New PC about $800

[acarmody]

Ok so tax time is around and my 4 year old laptop just isn't cutting it with games, and with Battlefield 3 coming soon(ish) this just isn't acceptable. So here are my parts list so far but if anyone has any other suggestion than throw them in.

I've never overclocked stuff before, but only because I don't want to fry stuff, but if anyone has any ideas on parts than have tried and tested OCing setting than suggest away.

The two places I buy stuff are MSY and U-Mart but if anyone knows any cheaper places....

Case: Already have a Thermaltake full aluminum case, full size and weighs a tonne.
PSU: OCZ Fatalt1ty 550W Modular $85
CPU: AM3 x6 1090T $184
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H $149 or Asus M4A89GTD-Pro-USB3 $156
GPU: Gigabyte 6950 1Gb $258
RAM: G-Skill 6Gb (3 x 2Gb) Triple Channel, $85
HDD: Seagate or Samsung 2TB $85

$856 in total, a little over the $800 mark but still viable. I can possibly spend an extra $50 or so for a good air cooler for the CPU if it will grant me some better overclocking.

[acarmody]

Well just doing some reading and it seems that triple channel RAM is for Intel i7's only, bugger.

Guess I'll just go the G-Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4Gb) 1600 for $89.

[50LTRv8]

For not that much more you could go an I7 2600K

[IBLOWN]

Battlefield is VERY CPU dependant. You'll need a very good CPU.

GPU will be fine.

PSU will be borderline. Try look into a higher output wattage. Maybe 800w. That way it will last you several more upgrades.

See you on the battlefield. [DzS] IBLOWN

[Mirkz]

I really want to upgrade my pc in preparation for Battlefield 3 too. fingers crossed I get a great tax return (or 3, seeing I have the previous 2yrs to do also :/)

[acarmody]

For not that much more you could go an I7 2600K

Not much more? Its an extra $130.

EDIT: Though 5ghz+ on stock cooler seems pretty inviting though.

Battlefield is VERY CPU dependant. You'll need a very good CPU.

GPU will be fine.

PSU will be borderline. Try look into a higher output wattage. Maybe 800w. That way it will last you several more upgrades.

See you on the battlefield. [DzS] IBLOWN

I would think the 6 core AMD would be more than enough, apparently it has a bit of OCing potential too.

[IBLOWN]

Not much more? Its an extra $130.



I would think the 6 core AMD would be more than enough, apparently it has a bit of OCing potential too.

Dont OC. The gains are not worth the potential damage without water cooling or anything drastic like that. Spend the money on the fastest CPU you can.

[acarmody]

Hmmm well the budget may stretch to the i5-2500K CPU, which still seems to beat the 1090T.

EDIT: May even be able to stretch to the OCZ ModXstream Pro 700W modular PSU for $98 if I have too, but this is getting to expensive for my taste.

Would the HD 3000 integrated graphics in the Sandy-Bridge processors be better than my laptops HD2600 with 512MB dedicated memory? If so than I might just get the better CPU now and buy my graphics card in a month or two.

[IBLOWN]

Hmmm well the budget may stretch to the i5-2500K CPU, which still seems to beat the 1090T.

EDIT: May even be able to stretch to the OCZ ModXstream Pro 700W modular PSU for $98 if I have too, but this is getting to expensive for my taste.

Would the HD 3000 integrated graphics in the Sandy-Bridge processors be better than my laptops HD2600 with 512MB dedicated memory? If so than I might just get the better CPU now and buy my graphics card in a month or two.

It would be slightly better but not really for gaming lol. I'd do that though, get the GPU later. We have a couple months to go anyway.

Theres a fine line between spending too much and not enough. Im always upgrading atleast my CPU's and GPU's every 2 years to keep up with the latest games. Been doing it since the early 90's lol.

Usually when i build gaming PC's for people i tell them to budget for $1000 to $1200. That usually lasts them 2-3 years.

[acarmody]

I'd be happy with just playing Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (the latest one) for now, my laptop just can't hack it, frame rate is about ~15fps and in a fast moving racing game, is far from playable.

My tax return is about $1400 but I need to change my steering rack and brakes, and I think I would like to change those and use the rest on the computer, instead of all the money on the computer. I've been advised by a few mates that steering and braking are somewhat important for driving. Apparently my idea of driving into a brick wall but having a good computer, isn't viable, spoilsports.

[IBLOWN]

Yeah, when i install games i want them to run in 1920x1080 with all the settings up to full. If it wont run atleast 30FPS then im out to upgrade lol.

It just depends on what settings your happy with. Turn them down and have it run smooth but look like poo or play the game how it was programmed. Full blast or nothing for me lol.

[acarmody]

Oh I'm happy with low settings as a temporary thing. With those low frame rates with NFS, that was on 800x600, with low everything, so, yeah.

[acarmody]

OK so I'm still tossing up about this.

I know people say that for gaming hyper-threading isn't necessary, so in reality the I5-2500k is pretty much on par with the I7-2600k, for gaming. Opinions? I don't do much other than play games, no video editing, or graphics rendering, but would the 2600k be more "future-proof"?

OK new lists;
CPU: 2500k $214 or 2600k $316
MB: Tossing up between the Asus P8P67-M PRO $147 or the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 $169, can't work out if the Z68 chipset is much better (for my gaming needs) than the P67. Both boards will OC pretty well. I will be aiming for 4.5Ghz per core.
RAM: G-Skill Ripjaw 8GB (2 x 4GB) $80
GPU: Sapphire 6950 2GB $275
HDD: Seagate or Samsung 2TB $85
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster 212+ $35
PSU: OCZ ModXstream Pro 700W modular $98

Total: $740 plus either $214 or $316 depending on CPU. Will likely buy GPU later.

[50LTRv8]

OK so I'm still tossing up about this.

I know people say that for gaming hyper-threading isn't necessary, so in reality the I5-2500k is pretty much on par with the I7-2600k, for gaming. Opinions? I don't do much other than play games, no video editing, or graphics rendering, but would the 2600k be more "future-proof"?

OK new lists;
CPU: 2500k $214 or 2600k $316
MB: Tossing up between the Asus P8P67-M PRO $147 or the Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 $169, can't work out if the Z68 chipset is much better (for my gaming needs) than the P67. Both boards will OC pretty well. I will be aiming for 4.5Ghz per core.
RAM: G-Skill Ripjaw 8GB (2 x 4GB) $80
GPU: Sapphire 6950 2GB $275
HDD: Seagate or Samsung 2TB $85
CPU Cooler: Coolermaster 212+ $35
PSU: OCZ ModXstream Pro 700W modular $98

Total: $740 plus either $214 or $316 depending on CPU. Will likely buy GPU later.

That's much better than what you had before, the 2500K will be fine for a gaming CPU, as for MB's I generally go gigabyte but each to there own. You can always upgrade your GPU later and as a rule I generally do within the life cycle of any of my computers.

[DAKSTER]

I permanently overclock my i7-930 from its standard 2.8 to 4.1. Its stable at that, go much higher and it isn't. That's a PC that has all the fruit and 2x9800GT GPUs in SLi. I think aiming for 4.5G is setting the bar a little high lol... also, if you haven't any experience with overclocking its a dangerous pastime...

I understand the money problems only too well, but if you don't go i7 now you will regret it later. Re future proofing, you need a LGA1366 board. The 2600, like the i5, needs an LGA1155 board, for intermediate stuff. All the good stuff will be LGA1366 into the future.

Buy a mobo/ram/cpu combo that suits, and add the other stuff later if necessary. Your laptop still works doesn't it?

Gigabyte GA EX58-UD3R Motherboard + i7-950 LGA 1366 3.0GHz Quad Core + 6gb DDR3 G-Skill (triple channel) $840

PSU: OCZ Fatality 550W Modular $85
HDD: any 2GB Sata unit for about $80

GPU: GIGABYTE GT430 1GB PCI-E will at least play the games for $100 or so, though you wont win any frame rate competitions with it. You can get a better card later on.

CASE: a crappy 50 buck one for now. If you want, you can even find them with power supplies in them, though those PSU's would be a very short term solution till you can afford better.

Later.. a good graphics card and better HDD solution.. a couple of SSDs striped in RAID maybe? and a pretty case.

With the low power consumption of modern stuff, 550w should be plenty for the PSU, and modular is the way to go

[50LTRv8]

You do realize that I7 is now old school, that I5 2500K is a second gen sandy bridge?

[DAKSTER]

Sorry looked up a 950 instead of an i7 2600. I have checked my facts, and I was wrong lol.. damn its hard to keep up in these modern times

When I got my i7, less than a year ago, the best advice I could get was that Intel were going to use LGA 1366 for high end, and the LGA 1155 was going to be for mid range stuff. They even had i7s available in both socket types, which is why I sought the advice in the first place.

The current second gen sandy bridges are all LGA 1155 much to my surprise, so either they changed their mind or the best is yet to come...

This leaves an extra option available for acarmody though. i3, i5 and i7 are all LGA 1155 so you could opt for an i3 short term to save some bucks and get an i7 later, using the same mobo. Even an i3 is going to walk all over your current 4 year old laptop.

It does kind of prove (unless an awesome LGA 1366 chip suddenly appears and makes my original statement correct again !) that no matter how much you try and futureproof, its not really possible in the computer world...

[acarmody]

Actually I'm thinking of waiting for AMD's next gen stuff coming out in a few months, supposed to be some bloody good gear.

But if I was to buy the stuff now it would be.
CPU: i5 2500K (for gaming apparently the 2500k matches the 2600k, since games don't take advantage of hyper-threading)
MB: ASRock Z68-Pro3
Cooler: Coolermaster 212+
RAM: G.Skill Sniper (1600) 2x4Gb
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
GPU: Sapphire 6950 1GB
PSU: Still deciding
CASE: Already have a big-ass full aluminum case, weighs a ton.

[50LTRv8]

[QUOTE=DAKSTER;1935014

It does kind of prove (unless an awesome LGA 1366 chip suddenly appears and makes my original statement correct again !) that no matter how much you try and futureproof, its not really possible in the computer world...[/QUOTE]

All you can do is spend 1000 - 1500 on a box, get the best bang for buck and hope it lasts 3 years lol

[acarmody]

Success, got everything today.

All together now, except that fan cut-out on the side of the case, fan doesn't fit will CPU cooler.



Couldn't believe how big the cooler is, CD for size comparison, not a bad cooler for $35



Graphics card is huge too,



Now to get Windows on it and start overclocking it. But I start work at 8am, dammit.

[50LTRv8]

Now I am just jealous :P

[acarmody]

On a bit of a side note, I was down at Umart Milton about 15 minutes before it got robbed at gunpoint. ####ing lucky for me.