Final PC build.

Comments

• sn0wblind00 Member UncommonPosts: 388

  October 2009

  Definite overkill for any game (or program) out there.

  No need for 2 5850's.  1 will play any game on max settings on 24'' pretty much.  If adament for the crossfire, personally i'd get 1 5870 and upgrade to 2 later, when there is a reason to.  If you are actually taking advantage of the eyefinity on 3 big monitors, then maybe dual 5850's could be alright.

  1250w psu seems like way more than is needed.

  8 gb of ram is probably not needed, but depends on what you do for work (if on the computer). 

  If your going to spend the money on a velociraptor, i'd just spend the little extra and get an ssd.

  The v8 and mobo look good. 

  Anyways, just my opinions, as I feel hardware is far ahead of software right now. 
• madeux Member Posts: 1,786

  October 2009

  You should be going for an i5, if not an i7, from intel... triple channel ddr3 memory...  The video cards would just be lame overkill.  If you want to spend that much on video, go for a single 5870.
• rimaxo14 Member Posts: 118

  October 2009

  alrighty so a single 5870 and i could always add one later thanks for the replies hehe

  EVGA FTW-3 MOBO X58
  EVGA GTX 580
  G.SKILL RIPJAW 12GB
  INTEL I7 950
  CORSAIR H70 CPU COOLER
  CORSAIR 1200W 80+GOLD

  
• rimaxo14 Member Posts: 118

  October 2009

  well isnt that processor just as strong as lets say a intel cor i7 if not stronger?

   

  EVGA FTW-3 MOBO X58
  EVGA GTX 580
  G.SKILL RIPJAW 12GB
  INTEL I7 950
  CORSAIR H70 CPU COOLER
  CORSAIR 1200W 80+GOLD

  
• madeux Member Posts: 1,786

  October 2009

  Intel CPU's simply dominate right now.  Plus the chipset you get with Intel is going to have a much better upgrade path.
• madeux Member Posts: 1,786

  October 2009

  And while we're at it... I wouldn't waste your money on a raptor drive.  Aside from booting fast, you really get nothing.  You certainly won't get a performance boost in games.  You just pay a lot of money for less space.
• madeux Member Posts: 1,786

  October 2009

  http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2437-5.html

   

  Always trust Tom or Anand.
• drbaltazar Member UncommonPosts: 7,856

  October 2009

   buy just 1 ati 5870X2 ,that way you can add a second if you ever feel the need like in 10 years
• drbaltazar Member UncommonPosts: 7,856

  October 2009

  Originally posted by rimaxo14
  
  
  well isnt that processor just as strong as lets say a intel cor i7 if not stronger?
   
  

  nha intel are faster when prop speced
• Antarious Member UncommonPosts: 2,846

  October 2009

  Originally posted by madeux
  
  
  And while we're at it... I wouldn't waste your money on a raptor drive.  Aside from booting fast, you really get nothing.  You certainly won't get a performance boost in games.  You just pay a lot of money for less space.
  

  
  
   

   

  That would depend on how much disk access a paticular game has.

   

  Then again if I was worried about it and wanted to spend a lot of money.. I'd jsut go solid state.
• gofastlemon Member Posts: 8

  October 2009

  i've got an i7920 on an ASUS P6T w/ the V8 and ceramique, and it overclocked to 4.0 well..and maxes out at 60c..while stock speed on stock cooling maxed out at 80c.

   

  if you play an MMO such as WoW or AION, get an SSD and put your 64bit OS AND the MMO(s) on the SSD...you WILL see a performance increase in those games. 

  get as much ram as you want..the empty slots are UGLY hahahah

  2 5850's are overkill. get the 5870 and a nice sound card or a killer network card...though i've noticed NO improvement over onboard network controllers..ever.

  I thought about building you a boat to survive the river of tears I'm crying for you, but the world's smallest violins just aren't a reliable source of lumber, and that cross you're nailing yourself to seems bouyant enough anyways.
• Cleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414

  October 2009

  If you want a gaming PC, the processor doesnt matter.  Get the cheapest processor that will support your video card setup.  Considering you dont have 4 video cards, the AMD Phenom II 965 is more then enough.  Some of the things you got is overkill and just a waste of money.  Here is a quick rundown:

  • Your power supply is unnecessary.  Buying a 1250w premium supply is a huge hole of money.  I would bump it down to a 750w~800w premium supply.  It should save you $100.
  • The Phenom II x4 955 is probably the better pick.  As far as overclocking, it clocks the same as the 965, it also has a lower stock temp and voltage.
  • The CoolerMaster V8 is not necessary unless you plan to overclock.  Considering your motherboard, overclocking shouldnt be in consideration.
  • You are not using the most optimal motherboard.  Considering the benefits of DDR3 on a dual channel board.  You either have to get a board that can support some seriously clocked DDR3 dimms, or you should get a DDR2 board.  I would also pay a bit more for the board considering the price reduction of switching to DDR2, or the price increase of actually supporting DDR3.  Here are my 2 suggested boards:
  • Gigabyte 790X Mobo $109.99
  • MSI 790FX AM3 Mobo $164.99
  • For DDR3 you are looking at needing twice the clock of DDR2 to see better performance on a non-LGA1366 socket.  A 1333 is equivalent to DDR2 667.  DDR2 800 is standard on AMD boards.  With the MSI model I linked to its can utilize 2133 memory which is equivalent to DDR2 1066.  If you were to choose the MSI model I would get a DDR3-1600 because its cost effective at $85 per 2x2GB pack, compared to $72 with DDR2-800.  Getting DDR3-2133 is about $245, which is priced too far out of range.  If you get the Gigabyte model, then I would go with DDR2-800.
  • Video cards are excellent, probably overkill.
  • Drop the Raptor or replace it with a 7200RPM drive.  Games arent designed to constantly rely on getting data from the HDD.  The interface is too slow.
  • Optical pretty good, you might want a real sound card to take advantage of the Blu-Ray.  I recommend HT-Omega.
  • Network.  Its unnecessary to buy an add-on card for networking.  Especially if its a generic Intel.

  Here are some rebuttals to other posters.  The Core i7 slams the Phenom II in performance by 25~50% in productivity tasks.  In game tasks its under 1% difference.  The main reason is the Core i7s triple channel memory.  When compared to the Core i5, AMD comes out competitive because the Core i5 lacks hyperthreading and triple channel memory.  DDR3 can be useful on a system if you know how to make it perform better then DDR2.  If you get a DDR3 dimm at double the speed of a DDR2 dimm, then you are looking at getting a marginal benefit from a wider channel.  If you get one that is more then double, then you are getting an obvious performance advantage.  Considering most AM2+ boards only supprt DDR2-1066 through overclocking or just 1 dimm, being able to utilized DDR3-2166 on all 4 dimms is a luxury.  Intel video chipsets also arent that good.  Infact you will have problems using nVidia on an Intel Chipset.

  Also AMD is way easier to overclock, mounting it cooling fan is easier, its chipsets arent complete jokes, and there are boards that can support 4 dual slot GPUs.  This while its upgradability isnt questionable.  An AM3 and opteron processor works on AM3, AM2+, AM2, 1207 and some 939 boards.  The LGA 1366 supports exclusively Core i7 processors, the LGA 1156 supports Corei3, i5, and i7 processors(the core i7 processors made for this board are not compatible with the LGA1366 board), they have added further support for the LGA775 processors in business apps, and they have a completely other socket with its own processors just for servers.  Now just when you are thinking, hmm supporting 4 different incompatible sockets at the same time might be kind of bad.  They are going to stop supporting all 4 in less then 2 years with the introduction of their new architecture.  When thinking upgradability, yea Intels have a long time span...
• gofastlemon Member Posts: 8

  October 2009

  ////////////- this guy is quite obviously and AMD fanboy... and though he has a couple of decent points...he is still too opinionated.           an e8400 oc'd to 4.0 with a v8, or better cooling solution, will do as well, or better, than most AMD processors in MOST gaming situations.  my e8400 hit 4.3ghz with the Same v8 that's on my i7 now.

   

  yes there are a lot of intel sockets (2 of which you should be considering, IMO, 1156 and 1366), and AMD continues to make new processors to fit old sockets...and in turn...old chipsets. 

  AMDs being "easier" to overclock is another opinion. And how hot AMDs run in general was not mentioned either.  I changed 1 number in bios on my P6T and receiced prime95 stability for 72 hours(at which time i stopped the testing) @ 4.2ghz  on the i7920.

  Intel chipsets being a joke is obviously another opinion.

  Tripple channel vs. dual channel really amounts to the amount of dimms you want. Tripple has 6. so for about $240 I placed 12gb of ram in my system. and EFFECTIVELY use 8gb of ram with a ramdisk program.

   

  as far as wow and Aion go, the faster your processor, the better.

   

  when i crank my i7 back down from 4.0 to 2.66ghz, i notice a differece...and i'm runnin an 4890 with zerotherm cooler.

  my wife has an ati 4770 and  e5200 oc'd to 3.33 and maxes settings on both @ 1920x1080 if that tells you anything....

  and on a $50 gigabyte board with pci-e 1.0, and a 400w PS.

   

   

  not sure what the "cheapest processor that will support the video card" means either....

  I've only built 100 or so pc's in the last 2 years...most of which can be called "budget gaming rigs"... or "home PCs that can play games"

  I thought about building you a boat to survive the river of tears I'm crying for you, but the world's smallest violins just aren't a reliable source of lumber, and that cross you're nailing yourself to seems bouyant enough anyways.
• dfan Member Posts: 362

  October 2009

  cpu -> i7 920 + OC

  gpu -> 5870 or x2

  raptor -> normal hdd for storage and ssd for OS and games

  psu -> 450 for single card and 600 for dual

  OS -> windows 7 64 bit