I7 920, or P55 black edition II

[proc]

Hello,
I was wondering what would be better for my desktop system that I am building. I am a gamer and will be playing world of warcraft, while using Itunes, maybe the internet aswell. From what I can gather The P55 is the more "bang for the buck" choice, and the intel i7 is more pricey, but you get what you pay for. I also would like to know if Crossfire would be better for world of warcraft. I have heard mixed opinions that it works, others it does nothing? My budget is between 1500-1600 max. If anyone could steer me in the right direction, it would be fantastic!
Thanks for all the help~CS

 

[Wolygon]

i7 is not needed often, it is only required for PCs which do stuff like running 2 high-end graphics cards such as 5870s and ones which do a lot of video encoding and editing.
P55 would be the better option for you however an AMD AM3 build would also work very well for you.

You have a high budget for a PC that just plays WoW, you should be able to build a computer using P55 or AM3 for much less and it will still suit you very well.

From what I know WoW does not do well with Crossfire so no I would not recommend it, plus there is not much point going with Crossfire compared to a single card.

You should be able to build an AMD Phenom II X4 and ATI HD5850 system for around $1000. This will have a lot of gaming performance for your needs.

Hope that helped.

 

[enzo matrix]

P55 is intel's chipset and has nothing to do with the Phenom II. It has to do with the i7. Maybe that was a mistype and you meant phenom II 955?

Anyway, I agree with the above. A single card is the way to go. And you won't need more than the phenom II 955. It's an excellent CPU for like $160. Approaching the performance of the much more expensive intel core i5.

I have heard that WOW can be maxxed out on a radeon 4850, but I cannot verify this. A 5850 is good price/performance but if you really want to spend all of your budget, you could get a radeon 5870, which is also worth it. That's off topic though.

As for the crossfire, you will never get even close to double performance of said single card if you have two. And performance varies too much from being only as good as said single card to maybe 50% performance gain in games that can take advantage. I would personally always stick with a single card, single chip. Usually more cost effective too.

 

[proc]

Thanks to both of you for your input. Yes, it was a mistype enzo, thanks fro spotting it. I meant I was getting the Phenom II 955 Black Edition.
I will go with a 955 in this case, and will get a single graphics card.

I just heard that wow was a very cpu hungry game, and needed a good graphics card to go with it. Should I leave the option open and get a crossfire ready motherboard incase I have a change of plans in the near future? Also, would it be worth the trip to get a usb 3 motherboard so I don't have to replace it anytime soon? I hear that they are fantastic.
Thanks again~CS

 

[Wolygon]

I figured you meant P55 not Phenom II, looks like I went the wrong way =P.

When they mean "very cpu hungry" for WoW they mean you'll need a dual core Core 2 or something, the amount of processing power in modern quad core CPUs is much more then WoW needs. Also as above said WoW can be maxed on a 4850 so a 5850 will be completely overkill.

Yes you should get a crossfire motherboard as there not much more expensive and leave you that easy upgrade option in the future. I'm not to sure about USB 3, I don't need it much I'm not sure if you do, look at some reviews and see if you require it.

 

[proc]

So I should not go with a 5850? I found a sweet deal on a mobo,cpu, and gc at tiger.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5838452&CatId=4297

 

[amk09]

So I should not go with a 5850? I found a sweet deal on a mobo,cpu, and gc at tiger.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5838452&CatId=4297

If you bought those parts separately you might be able to save like 50 bucks but with your budget it might just be easier for you to get that bundle.

FYI - That is going to be way more than you need to max out WoW.

 

[proc]

So I should just get a 4850? Don't really know video cards that well, but I was originally planning on getting a 5770. I'm lost now though.

 

[Wolygon]

Ok I figured you still wanted alot of graphics performance because of your budget which is why I suggested the 5850, however it seems you want to go with the cheapest system you can which is very good. Don't go with a 4850 as they are old and you certainly have the money to spend, get a HD 5770 as you said you planned on getting. These have more power than a 4850 and offer dx11 and lower power consumption.

If you need more performance later you can upgrade by adding another 5770 later on and they scale really well in XFire.

 

[proc]

That sounds good to me, I'm trying to go for the most "bang for the buck" I can get. The 5850 was really expensive. So i'm glad I can just go with the 5770, and add another later if need be. I do have one final question though. Do I really need a 750w psu, even with Xfire?
Thanks for all of your help.
-CS

 

[Wolygon]

No you don't need a 750W power supply, a 650W one will be more than enough.

Thanks.

 

[proc]

Thanks for everything man, you've been a huge help!

 

[proc]

Best answer selected by proc.

 

[Wolygon]

No problem mate, Glad I could help. Thanks for best answer.

Good luck with your build.