Gaming PC need pros advice

[rhazta]

This is what i have gathered,i still need you guys to correct me on some parts with ur opinion

CPU, E8500 or Q6600

Motherboard, P5E or X48 and p5q ? whats the difference between p5e and p5Q ?

GPU, 4870 not sure which brand is best

RAM,

CASE,

HDD

PSU

I have a 19 inch monitor

Will be overclocking, what cooling do i need ?

My budget is is $1600 AUD

 

[lucuis]

Ok i made a newegg parts list for you. http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?submit=ChangeItem That entire list works out to about 1,790.62 AUD.

Now i added some things you didn't say you had.

OS
CD Drive
Thermal Compound
That adds about 190 AUD to the bill.

CPU: I chose the Q6600, but the processor choice relies on what you do with your computer. If you multitask, alot, and use heavily threaded apps like ido you'd like the quad core better. If all you do is game, the higher clocked dual core will perform a little better then the quad.
Mobo: I chose a solid p45 board by ASUS.
GPU: Brand doesn't matter too much, the only thing that's usually different is the warranty.
RAM: 4gb of performance Mushkin DDR2 6400. If you running a 64bit OS i'd consider 8gb if you have the spare cash.
Case: Now this is mainly personal preference and budget. I like the Antec 1200 alot, it looks cool, to me, and has great cable management. However it's pricy at about 250AUD. Some like the CM HAF more, it's a bit cheaper at about 220AUD. But it's really up to you.
HDD: I chose a generic high capacity drive. WD 640gb. Now it's noting special in terms of speed, but it don't suck either. If you relly want to you can try find a WD Caviar Black Editing. It's about 20-30 bucks more but it's got better read/write speeds. For something even faster you could pick up a WD Velociraptor 150/300gb drive. BUT it costs a lot more, about 290/460AUD.
PSU: Any top tier PSU will do. Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, the more expensive Silverstones, etc. Just be sure you get one that is capable of providing enough power. I chose a 750 Corsair for you.
Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 & Support bracket. Nothing better in terms of air cooling atm. Plus i added some AS5 Thermal Compound.

Anyways that's a start, you can fiddle things around until you have it about 1600AUD.

My suggestions; Don't skimp on the PSU, personally i wouldn't go less then say 600w for one card, and no less then 700w for two. Preferably 750w. Easiest place to save a few bucks is probably the case. Everything else i would just try to find sales/combo deals etc.

 

[kelfen]

Well go Quad just for faster loading times.

motherboard http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3739367&CatId=13 Best x48 from reading builders marathan ect.

GPU http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3949855&CatId=3670 cheapest but not an off brand HIS is solid

RAM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146726

CASE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043&Tpk=Antec%20twelve%20hundred or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

HDD- not shure

PSU- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2235424&CatId=2533

also if you considering crossfire down the road get 700+

 

[jpdykes]

Hi rhazta

- E8500, no one is writting across 4 cores, you'll see better returns from to faster clocked duals.
- Try an Xigmatek or OCZ Vendetta as cooling. Buy the retention bracket to help with mounting.

- Go for a P45 based board. Asus P5Q seems well regarded or gigabytes offering should be solid.

- RAM: PC6400 will be fine as long as you aren't planning a massive overclock. Probably 4GB if you are running a 64bit OS.

- Try a seagate barracuda or western digital caviar for HDD. Larger cache is usually worthwhile. Size to fit budget.

- A 4870 is overkill for a 19" screen. You could probably use a 4850 without noticing too much. You could always add a second one when they are cheaper later.

Hope that is good for a start.
Jeremy

 

[lucuis]

Food for thought. Here's a screenshot i took, after alt-tabbing from F.E.A.R. As far as i know fear isn't a new game anymore, and isn't written across 4 cores. The only things running in the background at the time of this screenshot is EVGA precision which takes about .5% of the CPU, and Firefox for another 1%.

We see 3 cores being utilized evenly whilst the 4th isn't utilized much. BUT that's still more the 2 cores being used while gaming.

 

[jpdykes]

Interesting post Lucius.

There didn't seem to be much difference when I was looking though some of the stuff on THG, occassionally dual would be quad and visa versa. Overall was nearly identical.

 

[lucuis]

Yeah it got me thinking. In terms of better performance compared to a dual...i have a theory. BUT it's just a theory.

All the benchies and reviews i've seen show the non-4-core optimized games show a dual at or just slightly above a quad in performance. This is almost always shown as an ave. fps reading. But what they don't show is min. fps. Now i have never tested this, but perhaps quads give the same or slightly better min. fps just slightly lower max fps, resulting in the same ave. It's probably just wishful thinking, but i've not been shown otherwise in reviews.

There's a saying i've heard said around the THF. Something along the lines of "A quad core cpu may not be using all cores, but you can't add cores to a dual." Not sure i got it exactly right, but that's the jist of it.

It reminds me of a decision i made 3-4 years ago. I was helping my dad customize a pc, a Dell XPS 600. In the processor section you could choose between a 3.4ghz single core prescott, or a 3.0ghz dual-core. At the time pretty much everything was single threaded. So i let my dad convince me the higher clocked single-core was the better choice. Not even a 2 years after we got it, i wished i would've convinced him to get the dual-core. He still uses that pc to this day, and it can play crysis on medium settings. But now most games are 2 core threaded or more. So had we chose the dual-core we'd have a better pc, then we would now.

Note: the two cpu we chose from were the same price.