750$ Gamer Desktop Budget Inquiry

[Etamu]

Hi!

Have about $750 to spend on a gamer desktop computer and would like some advice on a build. I already have a hard drive and cd-rom so those aren't necessary.

I was looking at a HIS 6850 for the graphics and the http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1577714&sku=A79-0004 pack from tiger direct for processor/board.

Any suggestions appreciated, it'll be mostly for Diablo 3/ league of legends/ Starcraft 2, ran with a GTX 550TI and it could barely handle diablo 3, i'm thinking because of the low memory interface and stream processors.

Thanks for your time!

 

[zolton33]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261222-31-build-advice

Filling that out helps more then you think in helping to pick parts. without it we do not know where you live (like have a microcenter near by) do you overclock? would you want to overclock? etc etc

 

[Etamu]

Apologies, hyped up on post-surgery medicine and forgot a few things. I live in Joplin,MO, not much here after the tornado. I would be happy to overclock the processor and video card, not ready for liquid cooling, I do currently overclock.

 

[Etamu]

Also, preferred shopping from tiger direct, planning on purchasing in the middle of this week. Do not plan on crossfire right now, not at least until diablo 3 actually releases, one card should do fine for the beta, especially over the 550 TI.

I can definitely find ram on my own but this will be my first scratch-to-done build for myself, so the power supply, graphics, motherboard, processor are the most important to get knowledge on, and cases can always be surprisingly nice (hoping to stay around the $100 range on cases).

 

[FinneousPJ]

The 6850 is only one tier above the 550 Ti. It's not really worth upgrading, but you should have got the 6850 in the first place Try going for a 6950 for a noticeable upgrade. Why not post your current system in its entirety?

 

[Etamu]

i sold the other computer to a friend who had cash, it wasn't doing what i wanted.

the TI has 192 stream processors vs the 960 from the 6850, i'm not super knowledgeable but from what i've read, the stream processors are important, along with the memory interface.

i don't know all the specs for the old pc, but it was a 6 core amd 3.2ghz with the TI, 8gb ddr3 ram, a gigabyte motherboard (not sure on model).

I derped on getting the TI, it was a while ago and i've really tried to dive into PC building since then, so i'm trying to start right this time : D


And yeah, that 6950 is nice, but I have to do my best to stay within price range, need case, motherboard, processor, ram, graphics card, power supply

 

[Hazbot]

i sold the other computer to a friend who had cash, it wasn't doing what i wanted.

the TI has 192 stream processors vs the 960 from the 6850, i'm not super knowledgeable but from what i've read, the stream processors are important, along with the memory interface.

i don't know all the specs for the old pc, but it was a 6 core amd 3.2ghz with the TI, 8gb ddr3 ram, a gigabyte motherboard (not sure on model).

I derped on getting the TI, it was a while ago and i've really tried to dive into PC building since then, so i'm trying to start right this time : D


And yeah, that 6950 is nice, but I have to do my best to stay within price range, need case, motherboard, processor, ram, graphics card, power supply

No Nvidia's CUDA cores are not comparable to ATI/AMD's stream processors, they are completely different so 960 is not necessarily better than 192. But yes the 550Ti is not that great, the first graphics card worth the buy is the 560, where Nvidia starts being more price efficient. But as before, get the 6950, the 6850 is not a huge improvement.

Also, I'm surprised you had trouble running Starcraft 2, I ran that on my old 7600. Maybe the AMD processors were badly supported? That seems to be the only reason the benchmarks are lower, bad support for AMD processors.

 

[Zero_]

Check my sig. The $1000 build with a HD6950 instead of a HD6970 should fit within your budget since you already have a hard drive and probably an OS as well.

 

[vitornob]

If you want to Starcraft 2, Sandybridge is a must!

Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?
Even a stock i5-2400 handles much better Starcraft 2, max settings at 1080p, than ANY AMD cpu, even if you OC them:

Skyrim is another very good example:

 

[Etamu]

Okay so I have switched my choice to definitely taking the I5 2500k unlocked, being new to building pcs it was pretty hard for me to believe it could outperform an unlocked 6 core AMD, but benchmarks prove it.

Any recommendations for graphics card, motherboard, power supply? Looking for board with multiple audio outputs, at least 2 pcie x16 slots (read about a board that would only run the ports at x8 each slot if more than one card is connected, definitely don't want that). Looking at the sapphire 6870 (trying for $200 and under) for graphics.

So i'm definitely buying the intel processor now, but why does it run better, what about it makes (for example) a 4ghz quad out-perform a 4hz 6 core from amd, is it that some games don't utlize all 6 cores?

Sorry for the rant, thanks so much for the input so far, can't wait to put this together, been a pain finding a good motherboard.