Advice needed on gaming build

Dear forum members,

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BUDGET: 1000 euro's for the tower

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 1-2 months, time is not an issue. I'm a careful buyer.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming!, general usage (office, web, multitasking, nothing special like rendering).

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Everything outside the tower, software (OS) and DVD drive.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Any Dutch.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Holland.

PARTS PREFERENCES: None.

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe. SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe down the road.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Have to buy new screen.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Only the tower, no screen, looks aren't important. Quality is very important.

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Here's what I've come up with.

CASE: HAF 922 (80,-)
PSU: Either Seasonic X-750 (150,-) or Corsair TX-750 (115,-) or Antec TP-750 (103,-)
RAM: Corsair Dominator CMP4GX3M2A1600C9 (125,-)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB (45,-)
GPU: Either HD5850 DIRECTCU (300,-) or HD5870 Vapor-X (380,-)

And now here's where the troubles are:

MOBO + CPU

1156: Either Asus P7P55D Pro (145,-) or MSI P55-GD65 (120,-) with either i5 750 (190,-) or i7 860 (240,-)

AM3: Asus M4A89GTD PRO (115,- w/o USB3 or +20,- w/ USB3) with Phenom 955 (150,-)

Any input is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Go for the AM3 combo with USB3. I also recommend buying the HD 5870. The Corsair looks like a good PSU. Everything else looks good. Good Luck!

the i5 will run circles around the amd if you OC. It just depends on how much you want to spend.

The ideal mobo for Intel would be P7P55D-E Pro, not sure how much more it is.

i5 750 over the 860 pretty much everytime.

Whether you go i5 750 or go AMD is up to you and dependant on what fits in budget. The i5 750 is better but then it and the mobo costs more, if the price difference means getting a lesser graphics card in order to get the Intel chip then it may be worth going AMD.

Are you able to get G Skill RAM? They tend to be cheaper than Corsair. The G SKill Ripjaw CL7 should be a similar price but better latency

In europe the only good deals are mushkins and corsairs. The corsairs are very good by the way they are just conservativly clocked. I went with the mushkins due to the low profile though.

I don't know a lot about the mobos in that area but for the cpu as I said it just depends on how much you want to spend. They are all reasonably good deals.

First of all, the 750 is a better gaming cpu than the 955. Plus, it overclocks like a dream.
Secondly, you can also overclock the 5850 to bring it's performance to near 5870 levels. The 5850 is the current performance/price champion in the upper-end card segment. Overclocking will increase it's value even more.
An OCd 750+5850 combo will serve you well atleast for the next couple of years. No doubt going the AM3 way will make you eligible for a future processor upgrade, but as of now, it's performance is lesser than 750.

you won't go wrong with either really.

There just is no right answer to that question really.

5870 will be better in gaming and the i5 may improve some loading times and other applications.

If you want FPS than go 5870.

BUMP

yeah but the 750 has quite some OC cabability the 955 not so much.

ok thnx for breaking me down lol. At least he knows the truth now.

If the price difference doesn't allow you to buy a better graphics card, then it's up to personal preference.

I'd say it's not worth the cost difference, but other people may feel differently. Either chip will be good for your purposes though.

in gaming 955+ 5870 will be far better than i5 + 5850. In other things like redering, etc.. the i5 will be better

Bump!

How much do you want to spend on the mobo?