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So confused between Amd vs Intel war - building new system for gaming

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So the short of it is that my system is too old to play any modern games and now that I've got the time to get back into gaming again I want to build a system that can not only handle any game out there today but at least hold me over for the next couple of years.

I do not have an exact budget but here is what I was "thinking" about:

I5-750
ASUS SABERTOOTH 55I Socket 1156 P55 ATX Motherboard
Gigabyte Radeon 5830 1gb
4gb ram ( don't know on brand yet )
probably corsair or thermaltake psu
coolmaster haf 922 case

So this is around 800$ purchasing from microcenter (live 2 blocks from one).

I'll be playing games like mw2, bad company 2, borderlands, and various other games on steam.

From reading it seems like gaming is all about the gpu these days then I read articles about how well the i5-750 is for gaming and then other posts and articles about how there is hardly any noticeable difference in gaming with a cheaper(in price not quality) AMD.

Another thing I took into consideration with the above specs is that in a year or two I could double the ram and add a 2nd 5830 to extend the life.
Do I really need all of that gear above and to spend 800$$ to be able to smoothly run games for the next couple of years??
Can cut that cpu/mobo combo price in half with an AMD build and still achieve the same or very similar gaming results?

Do I really need to spend 90$ on a case or will a 30 or 40$ steel case be just as good (if my cpu cooler and cable management is good)??

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CPUs Master
Gaming Expert

micro center sells the antec 300 and Cooler Master 212+ cheap, i suggest you look into both. those two combined are cheaper then a $90 case (and cool better then the haf +stock fan), leaving some money for a nice case fan.

i would also get the Nvidia GTX 460 768 over the 5830 1GB. It has more power, runs cooler, smaller over all card, and is more power efficient.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml...

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...



*go with the corsair PSU
CPUs Expert

Since you live near a micro center and can get an i7 930 for $300 is smarter to go with the 1366 socket. 1156 only does 8x8 in xfire. 1366 has a better, longer upgrade path.

ct1615 said:

i would also get the Nvidia GTX 460 768 over the 5830 1GB. It has more power, runs cooler, smaller over all card, and is more power efficient.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...



My friend just got that card, and yes it's great but I have a problem with it after reading the comparing specs of the Radeon 5830 (since they dropped the price to $199)

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=633&card2...


I don't know how credible that site is these days but I used it last time i bought a video card and was very happy. If that site's specs are spot on, then that's a huge difference in memory bandwidth for the same price.
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daship said:
Since you live near a micro center and can get an i7 930 for $300 is smarter to go with the 1366 socket. 1156 only does 8x8 in xfire. 1366 has a better, longer upgrade path.


Yeah I agree, however.. I'm trying to cut my cost, not increase it(while keeping the performance of the original listed system)...

Plus the xfire setup is not a for sure thing..was just an idea for the future to add a little extended gaming life to it.
CPUs Master
Gaming Expert

daship said:
Since you live near a micro center and can get an i7 930 for $300 is smarter to go with the 1366 socket. 1156 only does 8x8 in xfire. 1366 has a better, longer upgrade path.


It's also a lot more expensive. Even getting the same dual channel ram, that's at least an extra $200 for the CPU and mobo.

Plus, you can stick an i7 860 in the 1156 socket for 8 logical cores, if that would ever even be necessary.

Gaming wise, i7s are more money than they're worth unless you plan on having 3 GPUs in SLI or CF. As for 8x/8x, you should do some research. It takes at least a stock GTX470 to even see the difference between an 8x lane and a 16x lane. Toms did a review here comparing P55 to X58 chipsets, and the P55 was not more than 4% slower on it's 8x lane compared to a 16x lane when running a 5870. 16x lane just has way more bandwidth than is needed.

I agree with the poster above, get a Corsair PSU. I'd look at at least the 650TX.
Also the case and CPU cooler suggestion is a good idea.
Same goes for getting a GTX460 over a 5830.

If you want better gaming performance right out of the gate, you could switch for, say, an AMD Phenom II X4 965 and then add the savings to buy a better GPU like a 5850 or GTX470.

But really, an i5 750 is a great CPU and you can easily OC it for at least 1ghz more.
CPUs Master
Gaming Expert

basudz said:
My friend just got that card, and yes it's great but I have a problem with it after reading the comparing specs of the Radeon 5830 (since they dropped the price to $199)

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=633&card2...


I don't know how credible that site is these days but I used it last time i bought a video card and was very happy. If that site's specs are spot on, then that's a huge difference in memory bandwidth for the same price.


those are just paper specs

"The GTX 460 768MB performed admirably in our tests and it fell in line almost exactly where its price suggests it should - between a HD 5830 and HD 5850. It also has the dubious distinction of beating its cousin, the £200 GTX 465, in many of our tests - "

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/07/12/nv...

"The Radeon 5830 was a hard sell when launched at $239, but at $200 it’s enjoyed a niche that comes to an end today.
By launching a more market-appropriate GPU for the $200-$250 market, NVIDIA has come in with a GPU that doesn’t need to be heavily cut-down to fit in to the market. At $200 the GeForce GTX 460 768MB is clearly the card to get, offering better performance than the Radeon 5830 with fantastic cooling and a reasonable power draw."

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-...

If you would go with an Intel based system, after a year and a half if you wished to upgrade your CPU, you would need to buy a new mobo because Intel changes their mobos quite often.

I would suggest going with an AMD based system for various reasons.

an AMD cpu + mobo is cheaper and only a little bit slower than and Inter cpu + mobo. You won`t feel the difference in games.
The AM3 socket mobos for AMD will be here for quite some time (2-5 years) so you will be able to change to a bulldozer CPU if you would like to.
The money saved on a AMD cpu + mobo would be enough to get a 5850 or even a 5870 if you use combos.
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