options for my new build

wheelman73

looking for advice on my new build.  ive gotten great info/reviews from this site so i figued this would be the place to come for some advice on my new build.  any feedback would be great and appreciated.  heres what i got so far:

 

AMD Phenom II x4 2.8GHz

Corsair XMS3 4GB RAM

Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

Killer K1 NIC

Asus Radeon HD 4890 1GB or Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 x2 2GB

 

not trying to break the bank w/ this build.  im hoping this set up to run games at max settings.  any recommendations?  

thanks in advance 

Tibbz

Dont waste your money on the Nic.... check out tomshardware.com and do a sarch on it, not worth the mone imho.

I would say nab a 4850X2 best bang for your buck out there and not nearly as $$$ as teh 4870X2

ZivaDomini

BE WARY!

I have the

Asus M4A79T-Deluxe MOBO

AMD Phenom II X4 3.2 GHZ

Killer KI NIC

ATI Radeon 4870 X2

 ATI's drivers fail constantly. I've worked on this computer for a month myself, and had a "professional" technician look at it for 2 weeks himself. Neither of us can get it working properly. I've also e-mailed ATI (AMD) about this issue and am currently waiting on them to e-mail me back.

I have to do a restart everytime I want to play a game because the drivers fail on the first attempt everytime.

wheelman73

i figured the Killer K1 card would be a good option but could have done w/o it i think. 

i planned on going w/ ATI b/c of the cost of the cards and figured good bang for the buck.  havent heard anyone complain of bad drivers w/ it. 

im wanting to play Aoc, Crysis and others on max setting which is why i chose the 4890 or the 4870.   if there is a more cost effective GPU to get the same results im all ears...

ZivaDomini

I'd go with the 4890, then. Atleast personally after my negative experience. I know the drivers are the same but who knows, maybe it's just the set up I have with the hardware that's causing the issue.

noquarter

Yea the only time the Killer NIC comes into play is if you have your entire bandwidth being used and then a simple QoS/bandwidth cap setting accomplishes nearly the same thing as the Killer NIC provides.

wheelman73

Originally posted by noquarter


Yea the only time the Killer NIC comes into play is if you have your entire bandwidth being used...

 

i didnt even think of it that way. 

i did think of sparing no expense in the GPU b/c its the most important part in a gaming rig, IMO.  so any other card recommendations w/ that being said?

ive always been partial to AMD proceesors b/c of the lower price and good performance.  

how much of a PSU should i use for this setup?  i was thinking no less than 650.

 

thanks for all the great info so far... 

noquarter

If you are looking for a premium GPU you *might* just want to wait 3 months for the 5870 to come out which will have DX11 support and supposed to be twice as fast as what's out now.

Agricola1

I have some options in here for you click

wheelman73

Originally posted by noquarter


If you are looking for a premium GPU you *might* just want to wait 3 months for the 5870 to come out which will have DX11 support and supposed to be twice as fast as what's out now.

 

it would be nice but, how much that going to run me?  prolly alot more than i really want to spend now.  although the build may not be completed till sometime in Sept so ill have to see what info is put out then about 5870 pricing.

wheelman73

Originally posted by Agricola1


I have some options in here for you click

 

i did see that thread and has lots of nice options, good work.  i have considered those builds.

wheelman73

any ideas on a PSU?  i cant remeber what i got now but im sure ill need more,  i think its a 500.

wheelman73

bored at work today and went looking at some more hardware.  think me what you all think of this:

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2GHz

G.Skill 4GB DDR3

XFX Radeon 4890

Gigabyte MA790XT

cost: $574.03 w/o shipping from newegg...

Cleffy

The Gigabyte AMD boards haven't been too good lately.  The ideal picks for AMD from the current generation are ASUS, MSI, ASROCK, and Foxconn.

A 500w PSU is fine as long as it has 2 6-pin PCI-e connectors.

wheelman73

i was acutally just talking to a friend about that tonight.  i going to revisit my build tomorrow and look into a differant mobo.

ZivaDomini

I typically don't go below 650 when dealing with large graphics cards. But that's just me.

Asus is still, in my opinion, the best in motherboards. So they're always the first makers I look at. There's also the debate about just waiting for the new line of cards to come out that will support DX11. Whether you want DX11 or not it'll still drop the prices of these cards.

wheelman73

i went back and did some looking into Asus mobos and found an interesting combo deal:

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2 GHz and a Asus M4A79T Deluxe 790FX mobo for $270

revisited the GPU as well:

Sapphire Vapor-X 4870 2GB

RAM:

PNY Optima 4GB

any thought on this?  im kinda liking it especially for $576.  any input would be appreciated.

wheelman73

any thoughts on the new specs?

Tygrr

Your build is very similar to my build.  Bought from newegg and waiting for shipping. I'm very excited about the build, only thing that I'm concerned about is the drivers for the graphics card. I have heard of ATi drivers being bad. I almost bought a Geforce 260 GTX instead of the 4890.

Reason I went with the 4890 is because the "Dragon Platform" I hear that the MOBO,CPU and GPU all sync in very well. So I figured I'd give it a try. Also a friend of mine has 2 of them crossfire and he tells me they are KILLER!!!!

 

M4A79 Deluxe Board

Sapphire Radeon 4890

AMD Phenom 940 X4

G Skill 4G 1066

Western Digital 640GB 7200 rpm

Cooler Master HAF 922 Case + 700W Cooler Master PSU Modular Cables.

wheelman73

how much did you spend?  if you dont mind me asking...

 

i heard alot about the drivers as well.  but like you im taking a chance and hope i will have no issues.  keep me posted on your build if you can.  im interested in how it works out for you.

Dameonk

Originally posted by ZivaDomini


I have to do a restart everytime I want to play a game because the drivers fail on the first attempt everytime.

Not trying to derail the topic here, but when a video card driver fails when starting a game it usually means you have a bad video card.

Not saying it's definitely your problem, but you should try exchanging the card and see if it solves your issue.

Tygrr

Originally posted by Tygrr


Your build is very similar to my build.  Bought from newegg and waiting for shipping. I'm very excited about the build, only thing that I'm concerned about is the drivers for the graphics card. I have heard of ATi drivers being bad. I almost bought a Geforce 260 GTX instead of the 4890.
Reason I went with the 4890 is because the "Dragon Platform" I hear that the MOBO,CPU and GPU all sync in very well. So I figured I'd give it a try. Also a friend of mine has 2 of them crossfire and he tells me they are KILLER!!!!
 
M4A79 Deluxe Board
Sapphire Radeon 4890
AMD Phenom 940 X4
G Skill 4G 1066
Western Digital 640GB 7200 rpm
Cooler Master HAF 922 Case + 700W Cooler Master PSU Modular Cables.

M4A79 Deluxe Board = $100

Sapphire Radeon 4890 + AMD Phenom 940 X4 = $300

G Skill 4GB 1066 = $50

Western Digital 640GB =$75

Cooler Master HAF 922 Case + 700W Cooler Master PSU Modular Cables =$200

Total = $725

Thats what I spent so far. Bought everything off of Newegg except for the MOBO. I will keep you posted with my build. I am also trying to do another build as well. For my other build I spent half the money of the first and I think it will perform just as good. I think my first build is probably overkill for what I will be using the PC for.

M2N-SLi Deluxe Board

eVGA 8800 GTS OC Edititon x2 in SLI

AData 2GB 800MHz

Athlon AMD X2 5600+

Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200RPM

Apevia 680W

wheelman73

well im at $655 from Newegg w/ my build.  i got a AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE and its still less than your build, but im sure once i add a couple more things it'll be in the same $$$ as yours.  im stuck on the GPU now.  was going to go w/ a Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon 4870 2GB but im debating on the XFX Radeon 4890 1GB. 

that would be cool if you keep me posted w/ your build.  when you plan on starting it?  i prolly wont start mine till next month.

xiirot

I personally recommend video cards from eVGA.  However, I think they only manufacture NVIDIA cards.  But since you're going with AMD, ATI might be the better option.

 

The folks over at overclock.net usually swear by GSKILL, mostly for overclocking.  I'm using GSKILL in my desktop and my laptop, I haven't had any issues with GSKILL and I get good performance.  Stable RAM at good prices.

 

Due to the newer topend graphics cards, you will probably want a minimum of 600W for your power supply, get a bigger one if you can (I hear Corsair has been making some damn good power supplies, might be a little pricey though).

 

I also highly recommend ASUS motherboards.

Tygrr

Originally posted by wheelman73


well im at $655 from Newegg w/ my build.  i got a AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE and its still less than your build, but im sure once i add a couple more things it'll be in the same $$$ as yours.  im stuck on the GPU now.  was going to go w/ a Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon 4870 2GB but im debating on the XFX Radeon 4890 1GB. 
that would be cool if you keep me posted w/ your build.  when you plan on starting it?  i prolly wont start mine till next month.

 

I thought about buying a 955 it was only $30 price difference. Though my board is AM3 optimized I decided to stick with the 940 AM2+ processor because my board supports DDR2 memory. Didn't want to use AM3 without DDR3

I was stuck on choosing between Sapphire 4870 Toxic and a standard Sapphire 4890. Decided to go with the standard 4890 because of the combo deal newegg had with the CPU.

My parts should all arrive within the next 3 days. I will keep you posted with my build.

wheelman73

Originally posted by xiirot


I personally recommend video cards from eVGA.  However, I think they only manufacture NVIDIA cards.  But since you're going with AMD, ATI might be the better option.
 
The folks over at overclock.net usually swear by GSKILL, mostly for overclocking.  I'm using GSKILL in my desktop and my laptop, I haven't had any issues with GSKILL and I get good performance.  Stable RAM at good prices.
 
Due to the newer topend graphics cards, you will probably want a minimum of 600W for your power supply, get a bigger one if you can (I hear Corsair has been making some damn good power supplies, might be a little pricey though).
 
I also highly recommend ASUS motherboards.

id currently am using a eVGA right now and would love to use them again, but since im on kinda of a budget and w/ the high end cards out there right now ATI chipsets were mor in my favor. 

 

i orginally had chosen GSkill RAM but found a better deal w/ good reviews from PNY.

found a good price on a OCZ 800w PSU, Corsair is way out of my price range.

i also LOVE Asus mobos and will prolly continue to use them for a long time.  found an Asus ATI 4890 1GB GPU im thinking of matching w/ it.

BTW thanks for your input, always love to hear you guys/gals opinions...