PC Build Help

Keero

Keero

Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
I posted this over at Tom's Hardware, wanted to see if you guys could help too.

--------------------------------------------------

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: ASAP (March 5th or 6th) BUDGET RANGE: 900~1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming - Bad Company 2, Dawn of War 2, Source And Unreal 3 engine games; Word Processing (college); watching HULU; LAN file transfers

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Mouse, Keyboard, Speakers, Monitor, Harddrive. I picked up a Cooler Master HAF 922, room shouldn't be an issue.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.com COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: America (Alaska)

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel for the CPU, either a EVGA/XFX card, or the equivalent for ATI series. I'm leaning towards ATI's GPUs for this build as the case has red lights and the benchmarks looked better.

OVERCLOCKING: Very Minor if I can squeeze juice out of the GPU, OCing seems too complicated :( SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe in the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm looking to play the games above at max resolution at steady FPS + great graphics. I usually don't play with AA/AF, and I don't care about what I get in Crysis. If I have to tone down the resolution, so be it. I've been playing on a Quad-core system with a GT 220, runs the games above at low/medium settings. Bad Company 2 still lags graphically, so that's the main thing I want to run on high.

My last build was a Duo Core + 9800gt back in early 2008, so I don't know what's better than that these days. I stopped by my local PC store and they wanted to sell me a custom build (i7, 4gigs DDR3, P55 board?, GTS 250, 600w PSU, and case) for 1,489 bucks. Instead, I went to Newegg and checked some benchmark sites and got the following build (with the help of my online friend).

As I don't know anything about the i7 or AMD's answer to it, nor anything about the current 200 series cards from Nvidia, I chose the following based on benchmarks and Newegg reviews. I'm looking for a compatible and non-bottlenecking build, something I can upgrade here and there in the future that can also run current (2009 and 2010) games at non-crazy resolutions, and is superior to my old 9800/220 GPU. Thanks in advance. :wahoo:

Current Build:

Case:COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (Can't swap this out)
CPU:Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
MOBO:ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
PSU:OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC ... - Retail
RAM:CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - Retail
GPU:SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail
HDD: 500gb WD SATA - left overs
Case Fans: 1 120mm, 1 200mm, both red
Extra: G5 Mouse, G11 Keyboard, 2.1 Speakers, 21' HP LCD - left overs from old PC

Total: 892.93 (with $20 GPU warranty)
Total w/ Alaskan shipping: 985.40

Thoughts on what I could change/improve, or is this fine?
 
One small note is you can get the same chip/performance (5770) from a 5770 Asus card with the only difference is a 3 year manufacturers warranty instead of a 2 year if it makes any difference to you. I know some don't care about the warranty but thought I would share the info :)
 
Your list looks nice!

I am absolutely confident that Gigabyte makes the most stable Motherboards around so I'd suggest one from them (had an Asus a while back and it was ok, but not stellar).

I run:

Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 (with stock cooling)
Ram: 8gb of OCZ DDR21066 (ordering accident)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD4870
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H
Case: Antec 300
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX (@ 2048x1152)

I can run L4D2 (my newest game) at all of the highest settings and not miss a beat and no shuttering.

I posted a similar comment on Bowser's ToJ PC thread, but reviewers have stated that for gaming, AMD processors deliver comparable performance to the their closest i7 competitor, and that you will not notice a difference between the two. Pretty nice considering the price difference between the two and the price differences of the hardware they use.
 
Last edited:
After my thread on Tom's Hardware got some replies, I've decided to get a much better system at a much better price. Making the jump to ATI/AMD, and I get it an ever powerful GPU.

Should arrive Tuesday or so. I'll update the thread later with the build.
 
Odale said:
Your list looks nice!

I am absolutely confident that Gigabyte makes the most stable Motherboards around so I'd suggest one from them (had an Asus a while back and it was ok, but not stellar).

I run:

Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 (with stock cooling)
Ram: 8gb of OCZ DDR21066 (ordering accident)
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD4870
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H
Case: Antec 300
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2343BWX (@ 2048x1152)

I can run L4D2 (my newest game) at all of the highest settings and not miss a beat and no shuttering.

I posted a similar comment on Bowser's ToJ PC thread, but reviewers have stated that for gaming, AMD processors deliver comparable performance to the their closest i7 competitor, and that you will not notice a difference between the two. Pretty nice considering the price difference between the two and the price differences of the hardware they use.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure about the AMD stuff, but it sounds like they're making a comeback this year. I also think the i7 technology is too new to be used at its maximum potential. The motherboards, in my opinion, are just not very good. Also, most if not all i7 boards require DDR3, and right now DDR3 is not that fast. The design is better, but the timing is still just too slow. I think we've seen a lot of really cool breakthroughs in the last few years, but because it's all so new there are some compatibility issues between products.

Personally, I'm going to avoid the i7 and DDR3 until we start to see more variety and options in the products. Aaand, by then we might see something even better.
 
Last edited:
After checking the reviews for the Phenom 2, I was surprised it was half the price with roughly the same speed. As for i7, video reviews have said it's great since there are great motherboards out for it. Then again, threads on Tom's Hardware say the i5 is more future proof than the i7. X_X
 
No.

:|

Yeah, I got it put together, running very smooth so far. I had problems with the CPU's stock heatsink, but it got on after 20 minutes xD. I'll post pictures once I find my camera. X_X
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top