Building a PC

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

EDIT 11/16/2010: Click here for the redone (hopefully final) configuration

As of November 16th, the build above is what I will be going for. I already have an el-cheapo mid atx case at home, as well as an sata dvd burner, and as I needed to cut corners to have enough money to upgrade my monitor I decided I’ll buy a nice full tower case + second stick of 4gb ram + second 6850 + cpu cooler at a later date (I won’t be overclocking too much until then). All the parts in the build right now should last me, including the power supply, which should easily handle two 6850s in crossfire + an overclocked phenom II quad core. The motherboard has heatsinks on the mosfets (needed for overclocking a 6 core in the future) + two x8 x8 crossfire slots (for the second 6850, better than x16 x4) + all the goodies like usb3 and sata III.

Note: I chose the 965 quad over the 955 ONLY because the latter is out of stock ATM. Otherwise I’ll replace it with the cheaper 955 and just set the multiplier one higher to get the same results, it should work fine on stock cooling for now. By the time I get the hyper 212+ cpu cooler I’ll either overclock the 955 a lot more, or upgrade to a 6 core.

If anyone can make ANY more suggestions, I’m still taking them. I’m not as confident on the monitor in the build above, so if this monitor has better image quality I’ll get it, despite the 1 inch smaller size. This is probably the main area I’m still looking for advice in (the monitor would be replacing a 19" Dell 1440x900 LCD).

Thanks again, guys.

#2

Possibly go for more cores, then you can overclock(with a new cooler) at a later date. Easily cheaper than upgrading your chip.

#3

So you’re saying that spending the extra ~$50 on a cooler, and overclocking a hexacore PII, I would get same or better performance than the higher clocked PII x4 in CPU-intensive games like Crysis and GTA IV?

Also, Intel is out of the question for futureproofing reasons (1156 motherboards) and cost reasons.

#4

Well, I didn’t mean fork out for a cooler and OC straight away, it’s just an option for the future.

And I think it might, yeah

#5

Alright, thanks for the advice. I guess for futureproofing the 1055t might be a good option. Anyone else?

EDIT: Replaced the Phenom II x4 with the x6. AFAIK any games that can’t utilize all 6 cores will still run perfectly smooth, even if not quite reaching x4 framerates, while games like GTA IV will run significantly better with a hexacore processor. I can always buy a better cooler and overclock later, as Siggs said.

#6

I have that very CPU (x6 1055T), and it owns :smiley:

I also think that right now, more cores might not mean more performance for most apps/games, but multi-threading is definitely a trend and 6 cores will help greatly in the near future, I think.

#7

Thanks, do you happen to play GTA IV or Crysis at all? GTA IV is probably the only game that I will play where a PII x4 or x6 will produce drastically different results, and I was curious what kind of performance you’d get with it.

Also, if the opportunity presents itself and I can increase my budget to 1k, should I go for Intel then, or just for a more expensive Phenom II/better GPU?

#8

I dunno but I play GTA4 expansions on an overclocked core 2 duo and it never goes below 20FPS (usually stays at 30-40)

#9

I probably should’ve mentioned this but knowing what resolution you play at, what in-game settings you use (ex. draw distance, shadow detail, etc) and your graphics card would all be good to know :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

My cpu is a phenom x2 550 BlackEdition, and GTA4 runs like a complete dog :frowning: hopefully my chipset has the option to unlock the other 2 cores, so if I can do that, I’d love to see the performance boost :smiley:

#11

I have an unlocked X2 555 BE(now X4 B55) and GTA4 is the only game with relatively low fps @1080p

#12

Thanks, maybe it was a good idea passing on the Phenom II x4 then. Anyone use the x6 with GTA IV?

#13

Gothic, how old is your chip? Mine might be locked unfortunately :frowning: I’ll still try tho

#14

The CPU is relatively new, ~2-3 months(since I got the new PC/parts)

Oh, and the 550 can definitely be unlocked if you got a proper motherboard.
Use google. I’ve unlocked the 2 locked cores and the CPU is running flawlessly. Right now I’ve started playing Crysis again and It rarely drops below 30FPS and sometimes it even runs at 40>FPS

#15

8800GT 1680x1050 textures medium shadows/reflexions/water/texture filtering high distance 25 car density 30 and I have 4gb ddr2.

Sorry I am not on my desktop ATM so the view distance/detail distance could be a bit different, but it runs great, almost as good as my friend’s 4ghz core 2 duo with a 4870 1gb.

#16

For the gear you’re looking to buy, the Antec 1200 seems a bit of overkill. Unless you overclock the chips to Hell and back, and do so while working in a crematorium, the size/cooling of the case is too much. Or, if you plan to double the drives/GPUs in time, then it’s foresight.

I don’t see an OS listed there - I would almost presume Windows 7, and I would hope 64-bit. Thus, you might want to consider 8GB of RAM - I know folks on here will disagree, but for the price of RAM, too much is better than not enough (especially if you’re worried about having a 6-core proc for multithreading - hard for 6-cores to do work if they’re starved for RAM).

I’d recommend the Caviar Black series over the Blue.

As for the motherboard, I’ve never used an ASRock, but haven’t heard too much one way or the other (bad/good). If your research has lead you to that model, and you’re satisfied, then so be it.

Would also recommend the 5850 over the 6850. Reason?

All that aside, looks like you’ll have a solid computer there.

$0.02

#17

Thanks for the reply! I’ll list some of my reasons for choosing the build I did below

This is one area I’m willing to downgrade for the sake of pricing, but this is also the one part I would hope lasts much longer than any other part, as such I am in a way planning ahead. I’m also considering the HAF X, but that’s not as likely as it’s more expensive

That is correct, already have an MSDN license for it from my school

The reason I decided to to for 4gb was because much of what I had read suggested that’s plenty for gaming, plus 8th would be twice as expensive ($60 more). This is a concern of mine though and if the budget wi afford it I’d go 8

I’ll definitely look into that, but if the black is more expensive than the blue it would be a no-go. Coming from a 5400rpm 500gb either would be an upgrade, and seeing as how I’m planning on getting an SSD later for my boot drive, the blue should suit me fine

I was also a little wary at first as I usually trust brands like Gigabyte and ASUS, but for the amount of features I get for the price and judging by some of the reviews this cannot be beat. The one thing I am concerned about though is overclocking as I’m hoping to get my 1055t to 4.0ghz, but it should do me fine

This is actually the area I’ve done the most research in. Seeing as how the 6850 can be overclocked to perform as well as or better than a 5850, it runs cooler and is $60 cheaper it is my top choice for a video card

Thanks a lot for the advice again, I definitely appreciate it. If you can think of any good arguments to my thought process above I’d be more than willing to reconsider some of my decisions, but my budget is pretty much at it’s limit, and I can’t afford to go even $30 over.

#18

Bump, updated configuration to reflect lower budget and more research on parts. Slightly updated description of what I’m after in OP. New link (also in OP): https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=16056006

Thanks again for the advice, although I’m clearly still not entirely confident with my setup and could use more tips.

#19

Mines about 8 months old. I bought the mobo I did specifically because you could unlock using it, but I’ve not tried insofar

#20

Hey, don’t get too upset if you can’t get GTA4 on full graphics. I’ve that people with pretty awesome computers have a hard time pleasing that game. >.>

EDIT: I also can’t seem to access your new wishlist. :confused:

EDIT2: Never mind, I found the post where you listed it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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