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Gaming build

D

Da5id

Junior Member
Hey everyone, I posted this same thread over at [H] and got some good suggestions. Thought I'd let you guys take a stab at it as well. Here's the thread at hardforum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1511087

1. Uses: heavy gaming, office work (no photoshop/video encoding)
2. Budget: Under $2k but I'd like to get the price as low as possible without too many compromises.
3. Country: US of A
4. Brand preference: Intel for procs, the rest I don't care about.
5. Recycling parts: 1TB HD for storage, monitor, keyboard/mouse
6. Similar threads: yes
7. Overclocking: no
8. Video resolution: 1920x1200
9. Build timeline: now

Here's what I have so far:
89.99 LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower Computer Case
209.99 GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R Mobo
419.99 XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870
119.99 CORSAIR CMPSU-650HX 650W PSU
294.99 Intel Core i7 930
224.99 Intel X25-M 80gb SSD
169.99 G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
109.99 ASUS blu-ray reader + dvd/cd burner

Total cost: 1639.92

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
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Looks fine to me.

I'm not a big fan of I7 gaming machines, I don't think the small performance increase is worth the $200 you have to spend on CPU+Mobo+RAM vs AMD solution. That said, if you won't miss the cash, then have at it. 🙂
 
If this is for pure gaming and you're sticking with a single card, you should not really be choosing 1366 unless you're already have the processor or getting it from Microcenter. Your budget is really comfortable, but you'll get no real performance boost, and with the i7-860, you'll have a better turbo (1366 can't turbo for shit). The SSD is also something you'll get no boost from. Loading is mostly sequential r/w, so the only real world boost you'd get from it is one HELL of a fast boot. I'd stick with good ol' mechanical unless you want to jump into the SSD market (even if, I'd just get something cheaper for boot; again, games get no benefit).

If you want Intel, I'd go with the i7-860/750 + compatible motherboard. Otherwise, AMD will give you pretty much identical results for a little bit cheaper and the option to upgrade to Thuban if you ever find the need (I hope games don't take it that far). I know you want an Intel processor, but it's not like it lacks performance (and it's cheap). All in all, you can save a ton of money from the SSD and processor without really losing performance. You can even invest the money into an Eyefinity setup 🙂.

EDIT: Oh, and, welcome to AT 🙂.
 
Donut is right. If you went for a Phenom II 955 BE and a reasonable AMD motherboard, 4GB of RAM and a Samsung F3 Spinpoint HD instead of SSD and X58 platform, you could get Crossfired 5850s instead of the 5870 with the same budget. A little cheaper, in fact.


SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

$54.99 select item



ASRock 890GX Extreme3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

-$25.00 Instant
$154.99 $129.99 select item

XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity $619.98 ($309.99 each)

Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT25664BN1337
$113.99

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGMBOX
$159.99

Total $1,078.94

Add in your case: $90
Blue ray player: $110
PW: $100
CPU cooler: $30

And you are looking at $1400ish, not counting rebates, shipping and applicable tax. Plenty in the budget to upgrade to a 1TB HD. The extra $200 you could put towards another monitor for Eyeinfinity fun.
 
I wouldn't go CFX. @ 1920x1200, one 5870 can already smash anything out of the market. You'll miss the money more than the performance difference. Stick with 1 card, AMD/1156. Even on stock volts, you can bump up a 955BE to about 3.6ghz. It's ridiculously easy. Otherwise the rest above will work together like bread and butter. Bottom line when selecting parts: Shouldn't be spending money on performance you'll never use. Best of luck 🙂.
 
Da5id said:
1. Uses: heavy gaming, office work (no photoshop/video encoding)
2. Budget: Under $2k but I'd like to get the price as low as possible without too many compromises.
3. Country: US of A
4. Brand preference: Intel for procs, the rest I don't care about.
5. Recycling parts: 1TB HD for storage, monitor, keyboard/mouse
6. Similar threads: yes
7. Overclocking: no
8. Video resolution: 1920x1200
9. Build timeline: now
Click to expand...

The build looks pretty good.
 
Agree with Donut about 1366. For your uses, the 860 is the better chip. You'll save some money and get the same performance (or better performance in poorly-threaded apps). You can go with a mobo like the GA-P55A-UD3 ($135), the i7 860 ($280) and either 4GB or 8GB of G.Skill Ripjaws or normal G.Skill ($110 or $220). The two types of memory are the same DRAM and SPD coding, IIRC, only the heatspreader is different.

I see that you have a 1TB HDD in there for bulk storage, so you should be good to go with the X25-M. It is insanely fast, and will be awesome for general usage: "Firefox, Word, and Excel loading times, what are those???" 😀
 
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MisterDonut said:
If this is for pure gaming and you're sticking with a single card, you should not really be choosing 1366 unless you're already have the processor or getting it from Microcenter. Your budget is really comfortable, but you'll get no real performance boost, and with the i7-860, you'll have a better turbo (1366 can't turbo for shit). The SSD is also something you'll get no boost from. Loading is mostly sequential r/w, so the only real world boost you'd get from it is one HELL of a fast boot. I'd stick with good ol' mechanical unless you want to jump into the SSD market (even if, I'd just get something cheaper for boot; again, games get no benefit).

If you want Intel, I'd go with the i7-860/750 + compatible motherboard. Otherwise, AMD will give you pretty much identical results for a little bit cheaper and the option to upgrade to Thuban if you ever find the need (I hope games don't take it that far). I know you want an Intel processor, but it's not like it lacks performance (and it's cheap). All in all, you can save a ton of money from the SSD and processor without really losing performance. You can even invest the money into an Eyefinity setup 🙂.

EDIT: Oh, and, welcome to AT 🙂.
Click to expand...

Note that he's not solely using the build for gaming, so the SSD will be very nice indeed.
 
Thanks for all the responses and the warm welcome.

My affinity for Intel processors is not really based on any logical reasoning. It's just what I'm familiar with and they have always served me well in the past.

Looking at the suggestions above, there are significant savings to be had with going to an AMD solution. The price/performance ratio of an AMD system is also probably better than an Intel system. I'm going to do a littler more research to figure out where I want to spend my money.

And yes, I'd really like to get into the SSD world right now. The cost/GB is outrageous compared to "old fashioned" drives but my itch for speed is getting the better of me.
 
Donut said something above about Microcenter, which is a store that I have never heard of. Turns out there's a mircocenter in Denver which is about 45 minutes away from me. I can get an i7 930 for $199.99. Pretty tempting...
 
Microcenter can have some great deals, but when choosing your processor, there are very, very few games out right now that are CPU-dependent. Even if 1366 was cheap, the RAM + motherboard would still cost a lot more than an AMD setup. Fry's usually has some REALLY great deals on the P2 955's (it's not just 1366 that have great deals 😉). Furthermore, since you are not overclocking, you're much better off with the turbo boost on the i7-860, if you are really intent on getting an Intel chip.
 
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