New gaming rig last for 4 years of gameplay.

[Brawl]

I never do the uber-lord gaming rig but settle for a middle point to low that will allow me to play most MMOs like EQ, CoH, Aion, Rift now GW2. I don't need all the water reflections maxed and endless depth on map. As long as I can see my guy as good as he can look and not lag in big raids I'm good.

This is my current rig atm:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Allendale 2.4GHz LGA 775
ASUS EN9600GSO TOP/HTDP/384M GeForce 9600 GSO 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2
GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3G LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01
Rosewill RCX-Z3 92mm Ball CPU Cooler
Maxtor DiamondMax 21 STM3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

I am looking to upgrade with this video card as my anchor:
ASUS ENGTX560 DCII OC/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

I will probably be making 2 of the same PCs because my wife's PC is outdated and busted as well, so I am trying to stay around $500 mark per rig. Any suggestions would be great

 

[allanitomwesh]

Get a radeon hd7850 instead http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102998
motherboard http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128539
CPU http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077
ram http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231253
hdd http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236067
psu http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151074
burner http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289
case http://newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129181

 

[jerreddredd]

This is $544 with shipping and has $40 MIR so it comes out at $504. the is also a MB/Ram combo that shaves antoher $8 off.

the G860 is good for gaming on a budget, it's really close performance wise to the i3 2100, but w/o Hyperthreading (most games don't use it anyway)

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14346451

combo for the MB and ram saves $8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1034863

The HD 7850 would be a better choice for a GPU, but pushes the price up ~$50-60

 

[Brawl]

The HD 7850 would be a better choice for a GPU, but pushes the price up ~$50-60

I have noticed alot of driver issues with ATI cards over the last 15 years or so gaming so I've tending to go with Nvidia cards, are the the ATI cards now more reliable?

 

[nekulturny]

People always keep saying this driver issue thing with ATI cards, as someone whos owned Nvidia cards all my life, I've yet to see any evidence to suggest that ATI/AMD card's driver support is any worse than Nvidias.

Short answer: Go for the 7850. But I wouldn't pair it with a Pentium CPU no matter how decent they are. I would disagree with Jerred and suggest at least the i3-2120.

 

[jerreddredd]

People always keep saying this driver issue thing with ATI cards, as someone whos owned Nvidia cards all my life, I've yet to see any evidence to suggest that ATI/AMD card's driver support is any worse than Nvidias.

Short answer: Go for the 7850. But I wouldn't pair it with a Pentium CPU no matter how decent they are. I would disagree with Jerred and suggest at least the i3-2120.

I own a HD 7850, HD 6850, GTX 570 and GTX 590. I love them all in there own way. AMD is a little slow when it come to fixing driver issues, nVidia is faster, but in the end they all eventually work. the 7850 is in a class all by its self with its price vs performance ratio and uses much less power than any even close to it.

as for the i3 2120 vs G860. for budget gaming the G860/850 is the best deal with the caveat that if the OP plans on playing BF3 Multiplayer, Mechwarrior on-line or any of the 2 or 3 other titles that use more that 2 cores then I would recommend a AMD FX 4100 as the budget CPU of choice (may even a older PH II x4 956BE if the price point was right) the AMD's quad cores perform only slight less that the intel dual cores, but don't choke in BF3 multiplayer et al. the 2120 is still playable in these games, but there is a significant FPS loss in Multiplayer.

 

[allanitomwesh]

^he'll be playing guild wars et al.

 

[Brawl]

People always keep saying this driver issue thing with ATI cards, as someone whos owned Nvidia cards all my life, I've yet to see any evidence to suggest that ATI/AMD card's driver support is any worse than Nvidias.

Short answer: Go for the 7850. But I wouldn't pair it with a Pentium CPU no matter how decent they are. I would disagree with Jerred and suggest at least the i3-2120.

Is the HD7850 worth the extra $100 over the 560? Is there a comparable Nvidia card at the the same price point?

I was thinking of running this with this CPU, is it pretty good jump point ?
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core

 

[nekulturny]

Well, like Jerred said, the 7850 is kind of in a class of its own. It smokes the 560 TI (Which is better than the non-TI version, and overclocks well enough typically to give the GTX 570 a good run for the money). Although for MMORPG's you're probably fine with the 560. MMORPGs are usually not particularly system intensive.

I guess as far as the CPU, my opinion differs, but Jerredd is just as knowledgeable, if not moreso than myself. I just don't think a dual core is the way to go for a modern system. But with guild wars, you'll probably be fine with a Pentium I suppose. I'm more concerned about system longevity, since you did say you're looking to get 4 years out of the computer (which is about the most one can expect anyway)

Although HyperThreading does not aid in games at this time, and probably will never. It can have an impact on background programs, (which depending on how CPU intensive they are, might *or might not* hinder gameplay). The point of HyperThreading is to reduce the workload on the CPU's physical cores with these "pretend" cores HT gives you. So while they may not have a direct impact on improving game performance, depending on the circumstance, they may have an indirect impact.

I guess the short answer is, yes, I believe the i3 is a better jump point. Further I might add, the i3-2120 is only $5 more than the i3-2100, and in my opinion worth it. They're the same CPU, the i3-2120 is clocked higher.

 

[allanitomwesh]

Is the HD7850 worth the extra $100 over the 560? Is there a comparable Nvidia card at the the same price point?

I was thinking of running this with this CPU, is it pretty good jump point ?
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core

nothing compares to the 7850 at it's price point, perhaps the new gtx 660ti but it's just been launched.
The i3 2120 is around bout the same price for more performance.

 

[Brawl]

Well I now am going the following route:

ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5 Radeon HD 7850

GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V LGA 1155 Intel H61 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX

Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

What I am wondering is can I use my old Rosewill RP500-2 500W to power it?

 

[allanitomwesh]

yeah,should work.

 

[jerreddredd]

I wouldn't trust it to my new rig:

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/02/16/entry_level_power_supply_roundup/8
if its in you budget get a new 80+ PSU by corsair, seasonic, antec, xfx, Silverstone, or PC Power & Cooling.

 

[jerreddredd]

Although HyperThreading does not aid in games at this time, and probably will never. It can have an impact on background programs, (which depending on how CPU intensive they are, might *or might not* hinder gameplay). The point of HyperThreading is to reduce the workload on the CPU's physical cores with these "pretend" cores HT gives you. So while they may not have a direct impact on improving game performance, depending on the circumstance, they may have an indirect impact.

Nice explanation of hyper threading +1^

thanks for the kind words above. you are no slouch either when it comes to computers. you (and my son) made me a believer in quad cores for BF3 Multiplayer.

when it comes to CPU's it all about budget, implementation and expectations.

 

[Brawl]

I wouldn't trust it to my new rig:

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/02/16/entry_level_power_supply_roundup/8
if its in you budget get a new 80+ PSU by corsair, seasonic, antec, xfx, Silverstone, or PC Power & Cooling.

Yea thats a harsh review of my ol' PSU

I guess Ill have to shell out a bit more and grab this: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650

 

[jerreddredd]

Yea thats a harsh review of my ol' PSU

I guess Ill have to shell out a bit more and grab this: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650

that's a good price on the TX650. 650w maybe more than you need, but the price is good.

 

[nekulturny]

Nice explanation of hyper threading +1^

thanks for the kind words above. you are no slouch either when it comes to computers. you (and my son) made me a believer in quad cores for BF3 Multiplayer.

when it comes to CPU's it all about budget, implementation and expectations.

Yea, part of is speculation on my end. They say that HyperThreading performance in higher end CPUs like the i7s don't really have a profound impact, which of course it shouldn't considering those CPUs are already very powerful without it. But I take it under the logic of, for example using ReadyBoost (USB flash drives as caching) and Single Channel vs Dual channel RAM. The benches I've seen on these two things are more profound on lower end systems, where every ounce of power and mhz counts, so to speak. If that makes any sense.

 

[Brawl]

Well finally settled on a rig:



Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155
ASUS P8B75-V LGA 1155 Intel B75 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5 Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
LEPA B650-SA 650W SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2

All for about $630 went a bit above my $500 limit but not to bad

Anyone know if the cpu cooler I chose is decent? Just chose a popular one.

 

[nekulturny]

Really not too shabby at all for the money. Honestly with an i3 you didn't need a cpu cooler at all, but yes the 212 evo is a very good cooler. Even if you were doing a top of the line build with an overclockable i7, I'd still be recommending the 212 evo to put it into perspective.