New gaming rig, any feedback?

[MalkoMann]

Hi,

after not having built a rig in 5-6 years, I have tried doing my homework and have come up with the following suggestion. The rig is mostly for gaming, and I expect to be able to run all new and coming games (not expecting 60 fps Crysis though) at an affordable price. Any comments are appreciated, as there may be some angles I'm not aware of.


GFX: ASUS RADEON 4870 512MB

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz

Mobo: ASUS P5Q-E iP45

RAM: 4 GB (2x2) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 MHz

PSU: Corsair 550W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB (may buy a 1TB)


I am planning on re-using my old case. A few questions:

1) I have been weighing the GTX 260 against the 4870 512MB for some time now. There are like hundreds of threads with people arguing for and against either card, and I find it impossible to assign an edge to one of them. Any input here is welcome, also on the 4870 1GB version.

2) Is 4 GB RAM overkill?

3) Will 550W be able to run this setup?


Prices arent included, as I live in Denmark and comparison to American retailers is pretty difficult. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Blain]

Don't they sell WD "Black" HDs in Denmark?

 

[dangman4ever]

1) I'd go with the GTX260 since Nvidia's video card partners (BFG, eVGA, XFX) offer a better warranty and support than their ATI counterparts (Sapphire, HIS, Powercolor)
2) Nope
3) Yup. The Corsair 550W is more than enough for your current rig since it has 41A on the +12V rail, much more than many 550W PSUs can provide.

 

[MalkoMann]

@Blain

They sure do. The HDD is certainly not the main feature of this build, any particular reason for you suggesting WD over Seagate?

@Dangman

The 4870 I've been looking at is made by ASUS, I've never heard anything problematic about their warranties. Thanks for input!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Originally posted by: MalkoMann
Hi,

after not having built a rig in 5-6 years, I have tried doing my homework and have come up with the following suggestion. The rig is mostly for gaming, and I expect to be able to run all new and coming games (not expecting 60 fps Crysis though) at an affordable price. Any comments are appreciated, as there may be some angles I'm not aware of.


GFX: ASUS RADEON 4870 512MB

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz

Mobo: ASUS P5Q-E iP45

RAM: 4 GB (2x2) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 MHz

PSU: Corsair 550W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB (may buy a 1TB)


I am planning on re-using my old case. A few questions:

1) I have been weighing the GTX 260 against the 4870 512MB for some time now. There are like hundreds of threads with people arguing for and against either card, and I find it impossible to assign an edge to one of them. Any input here is welcome, also on the 4870 1GB version.

2) Is 4 GB RAM overkill?

3) Will 550W be able to run this setup?


Prices arent included, as I live in Denmark and comparison to American retailers is pretty difficult. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

I have a Enermax Liberty 500 running my 8400 machine (see sig) with a Raptor and a storage drive.

4Gb is not overkill

Usually the 1Gb model vid cards are for larger monitors, say over 1280x1024

ATI/AMD is offering something new to their 8.12 drivers. Something about streaming HD encoding or something like that. Besides that, I think ATI/AMD offers a better complete package. Drivers are updated almost every month. BY ATI/AMD; not some hack job I've seen with the other not to mention...

 

[DSF]

For XP Pro, 4GB isn't necessary, but it doesn't hurt anything, and can provide some small benefits. For a Vista64 rig I wouldn't want less than 4GB. I use 1GB just sitting at a blank desktop.

Edit: Incidentally, I'm talking about a gaming rig. Just doing basic computer work you're fine with 2GB in Vista.

 

[Rabbits]

4GB is good, 2GB is the minimum if your running vista.
Other then that, it looks pretty decent.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Rabbits
4GB is good, 2GB is the minimum if your running vista.

Is there really any point trying to run Vista with less than 16GBs?