New Gaming Comp, Am I On the Right Track

[hsach]

I just started laying out my new gaming build and it has been a while since I have done this. The computer will only be used to play Modern Warfare and games similar to it, I don't keep anything else on the computer. I want to keep it around $1500. I will be using Newegg again since I have had great luck with them so far. I probably won't do any overclocking but who knows, I want to make sure I am setup to do it if I want. Here are the components I put together last night, let me know if I am overlooking anything or if something else works a lot better than what I picked.

CPU -- Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 -- $294

MOBO -- Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard -- $239.99

VIDEO CARD -- Newegg.com - EVGA 012-P3-1470-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card -- $304.99

RAM -- Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D -- $159.99

HARD DRIVE SSD -- Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -- $134.99

POWER SUPPLY -- Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply -- $129.99

CPU COOLER -- Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler -- $89.99

CASE -- Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case -- $139.98

I will put Windows 7 64bit Pro on it. I don't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or sound. Also, on my current computer I have a MSI GTS250 1gb card. Would my graphics be better if I got the above GTX 470 or bought another MSI GTS250 and SLI'd it? I won't be buying two GTX 470 cards right now so it is either a single great card or two fairly good ones. I am going with the SSD because I literally keep nothing on the hard drive except for the OS and a few games. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sp12]

IMO this could be done better as an i5-760/P55/4GB of ram based build.

 

[hsach]

IMO this could be done better as an i5-760/P55/4GB of ram based build.

Thanks for the response. Would you mind explaining why you feel this way? Are you saying that I can go with a lower CPU and less RAM but upgrade elsewhere and have a faster gaming system?

 

[mosox]

Wait a few days for the new ATI 6 series, that will drive the prices down for the video cards. And yes, the i5-760 is about just as good for gaming.

 

[hsach]

Wait a few days for the new ATI 6 series, that will drive the prices down for the video cards. And yes, the i5-760 is about just as good for gaming.

I will wait a few days to see if the price drops on the video card. Is there an exact date when the new ATI cards come out?

I already have a MSI GTS 250 1gb in my other gaming system. Would two of them in my new system be better for gaming instead of one GTX 470?

My build is not so much about spending too much money, I just don't want to buy something like a GPU from NVIDIA when I can get a better one from elsewhere for similar money.

The i5 cpu only saves me less than $100 from the i7-950. Would the benefits of the higher cpu be worth more than $100 in savings?

 

[mosox]

The mobo RAM are also cheaper, with some of the saved money you can get two FTX460 1G and those are equal to a GTX 480 but the new ATI series is to be released Oct 22. The PSU is overkill, 750W is good.

ASUS P7P55D-E Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621
Case/PSU combo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.523663
RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

For now you can consider the HD 5870 too but wait for the new cards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161329&cm_re=HD_5870-_-14-161-329-_-Product
Or two of those
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510


LE, sell that GTS 250.

 

[sp12]

The i5 cpu only saves me less than $100 from the i7-950. Would the benefits of the higher cpu be worth more than $100 in savings?

Should be at least ~100$ in CPU, 40 in mobo, and ~40 in ram.

Clock per clock, the i5s are faster in games. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=47

Biggest issue is that you lose ~3% of your GPU performance if you Sli on a P55 platform.

 

[hsach]

I've made a couple of changes to my original list. Mainly I have changed the power supply to a 750 modular unit instead of the 850 watt. And I have also changed the Video card to an overclocked one. I also wanted to ask if I should go with Windows 7 Home Premium or stick with Windows 7 Professional? I don't have any need for joining a domain but I don't know if I am missing out on anything by going with the Home version. Hopefully the price on the video card will come down by next week. Right now it comes out to just under $1700. Here is the updated list:

CPU -- Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 -- $294

MOBO -- Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard -- $239.99

VIDEO CARD -- Newegg.com - GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card -- $349.99

RAM -- Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D -- $159.99

HARD DRIVE SSD -- Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -- $134.99

POWER SUPPLY -- Newegg.com - CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply -- $149.99

CPU COOLER -- Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler -- $89.99

CASE -- Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case -- $139.98

 

[sp12]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&Tpk=xfx%20black%20edition%20750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231335&cm_re=g.skill_pi_series-_-20-231-335-_-Product

And if you're not overclocking you don't need a heatsink.

And I still see no reason for this to be an X58 based build.

i5-760 208$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&cm_re=i5-760-_-19-115-067-_-Product
Mobo 115-150$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600007888%20600054094%20600054621&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareItemList=280|13-131-634^13-131-634-TS%2C13-128-412^13-128-412-TS%2C13-157-193^13-157-193-TS%2C13-130-298^13-130-298-TS
Ram 54 or 87$: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226122 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226092

That's at least 250 and up to 318$ less. You would actually have a faster gaming computer and at least 250$ extra dollars.

 

[dave0305]

If its a gaming computer. Then why are you spending so much money on a cpu, 3 to 4 cores are just a enough for gaming. So if i would be you i would get a AMD phenom ii x4 955 BE and spend the money you you saved on another GTX 470 for a SLI. You also dont need more then 4 Gb of ram. Like i sed save money by buying a AMD processor because it is cheaper and enough for gaming.
The processor you have showen, intel i7s are more of for video editing and stuff like that so it would be money throwen out of window.
Note: if you going to SLI make sure you get a mobo that has both 2 PCI-Es clocked at x16. To give you the best out of SLI'ing.

 

[hsach]

Ok, I have taken the above advice and reconfigured my build accordingly. With this i5 build I save about $250 from the i7 build. I also downgraded the OS to Home Premium instead of Professional unless there is a good reason to go with Pro. I probably will overclock because this CPU seems to do it so easily but I don't know if I will do SLI, I do want to keep that option open for the future though. I just want to make sure my CPU, MOBO, and RAM go together well and I am not overlooking a better choice. Thanks again for the suggestions. Hopefully the price of my vid card will drop in the next couple of days.


CPU -- $208.99 i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

MOBO -- $179.99 ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621

RAM -- $94.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

VIDEO -- $349.99 GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125338

POWER -- $149.99 CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

SSD -- $131.99 Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357

CASE -- $129.99 COOLER MASTER HAF 932
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

CPU COOLER -- $89.99 Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

OS -- $99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

[dave0305]

Ok, I have taken the above advice and reconfigured my build accordingly. With this i5 build I save about $250 from the i7 build. I also downgraded the OS to Home Premium instead of Professional unless there is a good reason to go with Pro. I probably will overclock because this CPU seems to do it so easily but I don't know if I will do SLI, I do want to keep that option open for the future though. I just want to make sure my CPU, MOBO, and RAM go together well and I am not overlooking a better choice. Thanks again for the suggestions. Hopefully the price of my vid card will drop in the next couple of days.


CPU -- $208.99 i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

MOBO -- $179.99 ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621

RAM -- $94.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

VIDEO -- $349.99 GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125338

POWER -- $149.99 CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010

SSD -- $131.99 Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148357

CASE -- $129.99 COOLER MASTER HAF 932 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

CPU COOLER -- $89.99 Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

OS -- $99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I totaly agree with this build, also yes it is a good idea to wait for the hd 6xxx to come out.

But i would go for this
MOBO: MSI P55-GD65 LGA $159.99 [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130239]

 

[hsach]

I just saw this Video Card on Newegg for $259 -- EVGA 012-P3-1470-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130550

How does it compare to the one I picked out above for almost $100 less?

GIGABYTE Super Overclock Series GV-N470SO-13I GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) 1280MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125338

I just wonder if the overclock and extra cooling are worth the $100 premium price.

 

[dave0305]

Yes i would say it is worth it, it easily beats the gtx 460, here is a benchmark from both of then:http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=558&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=8
Also gtx 470 in SLI easily beats the gtx 480.

 

[mosox]

Get a HD 6870.

 

[hsach]

Get a HD 6870.

Since these just came out, I haven't done any research on them. How do they compare to the GTX 470 cards, are they faster or about the same?

 

[mosox]

They're about the same but the HD has a much lower power consumption (151W vs 215W). And if you cet that card, for the PSU you can get the XFX 750 W is made by Seasonic can run two of those without any problem.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207003&Tpk=xfx%20750

 

[dave0305]

yh the power consumption is lower but if thats not a problem for you then i would recomend you getting the gtx 470. Look at this benchmark results: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/amd-radeon-hd-6870-902549/review?artc_pg=2
like you can see even the gtx 460 performs better then the HD 6870...

PLS: I'm kind of disapointed so far of the new hd 6xxx series.

 

[mosox]

^That's a VERY biased review.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-review/13

 

[dave0305]

^That's a VERY biased review.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6850-6870-review/13

This shows that my last rply was WRONG and im sorry for that, I probably looked at the other benchmark wrongly.
and yes indeed this is a biased review.

 

[jasonp12]

the 6870 actually outperforms the 470GTX in pretty much every benchmark (with like 1-2 exceptions)

and the 6850 outperforms the 460GTX 1gb in most benchmarks as well

 

[hsach]

Well, after being talked into an i5 build, I was already to place my order last Thursday. As I logged into Newegg I noticed that at that time, 5 of the items for my i5 build were out of stock. The CPU, MOBO, and Graphics Card being the big ones. Of course since I am horrible at waiting for anything, I quickly redid my build back to an i7. It was a couple hundred more but I received everything yesterday and built the computer in a couple of hours. Started up on the first try and loaded Win 7 fast. I haven't loaded any of my games yet but I can tell this thing flies. I was shocked at the size of the CPU cooler from Noctua, I didn't think it would fit but it does easily in the case I bought. I am loving how much quieter this system is than my old one. I can only hear the fans on the Noctua CPU cooler and they are barely audible. Below is the final build I went with, so far so good!


CPU -- Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 -- $294

MOBO -- Newegg.com - ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard -- $234.99

VIDEO CARD -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150507 XFX HD-687A-ZNBC Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition 1GB 256-bit -- $269.99

RAM -- Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D -- $149.99

HARD DRIVE SSD -- Newegg.com - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -- $134.99

POWER SUPPLY -- Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W -- $79.99

CPU COOLER -- [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018]Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler -- $89.99

CASE -- Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case -- $139.98