New Build... Need some advice

[trinislacker]

Finally decided to upgrade my rig. Planing to Buy tonight or early Tomorrow.

current setup:

Mobo: ga-g31m-es2l
CPU: e5200
GPU: ATI 4850
PSU: 750 tx
RAM: 2 x 2GB
OS: Vista

My Next Rig:

Mobo: GA-P55A-UD3P
CPU: i5 750
Ram: 2 x 2gb 1600C9
OS: Win7

Will be reusing my case, peripherals, GPU and PSU. Gaming resolution is 1920 x 1080. Later down the Year I plan to replace my GPU and HD after Fermi and Intel 22nm or G3 as well as add a cpu cooler for a small OC maybe a hyper 212 @ 3.2 .

my main concern are whether

1) 4gb is enough
2) if my 4850 can cope with current games at max settings
3) my chosen motherboard

 

[klocwerk]

Looks like you're going for a very budget upgrade, so I'll do comments with that in mind.

1: 4gb is definitely enough for gaming at the moment.
2: Try it with the upgraded proc/ram. At worst tweak the settings down a notch until Fermi drops and you upgrade your GPU.
3: no help from me on p55's, sorry. I went LGA1366.

 

[trinislacker]

i thing i'll bite the bullet and go with an 80gb G2. Those 4 parts comes to roughly $800 excluding OS


EDIT: the 80gb G2 is going to cost $250 is there a better SSD at that price?

 

[klocwerk]

i thing i'll bite the bullet and go with an 80gb G2. Those 4 parts comes to roughly $800 excluding OS

If you don't mind paying for it, SSDs are freaking amazing. I have an 80gb G1 and it's impressively snappy.
That said, they're going to be dropping in price more than anything else in the next year or two, worth waiting on if you're pinching pennies.

 

[MisterDonut]

If this rig is for sole gaming purposes, I'd take the money you'd have spent on the SSD and put it towards a new GPU. SSD's are nice, yes, but you get better gaming's worth out of a stronger GPU. I'm not sure if 4850 can handle the recent games (like BFBC2, etc) at that resolution on highest detail.

4GB is enough. And as zagood will expect me to...for your heatsink, Scythe Mugen 2! Impressed the hell out of me for $40.

 

[trinislacker]

this is gonna be and all purpose main rig. i going to turn my e5200/es2l into a file server. i have a hyper 212 i think i'll use that and see what temps i get at 3.0/3.2

 

[trinislacker]

Another upgrade path i on looking into is a LGA 1366:

Asus P6T
i7 930
3 x 2gb

It's going to cost roughly $200 more. so thats $1000 for an i7 x58 compared to an $800 i5 p55

Is that 200 dollars worth the upgrade?

 

[MisterDonut]

Only "gaming" reason you would need to move to 1366 is if you're gonna run multiple GPU's. Otherwise, 1156 is better for your money, but I can't speak for the rest of your needs (doesn't seem like you'd need the 1366 platform).

 

[simonizor]

If I were you, I would try and find a 4890. They are around $200 and it would stop on a 4850. I currently have a 4850 and it runs pretty much all of my games at close to max settings. Newer games, however, will not run at max settings. I usually have to at least disable AA... depending on the game (Crysis for example) medium settings may be needed. You could also get a second 4850 if you have a good enough PSU and your get/have a motherboard that supports crossfire.

Again, if I were you, I would go AMD as opposed to Intel. You will see the same performance in game from the top end AMD chip (which costs $190), and the motherboard will probably be cheaper than one for the Intel socket. Going with an AMD build would allow you to get a 4890 and probably still be cheaper than the Intel build you have configured.

Another edit, lol:
If you really wanted to save some money, you could so some research on your current motherboard and see if it supports quad core processors. If so, you would get a very good performance increase by simply buying something like a q9550 and a 4890 or a second 4850.

 

[MisterDonut]

I wouldn't buy a 9550 to suit gaming. It's an old 775 socket, and sure, you might save money with the motherboard, but you'd have to upgrade a lot sooner than if you shelled out about $80 more for the 1156. Not too many games nowadays are CPU-stressing, so if you want a better gaming experience, you should be looking for faster cards. An i5-750 would be a fantastic processor if you'd like to get something on the newer platforms. Otherwise a 955 Deneb or 620 Propus could suffice as a bang-for-buck processor. But again, see if you can't pick up a nice 5770 or 4890 to replace that 4850, which won't handle that resolution too well (at high settings).

 

[trinislacker]

FYI, made the purchase last night-

i750
P55A-UD3
80gb G2

 

[mfenn]

FYI, made the purchase last night-

i750
P55A-UD3
80gb G2

Looks good! Hope you got some ram to go with it! :awe:

 

[trinislacker]

Ram choices are pretty limited so naturally i went with 2 x 2 1600 C9

will re using my 650 hx and 4850 till fermi

plan to get a smaller psu and use the 650 to power a car amplifier and head unit for my pc audio.

 

[batuchka]

Again, if I were you, I would go AMD as opposed to Intel. You will see the same performance in game from the top end AMD chip (which costs $190), and the motherboard will probably be cheaper than one for the Intel socket. Going with an AMD build would allow you to get a 4890 and probably still be cheaper than the Intel build you have configured.

The problem is some forums are fed with reviews/articles that bench chips and $200-300 GPUs +++ on low res/settings and give the impression that all of us have to pump into super expensive platforms when every gamer worth his/her salt knows that 'real' gamer settings would push back the bottleneck to the GPU zzzz.....hence my advice to all to gloss over several reviews while logically matching the resolution/settings people would game on when buying good GPUs

Example : here we have $USD 76 AthlonII X3 435 in games high/very high settings max not looking the least bit ruffled in the company of chips 2-4 times its cost
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/athlon2_phenom2_2010/12.htm