Mid-range Gaming Build

So how does this build look in terms of a mid range gaming PC? It'll be for games at 1920x1080 res.

Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940

Graphics - XFX 1GB ATI 4890

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3

RAM - 4GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5

HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB

Also can anyone recommend any decent PSU costing about $75?

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HosainH wrote :

So how does this build look in terms of a mid range gaming PC? It'll be for games at 1920x1080 res.

Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940

Graphics - XFX 1GB ATI 4890

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3

RAM - 4GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5

HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB

Also can anyone recommend any decent PSU costing about $75?

LOL, I'd build an Intel/NVidIA system, but that's just me. As for the PSU, a great quality PSU that will be more than enough as long as you don't plan to SLI would be the Corsair TX650.

For an Intel System:

Intel Core i7
EVGA GTX 275
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 DDR3
WD Caviar Black 1TB

P.S>, you're missing a case.

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Reply to raybob95

Was there anything wrong with my build? x_x
The build you posted was way above my budget.

I'll probably get an antec 900 for a case.

I'll use your recommendation on the caviar black and the PSU though, thanks

Reply to HosainH

ray quoted a good HDD and a good PSU....

processor wise, if all you're doing is gaming then the AMD chip is fine, you could spend the cash saved from an i7 else where...

... if you plan on doing things other than gaming and you have the cash, then an i7 would be a better choice

ati vs nvidia... personal preference in games really, one brand may perform better in some games and worse in others. Either way, your 4890 is a freaking beast and is very nice 8) especially at their current cost^^

antec 900 is an amazing case for the $$ ~ so is the CM 690 (for a bit less)

overall looks like a very good setup, you should get more replies before setting down to anything though.

good luck

Reply to Kithzaru

raybob95 wrote :

LOL, I'd build an Intel/NVidIA system, but that's just me. As for the PSU, a great quality PSU that will be more than enough as long as you don't plan to SLI would be the Corsair TX650.

For an Intel System:

Intel Core i7
EVGA GTX 275
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
6GB OCZ Platinum 1600 DDR3
WD Caviar Black 1TB

P.S>, you're missing a case.

LOL did you even think of comparing prices?
LOL did you read the reviews that show i7 being a poor gaming chip with single card rigs?
LOL did you know that nVidia recommended people building gaming pc's dont buy i7 ?
LOL

The op's build is a good , it will all work together . Its all quality part choices .
The only difference I would make would be to choose a motherboard with a 790 series northbridge and a 750 series southbridge because it will overclock a little better , but that might not be important

PS advice to replace the samsung drive with a wd is marginal at best . The samsung is faster and quieter than the wd

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Message edited by Outlander_04 on 06-19-2009 at 12:05:08 AM

Reply to Outlander_04

Outlander_04 wrote :

LOL did you know that nVidia recommended people building gaming pc's dont buy i7 ?
LOL

wow that's interesting, i haven't heard anything about that. could u post me a link please?

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Reply to yonith

yonith wrote :

wow that's interesting, i haven't heard anything about that. could u post me a link please?

Mmm.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/n [...] ,7624.html

Don't even read the news on Tom's huh? (edit: and even if you didn't read the news, it should be pretty obvious why Nvidia would make such a claim; its major product is GPUs, and the i7 is a CPU which indirectly takes money away from GPUs due to silly marketing claims)

Oh, and Raybob95 is apparently just a little twit, ignore him hosainh (although at least he has his parts straight, but he hasn't got much else going for him). Your build will work for whatever you hope to do with it... except I really would look into 790 chipsets. What IS your budget? Just curious, it might help us help you.

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Message edited by mlcloud on 06-19-2009 at 05:25:07 AM

------------------------------ q9550 2.83ghz @ 3.91ghz
4gb OCZ Platinum DDR2-1066 RAM
Powercolor HD 4890

Reply to mlcloud

Nothing wrong with AMD. I've ALWAYS built my systems with AMD chips, and my primary goal was usually gaming. I started out gaming as a kid about 10-11 years ago, and now I'm a certified computer tech, no problems with them.

Reply to ohiou_grad_06

mlcloud wrote :

Mmm.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/n [...] ,7624.html

Don't even read the news on Tom's huh? (edit: and even if you didn't read the news, it should be pretty obvious why Nvidia would make such a claim; its major product is GPUs, and the i7 is a CPU which indirectly takes money away from GPUs due to silly marketing claims)

Oh, and Raybob95 is apparently just a little twit, ignore him hosainh (although at least he has his parts straight, but he hasn't got much else going for him). Your build will work for whatever you hope to do with it... except I really would look into 790 chipsets. What IS your budget? Just curious, it might help us help you.

Interesting analysis BUT nVidia didnt tell people not to buy cpu's . They told people not to buy ci7

And benchmarks like
http://www.overclockersclub.com/re [...] _955/8.htm
have to be part of the reason
These are all using the same GTX260 ..and the nehalem scores very badly

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Reply to Outlander_04

mlcloud wrote :

Mmm.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/n [...] ,7624.html

Don't even read the news on Tom's huh? (edit: and even if you didn't read the news, it should be pretty obvious why Nvidia would make such a claim; its major product is GPUs, and the i7 is a CPU which indirectly takes money away from GPUs due to silly marketing claims)

Oh, and Raybob95 is apparently just a little twit, ignore him hosainh (although at least he has his parts straight, but he hasn't got much else going for him). Your build will work for whatever you hope to do with it... except I really would look into 790 chipsets. What IS your budget? Just curious, it might help us help you.

Is the MA790 crossfire supported? If I wanted to put another 4890 at a later date it would work, right, or is the 4890 too big?
Otherwise both motherboards seem identical, since i'm not really a heavy overclocker. I think the price increase warrants crossfire support though!

My budget is around $750 but I won't be buying from newegg or any regular retailer so i'd rather just know some recommended hardware.

So here's how it's looking right now:

Processor - AMD Phenom II X4 940

Graphics - XFX 1GB ATI 4890

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 (if all the crossfire business works)

RAM - 4GB Corsair TWIN2X4096-8500C5

HDD - samsung f1/wd black (whichevers cheaper!)

Case - antec 900

PSU - Corsair TX650

Reply to HosainH

Outlander_04 wrote :

Interesting analysis BUT nVidia didnt tell people not to buy cpu's . They told people not to buy ci7

And benchmarks like
http://www.overclockersclub.com/re [...] _955/8.htm
have to be part of the reason
These are all using the same GTX260 ..and the nehalem scores very badly

What the heck are you on? I never said anything about Nvidia saying not to buy CPUs. I said they wouldn't want people to sacrifice GPU money in their budget just to get an i7 and an 1366 mobo. Read my "analysis" again, dipwad. I said they would say such things because they merely want people to place more respect (and cash) into the GPUs for gaming computers. If there's some TRUTH in saying that i7's aren't worth it for gaming, that's that (I disagree with it, but that's also a separate argument), but I said this for yonith's benefit only: even if he had no idea what the i7 was aside from that it was a CPU, he should still be able to contrive why Nvidia would make a claim that i7s shouldn't be purchased for gaming computers, because they're a BUSINESS who needs to make money.

Oh, and the primary reason why the i7s don't perform well is a pure clock speed issue and a lack of support for the i7's primary functions that make it so valuable, so in the end you have a CPU that can tear through encodes and file-compressions even at a low stock speed of 2.66ghz (as compared to the high-end Phenom II/Core2 Quad series), but not so strong in games until you overclock it/use multi-GPUs.

Geeze, here I am providing substance for the claims you make and the first thing you do is bash me for something I didn't say. Go kill yourself.

@yonith

That gigabyte board DOES have crossfire, but the 2nd PCIe 2.0 slot is running at 8x bandwidth; meaning anything stronger than a 4870 might lose a tiny bit of performance. I think it'll be a pretty negligible difference, but you might want to wait for someone to confirm that here (or do some research yourself).

Otherwise, looks fine to me.

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Reply to mlcloud

mlcloud wrote :

What the heck are you on? I never said anything about Nvidia saying not to buy CPUs. I said they wouldn't want people to sacrifice GPU money in their budget just to get an i7 and an 1366 mobo. Read my "analysis" again, dipwad. I said they would say such things because they merely want people to place more respect (and cash) into the GPUs for gaming computers. If there's some TRUTH in saying that i7's aren't worth it for gaming, that's that (I disagree with it, but that's also a separate argument), but I said this for yonith's benefit only: even if he had no idea what the i7 was aside from that it was a CPU, he should still be able to contrive why Nvidia would make a claim that i7s shouldn't be purchased for gaming computers, because they're a BUSINESS who needs to make money.

Oh, and the primary reason why the i7s don't perform well is a pure clock speed issue and a lack of support for the i7's primary functions that make it so valuable, so in the end you have a CPU that can tear through encodes and file-compressions even at a low stock speed of 2.66ghz (as compared to the high-end Phenom II/Core2 Quad series), but not so strong in games until you overclock it/use multi-GPUs.

Geeze, here I am providing substance for the claims you make and the first thing you do is bash me for something I didn't say. Go kill yourself.

@yonith

That gigabyte board DOES have crossfire, but the 2nd PCIe 2.0 slot is running at 8x bandwidth; meaning anything stronger than a 4870 might lose a tiny bit of performance. I think it'll be a pretty negligible difference, but you might want to wait for someone to confirm that here (or do some research yourself).

Otherwise, looks fine to me.

You are emotionally retarded .
What I said did not amount to bashing you . On the other hand you have come out with a massive demonstration of your own inadequacy with the name calling and rudeness . Its unlikely you have the maturity to apologize , but I do hope you grow up some day

The point I was making is that there is little difference in price between high end intel c2quads and the intel i7 . nVidia made no mention of not spending money on a high end cpu [ though I do see the point you make about spending more on a gpu and less on a cpu benefitting nVidia ] . They specifically said dont bother with i7 for gaming
The benchmarks support nVidias point of view . In that price range ci7 is not a good gaming choice , and performs worse than processors costing half as much

The other interesting thing is that nVidias gpu's seem more affected than ATI's . If a builder wants i7 and gaming the logical choice seems to be to use ATI gpu[s]

Reply to Outlander_04

I think we're getting off-topic here guys x_x

I'll look into that 8x PCI-e 2 thingy.

Reply to HosainH

Looks similar to my built
So here are the parts Im planning on getting,

CPU: AMD 940 BE
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA790X
RAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz
GPU: XFX Ati HD 4870 1GB
CASE: Antec 300
PSU: Corsair 650TX
HDD: Western Digital 160GB
OD: LG GH22NS30 22x DVD-RW
OS: Windows 7

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Reply to K1ash3r

K1ash3r wrote :

Looks similar to my built
So here are the parts Im planning on getting,

CPU: AMD 940 BE
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA790X
RAM: Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz
GPU: XFX Ati HD 4870 1GB
CASE: Antec 300
PSU: Corsair 650TX
HDD: Western Digital 160GB
OD: LG GH22NS30 22x DVD-RW
OS: Windows 7

Oh cool

What made you choose the 790 over the 770?

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Reply to HosainH

HosainH wrote :

Oh cool

What made you choose the 790 over the 770?

Well, the 790 supports crossfire and the 770 does not, and I like to keep my options open =)

Reply to K1ash3r

Allright I think i've got my build set. Gonna order real soon! This system is going to rock

Reply to HosainH

the 790 series mb's have 750 southbridge chip sets . These allow good overclocks of phenom

the 770 boards have 710 southbridge chip sets , and so far I havent seen any information on whether they are a stable so the safe bet is the 790 IMO

Reply to Outlander_04

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sap [...] -s-ATX-VGA

Does this sapphire motherboard look good? It looks better than the gigabyte one because both PCI slots run at 16x.. But its cheaper so it must be worse in someway..

Reply to HosainH

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