New i3 - 5850 build for gaming and graphic design

[silentfoot]

Hi All,

Building a rig for a close friend, he wants it for gaming but he also does some graphic design for work. We live in Thailand so i'm afraid newegg links dont apply. his budget is approximately $900usd. Here's what I've managed for him so far, I'd really appreciate some input as this is the first pc i've put together in a long time:

MOBO: ASUS P7P55 LX

GRAPHICS: HIS ATI 5850 1GB

PSU: Antec Truepower Series TP 550watt

CPU: Intel i3-530 (no overclocking intended)

RAM: OCZ Platinum 4gb DDR3 1333

HDD: Western Digital 1TB Black

DVD Drive: LG DVDRW

Those are the only parts he needs. Thanks in advance for any input!
cheers.
silentfoot

 

[MadAdmiral]

To be honest, you should go with an AMD build. Grab a Phenom II X4 955. You'll have better gaming performance than with the i3. The i3s are meant to be low powered HTPC CPUs, not gaming or processing powerhouses.

CPU: Phenom II X4 955
Mobo: Asus M4A79XTD EVO or Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB. This will be cheaper and certainly faster than the WD.

 

[silentfoot]

Thanks for the suggestion Admiral. What about if he went for the i5-750 and keep the rig within budget? i'm pretty sure the i5 performs better than the PII 955?

 

[MadAdmiral]

It does, but only when the CPU is the bottleneck. Which for gaming, is never.

Using Newegg prices (which I know aren't really relevant), here's an excellent gaming build. I'm not counting the combo discounts in the total.

CPU/Mobo: Athlon II X3 425 and Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Combo $197 ($15 off). This board has USB 3/SATA III support

PSU/HDD: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W and Spinpoint F3 500 GB Combo for $90 ($20 off) after rebate

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $115

GPU: HD 5870 $395

Optical: Cheapest SATA DVD burner $25

Total: $857.