Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Solved

Please judge my new rig plan

Last response: in Systems
Share

What do you guys think if the plans for my new system? I am aiming for the price to be ~$700-$750, and it is sitting at $740 after rebates right now. I am looking to buy by June 9, and I wont be SLI'ing or Crossfiring yet, but I may be overclocking. My monitor's resolution is 1440 x 900 for now. I will be using it for gaming and school work and possibly actual work later on (CAD).



Processor

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E168...

Video Card

XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E168...

or

EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Motherboard

MSI 870S-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

RAM

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hard drive

Seagate SV35 Series ST31000526SV 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Power Supply

Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...



About the video card, would I be safe sitting on the 6870? Or should would it bottleneck me too much and should just spend like $60 extra on the 560 ti?

Criticism greatly appreciated.

More about : judge rig plan

Register or log in to remove
Homebuilt system Master

The phenom x6 isnt a strong gaming cpu because most games cant use all 6 cores . Usually the x4 Phenom is as good in those situations .

But right now intel spank AMD so they're the better choice . That may change in about 2 weeks when AMD release a new design of processor code named Bulldozer .
If nothing else there could be a price war with intel so if you can then hold off till then .

The hard drive you have listed is a model designed for use in RAID arrays where you use two or more hard drives . Probably the Seagate 7200.12 or the Samsung F3 are better choices
Related ressources
Ask the community
Homebuilt system Expert

Outlander_04 said:
The phenom x6 isnt a strong gaming cpu because most games cant use all 6 cores . Usually the x4 Phenom is as good in those situations .

But right now intel spank AMD so they're the better choice . That may change in about 2 weeks when AMD release a new design of processor code named Bulldozer .
If nothing else there could be a price war with intel so if you can then hold off till then .

The hard drive you have listed is a model designed for use in RAID arrays where you use two or more hard drives . Probably the Seagate 7200.12 or the Samsung F3 are better choices

Unless the game designers change their coding the Bulldozer will not improve gaming. The specs are for an 8 core processor with more independent processes and better thread handling. The bulldozer may make a difference in gaming in 2012 or thereafter, but it is lot's of overkill for present gaming which is more GPU dependent than CPU dependent.

Ok now I am looking at the Phenom X4 and i5 2500 processors. Which would be more appropriate for the system/video card? Keep in mind I am mainly concerned about gaming.

The i5 2500. Especially since you are getting a discrete video card. But that CPU costs more then the x4. If it is purely for gaming I suggest getting the x4 and use the money you save over the 2500 for a beefy video card.

Also, getting the 4GB with 1600 rating will be better for your gaming needs then the 8gb with 1066 rating. No games really utilize more then 4GB. 20dollars cheaper too.

Homebuilt system Master

chesteracorgi said:
Unless the game designers change their coding the Bulldozer will not improve gaming. The specs are for an 8 core processor with more independent processes and better thread handling. The bulldozer may make a difference in gaming in 2012 or thereafter, but it is lot's of overkill for present gaming which is more GPU dependent than CPU dependent.



If this were true then no one would want an i5 2500k for gaming and they'd all be using cheaper Phenoms , yet there is a clear frame rate advantage to the intel cpu

There are 4 , 6 and 8 core Bulldozer processors in the pipeline .
How they perform relative to the 32 nm intels is unknown . Id expect them to be competitive , and perhaps better, clock for clock and certainly dollar for dollar
Homebuilt system Expert

You're right about what the future holds: the Bulldozer may be one heck of a gaming chip, my point is regarding a current build and the techie reports on the prospective CPU. If the recommendation is for a current build I address the state of the art, & wait to see what comes out later. If you wait long enough we'll all have super computers & holographic video. AMD has the advantage of seeing what Intel designed in Sandtbridge, & part of the delay in Bulldozer has to be attributable to redesigning their offering. I expect them to meet or beat SB with the BD platform. They'd be foolish to bring out anything less. But hardware design generally precedes software by 1-3 years.
I look forward to real virtual reality if I should live so long. But for now I make recommendations based on current state of the art.

Best solution

OP:

personally I'd at least get an am3+ motherboard if you want to purchase a p2 955 right away. At this point I would however recommend waiting a few weeks or however long until BD is released, so at least you can then decide between BD or SB... If it was a couple months ago I would recomend going for a am3 build but with new tech looming there is no sense in not waiting.. Even if to see what will happen to older chip prices. In the end you do not need a 2500k to game but it certainly will not hurt. I would increase your budget a bit however to allow for at least a 6950 or gtx 560ti if you are going to be purchasing a BD or SB level of cpu...

If budget cannot be increased get a p2 955 and a cooler master hyper 212+ and oc the heck out of it, mine easily oc'ed to 3.9ghz, not to mention that you can get a 955 for around 120 these days which imo is a great deal, next drop your RAM down to 4 gigs for now and get a 6950 or gtx 560ti, you will be able to upgrade your monitor...

You could probably use the extra RAM for CAD I assume but you can just get 4, which is more than enough for gaming and win7 and then next paycheck get another 4.

There is def some truth to what Chestercorgi says above that you cannot always play the perpetual waiting game, but in the end there is no doubt that the SB and BD builds will be a little more expensive but probably a better value at this point then an am3 setup although mine still gets the job done perfectly fine for gaming at 1080p without and complaints whatsoever.

I always recommend using the highest wattage QUALITY PSU you can afford. It's an insurance policy that will always pay dividends eventually. Yours is probably OK if that's all you can afford however I would find some extra cash if I were you.

Thanks for the help!

BTW, will the rig be able to play the latest games at high settings? And how long should it last? Because I dont plan on upgrading for the next few years :p 
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Systems categories
!