Mid-ranged Gaming Rig

callmeseuss

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Nov 16, 2008
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Hey there everyone, my first post on this forum. I posted over with the guys at PCMech over the past few days, but I have always valued the judgment of Tom's Hardware so I thought I'd get your opinion(s)!

This is a mid-ranged gaming build. I'm upgrading from a really dated system I built about 4 years ago (i.e. it's a socket A system). The setup I've got picked out right now is listed below, with links to the newegg product listings:

CASE - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA6000CZBOX

MOBO - ASUS M3A78-T AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

GPU - HIS Hightech H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ4 Turbo Video Card

OPTICAL - LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-08

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive


I'm still pondering over a couple of items, but feel free to throw in your own criticism on other things.

1. I'm trying to decide on whether to go for the 4850 1GB for $15 more, the 4870 512mb for $70 more, or the 4870 1GB for $90 more. If none, do you have a better suggestion? I'm leaning ATI for the first time in 5 years because of the motherboard.

2. The price tag on the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ is really hard to turn down. I was pointed towards that instead of the Phenom X4 9850 for a suggestion of Dual processors over Quad for gaming... thoughts?

3. I realized suddenly tonight that if I bought this system that I might need a different OS from the XP Pro I'm using right now (it's not the 64bit XP). I'm guessing I'm right?

When I built my first system, which I'll list below, I skimped on a lot of things because it was my first time building. It cost me about $800 and worked beautifully on games up until about a year ago. My initial thought was to stay within that price range for this build as well, but I also don't want to find myself wishing I had spent that extra $50-100 on the system 6 months from now because I'm just barely squeaking by on high performance.
 

rasmusp123

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Aug 14, 2008
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You should probably list what your budget is, what tasks youre gonna use the system for, and what you expect from it.

If i was to build a cheap gaming system i would personally go with something like:

Intel E8500 cpu

P45 motherboard

4gb ddr2 800 ram

4870 gpu

quality psu around 550w
 

rasmusp123

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Aug 14, 2008
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(cant edit other post)

I read your post again and saw your budget is $800 and youre gonna use it for gaming, i would still recommend something like my build above (i like intel more).
 
Here's an interesting article by Legionhardware about CPU scaling with the HD4870x2.
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=770

They also have articles using the GTX280 and the 9800GX2. It basically takes the GPU out of the equation and shows gaming fps based on CPUs. For most games the q9650 OCed was the best hands down with the E8400 running up towards the top. I was surprised to see how poorly the Athlon 64x2 processors did, even in a clock vs. clock comparison. So i'd seriously consider spending the extra money for a E8400 or E8500 and use the combo deals to pick up a P45 capable of crossfire. I think it's good value for the money in a gaming computer.
For crossfired 4850s i'd go with a PC Power and Cooling 610w, or a quality 550w- 650w.

Quote from the above article

"Although it was not all that surprising to see just how much the Athlon64 X2 architecture has aged since we last looked at it, we were still somewhat shocked at how slow the 3.46GHz 6400+ processor was. Obviously we do not expect that AMD Athlon64 X2 owners are going to race out and purchase a Radeon HD 4870 X2, but we still felt that including this processor series would be useful. Those still using an Athlon64 X2 should seriously consider upgrading their platform, even if they only plan to purchase a single current generation AMD or Nvidia graphics card. "