$ 800 Mid Range Gaming Rig

[GothAmKing]

Well I'm going to have a new rig for $ 800 or less.I've posted a thread before and I became puzzled of whatever little I knew.So I'm posting a few questions in a hope that they will clear out my doubts.Also any config on the rig is welcomed provided it's $ 800 or less.My criterion are :─

☺No need of multi monitor gaming.
☺No gaming on a HD TV.
☺No Blu-ray drive required as I get every released game(downloaded by my friends).
☺Strictly 500 GB HDD(7200 rpm),nothing less nothing more.
☺No hardcore OCing to test the limits of my hardware.
☺Want to play Battlefield 3,Mass Effect 3,Syndicate,Brink,Crysis 2 on atleast HIGH settings if not ULTRA.
☺No eye popping 2500x1600 res monitor needed,I'm comfortable on 1280x1024 res.
☺No fancy $ 200 gaming towers required.
________________________________________________________________
Now my questions :─

☻Is a SSD "really required" for a gaming rig?
☻Is buying a 1 GB GPU a mistake?
☻AMD HD 7850 or nVidia GTX 560 Ti 448 cores-who's the "ultimate" winner at mid-range?
☻A cheap PSU-mistake or not?
☻What's a modular PSU?
☻Can I compensate any cheap mid-tower with 3-4 fans for better cooling during OCing?
☻For OCing is Intel's default heatsink okay or should I opt for Thermaltake?
☻When choosing for a P8P67 mobo from Asus,which one should I opt for(SLI and Crossfire support should be there)?
☻For OCing is Asus's P67 equivalent to it's Z68 leaving out all other xtra features in Z68?
☻If a game stutters a little at High settings,will it vanish if OC?
☻How efficiently are latest games using multi cored AMD processors in FX series?
☻Can PCIe 3.0 be used without Ivy Bridge?
☻How are ASRock LGA 1155 P67 mobos?
☻At 1280x1024 can I xpect every game to run at HIGH settings with a HD 7850 or GTX 560 Ti 448 cores?
☻Is an AMD FX-6100 + HD 7850 much better or equivalent to Intel i5 2500 K + HD 7850?
☻How is Hz rating of monitors related?It's importance?
☻I've 4 GB of Transcend DDR2 RAM installed,but Sys Properties in Win7 show that only 3.24 GB is usable.Why?

Please pardon me for posting questions related to OCing and Cooling in this forum.I wanted to have all questions answered at a single place.Please do take time to post your comments.............

 

[sonexpc]

i5-2500K
Asus P8Z77-V LE
Kingtson8GB DDR3 HyperX 1600
Segate 500GB SATA
LG 22X DVD+/-RW
Sapphire 7850 2GB PCI-E Video Card
Antec One case
Any Good brand Power Supply ~ 600W PS

Or wait till May for teh New IVY Bridge CPU ~ $20 more than i5-2500K for similar level

These you should find ~ 800 - 900 After Rebate on line

 

[Zero_]

Check my sig.

 

[GothAmKing]

Check my sig.

The monitor is missing.I will have a complete PC,nothing to reuse from my previous one.Maybe Asus P8P67 was better than that H77(price wise).

 

[BallisticHardware]

The nVidia GTX 560 is what we use on our Mid level systems. Can't really recommend it any higher than that.


www.BallisticHardware.com

 

[GothAmKing]

The nVidia GTX 560 is what we use on our Mid level systems. Can't really recommend it any higher than that.


www.BallisticHardware.com

Why,ain't HD 7850 a better option?

 

[noob2222]

☻Is a SSD "really required" for a gaming rig?
☻Is buying a 1 GB GPU a mistake?
☻AMD HD 7850 or nVidia GTX 560 Ti 448 cores-who's the "ultimate" winner at mid-range?
☻A cheap PSU-mistake or not?
☻What's a modular PSU?
☻Can I compensate any cheap mid-tower with 3-4 fans for better cooling during OCing?
☻For OCing is Intel's default heatsink okay or should I opt for Thermaltake?
☻When choosing for a P8P67 mobo from Asus,which one should I opt for(SLI and Crossfire support should be there)?
☻For OCing is Asus's P67 equivalent to it's Z68 leaving out all other xtra features in Z68?
☻If a game stutters a little at High settings,will it vanish if OC?
☻How efficiently are latest games using multi cored AMD processors in FX series?
☻Can PCIe 3.0 be used without Ivy Bridge?
☻How are ASRock LGA 1155 P67 mobos?
☻At 1280x1024 can I xpect every game to run at HIGH settings with a HD 7850 or GTX 560 Ti 448 cores?
☻Is an AMD FX-6100 + HD 7850 much better or equivalent to Intel i5 2500 K + HD 7850?
☻How is Hz rating of monitors related?It's importance?
☻I've 4 GB of Transcend DDR2 RAM installed,but Sys Properties in Win7 show that only 3.24 GB is usable.Why?

Please pardon me for posting questions related to OCing and Cooling in this forum.I wanted to have all questions answered at a single place.Please do take time to post your comments.............

1. no but bf3 takes quite a while to load, ssd will help with that, but not gameplay
2. not at that resolution
3. 7850 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-16.html
4&5 . just pay attention to reviews, some cheap psu are too cheap. modular ps have removeable cords.
6. decent cheap case example, http://www.anandtech.com/show/5736/fractal-design-core-1000-how-little-is-too-little/6
7. stock heatsink sucks.
8, 9, 13. not familiar with Intel boards, overpriced imo
10. for the most part, but sometimes stuttering is just too much for the gpu.
11. BF3 loves the fx chips, mass effect 3 and crysis 2, not as much.
12. pci-e 3.0 is ivy only. won't know benefits till its out whether the difference is even noticable.
14. 1280x1024 itself is not very demanding in today's standards
15. fx 8xxx are closer to the 2500k. 6100 is more like a tri-core cpu
16. hz on a monitor basically = fps. if you push 120 fps in a game to a 60 hz monitor, it will be 60 fps.
17. your using windows 7 - 32 bit. 32 bit os can't use more than that 3.24 gb, video memory included, so with a 2 gb card, max system memory would be 1.24gb. 64 bit upgrade required.

 

[maui67]

Here is a setup that comes in around $770 (not including shipping, prices are from newegg.com):

ASRock 970 EXTREME4 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $109.99

PowerColor AX7850 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 7850 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - $249.99

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power - $89.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - $29.99

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX - $119.99

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $17.99

COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $59.99

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $79.99

You didn't mention what components (if any) you don't need. So I am assuming you have keyboard, mouse, monitor, and Win7 license. If not, then I can post an updated configuration. Also, I realize that you mentioned Intel in your questions, but for your budget AMD would provide more value IMHO (not a fanboy, just looking at alternatives).

In answer to your questions:
☻Is a SSD "really required" for a gaming rig?
------ No, an SSD does not affect gaming except maybe in loading levels faster.
☻Is buying a 1 GB GPU a mistake?
------ at 1280 x 1024 resolution a 1GB GPU will be fine.
☻AMD HD 7850 or nVidia GTX 560 Ti 448 cores-who's the "ultimate" winner at mid-range?
------ HD 7850
☻A cheap PSU-mistake or not?
------ Do not skimp on the heart of your system. A cheap/bad psu could damage other components and/or cause other issues.
☻What's a modular PSU?
------- A modular PSU has cable sets that can be plugged into the PSU as needed.
☻Can I compensate any cheap mid-tower with 3-4 fans for better cooling during OCing?
------- if the case has places to put the fans.
☻For OCing is Intel's default heatsink okay or should I opt for Thermaltake?
------- For any CPU it is always recommended that you get a good heatsink and fan.
☻When choosing for a P8P67 mobo from Asus,which one should I opt for(SLI and Crossfire support should be there)?
☻For OCing is Asus's P67 equivalent to it's Z68 leaving out all other xtra features in Z68?
☻If a game stutters a little at High settings,will it vanish if OC?
------ It depends what is causing the stuttering: crossfire/sli, defective RAM, etc.
☻How efficiently are latest games using multi cored AMD processors in FX series?
------ Most games are poor at utilizing multiple cores. 4 cores is generally enough, although I've heard that FS X loves cores.
☻Can PCIe 3.0 be used without Ivy Bridge?
☻How are ASRock LGA 1155 P67 mobos?
☻At 1280x1024 can I xpect every game to run at HIGH settings with a HD 7850 or GTX 560 Ti 448 cores?
☻Is an AMD FX-6100 + HD 7850 much better or equivalent to Intel i5 2500 K + HD 7850?
------- The i5 + 7850 is the better of the 2 setups, but not by much. The i5 is generally 3-7fps better, some games more. The key thing to look at is minimum FPs and not average FPs. You will see in most benchmarks that the FX cpu and i5 will have nearly identical minimum FPs.
☻How is Hz rating of monitors related?It's importance?
----- Not sure what you mean. 60Hz is the minimum you want a monitor to refresh at.
☻I've 4 GB of Transcend DDR2 RAM installed,but Sys Properties in Win7 show that only 3.24 GB is usable.Why?
----- If you are running Win7 32-bit, it will only show usable RAM. The rest is allocated to the system.

 

[maui67]

The monitor is missing.I will have a complete PC,nothing to reuse from my previous one.Maybe Asus P8P67 was better than that H77(price wise).

Here is a revised configuration from my earlier post:

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - $30

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX - $120

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $18

Rosewill R218-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $30

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $80

ViewSonic VA1938WA-LED Black 19" (18.5" Vis) 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - $90

MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $83

XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB - $140

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - $70

Microsoft 5SH-00001 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Desktop 800 for Business - $23

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - $100

Total ~ $784

If you are going to game at 1280 x 1024 then a HD7850 or GTX 560Ti is overkill. The HD6850 is still overkill but will carry over if you decide to get a bigger monitor and also crossfire (the motherboard has crossfire) well for even better performance.

 

[GothAmKing]

Here is a revised configuration from my earlier post:

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - $30

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX - $120

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - $18

Rosewill R218-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $30

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - $80

ViewSonic VA1938WA-LED Black 19" (18.5" Vis) 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - $90

MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - $83

XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB - $140

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - $70

Microsoft 5SH-00001 Black USB RF Wireless Standard Desktop 800 for Business - $23

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - $100

Total ~ $784

If you are going to game at 1280 x 1024 then a HD7850 or GTX 560Ti is overkill. The HD6850 is still overkill but will carry over if you decide to get a bigger monitor and also crossfire (the motherboard has crossfire) well for even better performance.

Well u could leave out that
"Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM - $100"
I have it already.But I'm little confused whether to decide on an AMD build or an Intel build.As a matter of fact Intel's upgrade path is more good than AMD.Also,recently enough AMD declared that it won't compete with Intel anymore.Don't u think that it is a half-way losing in competition?
Also,I wan't that 7850 'cuz I want to keep this rig for some 3-4 years.I could also get a 250 GB Barracuda and after that have 1-2 xternal HDDs.'cuz I get any and every of my games,software,movie written on DVDs.So there's not quite need of that 500GB.I was also wondering about the Antec Two Hundred S tower.I'm generally preferring any cheap case with front fan mounts.
Well,isn't an UPS required?Here we have a little loadshedding every week so.

I have another dumb question to ask
Can two HD 7770 s in CrossfireX beat an HD 7850??
Thanx everyone for their replies.........

 

[noob2222]

yes and no

When crossfire works, its slightly faster, when it doesn't work properly then no

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7750_7770_CrossFire/18.html
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/21.html

they don't have both cards in the same review, so put them side by side.

 

[GothAmKing]

Well,Well,Well.I see that going for an Intel build with an i5 2500K is becoming quite outta my budget.So,I've settled on a AMD build as suggested by maui67.Here's the list :-

1.PROCESSOR─ $ 110
☺AMD FX 4100

2.MOBO─ $ 160
☺ASRock 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ AMD 990FX

3.GPU─ $ 250
☺Sapphire HD 7850

4.CASE─ $ 50
☺Frontech Safari

5.PSU─ $ 60
☺CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX

6.MONITOR─ $ 160
☺LG 20 inches W2043C LCD

7.RAM─ $ 27
☺4GB Corsair Vengeance CL9 DDR3-1600

8.HDD─ $ 45
☺250 GB Barracuda 7200 rpm

9.MICE─ $ 4
☺Logitech 3 button

10.DVD DRIVE─ $ 15
☺Samsung

Net---------------- $ 882

Still I'm crossing my budget.Should I opt for GTX 560 or a cheaper mobo???
But I'm still confused over the UPS.
I think I should take a 1.1kVA UPS(according to my calculations).Please suggest me a decent UPS which will be okay for my system.
Thanx in advance

 

[Chip in a box]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121373

The 7850 is the same performance level http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BeKb9M5zV0, costs 10 bucks more with a free game http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161406 but has half the power draw/heat and is a much better overclocker.

 

[Zero_]

Look at what an overclocked HD7850 can do.
http://tbreak.com/tech/2012/04/asus-hd-7850-direct-cuii-review/

 

[noob2222]

unless your planning on doing 3 video cards, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262 $110

That board will do CF and SLI with 2 cards. Extreme 3 is CF only.

looks like your pricing from newegg, don't forget about some combo deals,

CPU+DVD drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.889661 $128

The 4100 is only 80% quad core cpu, the 965BE is a true quad. well worth $10, and with that combo, price is offset.

Dont know if you can get to a microcenter, but they have some killer deals. http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

 

[GothAmKing]

Just Now I read in a customer's review at amazon that FX s have half the number of physical cores than that is stated.Rest half are simulated much like Hyper Threading.Only good ones are the Phenom II X4/X6.

There's much chaos regarding these AMD CPUs.Now I think I'll become mad at planning my new rig.........Please guyz help out!!!

Another thing,I also "heard" at a site that ASRock mobos provides room for good overclocking and are somewhat close to Asus.(Remember,I said "somewhat")So what do u people think 'bout ASRock ??

 

[GothAmKing]

Check this config.I hope this will get me all ULTRA settings at every game at 1280x1024 res.

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $ 122

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 $ 210

Corsair Vengeance (2x4GB) DDR3 CL9 1600 RAM $ 45

LG W2043C 20 inches LCD Monitor $ 120

Antec Earthwatts 650-D $ 60


ZOTAC ZT-50709-10M GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $ 189

Frontech Safari $ 50

Proview 1.1kVA UPS $ 18

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[GothAmKing]

unless your planning on doing 3 video cards, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262 $110

That board will do CF and SLI with 2 cards. Extreme 3 is CF only.

looks like your pricing from newegg, don't forget about some combo deals,

CPU+DVD drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.889661 $128

The 4100 is only 80% quad core cpu, the 965BE is a true quad. well worth $10, and with that combo, price is offset.

Dont know if you can get to a microcenter, but they have some killer deals. http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html

Well AMD seems like not as a viable path.everywhere I see i5 2500K.
Please post a link for mobo-be it a H61,P67,Z68 or whatever LGA 1155 board it must have -
1.Support for 2 cards for SLI/Crossfire(@ x8/x8,I saw that no LGA 1155 supports x16/x16 )
2.Must support OC(I will do some mild OCing,maybe upto 4 Ghz atmost)
3.Price within $ 160(please)
4.Will be great if it's asus

thanx in advance