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Baltimore, USA22247 Posts
Incredibly ironic... I'm actually looking to build my first rig too, for probably around the same price range. I've been reaaaaaally out of touch with what to expect performance-wise from the various pieces of equipment nowadays.
If anyone wants to help me out, I'd be incredibly appreciative. I'm looking to spend $600-$800 for a high end (if possible) gaming rig - something that can play say MW2 smoothly with the graphics options turned up high. No peripherals are necessary, just the box itself, I'm going to keep the same speakers/monitor/mouse/keyboard.
I'm going to peck around newegg to see what I can find, but if anyone has tips on exactly what to look for (what specs should I pay close attention to, what to avoid, etc.), and keep in mind that this will be the first one I've built - any tips in that department will be greatly appreciated (although I'll revisit the hackintosh guide every day I'm sure ^_^)
Thanks! Sorry to hijack Yogurt, but I think we're looking for exactly the same thing. I'm probably looking for mine to be more a gaming rig than yours though.
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On January 06 2010 19:06 EvilTeletubby wrote:Incredibly ironic... I'm actually looking to build my first rig too, for probably around the same price range. I've been reaaaaaally out of touch with what to expect performance-wise from the various pieces of equipment nowadays. If anyone wants to help me out, I'd be incredibly appreciative. I'm looking to spend $600-$800 for a high end (if possible) gaming rig - something that can play say MW2 smoothly with the graphics options turned up high. No peripherals are necessary, just the box itself, I'm going to keep the same speakers/monitor/mouse/keyboard. I'm going to peck around newegg to see what I can find, but if anyone has tips on exactly what to look for (what specs should I pay close attention to, what to avoid, etc.), and keep in mind that this will be the first one I've built - any tips in that department will be greatly appreciated (although I'll revisit the hackintosh guide every day I'm sure ^_^) Thanks! Sorry to hijack Yogurt, but I think we're looking for exactly the same thing. I'm probably looking for mine to be more a gaming rig than yours though.
I've been looking for one too. Including rebates, I've been able to get either AMD: Phenom II X4 955 MSI 750-G55 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Radeon 5770 700W PSU Xigmatek HDT-S1283
or
INTEL: Intel i5 EVGA Intel P55 4GB DDR3 500GB HDD Radeon 5770 700W PSU Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
The PSU may be a bit high, but from my last computer where I kind of skimped on the PSU, it didn't end up great so I'm just going higher this time (: Both come up to be around $800 after rebates.
Virtue's build looks pretty nice though.
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Why 700W PSU lol.
550W Corsair is more than enough lol. Just don't buy a shitty brand.
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MW2 isn't that demanding of a game but if he just wants raw fps in a game i'd suggest a cheaper quad core something from AMD unless you can wait till people can get a grasp of the i3 lower $100 cpu's range. Then just throw all the money at getting a 5850 for the most fps well at least over 60 on any game for most monitor resolutions i'm sure.
on another note the more rounded pc of a 955 or i5 750 with 5770 should run mw2 maxed out just fine in most cases, mw2 isn't DX11 and DX11 wont be necessity for at least another 2 years 5770 performs less then a 260 and a 4870 but with more mature drivers it should get up there in performance, in other words you can shift that 170 for a 5770 for just 200 dollars for a 4890 for better performance if DX11 is low on your list of things to have.
Basiclly you can go
AMD Althlon x4 620+5850 AMD Phenom x4 955+4890/5770 Intel i5 570+5770/4890
the down side to the 5850+620 build it it's less rounded so doing stuff outside of games wont be as great if you do things like encoding or w.e that requires more cpu such as heavy multi tasking as the other 2 builds but will give more fps on avg personally i don't like lopsided builds as i do alot of multi media stuff on my pcs that require some more cpu.
ramble ramble ramble
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Well the best and most future proof solution is the i5 750 + the 5770, but depending on the time when you purchase the parts, it may be out of your price range. I strongly recommend against Athlon II processors if you are going to go with an AM3 board because of their lack of L3 cache. They might perform ok now, but later one when games can truly utilize their extra cores, they will lag behind severely. The AMD P2 955 is a decent choice and will allow you to add some extra money to your graphics card.
As for other components, if you plan to overclock anything, you must pay attention to the motherboard you are buying. Simply running to the cheapest motherboard in an attempt to save money for CPU/GPU will end up ruining you in the future. Invest in a good, solid mobo, a 550W to 600W PSU with decent output on the 12V rail, and a decent case (because you will be able to reuse it!). For HDDs, mahnini likes the Caviar Blue 640GB which is very cost effective right now, but you may also want to consider Caviar Black models and Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 models.
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I also think that the i5 has a small edge over the 955.
The Athlon II x4 620 +5850 is definitly not a good choice imo you will get quickly CPU limited in many games. If you just want to play get a x3 425 ( same performances in games ) and a 5770/4870/4890 max. The 5850 is too powerful and expensive for this proc.
Btw i read that you can unlock cores and L3 memory with the athlons ( if you get lucky ). A guy on another forum got his X3 425 to x4, 3.6 Ghz and he has the L3. A phenom II 975 for 85$ lol
I need to try this when i will have some time lol. I guess you need to be lucky though.
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On January 07 2010 10:54 Boblion wrote: I also think that the i5 has a small edge over the 955.
The Athlon II x4 620 +5850 is definitly not a good choice imo you will get quickly CPU limited in many games. If you just want to play get a x3 425 ( same performances in games ) and a 5770/4870/4890 max. The 5850 is too powerful and expensive for this proc.
Btw i read that you can unlock cores and L3 memory with the athlons ( if you get lucky ). A guy on another forum got his X3 425 to x4, 3.6 Ghz and he has the L3. A phenom II 975 for 85$ lol
I need to try this when i will have some time lol. I guess you need to be lucky though.
i5 vs 955 doesnt realy matter for gaming. other than gaming the i5 holds a pretty significant lead. also, the cache on MOST athlons cannot be unlocked because they are not locked phenom iis. there are a few (very few) phenom based athlons out
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On January 07 2010 10:54 Boblion wrote: I also think that the i5 has a small edge over the 955.
The Athlon II x4 620 +5850 is definitly not a good choice imo you will get quickly CPU limited in many games. If you just want to play get a x3 425 ( same performances in games ) and a 5770/4870/4890 max. The 5850 is too powerful and expensive for this proc.
Btw i read that you can unlock cores and L3 memory with the athlons ( if you get lucky ). A guy on another forum got his X3 425 to x4, 3.6 Ghz and he has the L3. A phenom II 975 for 85$ lol
I need to try this when i will have some time lol. I guess you need to be lucky though.
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In the other thread you say overclocking is overrated and you come here spouting nonsense about unlocking a 4th core and L3 cache -_-.
The i5 has a fairly large edge over the 955 when it comes to future games.
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On January 07 2010 11:29 FragKrag wrote:Show nested quote +On January 07 2010 10:54 Boblion wrote: I also think that the i5 has a small edge over the 955.
The Athlon II x4 620 +5850 is definitly not a good choice imo you will get quickly CPU limited in many games. If you just want to play get a x3 425 ( same performances in games ) and a 5770/4870/4890 max. The 5850 is too powerful and expensive for this proc.
Btw i read that you can unlock cores and L3 memory with the athlons ( if you get lucky ). A guy on another forum got his X3 425 to x4, 3.6 Ghz and he has the L3. A phenom II 975 for 85$ lol
I need to try this when i will have some time lol. I guess you need to be lucky though.
... In the other thread you say overclocking is overrated and you come here spouting nonsense about unlocking a 4th core and L3 cache -_-. Overclocking is overated when the price of the fanrad + the price of the proc ~ the price of a way better proc ( read i3 vs i5 ). If you can get a phenom x4 975 for 85$+ fanrad well i think it is sweet. You save almost 100$.
Anyway it is a lottery ticket but i think it is funny.
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yeah I'd take a 1% chance to get a better core and 99% chance to get a useless core over a 100% chance to get a better core with $20 extra any day.
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On January 07 2010 11:35 FragKrag wrote: yeah I'd take a 1% chance to get a better core and 99% chance to get a useless core over a 100% chance to get a better core with $20 extra any day. eh i just said it was funny not that it can be done for every proc lol. Never said to buy an athlon because you wil get a phenom. You seem angry man.
People buy II x3 because they are cheap, the L3 and extra core are just a lottery ticket. But when that happens it is hilarious.
Anyway i think i'm done we will see the real prices of the i3s soon then we will know if it is good idea to buy an i3 and OC.
edit: Oh and btw i would have made a post too if i have read today about an i3 -> i7 "transformation" ( yea i know it is not possible but that's just to say that i'm not an Intel hater but someone who enjoys weird stuff like that even if that is possible only for 1% of the procs ).
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On January 06 2010 19:06 EvilTeletubby wrote:Incredibly ironic... I'm actually looking to build my first rig too, for probably around the same price range. I've been reaaaaaally out of touch with what to expect performance-wise from the various pieces of equipment nowadays. If anyone wants to help me out, I'd be incredibly appreciative. I'm looking to spend $600-$800 for a high end (if possible) gaming rig - something that can play say MW2 smoothly with the graphics options turned up high. No peripherals are necessary, just the box itself, I'm going to keep the same speakers/monitor/mouse/keyboard. I'm going to peck around newegg to see what I can find, but if anyone has tips on exactly what to look for (what specs should I pay close attention to, what to avoid, etc.), and keep in mind that this will be the first one I've built - any tips in that department will be greatly appreciated (although I'll revisit the hackintosh guide every day I'm sure ^_^) Thanks! Sorry to hijack Yogurt, but I think we're looking for exactly the same thing. I'm probably looking for mine to be more a gaming rig than yours though.
haha not hijacking pretty much looking for same exact thing this is all a lot of help but im confused on what the best direction would be haha, seems like everyone has their own preference
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On January 07 2010 15:32 Yogurt wrote:Show nested quote +On January 06 2010 19:06 EvilTeletubby wrote:Incredibly ironic... I'm actually looking to build my first rig too, for probably around the same price range. I've been reaaaaaally out of touch with what to expect performance-wise from the various pieces of equipment nowadays. If anyone wants to help me out, I'd be incredibly appreciative. I'm looking to spend $600-$800 for a high end (if possible) gaming rig - something that can play say MW2 smoothly with the graphics options turned up high. No peripherals are necessary, just the box itself, I'm going to keep the same speakers/monitor/mouse/keyboard. I'm going to peck around newegg to see what I can find, but if anyone has tips on exactly what to look for (what specs should I pay close attention to, what to avoid, etc.), and keep in mind that this will be the first one I've built - any tips in that department will be greatly appreciated (although I'll revisit the hackintosh guide every day I'm sure ^_^) Thanks! Sorry to hijack Yogurt, but I think we're looking for exactly the same thing. I'm probably looking for mine to be more a gaming rig than yours though. haha not hijacking pretty much looking for same exact thing this is all a lot of help but im confused on what the best direction would be haha, seems like everyone has their own preference Not really if you take a close look we are pretty much all saying the same thing ( except for the i3 + OC but since we don't really know the exact prices it is still speculation xD ) Get a 5770 ( the price gap with the 4870 isn't really important now ). Then you can chose an i5-750 or a 955 they are quite close even if the i5 is overall better. Don't really know which one i would buy in your situation. If i wasn't always rooting for the underdog and if i knew more about what Intel plans to do with their sockets in the future i would say the i5 but eh... that's close.
Athlon II x3 + 4870/5770 is a less expensive solution but the CPU is not on the same level. I would recommand it for lower budgets though.
Btw sry Ghermination, Virtue and Frag i think i was a bit pissed last night. Hardware arguments are sometimes more heated than political ones.
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I would probably go with AMD but swap the 955 for a cheaper CPU. Either way the different is no more than 40 bucks.
Intel keep changing their damn sockets which is a turn off.
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