Game System Basics Under $1000

[gruvent]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Before the end of 2009
RANGE: Total including Tax and shipping can not go over $999

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: FPS Gaming, Gaming, Gaming, work

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers
I have 2 Extra Power Supplies given to me. Dont have to use them, but if you think they are good we can. Also, I have some old cases around here that I can use. if there is extra money left over, then go ahead and squeze in a new case. (Below are the links to the 2 power supplies I have)

Corsair HX620W Modular Power SUpply Model#CMPSU-620HX A
or
OCZ GAME X STREAM 600W PS Model#OCZ600GXSSLI


PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:www.NEWEGG.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA, FL

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel i7. Not sure flavor of i7 is the best for gaming.. 920? or what ever is good.

OVERCLOCKING: YES!

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: I am not up to date on these technologies. I will only be using 1 Monitor.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 (But may upgrade to 1920x1200 down the road)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Noise Level not important. Something with OUTSTANDING fps. hard drive size is not that important as I have a nas server on the network that I use for storage. But Fast Read/Write I think would be important?

Also, I will need to Dual Boot the computer on different drives. (I already have the 2nd drive) Can not mix gaming with work. If this can be done via motherboard then great, if not then recomend the best method for dual booting.

In addition, More than 4Gigs of memory would be prefered. Not sure if its possible with the low budget.

Lately, I have been out of the hardware loop. I dont know what hardware mixes well with each other. Other than that, I have no trouble building systems. Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[ares1214]

ok, first, use that corsair 620 watt, it is a great psu. next, the amd phenom 2 x4 955 is not as good as the 920 in synthetics and such, but in gaming, it is very close, and even wins about half:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278-9.html

it also costs about 300$ less (entire build), therefore allowing for better vid card, which really affects fps. therefore, even though i did get a close to 1000$ i7 build, i will show you the amd build:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.262009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231321

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.310962

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128415

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

now let me explain myself. i said you could keep the 620 watt psu as it is good enough, but in this combo, you get a 5850, for 0.01$ cheaper, with a free 600 watt psu. that is just good business! (70$ of a 69.99$ psu). also, you have enough room in your budget for another 4 gigs of that AWESOME RAM ( would come put to be 979.95). well, hope that helped.

 

[gruvent]

Your Fast! I does not have to be i7. I just thought that was the thing to have at the moment. But your right, FPS is the most importing thing to me in this build. I'm going to keep monitoring this thread and see if anyone else agrees or suggests something different.

 

[ares1214]

come on people agree with me!!!

 

[1898]

Nice PSUs you got there

Just for gaming, i5 is the way to go to be honest.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=16

SLI = running two or more NVIDIA cards in parallel.
CrossFireX = running two or more ATI cards in parallel.
= mowr FPS!

Your Corsair has enough power to run two HD 5850s, that's a lot of money saved.


Anyway, my suggestion.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11295131
$904.78

You got enough money left for a proper case. Like the Antec 900, CM Storm or CM HAF 922 for example.

 

[gruvent]

Nice, i've like the reviews on the i5. The wish list is perfect. The extra $100 is actuall needed. because i dont have an OS. (Hopefully Windows 7 is up to par now..) Actually, the Intell i series may be a better for my work inviroment. I uses 2 or 3 virtual machines and lots of mutithreading. But gaming preformance is more important. I can wait a couple of more seconds for a program to compile. I can't wait in a FPS game .

Also, thanks for the update on SLI and Crossfire. Running video cards in parallel for a SINGLE Monitor? Did not know this could be done.

 

[gruvent]

This is good. So far 2 different systems. this is very helpful. Still watching thread if anyone else wants to agree or suggest something different.

 

[1898]

Hm.. I am not quite sure but more RAM wouldn't hurt since you are using up to 3 virtual machines. I used 7 in VirtualBox and had to assign almost 2GB to get it work smoothly.
And yes, SLI/CF can be used for a single or more monitors.

 

[dpaul8]

Nice PSUs you got there

Just for gaming, i5 is the way to go to be honest.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=16

SLI = running two or more NVIDIA cards in parallel.
CrossFireX = running two or more ATI cards in parallel.
= mowr FPS!

Your Corsair has enough power to run two HD 5850s, that's a lot of money saved.


Anyway, my suggestion.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=11295131
$904.78

You got enough money left for a proper case. Like the Antec 900, CM Storm or CM HAF 922 for example.

Just a quick note to 1898. The motherboard you specificed in your Newegg wishlist above is a X58 motherboard. I am sure you meant to specify a P55 motherboard. Very nice build by the way, and excellent advice.

For P55 motherboards supporting two graphics cards, consider either the ASUS P7P55D PRO or the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P. Both of these boards sell for $170.

 

[ares1214]

according to this benchmark:

http://www.*****/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/22151-intel-lynnfield-core-i5-750-core-i7-870-processor-review-17.html

the 945 (not quite as good as the 955) loses about 70% of the synthetics, but wins about 60% of the gaming fps benchmarks. also, the psu i bought there was basically free, so you can return it and make 69.99 (that with the 5850 in a combo deal for 70 $ off). also just thinking forward, my mobo has sata 6 and usb 3, and also socket 1156 is in all likely going to stay at quad and dual core, whereas socket am3 will be used for 6 core cpus, and possibly beyond that. therefore, i conclude that AMD would be better for this build. (and you get 500 more Gb in my hdd )

 

[1898]

uff. You are right. No idea how that happened. Good thing there's always someone who doublechecks the builds even though I did it too.. Thanks

Either of those two boards are good, just don't get trapped by USB 3.0/Sata3 on the Gigabyte board. If you set both controller to USB 3.0/Sata3 the graphics card will operate at x8. I don't know how much performance you lose but with older cards it was approx. 2%. Once you put a second graphics card in there, USB 3.0/Sata3 will set themselves back to USB 2.0/Sata 2.
Asus has a better solution right now with its P7P55D-E Pro board since it doesn't get its bandwidth from the graphics card slot.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[ares1214]

x8 to x16 isnt nothing, as video cards can barely make it to that bandwidth anyway. but still, i would either wait for usb 3 and sata 6 to become more mainstream, or i would go either 955 or i5, they will both give the same performance, with the intel a bit ahead, and the amd a bit cheaper.

 

[gruvent]

To update things, 1898. You have an error in your wishlist. Right now the current recomendation for correcting your wishlist would be to subsitute the motherboard for one of these mothersboards (Preferd on top):

P55 motherboards

1) ASUS P7P55D PRO
2) P7P55D-E Pro
3) Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P

Or should I swap 1 and 2 and put the P7P55D-E Pro as the preferd motherboard?

 

[gruvent]

Also, I like the idea of 2 video cards. I will just buy 1 5850, and a 2nd one down the road to increase the fps

 

[1898]

x8 to x16 isnt nothing, as video cards can barely make it to that bandwidth anyway. but still, i would either wait for usb 3 and sata 6 to become more mainstream, or i would go either 955 or i5, they will both give the same performance, with the intel a bit ahead, and the amd a bit cheaper.

Yea, kinda agreed. Sata 3 doesn't really perform much better than Sata 2 on P55 platforms. Though, USB 3 seems to be doing just fine and you will probably miss it once it really hits the market.

Fixed the wishlist with the none USB3.0 ASUS board. Up to you whether you want to spend $20 on it.

 

[gruvent]

wish list is still messed up. You have 2 motherboards on it, no cpu

Whats the preferd Operating system? XP should I get windows 7 32bit or 64bit?

 

[gruvent]

Im going with Windows 7 64bit since I will have more than 4Gigs memory.

 

[1898]

Argh, not my day. Fixed. :lol:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit for System Builders, added to wishlist.
Check the various editions and decide whether you need Professional.

 

[gruvent]

Thanks, I may use a extra harddrive that I have here for a while. This way I will have more funds for OS Professional. Also may use a dvd rom I have extra that I did not want to use. I can always replace it down the road. I will update you with what system I go with. Thanks for the advice!

 

[gruvent]

I noticed no one recomended the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition Video card. Is the 5850 Compairable to this card?

 

[ares1214]

the 5850 MAULS the 285 in 98% of benchmarks, and the 285 is pretty considerably better than the 260, so no, they arent compairable.

 

[gruvent]

Oh. Wow, did not know this! Thanks

 

[1898]

Indeed, click here to get an overview.

 

[banthracis]

Build I threw together earlier today

CPU/ HSF combo
i5 and CM Hyper 212 Plus $220.82
(the best performing HSF for an i5 http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2419)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.296096

MOBO- P55 UD4 $139.99 UD4P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128404&Tpk=p55%20ud4

RAM- G Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1333 8-8-8-21 1.5v $91.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275&cm_re=g_skill_ripjaw-_-20-231-275-_-Product

GPU - ATI HD 5850 $299.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857&cm_re=5850-_-14-102-857-_-Product

HD Spinpoint F3 $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product

If not in stock Seagate 7200.12 $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395&cm_re=7200.12-_-22-148-395-_-Product

Optical Drive
Doesn't really matter, any LG, Sony, LiteOn ~$30 SATA one works fine
Liteon one for $28.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106281

Case- HAF 922 $99.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197&cm_re=haf_922-_-11-119-197-_-Product

OS Win 7 pro or Premium for $30 at http://win741.com. Find a random college student if you aren't one.

Total $966.75 Should still be under $1k with shipping.

PSU- the Corsair you already have.

 

[gruvent]

Thanks banthracis! Another i5 build (Sorry ares1214 ) Thats a sweet deal on windows.

I will be ordering the system on Dec 28th. Not sure witch one yet. I will keep ya posted.