Thoughts on this i5 gaming system please

whatelsematters

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Well it looks okay. Here are some concerns:

* The mobo will work out fine, just don't know if you need to spend $160 on that mobo unless your wanting to X-fire/SLI later. For a single GPU solution, you can get a cheaper mobo that'll do just as well.
* The 4890/5770 should outperform the GTX 260 and they are both cheaper than it by ~$30-40. Is this your preferrence GPU card??
* The RAM sticks look pretty good. I know there are Ripjaws at 9 timings at stock voltage too, and they are $94 shipped. Not sure if they OC more than yours, but something to think about.
 

whatelsematters

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do you have a link to some tests on the 4890/5770 vs the gtx 260 216? if you're right and they are cheaper and perform as well, then obviously i'd like to check them out...

as for the mobo, i'm planning on grabbing another video card eventually so i want a 2 slot board. and i've found with systems in the past that buying a cheap mobo is generally not a good call.
 

welshmousepk

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the gtx 260 woul be a pretty bad choice right now. 5 series cards can outperform it for a better price. and will only improve as driver updates are released, and thru the integration of DX11.

a 5770 would be a similar price as lunyone said, and it will improve as time goes on.
 


As cab be seen if you read the article below, the 260 outperforms the 5770 but the 4890 outperforrms both

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491.html

Here's the "winners" from THG's latest (December) GFX Roundup
Best Graphics Cards For The Money: December '09

$50 - HD 4650
$65 - HD 4670 / 9600 GSO
$85 - 9600 GT
$95 - 9600 GT / HD 4830
$110 - GTS 250 512 MB
$120 - GTS 250 1 GB
$155 - HD 5770 / GTX 260
$200 - HD 4890
$240 - 2 x GTS 250
$310 - No winner (HD 5850 Honorable Mention)
$330 - 2 x GTX 260 / 2 x HD 5770
$400 - 2 x HD 4890
$410 - No winner (HD 5870 Honorable Mention)
$465 - No winner (GTX 295 Honorable Mention)
$625 - No winner (HD 5970 Honorable Mention)

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=14

The value of the 5770 in particular is clearly not going to be in its performance. Compared to AMD’s 4870, it loses well more than it wins, and if we throw out Far Cry 2, it’s around 10% slower overall. It also spends most of its time losing to NVIDIA’s GTX 260, which unfortunately the 4870 didn’t have so much trouble with. AMD clearly has put themselves in to a hole with memory bandwidth, and the 5770 doesn’t have enough of it to reach the performance it needs to be at.

Whether buying an older 4890 or 260 is wise from an "investment standpoint" will depend upon how often you upgrade. If you see yourself upgrading by XMas 2011, I don't think you're gonna miss DX11 compatibility much as early DX11 games simply don't do much with it and it provides quite a performance hit.
 
Cheapest GTX 260 on Newegg is $190 w/shipping. I'm not sure where you getting the GTX 260 for $155, so your prices are off quite a bit. This is why the 5770 is a good buy, because it does beat the GTX 260 in some games and still will get some driver optimizations that will allow it to get a bit better.
Here are some the GTX 260's for $190+ on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048%20106792634&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=N82E16814143189%2CN82E16814125291%2CN82E16814500145%2CN82E16814125294

 


That's not my listing, it's THG's. The inflated price of the 5770's, combined with GOU shortages across the board has driven up both the 260 and the 4870. To my mind the 5770 oughta be where anandtech puts it ($130-$140) which would bring the 260's back down to their old $155 level.

Problem is the 5770 is a cardc w/o a market ... at least at 1920 x 1200. It's a DX11 game that can't play DX11 titles at this resolution....even ones like Dirt2 which have only minimal incorporation of DX11 features. You get the DX11 label, but turning on DX11 in Dirt2 at 1920 x 1200 has the game bordering on unplayable *24.5 min. fps). If it can't play today's DX11 titles, where's it gonna be in XMas 2011 ?....so much for future proofing.

At this point, with proices still climbing in this category, I'm down on all the cards in THG's $155 category. All are over $170 now. The 5770 belongs at $130-140 and that makes the 260 / 4870 worth $155 or so. Given the current prices, I';d bump up or down to the next nearest category. Till prices here settle down I can only recommend the 250 or the 4890.
 

whatelsematters

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thanks for the thoughts jack, my final decision turned out to be:

i5
2x2gb gskill 1600
msi gd65 mobo
xfx 5850
cooler master 212 to (hopefully) get my chip to around 4ghz

so i should have this system up and running soon, i'll post benchies if i remember (not that there is any shortage of benchies with similar systems)