New Gaming Rig - for 720p plasma tv

[Darkkef]

Hello guys, wassssup. Im a long time reader of anand, never registered cause never had the need i was confortable just reading. I'm a Colombian Citizen Never actually needed to buy on US soil, but since last year prices tripled here, and last tech goodies never get here. So i decide to get advantage of my relatives up there and decided to get her to buy me a gaming rig and a Nexus one, total budget 1200 bucks, discount N1 price and that leave us with a 5-600 bucks (willing to squeeze that pocket). I have a plasma TV 42' , 720p, in ocasions i play on the leaving room tv, its a LCD 42' 1080, but mostly 720p.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: two weeks to one and half months.

BUDGET RANGE: US 500-700?? already mentioned on intro the cheaper the better but im also willing to spend more if im convinced. dont know if my dumb cousin would learn to use the rebates.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Mostly gaming, hardcore gaming if possible, hoping stays vital to upcoming games 2-3 yrs mybe.

PARTS NOT REQUIREd : keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, Hardrive not totally necessary but if budget allows it'll be welcome. no dvd drive or other periferals needed either.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com cause its the one it get better reviews, but anything that get the cheaper work done its ok. keep in mind my cousin lives on florida.

PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD its my favorite, but im seeing good gaming value on the i5 so no strings attached, best gaming value for the price, but ixxxx or phenom II xxx, no less than that. the hd5850 was my favorite but i think its too xpensive right now, so 5830vs5770 vs 4970 vs 4890 vs gtx 260 ? ? idk give your thoughts.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe probbably no but im a courius guy. SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: plasma hd tv 720p.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: i want flashy case wit lights and some fan speed-temperature - controller would be fine.

PS: Sorry for my english.

 

[MisterDonut]

The 5830 is WAY overpriced. Anand has an article on it (http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3750). What kind of games are you going to play? I would try to move money for a 5850 if you do hardcore gaming and have a good card for the future. You could probably put together a cheap setup. AMD A2 620 Propus ($95) + Gigabyte UD4P ($95 AR) + 4gb G.Skill ECO 1333 ($110) + Antec 300 ($55) + OCZ 600w ($55 AR) + XFX 5850 ($300). This puts you at $710 before taxes. I got close

 

[0roo0roo]

720p is pretty darn far from hardcore, its extremely low res for pc gaming. 1megapixel vs 1080p which is 2mp, 30" computer monitors have 4mp. not much work to drive at all

 

[MrK6]

Before I suggest anything, are you planning on overclocking?

 

[Darkkef]

The 5830 is WAY overpriced. Anand has an article on it (http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3750). What kind of games are you going to play? I would try to move money for a 5850 if you do hardcore gaming and have a good card for the future. You could probably put together a cheap setup. AMD A2 620 Propus ($95) + Gigabyte UD4P ($95 AR) + 4gb G.Skill ECO 1333 ($110) + Antec 300 ($55) + OCZ 600w ($55 AR) + XFX 5850 ($300). This puts you at $710 before taxes. I got close

Yes i actually dont want 5830, i already reed that article, totally agree on overprice, but as i state dont want less than phenom II x4 or at least athlon II x4, wouldnt x2 athlon ii botleneck the gpu??, thinking on 5850, does the 30% wotrh over the 5770, or should i better 5770 now a cf later??. the rest of the rig looks exactly what i was thinking. I wanna be able to play crisis.

720p is pretty darn far from hardcore, its extremely low res for pc gaming. 1megapixel vs 1080p which is 2mp, 30" computer monitors have 4mp. not much work to drive at all

but as i stated i often play on fullhd lcd 42', i play on both COD:MW2 with a 9600 of my hp dv6 laptop. and looks amazing. So whats your suggestion rig??

Before I suggest anything, are you planning on overclocking?

not really u know, im waiting for TLC USA\COL to upgrade again, so i want the most lifespan of my parts.

 

[0roo0roo]

its not that big a deal to run in 1080p is all, never mind 720p. look at the hardware chart and reviews and choose the card you can afford.
now if you were running 2560x1600 then yes you'd have to be more careful. these new cards are trying to run eyefinity 3x screen setups these days, so we are pretty far past a single display at only hd res being hard to do.

 

[Darkkef]

its not that big a deal to run in 1080p is all, never mind 720p. look at the hardware chart and reviews and choose the card you can afford.
now if you were running 2560x1600 then yes you'd have to be more careful. these new cards are trying to run eyefinity 3x screen setups these days, so we are pretty far past a single display at only hd res being hard to do.

So you think ill be ok with a hd 5770, im not planning to eyefinnity right now so. . ??

 

[0roo0roo]

So you think ill be ok with a hd 5770, im not planning to eyefinnity right now so. . ??

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=5
you want a little more.
58xx
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3679&p=8
but if you lower graphics settings you could get away with less.
your call.

 

[Davidh373]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-222-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...h55%20evga

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-190-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-294-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-140-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-030-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n=5770&x=0&y=0

Total = 777.83 with tax and shipping, I know it's over budget, but if you wanted you could put in an i5 quad core for an extra $70. In the future you can upgrade to the i7, possibly sandy beach. I've always been an intel guy, but have recommended AMD when price calls for it. If you want to save some money go with AMD, but I would still recommend the other parts.

 

[alyarb]

for 1280x720 i would just get a 5750... do not spend more than $50 on a 500GB disk. frankly if your machine is going to work as a quasi-htpc i would get a terabyte hdd. you do not need to overclock anything to run any game at that resolution and you do not need to sabotage a simple build with SLI or crossfire.

 

[Davidh373]

for 1280x720 i would just get a 5750... do not spend more than $50 on a 500GB disk. frankly if your machine is going to work as a quasi-htpc i would get a terabyte hdd. you do not need to overclock anything to run any game at that resolution and you do not need to sabotage a simple build with SLI or crossfire.

Good point on the G-Card, I would still get a 5770, but either or is fine. The main money saving he can manage is with chipset. AMD offers a better price, but I believe intel has the better product and longer product life.

A $50 Hard Drive is not a good idea, I'll give you as low as $70 but once you get that low in price the quality of the product isn't there anymore. I recommended him a professional grade HDD for two reasons, longevity and reliability. I see that HD lasting him a very long time. A $50 500GB hard drive, for one doesn't exist on newegg or TigerDirect, and even if it did would not even be a high quality brand like WD or Seagate. It will probably be a Mitsubishi from 5 years ago, and would break down in only a few short years. There is a 500GB drive for $56. It's an old model in the WD Caviar Blue series. It doesn't come with a recommendation from me, but if he wants he can try to save $15 for a much slower and lower quality drive.

 

[0roo0roo]

for 1280x720 i would just get a 5750... do not spend more than $50 on a 500GB disk. frankly if your machine is going to work as a quasi-htpc i would get a terabyte hdd. you do not need to overclock anything to run any game at that resolution and you do not need to sabotage a simple build with SLI or crossfire.

slightly more, at 720p you NEED fsaa

 

[0roo0roo]

and theres no evidence that a 50 dollar hd is any different in reliability. generally its just the same as the others with a lower platter count.

 

[jilikeslego]

beast graphix card for its price (sapphire radeon somethin somethin) : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102858

memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277
also what I'm getting, but if you really want an extremely good computer, buy another 1 gig ram stick, to upgrade to 5gb ram

dats da 1 ima get 4 my gaming build. if u wanna view my setup, go here: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2052558

*COUGH COUGH COUGH*

HINT-VIEW MY POST!!!!

 

[Davidh373]

The Caviar Blue has a higher fail rate than professional RE3 Drives, plus they aren't as fast. What is the point in not spending $15 for a high grade product? I can't understand the opposite logic. I could understand if we were building a $400 office/ home build, but $800 is plenty to splurge an extra $15. It's relatively inexpensive and it is

http://hothardware.com/News/WD-Introduces-RE3-Enterprise-SATA-Hard-Drives/

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2332447,00.asp

The Caviar Black and Hitachi Desk Star beats it, but the DeskStars have a rep. for being unreliable. There is one of those on newegg for 54.99. The Caviar Black is the same price as the RE3, but it is sold out in the 500GB.

 

[Davidh373]

and theres no evidence that a 50 dollar hd is any different in reliability. generally its just the same as the others with a lower platter count.

The Caviar Blue has a higher fail rate than professional RE3 Drives, plus they aren't as fast. What is the point in not spending $15 for a high grade product? I can't understand the opposite logic. I could understand if we were building a $400 office/ home build, but $800 is plenty to splurge an extra $15. It's relatively inexpensive and it is

http://hothardware.com/News/WD-Introduces-RE3-Enterprise-SATA-Hard-Drives/

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2332447,00.asp

I was wrong on this portion of my previous post, the RE3 definitely beats both.

 

[alyarb]

Samsung F3 500GB drives very reliable and cost less than $60. Hard drive reliability correlates with the manufacturer, not price, and Samsung has the best track record with the high density disks. Other good deals would be the WD 640 for $70 or the samsung 1tb F3 for $90.

For 500GB/platter drives, you may find this as a shock, but WD and Seagate are no longer quality brands in the consumer price segments. Ever since seagate's firmware fiasco a while back I've only seen reliability stagnate at an unacceptable low. Haven't heard of any good experiences with the large WD disks, either. Samsung on the other hand continues to impress me and if you've never owned one it's too bad. There is nothing wrong with a $55 disk if it's made by the right people like Samsung. In fact, you should ask newegg about it and they'll tell you it's out of stock. ZZF will tell you its out of stock too, and provantage says they only have 12 in stock currently. The drive is fast, reliable, and competitively priced and the fact that its sold out everywhere speaks to that clearly.

People who are exclusively loyal to WD are going to be disappointed when they want to double up on some WD15/WD20EARS and find out how long (or how short) they last. I learned my lesson 2 years ago.

 

[0roo0roo]

The Caviar Blue has a higher fail rate than professional RE3 Drives, plus they aren't as fast. What is the point in not spending $15 for a high grade product? I can't understand the opposite logic. I could understand if we were building a $400 office/ home build, but $800 is plenty to splurge an extra $15. It's relatively inexpensive and it is

http://hothardware.com/News/WD-Introduces-RE3-Enterprise-SATA-Hard-Drives/

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2332447,00.asp

The Caviar Black and Hitachi Desk Star beats it, but the DeskStars have a rep. for being unreliable. There is one of those on newegg for 54.99. The Caviar Black is the same price as the RE3, but it is sold out in the 500GB.

yes but wheres the evidence of reliability other than non scientific anecdotal evidence?

 

[Darkkef]

Samsung F3 500GB drives very reliable and cost less than $60. Hard drive reliability correlates with the manufacturer, not price, and Samsung has the best track record with the high density disks. Other good deals would be the WD 640 for $70 or the samsung 1tb F3 for $90.

For 500GB/platter drives, you may find this as a shock, but WD and Seagate are no longer quality brands in the consumer price segments. Ever since seagate's firmware fiasco a while back I've only seen reliability stagnate at an unacceptable low. Haven't heard of any good experiences with the large WD disks, either. Samsung on the other hand continues to impress me and if you've never owned one it's too bad. There is nothing wrong with a $55 disk if it's made by the right people like Samsung. In fact, you should ask newegg about it and they'll tell you it's out of stock. ZZF will tell you its out of stock too, and provantage says they only have 12 in stock currently. The drive is fast, reliable, and competitively priced and the fact that its sold out everywhere speaks to that clearly.

People who are exclusively loyal to WD are going to be disappointed when they want to double up on some WD15/WD20EARS and find out how long (or how short) they last. I learned my lesson 2 years ago.

Actually i had a Samsung drive, since 2005 and still working, so i think i agree with you¡¡

 

[Darkkef]

What do u think of this rig, its mobile and small, still im not such a fan of microATX so could replace case with antec 300 ande board with Gigabyte 770T-UD3P. Can i get equally F.R with this athlon ii instead of phenom ii??