Best choice for gaming

[Onus]

I will be building a system under a strict 300W power budget. It isn't merely a matter of being "green;" the system may be used in a mobile environment where available sine-wave inverter power may be limited to 400W. Allowing for the monitor and PSU efficiency losses, 300W is the highest I think is safe; I'd really like to lower that a little if possible.
The friend who will use this system plays a lot of Guild Wars, will play GW2, and has expressed interest in other [MMO]RPG games like SW:TOR and Skyrim. These can be a lot more demanding of the CPU than shooters.

Resolution may be as high as 1920x1080, but may also be 1600x900.

This is not a "final answer." The build isn't going to happen until the HD77xx and/or HD78xx are out. One of the leak articles here on Tom's suggested that their power usage will be relatively much lower than the HD6xxx series, which could make a big difference. NVidia hasn't competed well in this segment, but we'll probably also wait to see what Kepler brings to the table.

 

[Dogsnake]

I guess the i3 2120 @65 for the cpu. If you can push the 95w i5 2400 even better. I assume no over clocking as it is power intensive in most cases. Then something in the new models similar to a 6770 @ 110w or a 6850 @130w. Inverters are notoriously crappy for PC use so I would be looking at keeping the power down. Their output varies with temperature and the age of the unit. Also you need to allow for the MB, memory, HDD, optical drive and any other power using system elements. As the new items come available and tested, we can start to narrow it down. Also a budget would be helpful. Is he interested in a compact form PC that can be moved around easier (think LAN Party type)? GW2 (I am a long time GW player) is reported to be able to scale to just about any system depending on the details you crank up. Server connection will be very important as the new persistent world world will require online connection.

 

[Onus]

He has a true-sine inverter, which I told him would be a likely requirement to run a [quality] PSU; but it's a rather small one, and he doesn't have the budget to replace it. As to the total parts budget, that hasn't been finalized yet, and will have wiggle room in the form of parts donated by me (e.g. a 320GB HDD). I'm using the PSU calculator at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp for general guidance. If he played shooters, I'd probably just go for the strongest possible GPU. Since he plays [MMO]RPG a stronger CPU may help. GW is not particularly graphically demanding; a HD6670 can max it at 1920x1080; to max GW2 I am sure will require something more. An old 4850e is not enough CPU for GW; it's playable, but lags, especially badly in crowded areas. Then there's Skyrim, which he doesn't have yet, but if it was playable on Ultra with a G630, I'm sure it will run well on an i3-2120T. That would allow me to throw in a HD6790 I already have, IF it fits the case. That will be small; no bigger than a Lian Li PC-Q08 (which will take a dual-slot GPU) and possibly as small as one of the Apex mini-ITX boxes (which won't).
This IS going to wait until the new GPUs are out though; the power savings could easily mean a 1-2 tier jump.

 

[Dogsnake]

Agree let's keep this thread open and see how it evolves.

 

[fistoffoo]

You would be best served with a quad core CPU dual core is after all going obsolete also the 6850 is a good option.

 

[Onus]

I thought I'd set the poll to stay open until the end of the month, but for me it shows that it is closed. Well, if that didn't work right, hopefully either a mod will reset it, or people can just explain their preferences here.
Fistoffoo, while I prefer the idea of a true quad myself, there may not be enough difference in games to justify what could be a significant GPU limitation later. The i5-2400S might be a good choice though, but I suspect it would exceed his budget.

 

[fistoffoo]

Down the road I hate to say I told you so but quad and beyond is the future.