New gaming system

[shaftymcnasty]

Hi everyone, looking for advice on a new build and the best buy for my dollar.

As per PC building questions thread, here are the answers to those questions:

This will be used for gaming.
My budget is around $1000 (as close as possible, cheaper is better)
I'm in the US and plan on buying from newegg
I have no brand preference
Current parts that I'll be re-using are my Antec 300 case, DVD burner and maybe my 160GB hard drive. I also have speakers, keyboard and mouse to reuse
I have read up and a few options and it looks like AMD might be the best value for the dollar
I do plan on overclocking
I plan on gaming at close to 1080p
I plan on building this system this weekend or early next week

So, I need everything but a case, optical drive, speakers, keyboard, mouse and hard drive. I do need a monitor and OS too

Thanks in advance

 

[mfenn]

You'll probably want a new HDD. That 160GB drive is likely very slow by modern standards. You're correct that you're probably looking at AMD on a $1k budget since you need the monitor and OS as well.

Build:
Phenom II X4 955 + ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 combo $220
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $66
GTX 470 $280
650TX + Samsung F3 1TB combo $140 AR
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
ASUS 23.6" 1080P $180 AR
Total: $986 AR

 

[shaftymcnasty]

Thanks mfenn, is the GTX 470 going to be overkill for games like WoW, Diablo 3 ?

 

[mfenn]

Thanks mfenn, is the GTX 470 going to be overkill for games like WoW, Diablo 3 ?

Yes, it would be. You can swap the 470 for a 460 if you like.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

Well, I decided to spend a bit more and came up with this:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1055T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103851

MB: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128435

RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227478

PSU: Corsair 650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Graphics: MSI 5850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127500

Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148433

Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

Monitor: ASUS 23.6" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052

That along with some PC tools, thermal paste, and Windows 7 for less than $1200... Now I can't wait for it all to get here. The CPU, Mobo, RAM and hard drive all came in a combo that I couldn't resist!

 

[mfenn]

Well, I decided to spend a bit more and came up with this:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1055T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103851

MB: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128435

RAM: OCZ Platinum 4GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227478

PSU: Corsair 650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Graphics: MSI 5850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127500

Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148433

Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

Monitor: ASUS 23.6" http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236052

That along with some PC tools, thermal paste, and Windows 7 for less than $1200... Now I can't wait for it all to get here. The CPU, Mobo, RAM and hard drive all came in a combo that I couldn't resist!

Nix the 1055T because it's slower than the 955 for gaming.
Nix the OCZ RAM because it sucks.
Nix the Seagate 1TB drive because it will fail on you in 3 months.
Nix the 890GX mobo because it's more expensive and you'll never need the extra features.
Nix the 5850 because it's way slower than the 470 for the mo... That is one massive rebate!

 

[fffblackmage]

For the amount you spent on the hex-core and 890 mobo, you could have gotten an i5-760 + P55 mobo, which would be much better for gaming.

Overall, that CPU+mobo+ram+HDD combo is very meh in terms of component choice.

 

[crucibelle]

For the amount you spent on the hex-core and 890 mobo, you could have gotten an i5-760 + P55 mobo, which would be much better for gaming.

Overall, that CPU+mobo+ram+HDD combo is very meh in terms of component choice.

Oh, lordy. OP should have went with mfenn's build (or the i5, of course). :\

 

[shaftymcnasty]

Well, I cancelled the order and getting the 270GTX and Phenom II 955 so far

 

[zi0n.]

I'm assuming a GTX 470? Anyways, if you're gonna spend close to 1200 you should just go with a i5-760 + p55 and possibly drop the 470 for a 460 so you don't go too high on the price.

So in all, get mfenn's build and exchange the 470 for a 460 of your choice and possibly this combo, i5-760+GA-P55-USB3

 

[shaftymcnasty]

I'm assuming a GTX 470? Anyways, if you're gonna spend close to 1200 you should just go with a i5-760 + p55 and possibly drop the 470 for a 460 so you don't go too high on the price.

So in all, get mfenn's build and exchange the 470 for a 460 of your choice and possibly this combo, i5-760+GA-P55-USB3

Yeah, I meant the GTX 470 LOL I was just waking up. I'll take the Intel builds into consideration. How is the i5-750 compared to the 760 seeming how I am overclocking whatever I end up getting? Yes, the new budget is $1200. I filed my tax return late and received the refund yesterday

 

[zi0n.]

Yeah, I meant the GTX 470 LOL I was just waking up. I'll take the Intel builds into consideration. How is the i5-750 compared to the 760 seeming how I am overclocking whatever I end up getting? Yes, the new budget is $1200. I filed my tax return late and received the refund yesterday

Difference between the two is just higher clock speed. I personally have a 750 and OC'd to 4ghz pretty easy W/ hyper 212+

 

[shaftymcnasty]

I think the 750 would definitely be the better deal over the 760 then. Still not sure though because the AMD 955 is a lot cheaper than either of those and should match or outperform the Intel chips when overclocked, right?

 

[CVSiN]

err wait.. you recommend a POS Samsung drive over a Seagate?
no thanks.. makes me question the rest of your advice as well..

Samsung may be good at alot of things.. HardDrives are not one of them.
my personal failure rate on Samsung drives is in the 75% range..

I'll stick with Seagate and WD myself.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

err wait.. you recommend a POS Samsung drive over a Seagate?
no thanks.. makes me question the rest of your advice as well..

Samsung may be good at alot of things.. HardDrives are not one of them.
my personal failure rate on Samsung drives is in the 75% range..

I'll stick with Seagate and WD myself.

I'm with you on the Seagate. I've had this drive for a long time with no problems. I was a big fan of Maxtor before I got the Seagate drives

 

[Axon]

I think the 750 would definitely be the better deal over the 760 then. Still not sure though because the AMD 955 is a lot cheaper than either of those and should match or outperform the Intel chips when overclocked, right?

An interesting question and a tougher to answer than it seems.

As a general rule, Intel CPUs are much better clock for clock. The i5 750 includes a "turbo mode" feature which automatically overclocks the CPU on a single core, which is an excellent feature for some users (who fear overclocking) and really improves the i5's performance. It's actually one of the best gaming and overall price/performance chips on the market and it overclocks extremely well. With that excellence comes a price tag, however.

See the benchmarks and pay particular attention to the gaming scores: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=109 You can see that the i5 750 is a superior chip, but with the exception of one gaming bench, the two are fairly similar in terms of gaming performance at a moderate 1680 resolution.

However, I can confirm from personal experience that if you're purely a blizzard gamer, the 955 will easily get the job done. My LAN rig consists of a 955 and a 4890 and it eats WoW and SC2 alive. I can't speak to Diablo 3, but I'm sure it'll be good. That's down the road though.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

I don't think there is any scenario where the 955 outperforms the i5 750, unless the 955 is clocked to like, 5.0.

As a general rule, Intel CPUs are much better clock for clock. The i5 750 includes a "turbo mode" feature which automatically overclocks the CPU on a single core, which is an excellent feature for some users. It's actually one of the best gaming chips on the market.

That said, if you're purely a blizzard gamer, the 955 will get the job done. My LAN rig consists of a 955 and a 4890 and it eats WoW and SC2 alive. I can't speak to Diablo 3, but I'm sure it'll be good.

Well, I'm thinking of Dragon Age too. Maybe some newer games next year. I've played a few shooters but haven't found one that really stood out to me yet

 

[Axon]

Well, I'm thinking of Dragon Age too. Maybe some newer games next year. I've played a few shooters but haven't found one that really stood out to me yet

I don't know the Dragon Age performance benches (I know it favors 4 core CPUs), but as long as you have a strong GPU (and you will) the 955 should easily get the job done.

Let me put it this way - though I went on at length re: the attributes of the i5 750, when it came time for me to build a bang for buck performance LAN rig, I went AMD. That probably says something. With a still solid AMD 4890 GPU, it maxes out SC2, WoW, Fallout 3 and MW2, and runs Bad Company 2 so well I can't really tell if it's maxed or not.

 

[mfenn]

err wait.. you recommend a POS Samsung drive over a Seagate?
no thanks.. makes me question the rest of your advice as well..

Samsung may be good at alot of things.. HardDrives are not one of them.
my personal failure rate on Samsung drives is in the 75% range..

I'll stick with Seagate and WD myself.

I'm with you on the Seagate. I've had this drive for a long time with no problems. I was a big fan of Maxtor before I got the Seagate drives

Where have you guys been the past couple of years?

I agree than Samsung drives before the F series weren't that good. Even the F1 was just average. F2+ though are solid.

Seagate is in the exact opposite situation. They've really built their consumer drives down to a price point for Dell et al. and it shows in the quality. Not to mention the infamous 7200.11 firmware bug that was guaranteed to kill drives.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

Where have you guys been the past couple of years?

My last upgrade was my PSU, 4670 and case last year. I'm learning about all the new stuff. I've always liked Samsung's TVs but never heard much about the hard drives... I'm all ears now...errr, eyes. I have a few days until my account is credited for the order cancellation so I have time to see what you guys recommend for me and what ATI is offering with the new cards. The new budget is higher and I might just wait for another paycheck to come in and that should give me around 1300 bucks to work with all total. I know that for me, a 1TB drive is way overkill though. I can't even fill up this little 160GB that I have

 

[mfenn]

My last upgrade was my PSU, 4670 and case last year. I'm learning about all the new stuff. I've always liked Samsung's TVs but never heard much about the hard drives... I'm all ears now...errr, eyes. I have a few days until my account is credited for the order cancellation so I have time to see what you guys recommend for me and what ATI is offering with the new cards. The new budget is higher and I might just wait for another paycheck to come in and that should give me around 1300 bucks to work with all total. I know that for me, a 1TB drive is way overkill though. I can't even fill up this little 160GB that I have

No worries, I was more replying to CVSiN.

Even if a 1TB drive is overkill, you want something at least 500GB platters because higher capacity platters equals more performance. You can always save a few bucks and get the Samsung F4 320GB. It's not as good in terms of cost per gig as the 1TB drive, but it uses a single 667GB platter short-stroked to 320GB. A screamer to say the least.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

No worries, I was more replying to CVSiN.

Even if a 1TB drive is overkill, you want something at least 500GB platters because higher capacity platters equals more performance. You can always save a few bucks and get the Samsung F4 320GB. It's not as good in terms of cost per gig as the 1TB drive, but it uses a single 667GB platter short-stroked to 320GB. A screamer to say the least.

Yeah, I'd much rather spend the extra money on GPU than storage... I've heard great things about the AMD 890FX chipset in terms of overclocking. I'm looking to get the 955 up to about 4GHz and just looking for a stable board for that with adequate cooling on the power circuitry. Also, is that Cooler Master 212 heatsink going to be really bulky in my Antec 300 case? I want to make sure it's going to fit.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, I'd much rather spend the extra money on GPU than storage... I've heard great things about the AMD 890FX chipset in terms of overclocking. I'm looking to get the 955 up to about 4GHz and just looking for a stable board for that with adequate cooling on the power circuitry. Also, is that Cooler Master 212 heatsink going to be really bulky in my Antec 300 case? I want to make sure it's going to fit.

In these days of integrated memory controllers, the chipset doesn't really have much do to with how well a board can overclock. Good cooling and power delivery are much more important.

The 212 should fit into the 300 no problem.

 

[shaftymcnasty]

Ok, so I can just pick whatever board and go with that then?

 

[mfenn]

Ok, so I can just pick whatever board and go with that then?

Just make sure that the board has decent heat sinks.