Good Time to Build?

[Aepheme]

I never thought I'd admit this, but after building a new system almost every year until 2006, I've been on a bit of a hiatus... 100% satisfied with the speed of my 4yr old laptop. I can browse the web, use office apps, and stream media to my PS3. The rare time I have for gaming I've used consoles.

That said, I just saw a review for Mass Effect 2 (wow!), and given how aggravating it was to play Fallout 3 on the console, I think it might be time for a new PC. I have three questions:

1) Is this a good time to order parts? Obviously, prices will always go down, but are there any major releases coming up that would make it wise to delay purchase? I'll be pretty busy over the next few months and could conceivably wait if there's something big on the horizon.

2) I'm interested in a "best-value-for-the-money" system that can play Mass Effect 2 @ 1080p smoothly. It's unlikely I'll upgrade (so, SLI isn't critical) and it's also unlikely I'll overclock significantly (so, no watercooling or whatever). Are there retail systems (eg, Dell) that are more cost effective these days than building your own?

3) Any recent build guides out there that are useful? SE and AT are both outdated. From a few threads, it seems like everyone's going for the Intel i7 920, Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R, Radeon HD5850. Is that the basic value-optimal build?

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,

1. CPU/MOBO it's a great time to grab something new. Quads go from $100. You can get a CPU/MOBO combo in the 3ghz quad area for less than $300. Or you can get into overclocking and do much higher on that budget. Tons of options here. And the prices are very good. You get so much for your dollar these days on CPUs. RAM is where it hurts right now though. RAM used to be cheap and it's just gotten more and more expensive with everything out there also sucking up the supply chain (mobile devices, phones, SSD, etc). So RAM is pricey these days. Nothing you can do about it though. GPU wise, prices are ok. But they could be better. Great GPUs on the market, and you can get great value, but there's a lot of big potential monsters around the corner that may change things up a lot, but then again, may not. Sort of a gamble.

2. ME2 isn't hard to run actually. A simple dualcore and an 8xxx series nVidia card and ATI equiv can run it. For a smooth 1080p experience, maybe look at GTX260 and HD4870 level performance ($200 range GPU). You can build a nice dualcore system with an HD5770 for less than $500 which will play ME2 at 1080p fine. And I'd always build over buying a premade.

3. HD5850 is a $300 card. Hardly value-optimal if you're just playing games like ME2. That's hard, hard overkill for that game. More like HD5770 ($150). You certainly don't need a $200+ Mobo and nearly $300 CPU either. You can get a simple Regor dualcore for $65 (2.9Ghz) and a Gigabyte 780/790 series motherboard $(60~90) and play that game and others fine. Depends how much you really want to spend. Or look at Anandtech's latest review on i3 530 (dualcore), and plop an HD5770 on that (or wait for nVidia's new DX11 offering).

Very best,

 

[jacktesterson]

Budget Build? a i920/5850 is not exactly budget.


I'd recommend a Phenom II 9xx series, a AMD 785g Motherboard, and a ATI 5770.

It will play 1080p fine in almost any game and if you think your 4 yr old laptop is fine at Apps, this machine will be a beast. Save some money if your not looking to game all the time. This will be a great PC.

 

[Blain]

Good Time to Build?

Yes

 

[The Sauce]

It's a good time. Memory prices are a bit high, though. I just built an i5 750 that handily overclocked to 4400 MHz for $200. How can you beat that? 5830 should be out within a week and should be an excellent mid range gaming card.

 

[Aepheme]

Thanks for all the input!

I ended up weighing some of the options and buying parts.

Probably not the best idea (it's so easy to keep on justifying as you climb the budget -> premium ladder), but I'm looking forward to putting it all together when everything arrives in a few days...