Some upgrades [gaming rig]

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510
I decided I wanted to build off what I had and do some upgrades, I just wanted to see what you thought of this stuff I picked out. If you have any suggestions to cut down the price. Please feel free to give some constructive chritisizm!

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-EP45
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
GFX: ASUS EAH4870 MATRIX
MEM: OCZ Platinum Edition 8GB (4 x 2GB)
CPU FAN: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro
HD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB


I already have a new fatal1ty sound card, all the peripherals, and a raptor for my main drive. I just need upgrades for most of the guts of my machine. I wasnt sure if I should get that 8 gigs of memory because its on sale for 100 bucks on new egg, or if I should get 4 gigs of more expensive stuff. I wasnt sure if that was a good choice for GFX card, I just know I have an asus now and I trust the brand. The fan I just threw in, I want to do some overclocked and wasnt sure if the stock fan was alrite.

I wanna try spending under 700 but I am currently at 770+shipping, so If I could get some help cutting prices, much appreciated!
 
8 gigs of RAM might be cheap but it is not a good upgrade .

Buy whatever 4870 1 gig is cheapest , or get a gtx 260 216 if thats cheaper .

Also consider AMD . A Pll 720 be + mb combo on newegg is as low as $210 . It performs about the same as an e8500 in games and better in multithreaded apps
 
I think the Xigmatek S1283 is a better cooler, and it is cheaper after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

If you will overclock, the E8400 should do you just as well.
With the 4870, you probably won't even need to overclock.

Two sticks of ram makes a system much easier to overclock. I like 8gb, but it will limit your overclock.

You might want to look at the GTX250 cards coming out soon. I am not a fan of vga coolers that do not send all the heated air directly out the back
 
1) Fast memory, lower voltage, cheaper price.....btw, 4 gigs is easier to OC than 8 gigs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209 $44.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

or this set....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231219 $39.99
G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

2) If I'm not mistaken, you have chosen a 4870 512mb card for over $200...1gig ftw...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801 $189.99
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail / Heatpipes Cooling Design

3) The E8500 is a "sucker chip". E8400 ftw...that's why people o/c

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037 $164.99 Free Shipping*
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

4) HD ....you can always go smaller to save money.

 
Is that GA-EP45 a GA-EP45-UD3R or a GA-EP45-UD3P or some other model? The UD3R has one PCI slot more, but the UD3P has one PCI-E slot more and allows Crossfire.

What kind of PSU and case do you have?

What's your screen resolution?
 

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510



UD3P was the motherboard and I have a 22inch 1680 x 1050
 
That's a great MB.

If you're interested in Crossfire with HD 4870 cards and your current PSU is under 600W, then get something like Corsair 650TX. It has only 2 PCI-E connectors, and each card wants two, but Sapphire's HD 4870 comes with adapters.
 

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510
and i was looking at the phenom II but i really wouldnt know what to look at and whats comperable to the e8400 for the same price.. same with the mobos
 
Good, your PSU is more than enough even for 2 cards. Very future-proof.

The Phenom II is just as good as the E8400 for gaming. In fact, it's better in games that use more than two cores (FSX, GTA4). It's much better if you compress dvds or audio or run multiple things in parallel. However, it costs more.

The E8400+GA-EP45-UD3P cost $280 together. This combo is $304 and has pretty much the same features (except it has four cores instead of two, and unnecessary integrated graphics):
http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/AddToCart.aspx?Submit=ADD&ItemList=Combo.165047
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
 
It depends on what you do with that computer. For some people the two extra cores are almost always idle and won't make a difference. For others they double the speed of the computer.
 
The music editing will benefit from extra cores. The gaming, only in a few games.

Quads are way better than duals in Flight Simulator X and in GTA4, but in most other games the extra cores are not used. They may help a bit to prevent stuttering if a Windows service or antivirus wakes up and wants CPU attention while you play, but that's it. Game developers are trying hard to make more games smarter and able to use 4 cores, but nobody knows when/if they will succeed. It might be this year, or in 10 years.

If in doubt I'd say get a quad.
 
SLI/crossfire has been a poor upgrade path in the past. It should be used only by
those who will not currently be satisfied by the fastest available single vga card
which is currently the GTX295. The 4870, or GTX260-216
offer very good performance for the money now.
To get SLI. you have to spend more up front for a SLI capable mobo,a
more powerful SLI capable PSU, and better case cooling. Upgrading a single card later with a
second equal card does not get you 2x increase, it is more like 1.3x to 1.8x depending on the game.
At that time, you will still be paying top dollar for a card that is closer to
being obsolete.
It would be better to sell the old card and use the proceeds
towards a better new generation single card.

At a clock rate of 3.0 or better, the vga card is much more important for gaming than the cpu.
At that level, overclocking is good for bragging, but it will not net you as much increase
in FPS as a better vga card will. Today, very few games can make use of more than two cores.
Flight simulator X and supreme commander are exceptions. It is not a trivial matter to code multi threaded programs,
and game vendors will not sell too many games that require quads to run.
I don't see this changing in the next couple of years.

Net: a faster duo for the increased clock speed.

On a core 2 cpu, don't pay extra for faster ram or DDR3. It will make little difference in FPS if you have a decent cpu.
 

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

so hows that look? comes into about 590.00 including tax. tryin to figure out what else to add, like extra cooling, maybe a new case or changing one of the current items I have. like I said I can spend under 700 dollars so I have a little room.
 


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137 $79.99 Free Shipping*
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 $39.99
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail
 

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814102801

$189.99

Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148335

$59.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115036

$179.99

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813128358

$134.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231166

$64.99

SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151173

$24.99

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
Item #: N82E16835186134

$31.99

$631.93


so this is what i ended up buying so far, what do you think? I need some suggestions on what other little things i should buy to tweak my order. what cases do you recommend?

I was looking at these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129025

any suggestions? what do you think?
 
Consider yourself warned about the Seagate drive. I hope that drive works out for you, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

What exactly are you looking for in a case? Cases really come down to personal preference. The Antec 900 offers very good cooling, but is a bit louder than the P182. If you're looking for a very quiet computer, the P182 is a very good choice. Here's a couple more cases to consider:

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160&Tpk=haf $149.99

COOLER MASTER Storm Sniper SGC-6000-KKN1-GP Black ABS Bezel, SECC Body ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194&Tpk=cooler%20master%20sniper $149.99

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137 $79.99

There's also a very good combo of the RC-690 and the Corsair 850TX PSU that makes the PSU only $100, plus there's a $20 MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.176939
 

bicen

Distinguished
Mar 25, 2009
20
0
18,510
i got the seagate drive as a combo with my video card was -40 dollars with the combo so the drive was basically 30 bucks, thats why i took the seagate over the WD