My First Gaming Build...

[iron883]

I put this together on newegg over the last couple of days. As this is my first build I would like to hear your input. After much research this is what I have come up with:

ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz
G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V
SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
ASUS VH202T-P Glossy black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor w/ aspect control
NZXT LEXA S LEXS - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Total: $1,140.90

I will be running windows 7 home 64 bit. Call me crazy but the reason I'm building this is for Starcraft 2. I'm sure this will far exceed the requirements but my laptop just can't handle it. Please let me know if this is complete overkill or if there are other things I need to consider.

Thanks!

edit: just realized this probably should have been posted under "New System Build".

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Eh, here's fine too.

Pretty much make it a phenom II 955 instead.

Define "complete overkill"

 

[Jpain]

Hello !

It look good, BUT !

1. 20"---> Go 22W" or 24W" You love bigger picture !!
2. Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is overkill... While the Phenom II X4 955 and 965 both share an unlocked multiplier, the new revision 965 model's C3 stepping has been shown to be quite overclock-friendly compared to previous models. If you're looking for an AMD processor with the maximum overclocking headroom, just make sure you're buying the new 125 watt C3 stepping of the processor, not the older 140 watt version.

3.Phenom II X4 945 might be sweat spot.... just get that C3 revision, HDX945WFK4DGM....

 

[obsidian86]

i would suggest an intel system in this case since you have some budget room

Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD(tends to have better support then lite on)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030

NZXT LEXA S LEXS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146060

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

ASUS VH202T-P Glossy black 20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236063

XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770(better warranty then sapphire)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447

Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W (its better then the mod extream for sure)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371021

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB(the tridents are nice but i dont see them worth more then these)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156(USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s ) less pci slots but with better future compatibility

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128409

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz(just as fast as the 965 but at lower ghz)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212(an overclocked i5 will rip a 965 apart)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Subtotal: $1,118.90

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Is there a budget for it? sure. AM3 is still more upgradable. OP, If you care about being able to drop in a new CPU stick with AM3 or go with intel's 1336 socket motherboard.

 

[iron883]

obsidian, thanks for the tips and I like that build you have there. are you saying that overclocking that i5 would be faster than the overclocked 965? I'm not too familiar with the processors max capabilities.


dimitri, are you saying that I wouldn't be able to upgrade the processor if I went with that p55 motherboard?

 

[obsidian86]

yes the i5 is bout as fast as the 965 which is i5@2.66ghz vs the 965 @3.4 ghz so if you were to compare an i5@3.4ghz you will be trading punches with the i7 975 3.33 ghz in some tasks which is an insane amount of power


the 1156 platform has an uncertain future but it should last well till we are settled into the 22nm process in 3 yrs+,you might wanna consider the am3 platform if you really want to but im not sure the current am3 platform will fully exploit the thuban hexacore to its full capabilities and amd will release the 8xx series boards later this yr wich will be the end of the dragon platform and give rise to the leo platform

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

The thing is, they've basically said they won't put new stuff on i5's socket. AMD on the other hand has said that the AM3 socket will be their main one for the next couple of years.

The i5 is faster. At the same time, you asked if your build was overkill. I think you could probably get what you're after with a athlon II x3. This would be significantly cheaper to do something around this, and then allow you to upgrade it much faster in the future.

 

[iron883]

I have decided to go with the i5 build. I'm hoping to be able to order within a couple of weeks. I read an article about overclocking the i5 (as it will be my first time). They did the test using an
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131400&cm_re=asus_p55-_-13-131-400-_-Product

They cited it was very easy to achieve a maximum stable overclock using this board. How does it compare to the GIGABYTE board above?

A few things I don't quite understand:

1. Looking at the specs I noticed that the ASUS says that it supports Intel's Turbo Boost...does the GIGABYTE not?
2. Also I'm not sure how the PCIe 2.0 x16 slots compare.

The GIGABYTE seems to be the better board (with USB 3.0 and also the option of 6gb/s hdd) along with all the other features. I guess I am most concerned about how easy it is to overclock this board and if the lack of turbo boost is something to consider.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

I'm pretty sure the turbo boost is a CPU feature, not a motherboard one.

I'm not sure what you're asking about the graphics card slots...

 

[iron883]

I'm pretty sure the turbo boost is a CPU feature, not a motherboard one.

I'm not sure what you're asking about the graphics card slots...

On the ASUS...
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)
1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (at x4 mode, 2.5GT/s)
-Does this mean if I run dual graphics cards sometime down the line that they will be running at 8x and not 16x? Is there a big difference in performance?

GIGABYTE...
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
-Running dual cards one would be running at 16x and the other at 8x?

Will I notice a difference either way?

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

That pretty much means that anytime you're running two cards it would effectively be x8 in both places. There is a performance difference, and at the moment it isn't huge - as in, it shouldn't really matter real world.

This is something that was caused by the i5 platform so it's intels fault it's like that (such limited numbers of lanes) and not gigabytes.