to expand...

The i5 7xx, i7 8xx, and i7 9xx (except the 980X) are all the same microarchitecture. There is no appreciable clock-for-clock, thread-for-thread performance difference between them. So no, an i5 760 wouldn't "bottleneck" a GPU any more or less than an equivalently-clocked i7 9xx. In fact, the 1156 CPU's do a little better in gaming because they can turbo up higher than the 1366 CPU's, giving them a higher clock speed when it matters.

Avalon88 said:
And regarding the PSU, it gets such good reviews and I always think the more power the better...expansion/upgrades etc..
Click to expand...

Two Hundred and Fifty Dollars. That is why no one is recommending the Signature 850. There are plenty of quality PSUs available for less than half that.

And no, a ridiculously oversized PSU is not always better. If you're sitting at 10% load (85W is pretty typical for a gaming system at idle), then you're waaaay down on the PSU's efficiency curve.

Avalon88 said:
Also...why not 8Gb? Why are 6Gb kits so popular at the moment? If I'm running Video editing software, possibly photo editing software as well, the more the better?
Click to expand...

Socket 1366 uses triple-channel memory, that's why you see 3x2GB as a popular memory choice. 1156 uses dual-channel, so you will see two-module kits.
 
In benchmarks the 1156 i7 still beats the 1366 i7 clock for clock in video encoding (Where you'll use your processor most) so for video RENDERING (editing can be done on most anything) get the i7 860/870.
 
Awesome guys, thanks for the suggestions. I'm a little more clued up on the i5 range and the 860/870's, pros and cons etc.

From what I understand, an 1156 board with an 870 CPU would suit me fine for gaming and video editing with the following restrictions;

1. Max ram on 1156 limited due to dual channel configuration (versus 1366 triple channel)

2. 1156 not as well suited to SLI/Xfire due to PCI-E bandwith (8 versus 16 somethings)

But apart from that it's cheaper and just as fast!

Still don't know what I'm going to do though. Pretty sure when I get to the shops I'll just buy everything with the highest number :'(!!

Just one final question though.........

Why is everyone recommending a lower spec PC and yet their own rig is an i7 920/930 on an X58!!!????
 
Avalon88 said:
Just one final question though.........

Why is everyone recommending a lower spec PC and yet their own rig is an i7 920/930 on an X58!!!????
Click to expand...

haha... they don't want you to know the benefit of overclocking. it's much easier to oc on 1366. it's also difficult to say whether u'd benefit from triple channel ram without much details on what u'll be doing.

i'd say settling for 1156 and using savings for a boot ssd is a great tradeoff.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/107?vs=46
umm... i don't really see the 940 losing in rendering. most things are quite even so you need to stop spouting how lynnfield is faster than bloomfield, especially when you chose to buy one yourself as was mentioned.
 
X58 & i7-920 were released first, & the enthusiast crowd went with them as the high-end? Before 1156 was released, it was touted as merely "mainstream".
 
I'd also recommend throwing an SSD in the mix if you can. I'd also wait until at least mid October to see if the 6xxx series is released before buying a video card.

I've never used an i5 or i7-8xx before but I can say that my i7-930 X58 setup is computing bliss, and I don't regret the money spent on it one bit. I figured if I was going to build a new rig to last the next two years I wanted the full monty. 🙂
 
Last edited:
betasub said:
X58 & i7-920 were released first, & the enthusiast crowd went with them as the high-end? Before 1156 was released, it was touted as merely "mainstream".
Click to expand...

This. The original i7's came out in November of 08 whereas the 1156 parts didn't come out until almost a year later.

Regarding the RAM, 4GB modules are pretty cheap now, so you can go up to 16GB on an 1156 rig vs. 24GB on a 1366 one. So yes, technically lower, but is it really going to matter?

Regarding the PCIe bandwidth, scaling studies on pretty much every modern GPU have shown that x8/x8 is within a percent or two of x16/x16.
 
RaistlinZ said:
I'd also recommend throwing an SSD in the mix if you can. I'd also wait until at least mid October to see if the 6xxx series is released before buying a video card.

I've never used an i5 or i7-8xx before but I can say that my i7-930 X58 setup is computing bliss, and I don't regret the money spent on it one bit. I figured if I was going to build a new rig to last the next two years I wanted the full monty. 🙂
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm more inclined to go all out also, I'd prefer to have something last a number of years. "Computing Bliss" is what I'm after! And I think I'll take the advice of waiting for this 6xxx series. A SSD is very tempting too, but looking at the costs, I'd prefer to buy when they drop in price after they've been around a while.

Your rig is pretty much what I'm looking at, except I'm looking at the Gigabyte GAX58-UD3R instead of Asus. Don't know why, I've always had Asus, but I heard they are both excellent.

I will compromise on the P/Supply though, it seems 850W Signature is indeed overkill.
 
Avalon88 said:
Why is everyone recommending a lower spec PC and yet their own rig is an i7 920/930 on an X58!!!????
Click to expand...

I use mine for a 3D workstation. The 9xx series is better suited to 3D in benchmarks while the 8xx series is better suited to Games and video in benchmarks. Overclocking on the 9xx vs. the 8xx sees very little benefit, as does triple vs. dual channel. All this, plus the i7 9xx series were the only i7's out when I made my decision to get a workstation. With what's available now I would consider the i7 870 with 12GB RAM and an SSD. The RAM and the SSD being improvements to come in the next few years for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top