800-$1150 Gaming PC

[Regent91]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Dec.1 to Dec.15

BUDGET RANGE: $800 - $1150

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming(RTS Games i.e Empire Total: War), Everyday use

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor(If you can fit a 16-20 Inch within the budget then go ahead), Keyboard & Mouse, Speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: http://www.newegg.com/

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: Here's the department in what I lack knowledge in. Don't know what components are compatible with one another. ATI most likely for the graphic card. Leaning towards Intel atm. And I don't need that big of a HD(750 GB to 1 TB).

OVERCLOCKING:

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1440x900-I'd be using either of these three.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Quiet would be nice. For the OS I would prefer Windows 7. And for more insight on what games I'd be playing mostly what I stated, RTS and strategy and simulation games with an occasional MMO thrown in. And to note, first PC that I'd be putting everything together, if that means anything.

 

[staggadee]

Antec Three Hundred Case
Asus M4A78T-E motherboard
Athlon II x3 2.7ghz with Dark Knight cooler (should be abel to hit around 3.2GHz)
G-Skill DDR3-1600 4GB
RAID 0 2x Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB (for total of 320GB at approx 600mbs)
DVDRW
500W power supply
Radeon 5770 graphics card (DX11!!!)

for £710 will upgrade to phenom II x3 BE and add discrete sound card ASUS Xonar

These are uk prices from www.novatech.co.uk but these are generally comparable with the us newegg prices

 

[MadAdmiral]

@StaggaDee: I wouldn't waste the money on a discrete sound card.

For your budget, you can easily afford an x4 955 BE or i5 build. I just bought the stuff for a 955 build with 8 GB RAM and massive HDD space for $1100 (not counting discounts/BF deals).

I'd recommend (approx. prices):
Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz Quad Core ($165)
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO ($120)
Corsair 650W ($90)
G.Skill DDR3-1600 CL 7 ($80 right now, $100 regular)
DVD RW ($30)
Antec 300 Illusion ($70)
Samsung Spinpoing F3 1 TB ($85)
Radeon HD 5770 ($170)
Windows 7 ($100)

All that's less than $800. If you want to spend more, you can up the video card or switch over to Intel i5 for about $100-$150 more.

 

[nofun]

@StaggaDee: I wouldn't waste the money on a discrete sound card.

For your budget, you can easily afford an x4 955 BE or i5 build. I just bought the stuff for a 955 build with 8 GB RAM and massive HDD space for $1100 (not counting discounts/BF deals).

I'd recommend (approx. prices):
Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz Quad Core ($165)
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO ($120)
Corsair 650W ($90)
G.Skill DDR3-1600 CL 7 ($80 right now, $100 regular)
DVD RW ($30)
Antec 300 Illusion ($70)
Samsung Spinpoing F3 1 TB ($85)
Radeon HD 5770 ($170)
Windows 7 ($100)

All that's less than $800. If you want to spend more, you can up the video card or switch over to Intel i5 for about $100-$150 more.

With an AMD build, anything over DDR3 1333 is superfluous unless you plan to OC your RAM. See if the DDR3 1333 Ram is cheaper, otherwise don't worry about it.

The Regular Antec 300 is a little cheaper ($55) and still a great case.

If you foresee yourself Crossfiring two beefier cards in the future (Like two HD 5850's): OCZ Fatal1ty 700W $60 after MIR
If not: OCZ Fatal1ty 550W $40 after MIR

The i5-750 CPU / P55 Motherboard build will give you better gaming performance, but for what you're looking to run it's not really necessary. It would be more worthwhile to drop that extra money into a beefier graphics card like an HD 5850, etc...

And yes discrete audio cards are really only worthwhile if you have a matching speaker system which will fully utilize it.

 

[batuchka]

 

[batuchka]

http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=17

If any of these benchmarks are representative of the overall gaming experience, then what it comes down to is the simple fact that saving $100 on a ninety nine dollar CPU and spending the savings on a higher-end graphics card is pprobably the best investment to get more out of a game.

 

[Regent91]

I looked over the suggested builds, and this is what I've drafted up as of now. It may look familiar to the one's you've posted, which I took some items from(basically everything). Is this any good for the price?

SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model SH-S222A - OEM- $30.99

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail-$54.95

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive-$69.99

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail-$119.99

SAPPHIRE 100282SR Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card w/ATI Eyefinity - Retail-$309.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ... - Retail-$107.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM - Retail-$90.99

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX - Retail-$165.99

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM-$104.99

Total: $1,055.87

 

[batuchka]

Haha ya that would work but no need LCD?

 

[Regent91]

I have an lcd that I'm using now that would suffice until I get a new one. But I just changed the processor and motherboard on yours suggestion.

But I'm just wondering is their a big difference between the 5850 and the 5770? Not to knowledgeable in the area.

 

[batuchka]

A pretty huge gulf in class i would say ^^

 

[MadAdmiral]

The RAM I suggested is cheaper and faster, but if you don't buy it quick, it won't be for long. EDIT: Nevermind. It's sold out...

I would ditch the WD for a Spinpoint F3 500 GB for $55, if you can find it or wait until it's restocked. It's faster and cheaper.

 

[nofun]

http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=17

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q205/batuchka/crysis64.gif

If any of these benchmarks are representative of the overall gaming experience, then what it comes down to is the simple fact that saving $100 on a ninety nine dollar CPU and spending the savings on a higher-end graphics card is probably the best investment to get more out of a game.

It depends on the game and on how much graphics throughput you are looking to stack. The charts below represent some massive GPU power, an HD 4870 X2 is a beefy card (similar to an HD 5870).

From this article here (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-lynnfield,2379-7.html):

So for Crysis, not a whole lot of difference...

However in a game which is more bottlenecked by the CPU:

Now we see a pretty significant difference.

For me, the most telling chart happens to be the synthetic results from 3Dmark:

While synthetic results must be chewed with a bit of salt, and must be confirmed by "real-world" benchmarks, they offer a good smorgasbord of tests which tends to even out the specific proclivities of different games. I still stand by my conclusion that the i5 offers slightly better performance, even in gaming.


That being said, AMD is a better choice for our man here. Better bang/buck and more upgradeable in the future.

 

[Regent91]

The RAM I suggested is cheaper and faster, but if you don't buy it quick, it won't be for long. EDIT: Nevermind. It's sold out...

I would ditch the WD for a Spinpoint F3 500 GB for $55, if you can find it or wait until it's restocked. It's faster and cheaper.

Yea that's why I didn't get it. And with the HD it say's it's currently unavailable by their site.

And yea, AMD look's like what I'm getting for a processor.

 

[MadAdmiral]

It'd check other sites for the HDD. Or go with a Seagate 7200.12 for the same price.

 

[Guest]

i agree with madadmiral, the seagate is a pretty nice drive

especially for the price