New Gaming Build (Need Advice)
 

Looking at a new build...

haven't built a PC since the athlon 2600+, and radeon 9700pro days, so i'm a bit out of it when it comes to new stuff

Theory:
When it comes down to it, I like slightly higher than mid-high end PC's, so that they're futureproof for at least a couple years, my athlon 2600+ (333, barton core) + 9700 pro duo has lasted me a whopping 6 years before I start to feel some strain now by todays apps etc... Plus the mid-high market is cheap enough from the massive price drop from flagship products, but still decent in comparison

Requirements:
I don't game VERY much, but was thinking about getting into WoW/Whatevernewgame with a couple of buddies who already play, and none of my current PC's could possibly do it. I am an FPS asshole, so when it comes to games, I don't need max AA (i don't even use AA honestly), but no lag would be pretty nice

I also don't do a huge number of cpu/gpu intensive apps, but with new-gen OS's, and the newer apps and all, they just tend to require more than what I have at moments time. But more processing power is always welcome...

I don't need a giant hdd, because I have a 2TB enclosure, 800GB in my desktop, and 100GB on my laptop at my disposal already

As for RAM, same as CPU, the more the better, so was thinking of whatever 6GB of 2gbx2gbx2gb i could throwin there, as DDR3 is triple channel anyways

Mobo, don't really plan on OC or anything, maybe in the future, but for now, something that's stable, and doesn't fuck up everyday works well

The rest of it is asthetics anyways, like a case (i've already picked), but suggestions are welcome

Budget:
I'm looking at a for sure $1000+tax, but willing to go up to $1300+tax or so as an absolute max. I know stuff is cheaper these days with the influx of gamers on the market, i mean, my athlon system cost me $3300 back in the day!

Possible Build:

- CPU: Corei7 920 (a bit pricey, but horendously powerful on the charts)
- GPU: ATi RadeonHD 5770 (at $200, it's a super nice card with DX11, and 3 simultaneous outputs, inc HDMI for my TV as well)
- Mobo: ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution (supposedly one of the more high end boards, that, and there's not too much selection on NCIX, need suggestions on this one, as it's the most procey part of my build)
- RAM: Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 3X2GB (a solid 6GB is well over enough for future proofing)
- PSU: Antec Truepower New 750W (always have used antec, never had a problem, hence the truepower, which is also quite cheap too)
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB (these drives are cheap as well, and it definitely needs something, was planning SSD, but not worth it still)
- Case: Antec Nine Hundred (if you've ever played with this case, you'll love it's airflow, 2x120mm up front, and a giant monstrous 270mm up top)

Price:
The bad part comes in here, the total comes out to more than my max budget, and i'm pretty screwed when it comes down to it. I'm wanting to sacrifice the mobo, as you can see below, it's stupid expensive, and I just don't need it for the OC options, I just want stability.

Keep in mind, these are REGULAR pricing from NCIX, and i might not even be ordering from them, might get off a diff supplier of mine.

CPU: $341.17
GPU: $194.99
Mobo: $383.64
RAM: $163.49
PSU: $130.76
HDD: $109.25
Case: $116.16
Assembly of PC/Testing: $50

Sub-Total: $1489.46
Total: $1668.20

All in all, i've been looking at this for sometime now... and I think it's the right time with all these monstrous parts coming out, so everything got slightly cheaper... I know I could go C2D (core2Duo) right now, but in future-proofing interests, I don't know if i want to or not... or if it's worth the $$ dfference.

TIA for any valid suggestions!

*EDIT* okay, here's rev2 from a-power

Corei7 860 $325.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 $296.96
eVGA P55 FTW $251.99
OCZ Gold DDR3-16000 2X2GB $103.13
Antec Truepower New 750W $135.43
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB $89.99
Antec Nine Hundred 2 $128.96
LG GH22NS50 DVD Writer $27.99
Assembly + Test by A-Power $50
Sub-Total $1,410.44
Tax @ 12% $169.25
Total $1,579.69

and even cheaper rev3 from a-power as well

Corei7 860 $325.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 $179.99
eVGA P55 FTW $251.99
OCZ Gold DDR3-16000 2X2GB $103.13
Antec Truepower New 750W $135.43
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB $89.99
Antec Nine Hundred $106.79
Assembly + Test by A-Power $50
Sub-Total $1,243.31
Tax @ 12% $149.20
Total $1,392.51

Get a Core i7 8xx and a P55 motherboard.

Either that or go Phenom II X4.

Not Core 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo.

like a corei7 860 + P55 = DDR2 only? Last time I went with DDR1 as DDR2 was coming out... and I got shafted cuz DDR1 prices went up through the roof, and it was slow as shit...

how do Phenom II X4's compare to the crazy power that is i7's? according to this chart (hahahah)

it does poorly http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html though the 940 black edition sounds tempting... stupid ncix builder thing doesn't have options... i'll have to go through another build

Phenom II x2 545 or 550 is better :p

i7 860 + P55 is what i would recommended too. you are not gonna feel the difference between dual channel and triple channel ram

It's still DDR3 - but it runs dual channel rather than triple channel. However, it supports faster memory anyway, so bandwidth ends up being roughly the same.

Going 8xx is cheaper, and leaves you more upgrade options in your price range later on.

Read this review of Core i7 to see how they compare to Athlon II.

I just ran a similar setup, replacing only

CPU: Phenom II X4 955 black edition
Mobo: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

*EDIT*just saw your reply, about dual channel instead of triple

the sub-total was $1,074.75 and the total was $1,203.72

now that's much more livable... but i wonder if it'll work just as nicely, and same with the compatibility...

after reading that article, it seems the i7 8xx is the way to go...

let me price out this 860 + P55

i7-860 - 325
evga P55 FTW - 251
OCZ DDR3 1600 2x2GB - 100
5850 - 300
enermax 500w - 100
HDD: $109
Case: $116
DIY install? u have so much time on your hands LOL

1301 + tax

i'm sure its faster then your setup :P

my setup is retarded atm... i want new setup!!!

shit... 1301 + tax... it's JUST megerly within my budget hahaha

this is really acceptable, but i did make a few changes to your list

Corei7 860
Radeon HD 5770
eVGA P55 FTW (i lol'd wen i saw the name)
OCZ Gold DDR3-1600 2X2GB
Antec Truepower New 750W (i happen to plug a lot of shit into my comp, either USB etc...)
Seagate Barracuda 1TB
Antec 900
Assembly+testing

Wow, building this at NCIX is $1376.13 + applicable taxes...

You don't need a $250 motherboard. Get something like a Gigabyte for $150

And just get a 5770 for $170

And save money on ram, get a 1333 kit for $75

That brings you down to just over $1000

Thing is, I have an affinity to ASUS after building so many PC's.... gigabyte just strikes me as a brand problem lol

I'm def going for the 5770

but the ram... i mean $89.99 for the OCZ gold is cheap... and it's a 1600 kit

Then get a ASUS P7P55D LE for $150 if you prefer that brand.

I saw that board, the the lack of front-usb is quite retarded... considering that I want to make full use of my antec 900 :P

Since i'm leaving room for future proofing, i can't cheap out that bad on the mobo, plus the eVGA ftw has roots from epox no? I trust them too

*EDIT* juss saw the pro @ $188... not a bad board at all/nevermind i'm an idiot, i was reading the specs for the non LE... now that becomes even better @ 150

well, P55 FTW is guarantee to oc that 860 to 3.8ghz or 4ghz with a nice heatsink ;)
the DFI P55 board is really good too apparently


gigabyte boards are awesome nowadays... nth to worry about

i rmb buying a gigabyte dual-bios board, and it fucking destroying itself, my cpu, and killing my ram all in one go... worse day of my life... but it does sound really nice too

hmm... I guess OC sounds nice... but i need a new heatsink/fan then eh?

*EDIT* update with new price quotes @ top

If you aren't going to OC then the stock fan is OK. There are a lot of HSF out there for $25 so they aren't expensive. I would probably get one anyways. The only downside to them is their size could make it difficult to access the 12v connector and RAM, and you may want/need to remove the MB when you want to swap them. This is same for a stock fan as well, since I can't see the white prongs on the stock HSF during insertion.

I am now a Gigabyte fan. Sticking to Asus is old school. Things have changed with time. The last few Gigabyte MB I have used have had less bugs than Asus.

hmm, another gigabyte fan... they were soooo crappy back in the day, maybe it's pulling a honda hahahaha

I guess my ult plan is to go stock right off the bat without any OC, and then futureproof later i suppose, so the fan can wait.

I usually build 1-2 computers/month (for about the last 6 years) and use Gigabyte boards in 2/3 of them and have had very few issues. I've had 1 die after about 5 years (purchased in 2003, died last year), 1 came w/ a loose heatsink, 1 came w/ a capacitor that had fallen off (Sent it back to Newegg, new one was fine), and 1 DOA. 4 boards having issues out of approximately 70 over a 6-year time frame isn't bad (about 5%).

Asus usually goes in about 30% of my builds and the other 3% is miscellaneous (MSI, Foxconn, etc. that I don't recommend, but people insist on) and I've had at least 3 Asus boards that have had issues (2 died, though 1 was a bad BIOS flash by my friend, 1 was DOA). About 6% failure if you don't count my friend's screw-up.

If Gigabyte's boards are getting poor reviews for my application, I'll go w/ Asus (assuming they're getting better reviews). If they're both getting poor reviews, I'll look at different chipset.

i use to go with asus for my builds too, but i made the switch to gigabyte.. and i think they are a lot better than asus

I hope everyone knows where i'm coming from. It's like touching the genesis, everyone says it's awesome... but who knows... ahhahaha

I'll be making my decision within the week, more suggestions on builds?>

I've used DFI and ASUS boards up until my p35 asus died last year. Gigabyte now a days has a much better rep.

seagate 1tb :(- again another used forever situation with seagate, but swap that 1tb .12 series for a western digital BLACK 1tb (not blue or green) it should be nearly the same price or less. 2 reasons the black is nearly as fast as the velociraptor (fastest consumer mechanical drive) and faster than that 12 series barracuda, plus a few years ago seagate switched to 3 year warranties and wd is now 5 years not to mention lately seagate firmware has been flaky

sapphire cards :cry: - one more suggestion avoid sapphire, get xfx if you can. XFX recently switched over to ATI from nvidia and well their warranty and support is 10x better than sapphire or any ati partner.

750w truepower :thumbsup: - normally I'd recommend the PC Power&Cooling silencer 750w over anything antec has been making lately, but that 750w truepower is way better than antecs usual stuff its a solid psu.

edit: can't believe you still game on a athlon xp! system, i've gone through atleast 6 builds since my good old 2500+, anything will be a giant leap from that system.
back to my point: any particular res you game at? anything less than 1650x1080 and you're really dependent on cpu power for mostly anything.

if you plan on upgrading your processor in the future, socket 1366 is the way to go.
gulftown (intels up comming 6 core) is going to be on that.

another reason not to get a p55 foxconn board
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

and you'll be able to get away with a quality 550w psu, even if you crossfire it.

I knew something was always wrong with sapphire and high clockspeeds + cheap... thanks for all the helpful advice! all the brand I hate people fully support now :)

Problem with 1366 instead of the other one is a cost basis at the moment

I took a look at my finances again, and it's not looking good, plus most people say coming from an athlon2600+ i should be blown out of the water with even a phenom II x2

reason for XFX is their double lifetime warranty
and for HDD go for WDD, Seagate has a higher failure rate than WDD and WDD has a better RMA service (from personal experience)

If you're trying to keep costs down, go with a Core2Duo build and pair it with a decent video card.
For what you're using it for, you don't need a i7 or i5 setup.
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