Why are you trying to upgrade? Just feel like its time, or have you hit some games/things you cant do?
Generally, I just feel like it's time to upgrade. While it runs games just fine, it tends to slack at recent ones that are somewhat demanding. I just want to continue running these games smoothly while looking good.
Doctor Fink on
PSN: Doctor_Fink / Xbox Live:LieutenantDef / Steam: Doctor Fink
So I'm looking for a new computer, and I heard that building one was fairly cheap. My old one's crapped its hard drive, so I'm operating off my Wii right now, and was wondering if I could get a hand with this. Of course, I'm not just getting a new computer because of the hard drive problem, I'd really like a much better computer. Here we go:
I have a Windows XP CD, a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and 2 Kingston 5300 1g RAM, along with the 2 256 meg RAM that came with my Dell. I'm not sure if the CD/DVD drive could be used in another computer, or if it's something that I could get that would be better. All of the programs I run are from the hard drive. If it helps, the computer I have now is a Dell Dimension C521.
Which brings me to the type of computer I'm looking for. Along with playing video games, such as TF2, I also use Adobe Photoshop, Toon Boom Animation Studio, and Windows Movie Maker. I have trouble running these with what I have now, I would definitely like them to be faster.
As far as budget goes, if a good computer can be built between 500-700 dollars, I'd be happy with that. I do not need the powerhouse crysis computer, just something that could run the games well enough, do things in Photoshop, and in Flash when I get the program, and animate and compile things quickly enough.
The sound and video cards on my current computer are onboard, so you can see where I stand here, it is not so great. I would also need a new case, my current one is itty bitty. My room is also warm a lot of the time, I just moved here, there aren't any windows.
Does that cover everything?
Oh, I also live in Canada
where are you in Canada? NCIX (in Vancouver) has a great bundle which comes with Core i5, a decent motherboard, and 4 gigs of DDR3 for under 500 bucks
So, I've got just about every part picked out, but I'm having a hard time settling on a motherboard (always the toughest choice for me personally) that will hold this CPU and fit inside this case. Which brand would you guys suggest? EVGA? Asus? Gigabyte? Also, why are the ATI 58XX cards so hard to find?
Gigabyte has turned into the flavor of the month (years) mobo company. My current board is a Gigabyte and my next will be also. You can always look back through sites like Anandtech.com for benchmarks and whatnot.
And the 58xx series are hard to find because they're brand new, they smoke everything else out there, and they're fairly cheap.
Gigabyte it is, and I can't help but think there's a good chance the 58xx's will be back in stock by the time I place this order. Thanks for the reply.
Triple B on
Steam/XBL/PSN: FiveAgainst1
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
I'm starting to consider RMA-ing my video card again. The problems I mentioned in the previous thread have resurfaced, although it doesn't happen nearly as often. I also left my PC running overnight to download Mass Effect and woke up to find a series of flickering blue specs on the screen. Had that not happened, the computer would have gone to sleep after 3 hours of being idle.
Anyway, I am hoping it's just a video card issue and not something else.
Halp! I'm working on building a new computer. Looking at getting an i5 750 and approx 6gb of ram, whats a good mobo to use (newegg has lots)? I'd like to OC the chip a lil bit too if that makes a difference.
EDIT: Settling on GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard for now. If anyone has a better idea shoot it my way.
EDIT2: Micro ATX....not sure my case will hole that. I have a BIG case.
EDIT3: My big case is awesome. (Checked the manual and it works. Can't believe I still have the manual after 5 years).
EDIT4: Read all five pages of reviews. Seems this board can be picky about ram...
the UD2 is a cheapass budget motherboard for babbies. Get the UD3R at least
also the lynnfield doesn't do triple channel, either get 4 gigs or 8
Thanks for the tip on the 8, I'll put 4 down on the ol' xmas list and hope my parents pick up the mobo + chip + ram so I can just stick it in the case and work with that till tax time :}
While no longer a $100 board, the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 meets just about everyone of those targets. For an entry level motherboard, it features a very good micro-ATX layout, quality components, great BIOS, superb overclocking capabilities, and a price that almost belies its feature set and performance. There are many things to like about this board but we think the price to performance ratio is just terrific.
The BIOS has just the right amount of options to allow excellent overclocking capabilities while retaining enough simplicity that a beginner can quickly overclock just utilizing the auto settings. The BIOS design and information provided is a vast improvement over previous Gigabyte designs in the price sector. As good as the board is we still think the limited amount of fan headers (two) is an inexcusable mistake and the BIOS could use additional information like stock voltage settings for each option.
Award
We are honored to present our Gold Editors' Choice award to GIGABYTE for their impressive GA-P55M-UD2.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'm looking at potentially buying a computer from a friend:
750-watt power supply
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 6000+
2 gigs of RAM
Geforce 8600 GT
It's an ASUS motherboard, he's not sure what the RAM limit is, but it supports quad-core AMD processors. What's a good price for something like that?
Go price those parts and add it up plus whatever you feel is fair for the facts it's already together/is used/willing to pay/he's willing to accept.
Xeddicus on
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dresdenphileWatch out for snakes!Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
I'm replacing a 5 year old machine, and the components below are my first attempt at building a machine for myself. I will have assistance in the actual physical building of the machine, but does everything jive here, in terms of compatibility? I want my system to be able to play some games, but I don't need it to be bleeding edge. I'm trying to stay under $700, which this build seems to be as of right now.
I'm replacing a 5 year old machine, and the components below are my first attempt at building a machine for myself. I will have assistance in the actual physical building of the machine, but does everything jive here, in terms of compatibility? I want my system to be able to play some games, but I don't need it to be bleeding edge. I'm trying to stay under $700, which this build seems to be as of right now.
I'm replacing a 5 year old machine, and the components below are my first attempt at building a machine for myself. I will have assistance in the actual physical building of the machine, but does everything jive here, in terms of compatibility? I want my system to be able to play some games, but I don't need it to be bleeding edge. I'm trying to stay under $700, which this build seems to be as of right now.
Two thoughts on your case:
1) This model is only $15 more with a stronger (50 watts) power supply. I've used this one a few times and it's really good, you just have to buy a few fans for it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129065
2) While this model is $40 more it has a much stronger (120 watts) power supply and free shipping. So depending on your shipping costs you can probably break even on it.
1- Alton Brown is the man! I met him on a subway in Manhattan, he was so cool.
2- Actual computer things. I'm building a replacement for my current computer. It's an old dell I've had for about 5ish years and while I've done minor upgrades over the way, its pretty much as I bought it component wise.
Things I'm keeping:
Soundcard
HDDs
CD/DVD drives
Things I'm getting:
Case
PowerSupply
CPU
Video Card
Motherboard
My ideal budget is around 600ish to 650ish so I stole this from LLC.
If I was getting superb performance for my money I would gladly splurge up to 800.
I want to have DX11, and possibility to crossfire in the future. Since to me it seems I might be saving a little money on HDD and disk drives i might be able to put it elsewhere.
Is there anything that would be a better choice, should i look for a combo involving a 58xx line and wait for them to become available?
the UD2 is a cheapass budget motherboard for babbies. Get the UD3R at least[/I
Please save this crap for your head where nobody can hear it and think you know what you're talking about.
The UD2 is a perfectly fine motherboard provided you don't need the extra expansion slots (which most people probably don't). Micro ATX boards will fit in any standard ATX case.
well it's kind of silly to get an MATX board unless you are using an MATX case
might as well pony up the extra $30 so that in 2 years you don't find yourself having to buy a new motherboard to accommodate your new hard drive or whatever
# of SATA ports on the UD2: 7
# of SATA ports on the UD3R: 8
That's more than most people will ever use. The only limitation the micro board carries is fewer PCI slots. If you don't have a bunch of cards (which not many people do these days) there's little justification in the UD3R over the UD2. If you wanted to argue UD4 for the 8/8 vs 16/4 PCI-E then fine, but aside from that one single SATA port and PCI slots the UD2 and the UD3 are essentially identical.
Size does not equate to somehow being better. It is in no way "silly" to get a uATX board in an ATX case when you still have giant video cards to fit inside and have no use for extra PCI slots.
I'm thinking of the Accel S1 Rev 2 because 1) It is fairly cheap compared to Zalman coolers and I have very limited funds / I don't want to spend $60+ on a cooler for a $100 video card that cant be used on newer models and 2) The S1 Rec 2 fits the 4890 and This Thread suggests the 5870 as well, which will most likely be the two video cards I would upgrade to next.
Or a sound card, or WLAN, or a PCI-E SSD. Whatever.
I guess it'll do for typical usage. The extra cash will buy you better cooling, better OC, and most importantly, room for a bigass heatsink so you don't have to listen to the awful whiny Intel fan. Worth it if you ask me.
So, since my plan of buying a 5850 seems not likely to pan out any time soon I think I need some advice on what to do next.
I guess I should pair up my i5 system with a cheaper 4870 or a 5770 and stick with that until I feel the need for an upgrade.
But another possibility would be to buy something cheaper yet and put that in my old computer that I'm giving to my brother (no one in his family is a big gamer) and move my 8800GTS 320 to my new comp.
The main reason for the second option would be that a 4870 might be too much of a loud/power hungry card to give to my brother later and a 5770 seems just a tad expensive for an interim video card.
All of this is made more frustrating by the fact that decent benchmarks for Total War games are hard to find and that is probably the most demanding series that I really care about performance in. Meanwhile I'll be gaming at 1080p which is just the resolution where either of those cards could either last quite a while or not depending on a game or two.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
So, since my plan of buying a 5850 seems not likely to pan out any time soon I think I need some advice on what to do next.
I guess I should pair up my i5 system with a cheaper 4870 or a 5770 and stick with that until I feel the need for an upgrade.
But another possibility would be to buy something cheaper yet and put that in my old computer that I'm giving to my brother (no one in his family is a big gamer) and move my 8800GTS 320 to my new comp.
The main reason for the second option would be that a 4870 might be too much of a loud/power hungry card to give to my brother later and a 5770 seems just a tad expensive for an interim video card.
All of this is made more frustrating by the fact that decent benchmarks for Total War games are hard to find and that is probably the most demanding series that I really care about performance in. Meanwhile I'll be gaming at 1080p which is just the resolution where either of those cards could either last quite a while or not depending on a game or two.
I'd definately try to keep the 8800GTS for a while. This seems like the cheapest route if your end goal is to get a 5850. I'd guess it'll be a few months at most before availability picks up again (albeit at the new higher price), seems like a waste to buy a 4870 or 5770 if noone is going to use it after you upgrade.
An alternative (if you don't want to stick with your 8800GTS) is to buy a 4890 and forget about the 5850 for a while. At 1080p performance should be pretty good for a good while.
Personally, I'd never Crossfire two 5770s. That would end up more expensive than a 5850 and would have to deal with all issues that comes with Crossfire.
I've just started a new job, and have decided to really splash out and replace the wheezing 6 year old beast in the corner with a shiny new one. As a result I've put together a PC, and I'd appreciate it if people could take a look and tell me if there's anything really retarded about it.
I fully understand it's massively expensive, but at this moment in time it's an extravagance I can afford. I'm in the UK so I've ordered most of it from dabs, as they seemed to be the cheapest and had the most parts in stock. Everything has been allocated for my order so far except the Radeon 5870s, which they hope to get tomorrow (which will be lies I'm sure)
I'll probably add a 2TB Caviar Black when they become more available, and I've toyed with the idea of a SSD for the boot drive, but from reading around there isn't particularly a massive benefit from them yet, so I haven't bothered. If people has a compelling reason for one I may add that as well.
Spending £1,500 pounds on a PC without a SSD is probably a bad idea. You'll want to read through Anandtech's storage section starting with this.
For the past several months I’ve been calling SSDs the single most noticeable upgrade you can do to your computer. Whether desktop or laptop, stick a good SSD in there and you’ll notice the difference.
I guess it depends but at that price I'd be thinking about a BluRay drive too.
Even with an unlimited budget, I'm not really sold on the i7 920 over a 15 750. Turbo boost is likely to be useful for more games than hyperthreading.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
The i5 turbo mode is 2 multiplier steps vs. the i7's one step, right? I don't think either is going to give you much of an increase. For gaming I'd go with the i5 anyway, though if you're going full bore with two 5870s the i7 doesn't seem like an extravagance.
It'll run borderlands at meh settings. Not sure about the other two.
Replace at 8600GT with something a little more fitting. 2 Gigs is still plenty and the 6000+ is enough for any game that relies more on GPU (which most of the ones worth a damn are).
Anyone else with a Radeon HD 4xxx (I have a 4890), Windows 7 64-bit, and the latest catalysts, getting a red line down the middle of any video they play in windows media player, along with a red square in the upper-right corner?
Luckily there's VLC, but I prefer the CCCP myself (and would like to use media center if not WMP directly) and this is pretty annoying.
I'd take a screenshot but some reason the movie area is always blank.
So grand total of $813.94. The with my MIRs it comes to 753.94.
So I've read that a nice new SSD is a great thing, and as I had my last computer for a few years without really
upgrading anything I figured it would be worth the investment. Is there anything glaring that sticks out to you
guys? So far this topic has been extremely helpful. Thanks
I'm looking at potentially buying a computer from a friend:
750-watt power supply
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 6000+
2 gigs of RAM
Geforce 8600 GT
It's an ASUS motherboard, he's not sure what the RAM limit is, but it supports quad-core AMD processors. What's a good price for something like that?
Out of curiousity, what would this build run? Like, could it handle Crysis? What about Borderlands? Dragon Age?
How much tweaking would it need to run recent games?
I had a PC of similar specs with the same video card. It ran Crysis acceptably and stuff like TF2 extremely well. This is all on high settings at 1600x1200.
bombardier on
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
Bummer, the shop can't get a Gigabyte P55-UD5, so I have to go with a UD3. Good news it's $100au cheaper, bad news is I can't run 2 video cards. But I wasn't going to anyway.
PROS:
Really good specs for the price. Looked into lower-end machines and then just upgrading GFX card, but this wins out by a wide margin
CONS
I'm told the HD it comes with, while large, is also slow
Comes loaded with Vista, which means migrating to Win7 myself
Apparently Gateway support bites
MISC
Upgrade possibilities are limited for the future, but should suit my needs. It has one empty PCIe slot, which could house, say, a second GFX card for SLI. Has room for a second HD so I could upgrade and use the one it comes with as storage. Has room for one extra optical drive, so I could get a Blu-Ray drive to match my new HD monitor.
If the resident gurus could weigh in, I'd appreciate the feedback. If you have your own suggestions for a gaming PC under $2000, let fly.
I'm looking at potentially buying a computer from a friend:
750-watt power supply
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 6000+
2 gigs of RAM
Geforce 8600 GT
It's an ASUS motherboard, he's not sure what the RAM limit is, but it supports quad-core AMD processors. What's a good price for something like that?
Out of curiousity, what would this build run? Like, could it handle Crysis? What about Borderlands? Dragon Age?
How much tweaking would it need to run recent games?
I wouldn't get your hopes up about crysis, it's really only recently that a typical gaming PC can handle it at more than medium-high. And that is an entry-level gaming system by today's standards.
I have a Core i5, 4 gigs, and a 9800GT and it still chugs on high.
My notebook has an 8600GT and it is barely capable of running the game at medium
I'm looking at potentially buying a computer from a friend:
750-watt power supply
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 6000+
2 gigs of RAM
Geforce 8600 GT
It's an ASUS motherboard, he's not sure what the RAM limit is, but it supports quad-core AMD processors. What's a good price for something like that?
Out of curiousity, what would this build run? Like, could it handle Crysis? What about Borderlands? Dragon Age?
How much tweaking would it need to run recent games?
I wouldn't get your hopes up about crysis, it's really only recently that a typical gaming PC can handle it at more than medium-high. And that is an entry-level gaming system by today's standards.
I have a Core i5, 4 gigs, and a 9800GT and it still chugs on high.
My notebook has an 8600GT and it is barely capable of running the game at medium
... really? I'm going to be running an i5, 4gb ram and a GTX275, and I was hoping to be able to run it at around high settings. Didn't realize Crysis was that resource hungry.
edit - system specs you listed outdo what's listed here as a PC that can run it on high.
It's here! I'm putting it together! HIGH FRAMERATES!
I'm making do with a crappy mouse and no mousepad, have to find a keyboard around here somewhere, and the case isn't as shiny as I'd like it to be, but...
Posts
Generally, I just feel like it's time to upgrade. While it runs games just fine, it tends to slack at recent ones that are somewhat demanding. I just want to continue running these games smoothly while looking good.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=46012&promoid=1120
I picked one up on the way home from work the other week and it is so good
even without upgrading my 9800GT the machine is twice as fast or better in every game I've tried
Gigabyte it is, and I can't help but think there's a good chance the 58xx's will be back in stock by the time I place this order. Thanks for the reply.
Anyway, I am hoping it's just a video card issue and not something else.
My Backloggery
EDIT: Settling on GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard for now. If anyone has a better idea shoot it my way.
EDIT2: Micro ATX....not sure my case will hole that. I have a BIG case.
EDIT3: My big case is awesome. (Checked the manual and it works. Can't believe I still have the manual after 5 years).
EDIT4: Read all five pages of reviews. Seems this board can be picky about ram...
also the lynnfield doesn't do triple channel, either get 4 gigs or 8
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Go price those parts and add it up plus whatever you feel is fair for the facts it's already together/is used/willing to pay/he's willing to accept.
Case + PS
Antec NSK 4480 II Black & Silver 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case EarthWatts 380W Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129059
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
Processor:
AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor Model ADX435WFGIBOX – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103724
Graphics:
ASUS EAH5770/2DIS/1GD5 Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video ... - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121350
Memory:
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148262
DVD Drive:
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030
Looks quite reasonable. Just make sure to take advantage of any possible combo deals.
In other news, I added the budget build to the OP.
How about this for a bang for the buck build. Basically the budget build but with a Phenom II X3 and a better PSU+case.
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz + ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X motherboard
HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB + OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Antec Sonata III 500 + Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
WD Caviar Black 750 GB HD
DVD drive
Total $763 -$30 MiR = $743 with Windows 7 inc.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Two thoughts on your case:
1) This model is only $15 more with a stronger (50 watts) power supply. I've used this one a few times and it's really good, you just have to buy a few fans for it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129065
2) While this model is $40 more it has a much stronger (120 watts) power supply and free shipping. So depending on your shipping costs you can probably break even on it.
Here are two memory combos with yout CPU that might help.
1) This one is cheaper than what you currently have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.286557
2) This one is about the same price but has higher performance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.286559
Lastly your video card.
1) The XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 is cheaper with free shipping and has a double warranty.
2) The HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 is the same price but comes with a free game.
If it's Asus's over clocking software you want you can do the samething with MSI Afterburner to any of the new cards.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
2- Actual computer things. I'm building a replacement for my current computer. It's an old dell I've had for about 5ish years and while I've done minor upgrades over the way, its pretty much as I bought it component wise.
Things I'm keeping:
Soundcard
HDDs
CD/DVD drives
Things I'm getting:
Case
PowerSupply
CPU
Video Card
Motherboard
My ideal budget is around 600ish to 650ish so I stole this from LLC.
If I was getting superb performance for my money I would gladly splurge up to 800.
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz + ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X motherboard
[strike]HIS H577F1GDG Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB + OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600[/strike]
Nevermind this combo is no longer available.
Antec Sonata III 500 + Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
So for all this it comes out to $654.95-$30 MIR= $624.95
I want to have DX11, and possibility to crossfire in the future. Since to me it seems I might be saving a little money on HDD and disk drives i might be able to put it elsewhere.
Is there anything that would be a better choice, should i look for a combo involving a 58xx line and wait for them to become available?
Please save this crap for your head where nobody can hear it and think you know what you're talking about.
The UD2 is a perfectly fine motherboard provided you don't need the extra expansion slots (which most people probably don't). Micro ATX boards will fit in any standard ATX case.
might as well pony up the extra $30 so that in 2 years you don't find yourself having to buy a new motherboard to accommodate your new hard drive or whatever
# of SATA ports on the UD2: 7
# of SATA ports on the UD3R: 8
That's more than most people will ever use. The only limitation the micro board carries is fewer PCI slots. If you don't have a bunch of cards (which not many people do these days) there's little justification in the UD3R over the UD2. If you wanted to argue UD4 for the 8/8 vs 16/4 PCI-E then fine, but aside from that one single SATA port and PCI slots the UD2 and the UD3 are essentially identical.
Size does not equate to somehow being better. It is in no way "silly" to get a uATX board in an ATX case when you still have giant video cards to fit inside and have no use for extra PCI slots.
I also need to replace my VGA cooler, because while I love the ability to boil water using my 4850, its not the best for gaming. So i'm thinking of picking up the following:
WD Caviar Black 750GB
ARCTIC COOLING ACCELS1 Rev 2
ARCTIC COOLING Turbo Module Sleeve
and a small tube of Artic Silver 5 for a total of $123.96
I'm thinking of the Accel S1 Rev 2 because 1) It is fairly cheap compared to Zalman coolers and I have very limited funds / I don't want to spend $60+ on a cooler for a $100 video card that cant be used on newer models and 2) The S1 Rec 2 fits the 4890 and This Thread suggests the 5870 as well, which will most likely be the two video cards I would upgrade to next.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cykstfc
I guess it'll do for typical usage. The extra cash will buy you better cooling, better OC, and most importantly, room for a bigass heatsink so you don't have to listen to the awful whiny Intel fan. Worth it if you ask me.
At worst you might have to manually configure it in the BIOS but it should just detect it from the SPD
I guess I should pair up my i5 system with a cheaper 4870 or a 5770 and stick with that until I feel the need for an upgrade.
But another possibility would be to buy something cheaper yet and put that in my old computer that I'm giving to my brother (no one in his family is a big gamer) and move my 8800GTS 320 to my new comp.
The main reason for the second option would be that a 4870 might be too much of a loud/power hungry card to give to my brother later and a 5770 seems just a tad expensive for an interim video card.
All of this is made more frustrating by the fact that decent benchmarks for Total War games are hard to find and that is probably the most demanding series that I really care about performance in. Meanwhile I'll be gaming at 1080p which is just the resolution where either of those cards could either last quite a while or not depending on a game or two.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'd definately try to keep the 8800GTS for a while. This seems like the cheapest route if your end goal is to get a 5850. I'd guess it'll be a few months at most before availability picks up again (albeit at the new higher price), seems like a waste to buy a 4870 or 5770 if noone is going to use it after you upgrade.
An alternative (if you don't want to stick with your 8800GTS) is to buy a 4890 and forget about the 5850 for a while. At 1080p performance should be pretty good for a good while.
Personally, I'd never Crossfire two 5770s. That would end up more expensive than a 5850 and would have to deal with all issues that comes with Crossfire.
I fully understand it's massively expensive, but at this moment in time it's an extravagance I can afford. I'm in the UK so I've ordered most of it from dabs, as they seemed to be the cheapest and had the most parts in stock. Everything has been allocated for my order so far except the Radeon 5870s, which they hope to get tomorrow (which will be lies I'm sure)
CoolerMaster HAF932 Black High Air Flow Tower Case w/o PSU
£111.60
Intel Nehalem i7 920 S1366 2.66GHz
£218.48
Asus S1366 Intel X58 ATX DDR3 A L
£199.98
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm SATA 3Gb/s 32MB
£57.99
Corsair Memory 850W Corsair Modular PSU
£126.31
ARCTIC SILVER AS5 Premium, 3.5g tube
£8.14
Edimax 802.11n draft 2.0 PCI wireless card
£26.51
Best Value Sony 24x Internal DVDRW SATA Black Bare
£14.98
Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 5870 HD 1GB DDR5 PCI-Express DVI X 2
£598.00
Zalman Extreme PWM CPU Tower Cooler 120mm
£46.00
6GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz Trident Series (6-7-6-18) Triple Channel kit
£155.70
Total: £1563.69
I'll probably add a 2TB Caviar Black when they become more available, and I've toyed with the idea of a SSD for the boot drive, but from reading around there isn't particularly a massive benefit from them yet, so I haven't bothered. If people has a compelling reason for one I may add that as well.
Any comments/advice?
I guess it depends but at that price I'd be thinking about a BluRay drive too.
Even with an unlimited budget, I'm not really sold on the i7 920 over a 15 750. Turbo boost is likely to be useful for more games than hyperthreading.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Out of curiousity, what would this build run? Like, could it handle Crysis? What about Borderlands? Dragon Age?
How much tweaking would it need to run recent games?
Replace at 8600GT with something a little more fitting. 2 Gigs is still plenty and the 6000+ is enough for any game that relies more on GPU (which most of the ones worth a damn are).
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cykstfc
Luckily there's VLC, but I prefer the CCCP myself (and would like to use media center if not WMP directly) and this is pretty annoying.
I'd take a screenshot but some reason the movie area is always blank.
Kingston SSDNow V-Series SNV125-S2BD/64GB 2.5" 64GB SATA II MLC Internal
Solid state disk (SSD) Desktop bundled accessory kit
$158.99-$15 instant rebate - $30 MIR= $113.99
Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer
Case 500W Power Supply - Retail with Windows 7
$216.98-$20 combo = $196.98
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
Model HDZ720WFGIBOX - Retail & ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$238.99-$20 combo - $10 MIR = $208.99
GIGABYTE GV-R577D5-1GD-B Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB
128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
$174.99
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop
Memory Model OCZ3OB1600LV4GK
$93.99-$15 instant - $20 MIR= $58.99
So grand total of $813.94. The with my MIRs it comes to 753.94.
So I've read that a nice new SSD is a great thing, and as I had my last computer for a few years without really
upgrading anything I figured it would be worth the investment. Is there anything glaring that sticks out to you
guys? So far this topic has been extremely helpful. Thanks
I had a PC of similar specs with the same video card. It ran Crysis acceptably and stuff like TF2 extremely well. This is all on high settings at 1600x1200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883113103
PROS:
Really good specs for the price. Looked into lower-end machines and then just upgrading GFX card, but this wins out by a wide margin
CONS
I'm told the HD it comes with, while large, is also slow
Comes loaded with Vista, which means migrating to Win7 myself
Apparently Gateway support bites
MISC
Upgrade possibilities are limited for the future, but should suit my needs. It has one empty PCIe slot, which could house, say, a second GFX card for SLI. Has room for a second HD so I could upgrade and use the one it comes with as storage. Has room for one extra optical drive, so I could get a Blu-Ray drive to match my new HD monitor.
If the resident gurus could weigh in, I'd appreciate the feedback. If you have your own suggestions for a gaming PC under $2000, let fly.
I have a Core i5, 4 gigs, and a 9800GT and it still chugs on high.
My notebook has an 8600GT and it is barely capable of running the game at medium
Link goes to an error page.
... really? I'm going to be running an i5, 4gb ram and a GTX275, and I was hoping to be able to run it at around high settings. Didn't realize Crysis was that resource hungry.
edit - system specs you listed outdo what's listed here as a PC that can run it on high.
It's here! I'm putting it together! HIGH FRAMERATES!
I'm making do with a crappy mouse and no mousepad, have to find a keyboard around here somewhere, and the case isn't as shiny as I'd like it to be, but...
THINGS WILL LOOK SHINY!