800 gaming computer

[ryany]

Hello all, this is the first time i am building a gaming computer and would like some feedback. My budget would be around 800.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This week to the end of the month

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: gaming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: (e.g.: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg or tigerdirect

PARTS PREFERENCES: I would like to use I5 750

OVERCLOCKING: Yes / No / Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 most likely in 1080p 23 monitor

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

 

[a4mula]

cpu: i5 750
price: 199.99

mobo: Gigabyte GA P55M-UD4
Price 134.99
Lowest priced board that supports 8x/8x crossfire/sli. Micro design, but I wouldn't let that dissuade you. Overclocking support.

Ram: 2x2gb G.Skill Ripjaws 9-9-9-24
price 93.99
Cheapest reliable 4gb kit. Don't worry about faster timings or more expensive ram, this'll do the trick just fine and you'd never know the difference between this and a 250$ kit in real world applications.

case/psu: Antec 300, Antec 620w combo
price: 134.99
There are a few other combos out there that'll get you a better case for a little more, but the psu's included are suspect. This combo will allow for crossfire/sli down the road and it's an 80+ certified Antec (quality) psu.

GPU: Power Cooler ATI 5770
Price: 149.99
DirectX 11, Eyefinity, Ample support for single monitor up to 1920x1200 gaming.

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb
price 54.99
Highly regarded drive that has the ultra fast 500gb platters. Runs neck and neck with the Seagate 7200.12's and outperforms Velociraptors in many benchmarks.

DVD Burner: HP Black 24x DVD-R
price: 28.99
Sata DVD burner that supports all formats including the harder to find Dual Layer.

HSF: Coolermaster 212
price 29.99
Best budget cooling around. Will provide ample cooling for all but extreme (4.0+) overclocks.

Total price: 827.92, can be brought down with a few combos.

 

[MadAdmiral]

If you go with AMD, you could get an HD 5850...

CPU/mobo: Combo: Asus M4A79XTD EVO and Phenom II X4 955 BE for $256 after rebate on Newegg.
Case: Antec 300 $60
PSU/Optical: Combo: OCZ StealthXStream 700W and LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner $64 after rebate
GPU: HD 5850 $289
CPU Cooler: None until you overclock...
Rest the same

Total: $818. Might be more combos out there...

 

[ryany]

is this setup okay? I still need hard drive suggestions, and is going amd to get 5850 give a better performance then this setup?

case: antec300 $59.95
cpu+gpu: i5 750 and xfx 5770 combo $349.98
memory +mobo combo: g skill ripjaw series 4gb (2x) and GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 $104.99 + $93.99
PSU/Optical Combo: OCZ StealthXStream 700W and LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner $88.98 - $25(rebate) = 63.98
cpu cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 $29.99
hd: - since hd suggested is oos(out of stock)


total without hd is $727.88

 

[MadAdmiral]

HDD: Seagate 7200.12. About the same as the F3, just not quite as good. Same price.

The 5850/AMD build will have better gaming performance. Right now, the bottleneck in the graphics intense games is the GPU. Beefing that up will only help. The CPU isn't very important for gaming.

At your resolution, the 5770 would struggle with many games. The 5850 would struggle only with Crysis.

 

[a4mula]

Is there a particular game that you can think of that the 5770 will struggle with? It's going to perform on par with a 4870 (which I currently own) and I run everything at 1920x1080 including crysis. Granted I can't max out AA and full effects, but he's getting the i5 and the 5770 for the price of an upper tier 5850. When and if he needs to upgrade he can crossfire them gain performance on par with the 5870 and still come out cheaper than buying a single 5850.

It's not that I don't agree that the 5850 is far superior, but it costs twice as much and it's outside of his budget. At some point you have to make price/performance choices. The 5770 is a heck of a value buy.

I don't know the first thing about AMD. For strictly budget gaming it could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. But he could still do the amd build w/o having to do a 5850. It'd give him the option to add an ssd (intel x25-v), or a gaming kb/mouse, or a monitor upgrade. I just can't fathom the justification of spending 3/8th of your total budget on a gpu that will cost half as much as it currently does in 6 months.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Everything you buy will cost half as much in 6 months. The 5850 is recommended because it's future proof. The 5770 may make most games playable right now, but in a couple of months, it won't keep up with the new games.

AMD is an excellent CPU maker. They focus on performance for a lower price. Since gaming doesn't require the latest and greatest CPU, but does require the greatest GPU possible, you can skimp a little on the CPU to afford a better video card. And it's not outside the budget. If you're going to say that the 5850 is outside the budget, the i5-750/5770 is also outside the budget. I was only over by $18, which is less than $28 the last time I checked.

The 5850 is a future proofing choice. Obviously, either build will be excellent, but the 5850 will take longer to require an upgrade, thus will be cheaper for more performance later on.

 

[a4mula]

Fair enough, I still feel as though the value lies with the 5770. If more performance is required later, it can be added later through crossfire, and still be well below the initial cost of the 5850, and perform better.

150$ difference in the price of the cards could be spent on any number of upgrades that would serve him right now.

As a side note, how do the AMD's stack up against the new i3's?

 

[MadAdmiral]

I haven't seen the benchmarks, but I imagine AMD is slightly better because of being true quad cores. Most of AMD's line is still under the i3 prices too. So I guess it's hard to say, at least for now.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The i3 vs. AMD quad core benchmarks are freely available instead of guessing.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3704

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18216

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/clarkdale-review.html

 

[MadAdmiral]

Looks like the i3 are good HTPC CPUs and the new i5 is worthless at it's price. Glad to actually see an HTPC CPU. I'm always kind of torn on what needs to be in there.

As far as gaming is concerned, I still like X4 620, as its a little cheaper for about the same performance. The cheap mobos available for the AM3 socket are also part of the decision here.

I'll probably stick with AMD for the low end computers, and the i5-750 for mid to high end gaming. Only thing that really changed was the i3s for HTPCs and maybe for integrated graphics, which isn't too common (at least not around here).

 

[ryany]

so im thinking about this build...perhaps i can oc i5 and cf 5850s in the future, would my ps be enough? any more advice. thanks in advance guys very helpful

gpu: XFX HD-585A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5850 $299.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150442

cpu+cooler:i5 and coolermaster212 $221.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.296096

case+ps:antec 300 and antec 620w 135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.315684

mobo: gigabyte ud4 135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128404

memory: g, skill ripjaw 4gb 2x $94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

hd: f3 samsung $98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

total 975.88 plus 21.86shipping

 

[hopkiller]

Well that I see that you are planing to game on this setup. If you play a lot of RPG's, or other games that load massive worlds a performance hard drive will be a nice asset. If you have the money, and don't mind spending it I would go for a Western Digital Caviar Black drive

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319&cm_re=western_digital_caviar_black-_-22-136-319-_-Product

 

[MadAdmiral]

I wouldn't go with WD. Samsung Spinpoint F3s are faster. Not to mention cheaper. WD is still using 250 GB platters, unlike Samsung and Seagate.

 

[coldsleep]

Well that I see that you are planing to game on this setup. If you play a lot of RPG's, or other games that load massive worlds a performance hard drive will be a nice asset. If you have the money, and don't mind spending it I would go for a Western Digital Caviar Black drive

The Samsung Spinpoint F3s and Seagate 7200.12s outperform that WD drive, as they use 500 GB platters, compared to (I believe) 320 GB platters on the WD drive.

See this review for more info: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2tb-hdd-7200,2430.html (Note that the WD Caviar Blacks they're talking about are the 2 TB versions, not the 640 GB ones.)

 

[ryany]

what monitor would you guys recommend, im not looking for something to expensive but that will go well with a ati5770

 

[a4mula]

The Asus VW246H is highly regarded in gaming circles. I'm not a huge fan of 1920x1080 for gaming, you might also consider LG W2286L this is a 22" LED backlit lcd that supports 16:10 1680x1050.

Both of the monitors run 220$, they'd both be excellent for gaming. One is 24" 16x9, other is 22" 16x10 /w led.

 

[MadAdmiral]

I'd also go with a 1690x model. The 5770 will excel at that resolution, but may struggle at higher ones. Both of the one a4mula lined to bould be good.

 

[ryany]

what about hanspree HF-229HPB http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5472192&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs its for 140 on tg

 

[a4mula]

The way I look at monitors is this...

While throwing great stuff inside the case is wonderful. You have to interact with three main parts of your pc every single day until you retire it.

Keyboard
Mouse
Monitor

With that being said they're the three parts that tend to get overlooked the most when building a new pc. You could compare it to buying a high horse power racing engine and then slapping it into a pinto. Yeah, it's going to be lightning fast, but driving it everyday will be a chore.

I'd take a little more time researching lcd's personally. Find the price range that you're comfortable with and then bury yourself into Newegg reviews. Find out what other people thought about it.

 

[ryany]

any recommendations on the case? in the antec 300 will i be able to crossfire in the future with it

 

[MadAdmiral]

You should be able to. I'd prefer to step up to at least the Antec 300 Illusion. For about $10 more, you get a few more fans.

Or if you're really worried about it, the HAF 922 and Antec 900 are both really good, but slightly more expensive at around $100.