Computer Build Help

[Seta]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

I've got a Q6600 as well on stock clocks and many of my friends either have overclocked E6600s or some other Core 2 Duo CPU. I don't see much of a difference when it comes to performance except for Supreme Commander (which IMO, can get really messy 3-4 hours into the game). The CPU load of the C2Ds are noticably higher in Supreme Commander and Crysis though, games which utilize more than 2 CPUs. Actually, the C2Ds were faster than my Q6600 in most other games, though it can be hard to tell because of overclocking differences when it comes to our GPUs. I'm just not sure if developers in the future will be forced to make their games utilize quad-core.

The thing I'm considering now when choosing CPUs is to make sure they don't bottleneck the GPUs. But right now CPUs don't really bottleneck in any other game but Supreme Commander. I've also got some friends with Athlon X2 CPUs coupled with 8800 GTs and they still provide that noticably 'beast gaming machine' feel by having everything turned up and still be butter smooth (over or near 60 FPS).

And regarding those Super Talent RAMs, they've got really good preset timings though apparently there isn't much room for overclocking which AIpha isn't likely to do.

Let's try to finalize the rig:

CPU -- Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 ($185)

Mobo -- MSI P45 Neo-F ($99) -- That Abit mobo doesn't have a PCI-E 2.0 slot. More bandwidth from a PCI-E 2.0 slot which the HD 4850 will use.

GPU -- Any brand (I prefer Sapphire) ATI Radeon HD 4850 ($200)

RAM -- 2x Super Talent 2 GB RAM DDR2-800 Model No. T800UX2GC4 ($98 -- 2x$49)

Optical Drive -- Any Lite-On DVD-RW burner that uses a SATA connection ($30-40) -- I chose Lite-On because they've got the best compatibility. They're not picky when it comes to discs.

Hard Drive -- Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200 rpm 16 MB cache SATA 3.0 GB/s ($79) -- I've never tried Western Digital before. I've always used a Seagate in all my desktops and I know they've got the best seek times among their competition. Just correct me if it's not really the same now.

PSU -- hec Orion XPOWER585 585W ($35)
or a COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR 550W ATX ($69) -- If you decide on adding more stuff in the future

Casing -- Anything you like really. Depends on your budget. But it would be better if you got something branded/good like a Lian-Li (these are good, but pricey) since all their casing are aluminum. Thermaltake, Cooler Master, and Antec are all reputable brands too and aren't that pricey. (Around $25-100 for the casing)

Cooling solutions -- Your choice again. You'll be running these are stock clocks anyway so you can do away with expensive fans. (Around $25-50 for these)


Total: $776 to $972

I really suggest you get a sound card. I'm using a Creative Audigy Value right now with Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers and they sound amazing! The Creative Audigy Value is $25.

Regarding the Antec Sonata III, it's already a complete mid-ATX tower unit with a 500 W Antec Earthwatts PSU. It's a very silent unit but I've never really cared about silence since I have the volume on. The Antec Sonata III is $120-130.


BTW, here's my setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
ASUS P5N-D
4x1 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800
2x Inno3D Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB in SLI
Seagate Barracuda 500 GB
Lite-On 18x DVD-burner
Samsung DVD/CD combo drive
Cooler Master Mystique casing
Cooler Master Extreme Power 650 W PSU
Cooler Master fans for the casing and a fan with heatsink for the CPU -- Threw away the boxes so I don't know what models they are

I'm everything at stock clocks to prolong its life. Got tired of tweaking for FPS since I got this.

Dude thats the biggest waste of money i have ever seen. So much of that **** is not needed.. you can keep w/e you want but you don't need that vid card or that **** processor, Amd's are a lot better and a lot cheaper along with the newest ocx 9600 oc'd x 3 get 2 of those if you HAVE too but 1 of them alone is only around 200 and better then that card you want to get. I don't see how you're coming up with that total unless your buying piece by piece and still missing pieces, but w/e its your comp~

[Kasumi]

This build isn't meant to be overclocked like many of those 'budget gamers' out there killing their PCs by attempting to overclock everything from their GPU to even their memory.

Christ, this is why I hate going up against those '1337 modders' who just want to OC every computer they are up with.

And when was the Radeon HD 4850 bad? Tell me now. It even outperforms the more expensive Geforce 9800 GTX which Nvidia recently gave a price cut.

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

@ AIpha

Just a few criticisms.

Pentium Dual Core? You could have at least got the slowest Core 2 Duo instead. Pentium Dual Core is a no-no. But seems like you're overclocking it... Sigh.

That mobo of yours doesn't have a PCI-E 2.0 slot. I'll potentially bottleneck your HD 4850 a bit. And Gigabyte mobos have so-so build quality. I'd go for an MSI or ASUS instead.

I'd switch the PSU for a Cooler Master Extreme 500 W instead. It's $49 BTW.

Well it's a cheap build, affordable. It'll still be good for CoD4, and most other games that I throw at it.


I like the PSU idea though.

I'm not 100% sure on the 4850. I'm taking suggestions on that. If I can get an awesome deal for the 4850(below 200 maybe) I'll switch to it. If not, then for a 100$ difference I'll go with the 8800. If you have any suggestions about that, I'm happy to hear them.

[Seta]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

This build isn't meant to be overclocked like many of those 'budget gamers' out there killing their PCs by attempting to overclock everything from their GPU to even their memory.

When you buy an item overclocked like a videocard it doesn't kill it because they set it to be stable, but you can oc it even more like most people do which i dont suggest, and some reason i think i quoted the wrong comment, i thought i seen a intel duo and sapphire for vc. The new Ocx is budget but it beats any single card out besides the 9800, it has its own fan on it saving around 19* so it doesn't over heat and it wont **** your **** up, most people who oc their stuff like processors do **** their stuff up kinda bad but i don't see any need in Oc anything other then vid card since it makes the biggest difference. Google BFG 9600 ocx and read up on it, was released this month im pretty sure. Best budget item you can get, and intels are junk pretty much. Amd x2 2.4 > intel duo 3.0 pretty much.

not saying the 4850 is terrible but for the price it ****ing blows.. you can buy 2 of the new 9600 which would easily out perform it for the same price but a little more room, also with the 2 fans on the cards it would easily help cool everything down.. People build budget comps so they don't spend on '1337' $4,000 customs which do pretty much nothing more then a budget can do.

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by Seta

When you buy an item overclocked like a videocard it doesn't kill it because they set it to be stable, but you can oc it even more like most people do which i dont suggest, and some reason i think i quoted the wrong comment, i thought i seen a intel duo and sapphire for vc. The new Ocx is budget but it beats any single card out besides the 9800, it has its own fan on it saving around 19* so it doesn't over heat and it wont **** your **** up, most people who oc their stuff like processors do **** their stuff up kinda bad but i don't see any need in Oc anything other then vid card since it makes the biggest difference. Google BFG 9600 ocx and read up on it, was released this month im pretty sure. Best budget item you can get, and intels are junk pretty much. Amd x2 2.4 > intel duo 3.0 pretty much.

Eh, I think intel vs amd varies just like zune vs ipod. It's the consumer's choice, I have a AMD processor in my laptop, my cousin has a Intel processor in his. I overall like the performance of his intel processor than my own. Along with my friends I choose intel over AMD. It's personal preference I believe.

I don't understand how you believe that the video card makes the biggest difference. The main person who helped me decide on this build has tried to OC his gfx card. It like added 3-10 frames. He set it back to factory and then oc'ed his processor. Made a lot bigger difference. I'm not going to just up and OC the processor, I'm going to check and see if it runs okay without it. Then if I will OC it and check the difference. If I believe it makes a big enough difference, then I'll base my choice on that.

[Kasumi]

Originally Posted by AIpha

Well it's a cheap build, affordable. It'll still be good for CoD4, and most other games that I throw at it.


I like the PSU idea though.

I'm not 100% sure on the 4850. I'm taking suggestions on that. If I can get an awesome deal for the 4850(below 200 maybe) I'll switch to it. If not, then for a 100$ difference I'll go with the 8800. If you have any suggestions about that, I'm happy to hear them.

The 8800 GT is perfect alternative and it's $50 cheaper (mail-in rebate/discounts at most). Though the HD 4850 is faster the 8800 GT still achieves butter smooth framerates in any game maxed out.

I don't know if you've heard of the game Race Driver: Grid yet. Pretty game and quite taxing on most systems. Since the game's engine doesn't support SLI, I'm forced to run it with a single 8800 GT. I'm running it at 1680x1050, 4x AA, everything turned up and it's still running at around 50-60 FPS.

Just as long as it reaches 60 FPS on average with everything turned up, I'm happy.

[Seta]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

The 8800 GT is perfect alternative and it's $50 cheaper. Though the HD 4850 is faster the 8800 GT still achieves butter smooth framerates in any game maxed out.

I don't know if you've heard of the game Race Driver: Grid yet. Pretty game and quite taxing on most systems. Since the game's engine doesn't support SLI, I'm forced to run it with a single 8800 GT. I'm running it at 1680x1050, 4x AA, everything turned up and it's still running at around 50-60 FPS.

Just as long as it reaches 60 FPS on average with everything turned up, I'm happy.

If you have the money for it then go for it, full support. But for someone who doesn't need everything on full with a 30inch monitor and max reso a budget saves ALOT of cash and plays just fine.. Don't even need to OC anything with budgets they should run **** fine on avg~

[AIpha]

Originally Posted by Kasumi

The 8800 GT is perfect alternative and it's $50 cheaper. Though the HD 4850 is faster the 8800 GT still achieves butter smooth framerates in any game maxed out.

I don't know if you've heard of the game Race Driver: Grid yet. Pretty game and quite taxing on most systems. Since the game's engine doesn't support SLI, I'm forced to run it with a single 8800 GT. I'm running it at 1680x1050, 4x AA, everything turned up and it's still running at around 50-60 FPS.

Just as long as it reaches 60 FPS on average with everything turned up, I'm happy.

Yeah, I was thinking the GT because it's cheaper, I'm not going to go around saying "HAI GUYZ, I HAVE 123891389 FPS because I spent more of moneyz"

I just want to be able to play a game with decent graphics and get a decent FPS.

So do you recommend the GT?

XFX GeForce 8800 GT XXX Video Card - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare PC Game, 256MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card PVT88PUHD4 at TigerDirect.com
Check that out and tell me if you think that is a deal. It's still 130$, but cheaper than the 4850 by far.

Also, how much would it hurt the performance? Would it LITERALLY cut it in half?

[Kasumi]

@ Seta

Well we don't have money. Which is why we're opting for a decent single card solution. SLIing two 9600 GTs as you suggested will force AIpha to get an SLI mobo which will cost extra and two 9600 GTs cost about $320~. And in addition to that, SLI will increase the electricity bill and it's apparently something AIpha doesn't want since he's already concerned with the price of his desktop.

@ AIpha

That seems decent since it's XFX. It's already OCed. But 256 MB of memory is probably the maximum limit if you're playing at 1680x1050. You'll notice a big drop in performance due to lack of VRAM when upping the resolution even more. Playing at 1920x1200 will require at least an 8800 GT with 512 MB of VRAM.

Just consider what monitor you'll get when pairing it with that video card. If you're going with a WXGA+ (1440x900) monitor, then that should be more than enough. I still recommend a 512 MB 8800 GT when playing at WSXGA (1680x1050) or higher.

Regarding the HD 4850 vs 8800 GT. The performance isn't really cut in half. More like 15% at most. But we're still talking about more than 60 FPS here.

Check out this review by Anandtech. They matched up the HD 4850 with the 8800 GT/GTS and 9800 GTX. AnandTech: ATI Radeon HD 4850 Preview: AMD Delivers Performance for the Masses

[AIpha]

Such as this?

XFX GeForce 8800 GT Video Card - Zalman Edition, 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV PVT88PYSF4 at TigerDirect.com

I don't plan on having a huge ass monitor. 19' will be enough.

I was thinking like 1280 x 1024.

edit: May eventually want a 22'.(Since my cousin has one and MAY want to sell it ^^)

Oh, i read the first page, didn't think there was more.

[Kasumi]

Go for the 512 MB instead. Even if it's $20 more expensive it'll be better in the long run, especially if you're getting a better monitor.

I suggest you read that review made by Anandtech first. You can then decide on getting a Radeon HD 4850 or Geforce 8800 GT then. For some people a 15-20% performance gap is extremely big. I just don't know about you. So you should look at the numbers instead. They tested it with all the newest and most taxing games including COD4 and Crysis.

AnandTech: ATI Radeon HD 4850 Preview: AMD Delivers Performance for the Masses

[AIpha]

Oh wow, a 30-fps difference simply because of SLI.



Do you have AIM by any chance?

Still am unsure, I really like the 8800 GT though. I'll probably have to wait about a month regaurdless so price differs may change my mind.

Hopefully in a month, nothing of the prices don't change too much(if they do, hopefully they drop.)

[Kasumi]

Sorry, I don't have AIM.

I'm glad SLI has made a big improvement as of late, which is why I opted for it as well. It doesn't really warrant a 1+1=2 performance. More like 1+1=1.8 at most. But I was kinda shocked to see that the Crossfire HD 4850 can go 1+1=2 in optimized games like COD4 and Oblivion.

You should probably just wait. Nvidia's going to release the 9800 GTX+ the next month to counter the HD 4850 and we may see another price drop soon. More so, the HD 4870 looms ahead as well so we'll see Nvidia inevitably drop their prices.

Gotta love the competition. It's the consumers who win in the end anyway aside from the entertainment they provide us.

[AIpha]

I may opt for SLI.

About the review for the games, they truly max everything out including the resolution. Something I won't be doing, in order to save money I would go down a few resolutions. Resolutions seem to be more of a bragging feature instead of actual effect. I mean a 19-22' monitor wouldn't need such a high res.
I'm not going to be like an epic gamer. Just want something to relax on, like a ps3.
(What I think is funny, is how no one has mentioned me needing a OS) Which I already have btw.

BUT~~
Other than what you have already stated, would you by any chance change any of the parts I have(without seriously effecting price/performance.)

Yes, hopefully they'll drop the prices of the 8800 or possibly the 4850. I mean, so far I have everything minus a GPU for 425.91(that's shipping and everything before rebates.) I don't know, I thought I had a pretty good system going up so far. The deciding factor is the GPU.

~not using speakers~
Already have a mouse, will be using a temporary monitor until I can get a few extra bucks for it.

[Kasumi]

1680x1050 is the sweet spot for the 8800 GT. You're assured of more than playable framerates even when things are maxed out. And most of the time (if not all), these graphics look much better than that of the Xbox 360's or PS3's. GRID on my PC totally owns GT5 Prologue on my PS3.

And regarding resolutions, it's absolutely a must to play at the native resolution of your LCD monitor. With CRT, it's okay. But with LCD it's just not. The screen will look blurred out if you choose a resolution other than the native.

To compute for the amount of pixels a resolution, just multiply the length and width:

From lowest to highest amount of pixels. These dictate the performance cut:

1440x900
1280x1024
1680x1050
1600x1200
1920x1200