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I think people are streaming fine on a Phenom II X4, so that would save a bit of money too. The higher clock speed of most PII X4 over that PII X6 would make the former better at most tasks anyway (except streaming). But since you're not playing and won't be streaming at high resolutions, it should be fine. That hard drive is advertised as energy-efficient, which is codespeak for 5400 rpm and low-performance. That would be fine for a data storage drive or HTPC or something, but most people prefer normal 7200 rpm drives in general. The PSU is overkill too.
The below should be under budget:
+ Show Spoiler +
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This is what I ended up ordering, only 1 change. Mom was feeling exceptionally nice, so was informed for just 40$ more I could get a better AMD!
+ Show Spoiler +
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I'm trying to build a cheapish gaming rig for the gf (she finally wants to play SC2, yay!)
So looking at CPUs I'm going to go AMD (cost is a huge factor)
and I'm currently at a toss up between
Athlon II X3 450 HK$ 672.00
Phenom II X2 555 HK$ 703.00
Athlon II X4 640 HK$ 775.00
EDIT: Athlon II X3 445 HK$ 579.00 (Worth it?)
She's not a real heavy user of her com, and she doesn't game at all, but I want to at least have decent FPS in SC2 for her so we can play together =)
So my question is,
How Important is the L3 cache in SC2 performance? because that's the only advantage of the Phenom over the Athlon.
The quad core seems a bit pricey compared to the other 2, is there anything that would justify getting it?
Also, I'm not too familiar with the AMD mobos, any good recommendations? (cheapish but stable for overclocking etc. stable is important to us)
Thanks!!!!
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What motherboard is compatible with the following CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD?
Usage: Gaming, webdesign(Photoshop, Flash)
CPU: Intel i7-930 ($285). I would go higher but the next step is the 980X which is $1k.
GPU: HD 5870 ($380) with an option of adding a second GPU a couple of years later. (Other suggestions are welcome) No Nvidia and no Crossfire for now (too much power).
RAM: 8GB ddr3 (2 X 4GB) ($200) with an option of upgrading later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145328&cm_re=4_gb_ram-_-20-145-328-_-Product
HDD: 500GB Western Digital 7200RPM ($60)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073
SSD: (need suggestions; I expect to spend around $200-$300 here.)
Cooling/Power supply: Whatever is basic to support this system. I don't plan to OC or Crossfire so no need for fancy. (let's say $100)
Not needed: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS (I have Windows 7).
Without the case/motherboard, I'm at around $1300. I don't mind having the whole cost up to $2500.
Edit: Yes, I do live in Chicago near Fry's, thx!  What about the motherboard? :D
For the SSD, around 100 GB is fine.
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On October 12 2010 03:35 ggofthejungle wrote:What motherboard is compatible with the following CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD? Usage: Gaming, webdesign(Photoshop, Flash) CPU: Intel i7-930 ($285). I would go higher but the next step is the 980X which is $1k. GPU: HD 5870 ($380) with an option of adding a second GPU a couple of years later. (Other suggestions are welcome) No Nvidia and no Crossfire for now (too much power). RAM: 8GB ddr3 (2 X 4GB) ($200) with an option of upgrading later. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145328&cm_re=4_gb_ram-_-20-145-328-_-Product HDD: 500GB Western Digital 7200RPM ($60) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 SSD: (need suggestions; I expect to spend around $200-$300 here.) Cooling/Power supply: Whatever is basic to support this system. I don't plan to OC or Crossfire so no need for fancy. (let's say $100) Not needed: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS (I have Windows 7). Without the case/motherboard, I'm at around $1300. I don't mind having the whole cost up to $2500. Edit: Yes, I do live in Chicago near Fry's, thx! What about the motherboard? :D For the SSD, around 100 GB is fine.
You're getting a core i7 930 which is a socket lga1366 processor. These processors use the x58 chipset which support triple memory ram (has 6 dimm slots). So you would want a triple channel memory kit, something like 3x2 (6gb). Of course getting a dual channel memory kit would work but it would be awkward if you're going to add more memory later.
ATI is expected to release their new GPUs sometime soon so you might want to wait and see what they have in store before purchasing.
If you plan on keeping your PSU for future builds and doing a multi-card configuration sometime in the future, I'd suggest the Corsair 750AX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139016&Tpk=corsair 750ax
Or the Seasonic S12 520 if you don't plan on doing CrossfireX / SLI with two high-end GPUs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094&cm_re=seasonic-_-17-151-094-_-Product
There's possibly better priced PSUs out there but I just love seasonic.
If you want an aftermarket heatsink, I'd recommend the inexpensive yet great Coolermaster Hyper 212+, you can probably pick this up for $19 at a local retailer: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065&Tpk=coolermaster 212
I suggest getting this for your SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227611&cm_re=vertex_2-_-20-227-611-_-Product
Any X58 motherboard should do the job, it mostly comes down to brand preference. Just make sure the amount of connectivity fits your needs (number of usb2, usb3 if needed, multiple ethernet ports if needed, ps/2 connection if needed, etc). Example of boards that would work: Gigabyte X58-UD5/7/9, EVGA X58 Classified, ASUS Rampage III.
If you're looking to add another GPU in the future for CrossfireX or SLI to increase performance than imo that's a bad idea. By the time you need more performance out of your GPU, you can upgrade to a newer GPU which would most likely double the performance of a CrossfireX / SLI setup with the old GPU.
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On October 12 2010 03:35 ggofthejungle wrote:What motherboard is compatible with the following CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD? Usage: Gaming, webdesign(Photoshop, Flash) CPU: Intel i7-930 ($285). I would go higher but the next step is the 980X which is $1k. GPU: HD 5870 ($380) with an option of adding a second GPU a couple of years later. (Other suggestions are welcome) No Nvidia and no Crossfire for now (too much power). RAM: 8GB ddr3 (2 X 4GB) ($200) with an option of upgrading later. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145328&cm_re=4_gb_ram-_-20-145-328-_-Product HDD: 500GB Western Digital 7200RPM ($60) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 SSD: (need suggestions; I expect to spend around $200-$300 here.) Cooling/Power supply: Whatever is basic to support this system. I don't plan to OC or Crossfire so no need for fancy. (let's say $100) Not needed: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS (I have Windows 7). Without the case/motherboard, I'm at around $1300. I don't mind having the whole cost up to $2500. Edit: Yes, I do live in Chicago near Fry's, thx! What about the motherboard? :D For the SSD, around 100 GB is fine.
I believe it is much more effective to run three channel RAM with the i7, so you'd want either 6 or 12 GB instead of 8
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I'm a long time reader, but I never felt the need to make any posts. Now, however, my motherboard gave up on me and I'm looking for an upgrade. Seeing as my last motherboard was a AM2+ socket with DDR2 memory slots I'll be buying a new motherboard, CPU and memory.
I have a budget on around $680 and I do live in Norway so I require the use of Norwegian webshops, although we got a 'price-guide' which is very easy to use, even for foreigners.
What I concluded by myself were these parts, but I haven't followed the market for some years so I'm not really up-to-date with what's worthy of buying so I'd love to have the setup overlooked, and possibly changed to a superior setup. I do already have a 650w PSU and an ATI 5770 gfx-card.
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair IV Formula Approx. $247
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Approx. $251
RAM:
I'm very torn about what I should choose here, 4gb or 8gb. It's not -that- big a difference in price, but is it really needed? Or maybe a pack of 6gb if a x58 chipset would be a superior option.
What I wrote down was this pair of 2x2gb sticks from Mushkin, with 7-7-7-18 timings.
Mushkin DDR3 PC-12800 4GB Approx. $167
Now what I really need some help with is to decide whether there are better setups out there for my budget or if I should go with what I've found so far. Nvidia/ATI or AMD/Intel doesn't matter, although I'd love having the possibility to overclock my system, but it's not a necessity.
My computer is usually used to play games, homework such as programming and streaming to the Internet and locally to my PS3.
In advance thanks and if the site I linked would turn out to be hard to use just state what items you would recommend and I'll look them up myself. Also, if there's any confusion about NOK-USD convertion just ask and I'll check it myself.
/Myrland
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Great motherboard choice and good CPU choice if you plan on encoding. If not, I would suggest pitching out for a Phenom II X4 955BE and overclocking that on your motherboard. 4GB and 8GB is not that important tbh. If you can find 8GB set for cheap, you should go for it while memory is still fairly cheap. If not, 4GB is good enough.
You can also go for this
http://www.prisguide.no/produkt/114959
http://www.prisguide.no/produkt/133301
combo of an i5 760 and P7P55D-E PRO. You get worse multithreaded performance, but if you don't plan on encoding, it shouldn't matter too much anyways.
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On October 10 2010 10:09 Myrmidon wrote:I think people are streaming fine on a Phenom II X4, so that would save a bit of money too. The higher clock speed of most PII X4 over that PII X6 would make the former better at most tasks anyway (except streaming). But since you're not playing and won't be streaming at high resolutions, it should be fine. That hard drive is advertised as energy-efficient, which is codespeak for 5400 rpm and low-performance. That would be fine for a data storage drive or HTPC or something, but most people prefer normal 7200 rpm drives in general. The PSU is overkill too. The below should be under budget: + Show Spoiler +
lol I like the newegg review for the AMD processor. Con: "can't dance"
That seems to be a trend on newegg feedback.
Anyways you are saying a quad core AMD processor at 3.2 Ghz will not lag during streaming on low video settings for SC2, but will it lag if you have a dual core processor at like maybe 2.8 GHz?
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I'm trying to build a cheapish gaming rig for the gf (she finally wants to play SC2, yay!)
So looking at CPUs I'm going to go AMD (cost is a huge factor)
and I'm currently at a toss up between
Athlon II X3 450 HK$ 672.00
Phenom II X2 555 HK$ 703.00
Athlon II X4 640 HK$ 775.00
EDIT: Athlon II X3 445 HK$ 579.00 (Worth it?)
She's not a real heavy user of her com, and she doesn't game at all, but I want to at least have decent FPS in SC2 for her so we can play together =)
So my question is,
How Important is the L3 cache in SC2 performance? because that's the only advantage of the Phenom over the Athlon.
The quad core seems a bit pricey compared to the other 2, is there anything that would justify getting it?
Also, I'm not too familiar with the AMD mobos, any good recommendations? (cheapish but stable for overclocking etc. stable is important to us)
Thanks!!!!
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On October 12 2010 07:52 Silentness wrote:Show nested quote +On October 10 2010 10:09 Myrmidon wrote:I think people are streaming fine on a Phenom II X4, so that would save a bit of money too. The higher clock speed of most PII X4 over that PII X6 would make the former better at most tasks anyway (except streaming). But since you're not playing and won't be streaming at high resolutions, it should be fine. That hard drive is advertised as energy-efficient, which is codespeak for 5400 rpm and low-performance. That would be fine for a data storage drive or HTPC or something, but most people prefer normal 7200 rpm drives in general. The PSU is overkill too. The below should be under budget: + Show Spoiler + lol I like the newegg review for the AMD processor. Con: "can't dance" That seems to be a trend on newegg feedback. Anyways you are saying a quad core AMD processor at 3.2 Ghz will not lag during streaming on low video settings for SC2, but will it lag if you have a dual core processor at like maybe 2.8 GHz?
The Phenom II X4 955 should be enough to play SC2 on ultra while streaming at a conservative quality at least, yes. SC2 by itself will max out one core and use something like over half of another at least, while not doing much at all with any other cores. With a dual-core processor, that means you have maybe 40% of one core idle (in a sense) before you start streaming. With the quad-core, you have almost 2.4 cores idle after SC2 is satisfied, so you have several times more remaining CPU resources to do the encoding/streaming. A hex core would give you 2 more cores than that to work with (a significant improvement for high-quality streams but a much less significant upgrade than 2 core -> 4 core was), though all of the X6 1055T's cores are a little slower.
The Core i5-750 is a little faster per clock than the PII X4 955, but this still gives a general idea.
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On October 12 2010 09:53 johanngrunt wrote:I'm trying to build a cheapish gaming rig for the gf (she finally wants to play SC2, yay!) So looking at CPUs I'm going to go AMD (cost is a huge factor) and I'm currently at a toss up between Athlon II X3 450 HK$ 672.00 Phenom II X2 555 HK$ 703.00 Athlon II X4 640 HK$ 775.00 EDIT: Athlon II X3 445 HK$ 579.00 (Worth it?) + Show Spoiler [snip] +She's not a real heavy user of her com, and she doesn't game at all, but I want to at least have decent FPS in SC2 for her so we can play together =)
So my question is,
How Important is the L3 cache in SC2 performance? because that's the only advantage of the Phenom over the Athlon.
The quad core seems a bit pricey compared to the other 2, is there anything that would justify getting it?
Also, I'm not too familiar with the AMD mobos, any good recommendations? (cheapish but stable for overclocking etc. stable is important to us)
Thanks!!!!
Go with the Athlon II X3 445. It's cheaper and shouldn't be much worse at all. The differences between all of those should be minor, and the quad-core will actually be slightly worst of the given options. The L3 cache makes a measurable but not that significant difference. I forget which review benchmarks showed the difference, but it was pretty small.
Also, if you're playing with your gf, I assume it's not with huge 4v4 battles or anything that would tax the CPU too much.
For AMD mobos, you want an one that supports the AM3 socket of course. 770 chipset is fine. Other chipsets give you features that you won't need and are more expensive. Gigabyte seems to be the most trusted manufacturer of late, though Asus and MSI are generally good too. For stability I guess you'd look for solid capacitors rather than electrolytic capacitors. Also look for ferrite chokes rather than iron chokes and more phases on the voltage regulation. However, top-end design and components are really only needed for high-end overclocking.
Anyhow, this is a good article about motherboard voltage regulation.
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@johanngrunt: As Myrmidon said, Athlon II X3 445 is enough for SC2. I see you didnt mention any graphic card. But at ATI 5570/5670 or Nvidia GTX450 is good for a budget build.
Mobo: Anything like this is fine(770 mobo)
http://www.newegg.com.cn/Product/13-c18-084.htm ( I believe you do read Chinese, right?)
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My workhorse finally pooped out on me. I'm now limited to my laptop which pulls an amazing 6 fps in Starcraft 2 in the mid game. So I now have in my possession a GeFroce 9800 GT Graphics PCIe x16 graphics card and $1000 to play with. From what I've read, overclocking can be dangerous to the hardware so I'm going to steer away from it for now. Upgrade cycle is nowhere in sight at the moment as I will be attending college. Will be using the computer for gaming, photo/model editing, and homework.
I'm a gamer who looks for a lot of FPS, I like for everything to run fluid as I play many FPS games. Ooo first person shooter and frames per second have the same acronym! Oh course it will also be used for SC2. I would absolutely love a lot of eye candies but understand that the card is relatively old. Any general recommendations for the parts?
I am a complete nubzor to assembling computers. I broke my first CPU prong when I was 14 as I failed to see the little arrow indicator. Thanks in advance. :D
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@Blimp: Are you in the US? Is a Microcenter or Fry's nearby (you can sometimes or often get better deals in-store than just from newegg)? Does $1000 include the OS or any accessories like a monitor? If you're a student now, you can probably get Windows cheaper. If you already have a monitor, what is its resolution?
I'm guessing you just want parts and will either assemble it yourself carefully or get somebody to help?
$1000 for the tower and all the parts inside can get you a pretty nice computer. It depends on the exact situation, but in general I'd think that with a budget around that range, you can get a new graphics card and forget about the 9800 GT.
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$1000 can get you a lot of good stuffs.
OS need, Monitor, sell GPU, resolution are all good things to fill out.
New processors are very close, I myself would wait unless you need to play sc2 right now (don't blame you).
You're looking at quad-core processor, gtx 460, good ventilation case, and very reliable parts.
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I am looking to build myself a new computer for gaming over the next couple months or so, as well as the occasional gander into photoshop. I think it would be useful to be able to do things such as encoding and streaming incase the need may arise, however at this point it isn't really a necessity for me.
I already have a Keyboard/mouse/monitor and am willing so spend about $800 CDN (maybe more, maybe less, depending on whether or not it is worth it. I currently have a 24 inch monitor, and play with the 1920x1080 resolution, and find that i just lag a ton as i head into the mid game on my retail computer. I don't plan on upgrading for atleast a year or so, and I have been wanting to finally upgrade to windows 7 anyway. I am not too interested in overclocking as i would most likely do it wrong and fry my computer.
X.X
I would rather not buy online, and living in Edmonton I think my best bet is B-com. In general, prices are a touch higher than Neweggs, but for the most part aren't too entirely different when to take into account exchange rates anyway.
I don't have any experience building a computer, but i have fixxed/replaced all sorts of things from several of the computers i have had previously, so building it shouldn't be much of a hassle.
Thank you in advanced.
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Sorry Myrmidon, I guess I completely ignored the instructions in the OP 
I will need the OS, I have a Scorpio Mid Tower case which I'm pretty sure is this one http://www.directron.com/868w.html
I live right down the street from Fry's. I don't have a display at the moment, it fits into my projected budget so I suppose whatever resolution would fit a good quality monitor. Decent quality monitor but if I can get a cheaper one and re-appropriate the money towards parts that would be preferred. I live in the US and have a newegg account. I have keyboard and mouse.
I won't have an issue assembling the thing at all. The biggest problem I'm having right now is finding that elusive "sweet spot" where power and value make sweet sweet love. That and having parts work well together.
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EPT
