Hey everyone, Im looking to build a new computer, specifically for gaming. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a list of parts that would come together to make a pretty good gaming computer. Im willing to up to $2000. If its not possible for that price, which I hope it is, feel free to go over a bit. Thanks!
cpu $290 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 motherboard $200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386 memory $150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231225 video card $410 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150443 hdd $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136337 dvd $30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188 case $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197 cooler $50 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 I don't know how much you need so I included monitor keyboard mouse and speakers. monitor $240 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236048 keyboard $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126034 mouse $55 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104318 speakers $90 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121006 Total $1990 with shipping This build will be able to play everything on high with the monitor that I listed.
^bad quality mobo. Stick with MSI,Gigabyte,Biostar. Id go with the G.Kill Ripjaws for memory. The cpu cooler doesnt hurt, good thing to have, but its not needed if OCing isnt in the picture. Drop the ASUS Monitor. HD(1080) is not a good resolution for gaming. Stick with a monitor that does 1280x1050. I personally like the Dell 2208 WFP, but this is a good one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009174 With the money saved you might be able to upgrade the gpu a notch.
Agreed, the P6T SE is a liability. Also, for a gaming PC, a core i7 is ill-advised. Core i5s are much cheaper, more efficient and just as powerful (if not slightly moreso). $2000 is a substantial budget, but if it includes peripherals it is more worthwhile to buy good ones than frivolously spend the extra on the i7 just for more PCI Express bandwidth (The only gaming advantage to the i7 platform) The CPU in question is this one, saving $89: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215&cm_re=i5_750-_-19-115-215-_-Product The memory is reasonably good, and the graphics card is excellent. If there is room in your budget (i.e. you don't want to spend a fortune on peripherals or don't need any) then you should consider pre-ordering one of these, as they are stunning performers. However, they are only worthwhile if you use a large monitor with a good resolution (At least 1920x1200, preferably 2560x1600): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102863&cm_re=HD_5970-_-14-102-863-_-Product Krj has mistakenly chosen an enterprise version hard drive, which is not currently on sale. You actually want this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 The case and optical drive are fine. However, the Power Supply has been forgotten. This is a good solid unit that wll cover any eventualities: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=CMPSU-650TX
Well...For video card, do you think it is good to stick with one or two for crossfire? Do you think it would be good to get two of this: SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail? or one of this: APPHIRE 100281SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video ... - Retail? But one of this won't give you any crossfire.
These 5700 cards offer good scalability in CF (as far as I remember) but I would go with the 5870 simply to avoid the possible issues of CF. And I don't agree with you about the P6T SE, I think it's a fairly decent mobo and you can overclock quite well with it.
Unless you can afford a really high end PC, crossfire is a bit of a waste. For the cost of buying a motherboard designed for two graphics cards and getting the extra card, you may as well buy a single card that's twice as fast. The HD5850 is at least 70% faster than the HD5770 in all games, and doesn't suffer from the compatibility issues that can arise from crossfire configurations. An HD5870 is even better, almost doubling the performance of the HD5770 and unlike crossfire, always being almost double, rather than being almost double in some games, and almost the same as a single in other games (Not all games will work in crossfire). Generally, people who have only ever bought Asus motherboards and got quite lucky will always insist people buy Asus products. Anybody who has seen what Asus boards are often like will never recommend them. The chances of an Asus board failing after a couple of years are substantially higher than with any other similarly-priced manufacturer. With so much choice out there, choosing the least reliable boards on the block doesn't make sense.
sakaii, i think first you should make some distinctions about what type of hardware you'd want. intel or amd? intel is known to be "better" but top of the line silicon from amd is about 1/6 the price of intels offerings... however, it probably does not have the raw power of intel extreme branded chips. also, amd traditionally has better memory management (but this may have changed with introduction of core i7 and i5.) directx11 (ATI) or directx10 (Nvidia and ATI both) i think if you want a crossfire/sli-like experience try looking at dual gpu on single card offerings. overclocking? i think if you spend that much money on a computer you may want (eventually) to try your hand at overclocking. keep this in mind, like getting ram that runs at high MHz (the cost to that is higher latency) solid state? these drives access like nobodies business but are impractical for archiving purposes. try a combo of ssd for boot or gaming drive and a platter-based hdd for other stuff. get enough plugs on you power supply unit to keep you running for a while (pci-e connectors= at least 2 (6-pin and a 6+2-pin or more if you plan on getting a second card) and get a name brand. case get a least a mid-tower, but full tower are easier to work in, add water cool, etc. but BULKY monitor i like my samsung 26 inch (the TOC edition) it goes to 1920 x 1200 think twice about your requirements and work from there, cause if you buy up whatever and realize it doesent fit your needs, you will want to spend again.
The difference between AMD's and Intel's top products isn't really important. To be buying extreme edition CPUs you are a money is no object consumer who wants the best in the industry. While AMD's top offerings are much more than 1/6 of the performance of the top intel CPU (more than half, in fact), they are a long way behind, hence Intel's extreme editions existing in the first place. overall, the cost per performance for AMD and Intel CPUs is reasonably even, marginally in AMD's favour. Generally, unless you are on a high budget, dual graphics is to be avoided, as there is always one single card that does a better job. For example, don't buy two HD5750s, buy an HD5850. Don't buy two HD5770s, buy an HD5870. Only if you need more performance than the best single card (HD5870) offers should you buy crossfire. For this purpose, dual cards such as the HD5970 are easier to work with. Overclocking, whilst far easier on expensive systems than cheap ones, is at the user's discretion. if you are new to PC building, overclocking is not something I'd recommend straight away. SSDs are very powerful, but also very expensive. It is again, the user's choice as to whether they would want to spend such an amount on getting faster program opening times and data transfer rates, remembering that due to space limitations they will still have to buy a normal hard disk regardless to fit their other data. Quality Power supply is always a must, for a single card, two PCIe connectors will suffice. If you wish to use two cards, ensure you have four. Case is very much user preference, but there are still good and bad cases, from a quality and design perspective. As for monitors, it's sort of user preference here, but I recommend only 24" monitors at a 1920x1200 resolution, as using a larger panel size such as 26" or 28" without increasing the resolution leads to a poorer quality image. Also take note that cheap brands should be avoided.
sam, i completely agree that over clock is not for the inexperienced, just that the bug tends to get under peoples skin after a while; if it does, its nice to have the option. good input on the slightly smaller panel for higher quality. *props*
You can't learn overclocking unless you try it . At least Intel chips usually overclock about 500MHz from stock with the original cooler. With a better cooler almost any quad can reach the 4GHz mark.
Depends on the chip, and how overclocking works. original Intel quads were limited by the FSB. Since Core i5s and i7s no longer use FSB, that's no longer an issue. Typical overclocks 2.4Ghz Core 2 Quad Q6: 3.0-3.2Ghz (original), 3.3-4Ghz (newer versions) 2.83Ghz Core 2 Quad Q9: 3.4-3.7Ghz (original), 3.6-4.2Ghz (newer) 2.66Ghz Core i5: 4.1Ghz 2.66Ghz Core i7: 3.9-4.2Ghz
I would, but for the fact I yet have no practical experience overclocking i series CPUs. That's hopefully about to change, maybe I'll do so after that, but frankly there are thousands of good guides already out there
