Gameing PC Budget 500-600

[AzN_Doomstay]

Hi iam planning to buy a brand new computer within this month with the budget between $500-600 Max. Iam actually planning to buy the parts oversea from Hong Kong as in the actual store so i just wanna compare prices and also to build 1 so i can buy it there. So i was wondering what kind of parts i should buy. Thanks!

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This Month.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming and more gaming and minor video editing.

OVERCLOCKING: No SLI OR CROSSFIRE but iam open to options that would be better to have crossfire =)

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I have a 22" inch Monitor so 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200 would be fine

Preferred Sites to check for prices to let me know:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/
http://www.ncix.com/
http://www.newegg.ca/
Or other Canadian sites

Video Card:
I heard the 5770 and 4850 is nearly the same. But there might be better ones that i dont know of so give me some options please. Thanks!

CPU:
Unknown. I also dont know which to get between Intel or AMD. And will Quad core better than dual core for gaming? What are the major differences?

MotherBoard:
Unknown. I also dont know which brand is good for a gaming PC.

RAM:
Depends on Mobo but would like to have at least 4GB if budget is too hard to manage then 2GB should be fine.

Parts and other stuff that are not needed:
Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, sound card, printer, Ethernet card, OS, DVD Drive.

Parts i already have:
Power Supply: OCZ Z-Series 550W 80+
PC Case
Hard Drive: 1.5T

Thank you!

 

[banthracis]

GPU
GTX 460 1gb $230
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261075

RAm
Ripjaw or eco kit. 4gb ddr3 1600 cas 7.

$95 with promo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Mobo/CPU
PHenom II x4 955 and ga 890 ud3 $275
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.430431

total $600 exact before shipping

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

Thank you for the build! But would anyone else like to share their thoughts please? ^^ Thanks!

 

[l4d]

How much 12 volt on that 550watt PSU?
a GTX 480 is overkill for a 550 watt PSU.

 

[banthracis]

good catch, fixed typo.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

Thanks everyone ^^ I want to ask, i found a AMD Phenom II x6 1055T for $220 CAD do you think its alot better than the x4? Thanks!
Even though its a chinese website, i already converted the currency. And can i use the same mother board as the 1 listed above?

http://www.price.com.hk/product.php?p=116711

 

[banthracis]

For gaming an x6 is worse than an x4. X6 is useful really just for budget workstation builds. But yes, a x6 would work in the 890 board. I'll also work on a 790 chipset board, but that requires a bios update, which requires a CPU in the mobo to do, which would require something besides the x6.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

For gaming an x6 is worse than an x4. X6 is useful really just for budget workstation builds. But yes, a x6 would work in the 890 board. I'll also work on a 790 chipset board, but that requires a bios update, which requires a CPU in the mobo to do, which would require something besides the x6.

So why is x6 worst than an x4 for gaming? I understand that its for workstation builds but doesnt that mean it can perform more task? So the x6 would work on 890 without bios update?

 

[banthracis]

Games are very poorly threaded. The part of gaming that is well
threaded, the graphics portions, is handled by the GPU, which already
have hundreds of cores.

In gaming, the most CPU intensive task is AI. AI, by definition is not
a parallel process. It is extremely difficult to thread AI. Most games
that are "multi threaded" actually keep AI on 1 thread and throw the
rest (minor far less intensive stuff) on the other.

Can you design a game to utilize 4 or more cores? Sure, you can throw
all the CPU non intensive calculations onto their own threads, but
until someone figures out a good way to thread nonparallel
computations, the performance increase will be minimal, as the hard
work is still restricted to 1 thread.

This issue has been stumping programmers for decades. There are ways
to do this in specific situations, but no general solution yet. A
general solution allowing infinite threading of nonparallel
calculations would be the programming equivalent of finding the cure
for cancer, noble prize stuff for sure.

Basically think of it this way. On a math exam you have a 3 part
question in which the answer to part each part depends on previous
answers. IE

A. Add up 3 and 5.
B. Use the answer from part A and divide by 2
C. Use the answer from part B and triple it.

what is the final answer?

This is the type of thinking AI requires. Threading this is the
equivalent of calculating the answer to A, B and C simultaneously.
It's not impossible like the mathematical equivalent is, but it's not
easy.

For this reason, more than 3 threads has very little benefit.


In an x6, you have 6 cores, yet these 6 cores are crammed onto the same sized die as an x4. So you're dividing the same power, same bandwidth amongst 6 cores now instead of 4.

Hence, less performance in non threaded tasks.


Yes x6 will work w/o bios update.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

I see, you do have a point, ill think about it and btw how new is the gpu that is listed above?? the GTX 460 1gb Thanks!

 

[banthracis]

about 2 days old.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

Best answer selected by AzN_Doomstay.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

One or a few more questions lol sorry but does the memory matter for the GPU? I mean its 1gb for 230 but the 768 is 200. So yah Thanks!

 

[banthracis]

Yes memory makes a big difference. Get the 1gb.

 

[AzN_Doomstay]

Yes memory makes a big difference. Get the 1gb.

But it says in here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428-2.html
that "all other factors being equal, a graphics card with 2GB (2,048 MB) should perform exactly the same as a graphics card with 512MB as long as the game's graphics memory requirements are below 512MB. If the game's settings and resolution require more than 512MB of graphics card RAM, the 512MB card will demonstrate a performance penalty compared to the 2GB card."
And a few pages forward, the fps doesnt really matter much for all the games so why do you say memory makes a big difference lol =) Thanks, i just need to clear that up before i buy, you know ^^

 

[banthracis]

To purchase a $200 card with only 768MB of RAM today is shortsighted; it’s less RAM than last year’s $200 GTX 275 and Radeon 4890 cards had, and it’s going to come up short in tomorrow’s games. The difference is 256MB, but we’re willing to bet between that 256MB of RAM and the additional L2 cache and ROPs that the 1GB advantage will only grow from here. We would rather spend another $30 now for better performance in many of today’s games, knowing that we also will have a better shot at playing tomorrow’s games. NVIDIA’s marketing arm would seem to secretly agree – most of the 1GB cards will be coming with a pack-in game, while the 768MB cards will not.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3809/nvidias-geforce-gtx-460-the-200-king/19

The GeForce GTX 460 768 MB, priced to match the Radeon HD 5830, is a little less attractive. The smaller frame buffer hurts performance at high resolutions with AA turned on, and a narrower memory bus translates into less bandwidth, consequently slowing things down in the rest of our tests. I’d rather spend the extra $20 and get the faster card, quite frankly.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-15.html

There's a very legitimate tech reason as well. But I don't feel like typing it all up.