Is this a good Gaming system?

[mahdibassam]

Hi all,

i have a ps3 and I am Building a gaming rig over the next two weeks and i want your opininion on this system:

Motherboard: Intel P5Q Pro

CPU: INTEL Pentium E5300 dual core 2.6GHz/ OR / Intel Pentium Dual Core E6300 2.8GHz LGA775

Graphics: ASUS EN9800GT Hybrid 512mg /

Ram: 2gb ddr/ddr2


you reckon i can play games like Crysis, sims3, empire total war, or new ones coming out like assassins 2 On high settings in 1024 or 1280? please Give me any other suggestions you have iN the same price range>

and i was wondering Is 9800 better or the 8800gts 320mg?


i would Xtremely appreciate your help.

 

[aford10]

What's your budget? The CPU and the video card are a bit dated. It's not a real good gaming system.

The 9800gt 512MB will outperform the 8800gts 320MB slightly.

 

[mahdibassam]

my budget is max 500NZD. wich is about 348.559 USD. i have the hard drive and ram from my old pc. all i need is CPU, motherboard, Graphics. what would you suggest for cpu and graphics card?

 

[mahdibassam]

hello?

 

[aford10]

CPU: E8400 $168
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

mobo: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128380

Video card: HIS 4850 $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161259

This build comes to $348. I realize you probably won't be ordering off of newegg, but I linked the items so you can see what I was thinking. The CPU and video card are by far better than the ones you had picked out. It'll be a much better budget gaming system.

 

[megamanx00]

Your proposed system just may be able to run alot of games smoothly on the highest settings, but may be o.k with high settings for a while with that resolution. Anyway I recommend going with a 4850 for the GPU and either an E5300 and a good P45 board to overclock it, or on the AMD side an Athlon II X2 245 and a decent motherboard to overclock that instead. For a budget AMD build I prefer ASRock boards. Make sure to check out their website for quick info though to see just what overclocking options they have as often the cheapest models don't have options to increase some values

Well, if you are going to overclock a CPU it's always a good idea to research whatever board you are looking at to see how well it overclocks.

 

[mahdibassam]

do you think these are good solutions?

GPU : http://pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=4768

CPU : http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=5900&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73


Motherboard : http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=6133&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73

another motherboard: http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=4841&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73


is that good ?

 

[aford10]

That's a better build. I'm real leary about recommending MSI mobos. They've been known to have flaky BIOSs, which can make it difficult to OC if you are thinking along that line. The MSI has the better chipset, but I wouldn't buy it.

 

[mahdibassam]

this Is The final system I came up with:

MotherBoard: MSI p45 NEO-F 1600FSB LGA775 ATX

CPU: Intel Pentium E 5200 2.5GHz 800FSB 2MB Cache LGA775 45nm ( I am planning to overclock as they say this cpu has good OC capabilities)

GPU: ATI RADEON HD4850 512MB GDDR3

RAM: 2GB DDR2/3 (would upgrade to 4 later on)

HDD: 300GB IDE hard drive from my current pc

PSU : Auriga MPT-5012 500W

what is the minimum PSU i should have for this system?

what do you pros think?

 

[aford10]

You'll want a good quality PSU that can put out ~400W.

That CPU is great for OC'ing. You may need to update your BIOS when you get the board.

 

[mahdibassam]

so then this is a good combination?


Im just curious about the HD4850, is it good? i never liked ATI really, i,v heard it can max out crysis

 

[aford10]

The 4850 is the highest quality part you have picked out. You should be able to play all the games you've mentioned on the highest graphic settings. ATI makes the higher quality cards and is better priced than Nvidia.

Do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler? You'll want one to OC the e5200.

Was there a reason you didn't get the better CPU and mobo that I linked? Gigabyte makes a p43 mobo that I would recommend over that MSI p45. If it's available in NZ, you could pick up that and the better quality CPU.

 

[mahdibassam]

The 4850 is the highest quality part you have picked out. You should be able to play all the games you've mentioned on the highest graphic settings. ATI makes the higher quality cards and is better priced than Nvidia.

Do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler? You'll want one to OC the e5200.

Was there a reason you didn't get the better CPU and mobo that I linked? Gigabyte makes a p43 mobo that I would recommend over that MSI p45. If it's available in NZ, you could pick up that and the better quality CPU.

well that assures me about the HD4850.

i do not have a CPU cooler, look at the link below:

http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=4914&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73

im not sure if theres a heatsink with it. If not, can i use the heatsink from my current pc?


the reason i didnt choose the one you suggested (E8200 or something) Is that the minimum price of it here in NZ is 280$(NZD) while i can get the E5200 for 100 and then overclock it. My whole budget is around 500-550NZD. I dont wanna spend 300 of it on just the CPU!

and i thought P45 is better than P43 isnt it? i see people recommending P45 rather than P43?

 

[mahdibassam]

?

 

[mognet]

Remember for NZ even with though the exchange rate is about 1:0.6-0.7 with the extra costs with imports etc parts that cost about $100 in the US come out to b e more like $200 NZ

 

[aford10]

OEM CPU's (the one you've picked) don't usually come with the fan. Meaning you'll need to buy one. If your current fan is for a socket 775 CPU, then it'll work (if you can get it off and back on without breaking the cheap prongs).

Have you checked out the e7400? $190 NZD
http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=5290&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73

Gigabyte p43 $159 NZD
http://www.pcpacific.net/product_info.php?products_id=6045&osCsid=ed521919011a9e31f4e4b4d4df3dfb73

combine these 2 with your 4850 and the total is ~ $500 NZD. I just don't think you're going to be able to OC the e5200 enough w/ a stock fan in order to not bottleneck the rest of the system.

Yes, the p45 chipset is a notch above the p43. But I don't recommend MSI mobo's. Gigabyte is one of the best, if not the best mobo manufacturer. For the most part, the difference in the chipsets is the OC ability (which you don't need if you go with the faster CPU). I would trade the OC ability for quality.

 

[mahdibassam]

so you think the P43 Gigabyte mobo is better than the P45 MSI? the price of the MSI P45 is 20$ lower than the Gigabyte P43? why is that? tehre are no differences in features.

the Gigabyte P43 says that it has High definiton audio and... so it has auido and i dont need to purchase sound card?


i cannot afford the 7400 cpu so i would just go with the E5200 and overclocking. yes my fan is 775 LGA so can i remove it and use it on the new mobo?


would i be able to OC better with MSI P45 mobo and E5200 or the Gigabyte P43 and E5200?

 

[aford10]

The price of the Gigabyte is higher because it's better quality. They will both have onboard audio. You won't need a soundcard for either mobo. The Gigabyte will have better quality onboard audio.

The p45 chipset will allow for better OCing. But like I said before, MSI is known to have flaky BIOSs. You will likely have to flash your BIOS, and then hope the OC features work properly. Not to mention with a stock fan, you aren't going to be able to OC much on either mobo. So in a roundabout way, the MSI SHOULD OC better, but that doesn't mean it will.

 

[mahdibassam]

what do you mean with a stock fan?

can you explain a bit more?

How far can i OC the E5200 with The Gigabyte and MSI mobo exactly?

 

[aford10]

The stock fan is the intel fan that comes with their CPUs. This is assuming that you have a CPU fan that will fit the socket 775 CPU (because the e5200 likely won't come with one).

With the stock fan, you can probably get it OC'd to ~2.9 or 3 Ghz. With a quality CPU cooler, you could probably get it up to ~3.5Ghz. It's hard to judge though, because all BIOSs are a little different.

 

[mahdibassam]

so this is the final system:


MotherBoard : GIGABYTE GA-EP43-US3L S775 P43 4DDR2 PCIE2.0 SATA2 GBLAN ATX FSB

CPU : INTEL PENTIUM DUAL CORE E5200 2.5GHZ 2MB 800MHZ LGA775 OEM (will OC to 3.0GHZ)

GPU: ATI RADEON HD4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E DUAL DVI TV-OUT

RAM: GENERIC 2GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 MEMORY

HDD: 300GB IDE

PSU: 450/500 watt 20/24 pin




your final thoughts everyone please?

 

[aford10]

Does your PSU have the 4/8 pin CPU power connector?

Probably a good choice on the mobo.

 

[mahdibassam]

It has the 4pin i think, whats the difference? should it be 4 or 8?


what relatively cheap psu would u recommend?

and can u provide me with a tutorial of overclocking the cpu and gpu from anywhere?

 

[aford10]

It could be 4 or 8. Either will work, it just needs one or the other to power the CPU. You can try your current PSU to see if it will power your system. If not, then you'll want to look at something new. Corsair, Seasonic, PC power & cooling, and OCZ are all good PSU manufacturers. Any of them ~ 400 - 500W would be good.

Overclocking is kind of trial and error. It's hard to find tutorials because each BIOS is different. Intel is fairly easy. First increase the multiplier and the FSB in increments to find the highest stable setting. You can increase the CPU voltage SLIGHTLY as you OC the CPU. Go in small increments though, you don't want to burn up the CPU.