Long Lasting Med Rig

[Darkwhisper]

So I'm unsure about which way to go with my new PC build.
I plan to play WAR, Bioshock,GRID, Fallout3 and others game coming out.
I wouldn't like to be unable to play a game in the next 2 years because my rig is outdated.
Wishfully if this build could last me 3-4 years I would be happy. I'm not changing often
I'm not really into OC, unless really easy.. like.... Tadam!!

Mobo: Asus P5Q-E
PSU: Corsair TX 750W
CPU: Unsure.. Q9550 or Q6600 or E8500
MEM: 4 gig OCZ DDR2 800mhz
GPU: ATI 4850 CF or 1 4870
CASE: ANTEC nine hundred
HDD: WD Velo 300gig or WD 3200AAKS (320gig)
WIN: Vista 64 Home premium

I'm not hot about spending money on Velo, quite possible I'll go with 320gig 7200rpm
Does Velo = big difference?

Q9550 sound hot.. not sure if worth it over E8500.. Q6600 is quad (if OC easy ill OC it a little)

ATI 4870.. leave expension for later CF 4870
ATI 4850x2 Guess it will be hot right now.. but what about drivers performance issue?


Tks for the help and infos!

 

[Nik_I]

get the E8500 and OC it. get the 320GB hard drive. a velociraptor might make your games load a few seconds faster, but they won't increase framerates. If you want this rig to last 3-4 years, you're going to need either a really good video card now, or accept that you'll have to upgrade at least that in 2 or so years. if you dont mind upgrading, get a 4870, unless you're gonna be playing on a 20" or smaller monitor. then a 4850 can probably cut it.

 

[WR2]

What size monitor/resoluton will you be using (now or in the future)?

Velociraptor doesnt really give that great a performance advantage over the WD 640GB to be a "must have" part.
The Q9450 over the 9550/Q6600/E8500. An easy (amost tadam) OC gets you on par with the $1000 3.0Ghz QX9650.

 

[Darkwhisper]

Currently have 19" Viewsonic A91f+ CRT


Planning to go Samsung LCD 24"

 

[huron]

I would definitely agree with WR2 and get the 640 GB HDD.

Areed about the 4870 - save some of your $$$ for later upgrades.

The rest looks good. You may need the other GPU to utilize that 24" LCD later.

 

[WR2]

A 4850 will handle a 19" at 1280x1024 nicely and only start to struggle a bit @ 16x12 res but still be very playable.

24" & 1920x1200 resolution is about where CF/SLI starts having a really nice impact in a lot of games. And 2x4850 in CF have been shown to do nicely at 19x12. But not all games benefit from CF so you'll still run across games where a 2x4850 CF will perform near the single 4850.

22" and 16x10 res a single 4870 will seem to have the same performance as 24" 2x4850CF in many games. In the games that don't scale well in CF it will be a much better performer than 24" and 4850CF that scales like a single 4850.

The video card is the one item you'll want to upgrade to keep the system effective over 3~4 years. If it were my money I'd actually go for the single 4870 and a 22" monitor and plan a CPU upgrade in about 2 years. The P5Q-E does give you the CF option and the P45 2x8 PCI-e vs X48 2x16 PCI-e lanes performance difference is only 6% @ 19x12 res and less than that @ 16x10 res. Of course there is no difference with just one video card.