$1000 Gaming / College build

[bmurray]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of November (Black Friday ish)

BUDGET RANGE: $900-1000

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, College work (Computer Science major)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg

PARTS PREFERENCES: 5850, i5 750 or i7 860

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: In the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Here is the build I have come up with. Bolded parts have already been purchased.

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $65 shipped

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $45 shipped

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH

Combo ~$370

Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply - $95 after rebates

GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard - $170

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - $26

Add in a 5850, and it comes out to ~$1070, which is a little more than I was planning to spend, but if that's the best bang for my buck, I'll shell out the extra $70.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or other possible build ideas?

 

[cory1234]

Any reason you want that mobo? This one will perform the same for $30 less.
Gigabyte UD3R:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128401

You might want to upgrade to DDR3 1600 ram if you plan on overclocking:
Ripjaw 1600:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

Here is a good cooler for cheap, Hyper 212+ $30:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

More than likely the combo deals that you have picked will no longer be there around the time of purchase, but there is always new deals. AMD just increased the price of the 5850 by $20 because of demand but hopefully it settles back down when you plan to buy.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The OP probably picked the motherboard he did because he said he wanted to leave the option of crossfire open. The GA-P55-UD3R is a nice inexpensive P55 board, but you do not want to use it for crossfire since it runs its second PCI-E slot at 4x.

The original build looks good. You should probably go down to the i5 750 for a gaming computer since the i7 860 has nearly no improvement when it comes to gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641&p=7

 

[bmurray]

Well the mobo you suggested only has one PCIe 2.0 slot, and I will most likely be crossfiring once my 5850 becomes less adequate (in 2-3 years). Would you say that RAM frequency is more important in an overclocking situation than latency? I haven't overclocked before and if I do decide to, I want to make sure to get it right. As far as the 5850 price goes, I'm thinking that prices won't drop until after xmas time, when sales settle down, but who knows at this point?

@shortstuff: Would you say there would be a considerable difference in processor performance between the two when doing my college work (or in any computer work for that matter)? If not, I'd be happy to save the $90 and switch to an i5.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

About the only time the i7 860 really shines is with video editing work and other highly threaded applications. For general use the i5 is nearly as fast.

 

[cory1234]

Well the mobo you suggested only has one PCIe 2.0 slot, and I will most likely be crossfiring once my 5850 becomes less adequate (in 2-3 years). Would you say that RAM frequency is more important in an overclocking situation than latency? I haven't overclocked before and if I do decide to, I want to make sure to get it right. As far as the 5850 price goes, I'm thinking that prices won't drop until after xmas time, when sales settle down, but who knows at this point?

@shortstuff: Would you say there would be a considerable difference in processor performance between the two when doing my college work (or in any computer work for that matter)? If not, I'd be happy to save the $90 and switch to an i5.

Not to put down the idea of crossfire down the line..but more than likely in 2-3 years there will be a single card with double the performance of 2x5850s.

I would stick with the i7 860 if you can afford it. Hyper-threading is worth it for a lot of programs especially in school..not to mention the slightly higher starting clocks.

 

[bmurray]

Well, I would rather crossfire down the road than have to pay another $300 for a graphics card. I may have been exaggerating a bit when I said 2-3 years. It's more like whenever I feel a single 5850 isn't keeping up, I'll add another to at least prolong its life before buying a newer card.

 

[redgarl]

Something like that...

Phenom II 955
MSI 790FX-GD70
Radeon 5850 (XFX if you can)
Corsair 750TX power supply
Cooler Master haf 922
Western Digital caviar black 1TB