$800 gaming/general purpose build

[rizer67]

Hello All, I would appreciate any feedback that you might have regarding my current build. I would like to order the parts within the next few weeks. But am willing to wait until July if there's a good reason to wait. My budget is around $800.00. I currently have an ATI HD 4830 so I chose a 4850 to crossfire with it in my new build but I would consider other options within my budget.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Web-browsing, general purpose

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

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg, or whatever is cheapest

PARTS PREFERENCES: None

OVERCLOCKING: yes, in the future

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 24" at 1920 x 1080

Here is my current build:

Component Price Store Rebate/combo discount

i7- 860 199.99 Micro Center
Asus-P755D-E Pro 1156 189.99 New Egg 20

4 Gig DDR3 Dual Chan 109.99 New Egg
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

Radeon HD 4850 94.99 New Egg
Antec 109.95 20
OCZ ModXtreme 700W 89.99 45
ASUS CD Burner 25.99
Seagate Barracuda 500 54.99 New Egg 30

Windows 7 15 Student Discount at University
Cooler Master Hyper 212 26.99 New Egg 18

Total System cost with rebates $784.87

I would gladly listen to any suggestions, I'm most uncertain about the RAM....

 

[143miah]

First off, with your budget, I wouldn't bother with an SSD. It doesn't look like you have an HDD either. Drop the SSD and get a good 500GB or 1TB HDD for a lot less. Samsung spinpoint F3s and Seagate 7200.12 are great for their price.

Secondly, since it doesn't sound like you're doing anything too CPU intensive, I'd drop that i7 860 and go with either an i5 750 or change over to an AMD build with the Phenom II 955.

If you do decide to go with an AMD build, you could probably afford an XFX 5850 which would be much more worthwhile IMO.

 

[rizer67]

First off, with your budget, I wouldn't bother with an SSD. It doesn't look like you have an HDD either. Drop the SSD and get a good 500GB or 1TB HDD for a lot less. Samsung spinpoint F3s and Seagate 7200.12 are great for their price.

Secondly, since it doesn't sound like you're doing anything too CPU intensive, I'd drop that i7 860 and go with either an i5 750 or change over to an AMD build with the Phenom II 955.

If you do decide to go with an AMD build, you could probably afford an XFX 5850 which would be much more worthwhile IMO.

Thanks for the reply, I edited my original message, I deleted the SSD and list the 500 Gig Barracuda instead, the reason I chose the 860 is it's only $199.99 at microcenter and the 750 is only $20.00 less expensive, I figured hyperthreading would be worth 20 bucks. I priced 955 builds and their not much cheaper than the build I just put together, from what I can tell....also as far as graphics are concerned, I figured I could spend $95 now and crossfire and then in two years or so when I felt they were inadequate I could upgrade to whatever fantastic new card is out at that time....

 

[hitmanmoney]

Psu:
Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030&cm_re=antec_neo-_-17-371-030-_-Product

Cpu:
AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704&cm_re=athlon_ii_x4-_-19-103-704-_-Product

Case:
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

HDD:
Western Digital Caviar Green WD8000AARS 800GB 5400 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingItem.aspx?ItemList=N82E16822136517

GPU:
ASUS EAH5850 DIRECTCU/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121375&cm_re=5850-_-14-121-375-_-Product

Adjust the size of that hardrive if need be and pick a mobo as you see fit i bad i that stuff. I don't know if you want to crossfire or what. Oh yeah and i picked the 5850 because 1 destroy 2 crossfired 5850. and getting a 3 in crossfire would scale horribly. I have the same setup and i run all games but Crysis at 60 fps. Crysis runs and about 30 with no stutters or lag. Just because the Athlon ii has no lvl3 cache doesn't me it cant hold it own destroy mass effect 2 borderlands anything i can throw at it. Also what the point buying a dx10 card when a dx 11 card is an option sell the 4850 plz.

Cost:748.92

 

[hitmanmoney]

Oh yeah and if you crossfire a 4850 with a 4830. The 4850 will slow down to the speed of the 4830. That kind of a waste of money lol.

 

[rizer67]

Okay here is a question I will put to you all, I can build an AMD Athalon II x4 935 system for around $535 sans video card and I can build an i7 860 system w/o video card for around $699.00.......so my question is this: does the i7 860's superior performance (all other components being equal) justify the $164.00 price?????

 

[hitmanmoney]

for video editing yes use this chart it tells all. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/21?vs=46
And the reason i suggested that 5850 is because it is a beast for gaming. It will max out metro 2033 which is the crysis of dx11 card at 1080p. At 1080p with all settings maxed and aa at x4,6,8, The i7 is not worth it. If you are video editing the i7 is a beast.