A few questions of building my first real gaming computer.

[iholly]

I need help building a gaming PC. I used to be somewhat knowledgeable in computers but have been out of the loop for far too long.

I finally have a steady income and I am looking to build a computer that won't be behind the times for the first time!! I am hoping to stay below about 1500 if possible. Here is what I have in mind so far, any advice at all would be appreciated. Will a build like this even work for a decent gaming computer? Oh and I live in Japan so I can't order online.


Motherboard:

MSI Intel 58x Express i7 or Asus p6t DDR3 or Asus p6t SE DDR3

CPU

I want to go with a i7 (i7 920) but I was also looking at a Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 6mbx2 2.83 GHZ or Core 2 Quad 9400 3mbx2 2.66GHZ

Graphics Card

I was thinking of going with a BFG Geforce GTX 275 but I can't find one.

I have found a few 265's and ones around that. How good of a Graphics card do I need to run some games like Fallout 3 well?

RAM

I was thinking of 4 GB of DDR3 RAM.

PSU

I was thinking of using a 500-600W M12 seasonic or a Cosair. I used a calculator and it gave me 360ish but it seems a little low?

Thank You!

 

[Why_Me]

275 is a good card. Stay away from the MSI boards,..go with Asus or Gigabyte or even EVGA. Also you want to go with 3x2 gigs of triple channel DDR3.

 

[iholly]

275 is a good card. Stay away from the MSI boards, Asus or Gigabyte or even EVGA. Also you want to go with 3x2 gigs of triple channel DDR3.

Thank you for the heads up on MSI. And I'll look into 6 gigs of triple channel RAM.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

For the graphics card, get one with a lifetime warranty. I started buying XFX videocards after my EVGA card died weeks after the warranty expired.

Since this will be your first real gaming rig, not sure of you should go all out with the i7 and X58. AMD has better value than the i7 plus the i7 doesn't give a huge gap in the framerates unless you're an advanced overclocker.

If you with AMD or an e8400 and GTX 275 with a large monitor, 24" minimum, you can probably build a decent rig for around $800. But if you just "need" to spend $1500, I'd still go with AMD. Use the savings from not buying the i7 and apply it to a larger monitor, or an SSD, or even a GTX 295.

 

[iholly]

For the graphics card, get one with a lifetime warranty. I started buying XFX videocards after my EVGA card died weeks after the warranty expired.

Since this will be your first real gaming rig, not sure of you should go all out with the i7 and X58. AMD has better value than the i7 plus the i7 doesn't give a huge gap in the framerates unless you're an advanced overclocker.

If you with AMD or an e8400 and GTX 275 with a large monitor, 24" minimum, you can probably build a decent rig for around $800. But if you just "need" to spend $1500, I'd still go with AMD. Use the savings from not buying the i7 and apply it to a larger monitor, or an SSD, or even a GTX 295.

Actually... The more I have been reading about it, I'm not an experience overclocker and I have a feeling that I am kind of building an overclocker's machine.

Do you think I should downgrade and go with a Phenom or something?

 

[Why_Me]

Actually... The more I have been reading about it, I'm not an experience overclocker and I have a feeling that I am kind of building an overclocker's machine.

Do you think I should downgrade and go with a Phenom or something?

With a $1,500 budget the i7 would be the way to go. X58 boards don't constrict you to only Crossfire set ups, they allow for SLI or Crossfire. And as far as over clocking with i7...which btw is a choice, not a necessity, is a piece of cake. There are hundreds of threads on over clocking the i7 and it's about the easiest thing you will ever do...if you do decide to over clock.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/04/23/core-i7-waste-of-money-says-nvidia/1

This may help you decide. It doesn't say not to buy the i7 if you have the cash but it does say something about getting more value if your budget is below a grand.

 

[iholly]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2009/04/23/core-i7-waste-of-money-says-nvidia/1

This may help you decide. It doesn't say not to buy the i7 if you have the cash but it does say something about getting more value if your budget is below a grand.

Good article. I'm really torn between the two.

On the question. The store I am looking at has a few motherboards.

Core i7 920 (256kb x 4) (about $340)

Q9650 (6mb x 2) ($340)
Q9550 (" ") ($235)
Q9400 (" ") ($290)

Why is the 9650 the same price as the I7? I do not know what the numbers in parentheses mean)

Also If I do go with the i7...

Is the P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard worth a extra $100 over the P6T. The only difference I can find is 8+2 phase power design versus 16+2.

Also, if I do downgrade, what is the best graphics card for the p45, the E8500?

 

[Stiffex]

iHolly if you are building a gaming rig mainly for gaming and keeping in touch with your friends on-line i dont see the point of massive i7 expense when a dual core E8xxx series is better for gaming.

Of course if you use a lot of heavy duty apps and play around with video editing and converting and such like then i7 will give you a lot of satisfaction, or even if you get a buzz from exercising machine power go for the i7.

However, as 100Isle`s link says, you can build yourself a tasty sli or xfire machine that in all likelyhood will game better than an i7, you will be saving a wad of money that can be spent on a nice big case and better GFX cards or/and big monitor.

The best gaming processor is the E8xxx series because games are just not written for 4 cores, to do so would require time and resources that would render the exercise uncompetitive and unprofitable so while Crysis and 1 or 2 other games do utilize 4 cores its only at a very superficial level and clock speed will have more bearing than core number, a 3.6ghz dual core will beat a 2.6 quad any day of the week.

So if you want to build a machine purely for gaming, make sure you get your mobo spec`s right particularly if you want SLI and get a fast cpu weather dual or quad and take a look at Phenom II and do some research before you decide but most importantly: save that money!

 

[iholly]

Thanks Stiffex and everyone so far.

I do do a little bit of video editing but mostly on my Mac so not worth a huge increase in price just for that.

After some more research I am leaning more towards a E8600 or E8500. Here is a cheaper build I threw together

Mother Board: ??

CPU: 8500 3.16 GHZ or 8600 3.33 GHZ $190 or $270

Graphics Card:
GeForce GTX 275 896 mb $250

RAM:

3 sticks of 2mb DDR3 $180

Power Supply: 600W

Total: $620-700 + PSU, Motherboard, Case and HD

Questions

1) What about motherboard? Any suggestions. Should I look for DDR3 one or switch RAM?
2) Is the 8600 worth the price increase
3) Is 600W sufficient?

 

[Rain1406]

275 is a good card. Stay away from the MSI boards, Asus or Gigabyte or even EVGA. Also you want to go with 3x2 gigs of triple channel DDR3.

Is that Stay away from MSI and go with ASUS, Gigabyte or EVGA insatead or is that stay away from all four, because if that's so then that rules out all of the top brand MoBo Manufacturers.

To iholly

I've got an i7920 OCd to 3.9ghz and a 9800GTX+ and I run Fallout at 1680*1050 one very high graphics, framerate drops a bit in wide open spaces but that's understandable so don't worry about fallout 3 performance too much. I'd still recomend 275 for other games though.

 

[Stiffex]

I personally dont think the extra $90 is worth the tiny bit of clock speed when you can overclock an E85 or 84oo that little bit extra; the only advantage is the higher stable overclock speed that can be reached with the 86oo but all the 8xxx series O/C very well. If you arent into overclocking and dont intend to do any serious O/C`ing then get an E8400 and take it to 3.4 ghz and that can be done on auto with no heat probz. If you are gonna get serious then go for the 86oo EO revision.

If you go the 775 route you are not gonna see any noticeable improvements over DDR2 by using DDR3, i think everyone will agree that only x58 shows any results with DDR3.

You need a mobo that has 2 x PCI-E x 16 slots and you have to decide weather you want Nvidea`s SLI or ATI`s Xfire

Nv GTX 285 & 295 is very expensive so check your budget and look at either 1 x GTX 285 or 295 [totally forget the dual core versions of these cards]
Or 2 x GTX 260 or 2 x GTX 275 in SLI depending on budget.

OR

ATI 1 X 4870x2 or 4850x2, or 2 X 4890 in Xfire, or 2 X 4870 1 GB in Xfire, or 2 X 4850 in Xfire, again lets see whats left of your budget.

Budget set ups could be: ATI 2 X 4770 Xfire OR Nvidia 2 X GTX 250 SLI, as a last resort i would say.

When youve decided which parts you are getting lets see what budget you have left so we can work out your graphics options.

 

[iholly]

After looking more into things and thinking a bit more about what I want, how does this sound? It's a big change I know and I hope you guys don't feel like your advice was wasted, it was very helpful, all of it!

Motherboard:



CPU:

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX
$225

Graphics:

BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OCE GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
$249

or maaaybe a 260

RAM:

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1333C9
$115

or will switch to DDR2, depends on motherboard

PSU: 600ish...

Total: 589 so far.

How does that sound? I am still pretty clueless on motherboards though.

 

[Why_Me]

Is that Stay away from MSI and go with ASUS, Gigabyte or EVGA insatead or is that stay away from all four, because if that's so then that rules out all of the top brand MoBo Manufacturers.

To iholly

I've got an i7920 OCd to 3.9ghz and a 9800GTX+ and I run Fallout at 1680*1050 one very high graphics, framerate drops a bit in wide open spaces but that's understandable so don't worry about fallout 3 performance too much. I'd still recomend 275 for other games though.

I fubared that post.....meant to say go with Asus, Gigabyte....etc...

 

[iholly]

I fubared that post.....meant to say go with Asus, Gigabyte....etc...

I figured it out


Final Build 1.0 (few choices left to make)

Mobo:
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$130

or
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$140


CPU:

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX945FBGIBOX - Retail
$225

Graphics:

GIGABYTE GV-N275UD-896H GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail
$240

or

BFG Tech BFGEGTX275896OCE GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
$250

(I read a review that the BFG is a good card)

RAM:

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1333C9 - Retail
$115

or

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P16004GK - Retail

Will probably be running 32 bit XP for a while but then upgrading so do you think I should go for the 6gb now or wait and upgrade?

PSU:

600W enough?

 

[coolblue]

You could cut another $100 or so if you change your CPU to a Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. At 3.1 GHz and very easy OC'ing on the stock cooling setup you can't go wrong! If you're lucky you might even be able to unlock those extra cores too! ;-)