First gaming rig! Advice please!

ziggynerja

ziggynerja

ziggynerja

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Heylo ppl,

Im going to be buying a new gaming rig in January, and hoped you guys could give me advice on the components!

budget is 650-730 pounds..

I already have a monitor, 19" 1440-900 res..

I wont be upgrading this for some time... so at this res, i think a 5770 would do fine!

I may at a later date buy another 5770, so id like a motherboard which can support crossfireX :D

Id like to overclock the system also.. i dont mind putting in a little extra for some RAM cooling if needed !


Merry tismas!
 
How about this.The Phenom II 955 is the best gaming CPU at its price.4GB of RAM should be enough for any game you wanna play and you can get the indicated RAM cooler to overclock it even further than 1600Mhz.The mobo has 2xPCI-Express X16 slots and 1xPCI-E x8.So you'll be able to xfire at x16-x16-x8.The Titan Fenrir wil help you clock the 965 to 3.9-4.0Ghz without any heat issues.The case has very good airflow and very good cable management features.The HDD has plenty of space for all of your games and is very fast and runs very silent and cool.Pheeww:p
pc63.png
 
Ast3r said:
How about this.The Phenom II 955 is the best gaming CPU at its price.4GB of RAM should be enough for any game you wanna play and you can get the indicated RAM cooler to overclock it even further than 1600Mhz.The mobo has 2xPCI-Express X16 slots and 1xPCI-E x8.So you'll be able to xfire at x16-x16-x8.The Titan Fenrir wil help you clock the 965 to 3.9-4.0Ghz without any heat issues.The case has very good airflow and very good cable management features.The HDD has plenty of space for all of your games and is very fast and runs very silent and cool.Pheeww:p
pc63.png
Click to expand...

thanks Ast3r :P

intresting.. never conciderd an AMD.. thought the i5 was better :P

I may swap the case for a antec 300 tho as its cheap and cheerful!

I could also get the AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 for only 10 quid extra..
 
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The Phenom II 965 is a match even for the Intel i7 940 in games although in synthetic benchmarks it will fall behind.Also AM3 has better xfire options and plus the Phenom II 965/55 scales better than core i7/5 with xfire.You could swap the case but this one has better cable management features than the Antec 300 and also has very good airflow.Plus it has a lot more features that I'm sure you'll enjoy.:p Check this out for for a more detailed review.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFg1JluB8hIAlso here is a review of the Phenom II 965 in comparison with other cpus and the core i7 940.http://www.techspot.com/review/185-amd-phenom2-x4-965/page10.html
 
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That's the first review I've seen of the AMD beating an i7. If you look at other reviews, you'll usually see the i7 beating the AMD - though not by much, especially in games.

For your budget, I'd say the AMD is the best choice (it's what i chose, too!). If that level of crossfire isn't important to you, but you'd still like the option, get this board:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-366-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481
for £85. It allows two cards at x8/x8 (which doesn't emaningfully limit any but the very fastest graphic cards today).

Use the left over money to boost your hard drive to the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB version - a bigger and faster drive.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=
 
Ast3r said:
The Phenom II 965 is a match even for the Intel i7 940 in games although in synthetic benchmarks it will fall behind.Also AM3 has better xfire options and plus the Phenom II 965/55 scales better than core i7/5 with xfire.You could swap the case but this one has better cable management features than the Antec 300 and also has very good airflow.Plus it has a lot more features that I'm sure you'll enjoy.:p Check this out for for a more detailed review.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFg1JluB8hIAlso here is a review of the Phenom II 965 in comparison with other cpus and the core i7 940.http://www.techspot.com/review/185-amd-phenom2-x4-965/page10.html
Click to expand...

ok your right, ill go for that case :P

I think uve convinced me to go AMD too :O... but is it true that the i5 performs a lot better than the Phenom II 965 when both overclocked..?
 
yeah, the i5 overclocked to 3.4GHz will perform much better than a 965, although if you're thinking of going for a 965, get a 955 and just overclock it yourself.
 
It will perform a little better than the Phenom but the difference will not be that big about 5-7%.Have a look here and see for yourself and you can also see that the i5 is over 4.0Ghz and the Phenom is at stock.Also AM3 is more future proof so that means when a new CPU is going to come out you won't have to change the mobo.And you said you wanted xfire,AM3 will offer you x16-x16 while i5 x8-x8 and that will make a big difference in games that require high pci-express bandwidth.Here's an example:
tomshd.png


EDIT:Sorry forgot to add the link to the comparison chart of the i5 vs 965.http://www.techspot.com/review/193-intel-core-i5-750/
 
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ok then, i think im going to go with this build then!

My only worry is that the fenrir cpu cooler is huge.... and i may have trouble fitting RAM and the RAM cooling.. :( any suggestions?:confused:
 
As you can see from this pic it won't be in the way of the RAM.Your mobo has a bit more space between the RAM and the CPU socket and plus if you'll mount it with on the fan on the other side so that it will blow air towards the exhaust fan at the back and this way you'll be able to install the ram cooler.And install the RAM in the white slots on your mobo.
http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=17740 No hotlinking.
 
This is my suggestion - a touch over budget, but it will run like the clappers:

743i5.png


The i5 is about as fast as the AMD Phenom 2 in games, but is the same price, cooler, overclocks better and faster per clock.

But the CPU isn't the limiting factor in most games, the graphics card is. In my spec I included a 5850.
 
1xHD5770 will be good enough for his 19" monitor.Also he said he wants to xfire and AM3 is the best choice for his money as it will offer him x16-x16 over x8-x8 and also the Phenom II scales better in xfire than the Core i5.The Phenom II 965 is about 4% slower at stock than the Core i5 @ 4.0Ghz in games and if you overclock the 965 from 3.4Ghz to 3.8ghz you'll already be ahead of the Core i5.
 
Aye, but my above build costs £15 more than yours and includes a 5850 instead of a single 5770. True, the i5 isn't as awesome for crossfire as x16x16 AM3 boards - but there isn't a lot in it. Anyway, Crossfire isn't really an issue when you already have a card that is faster than you will need for a long time.

As for the i5 being slower than a X4 965, at this level there isn't much in it - games performance is determined by GPU not CPU. If you compare i5 to X4 965 in CPU dependant tasks, a stock i5 wins almost every time - and when overclocked to 3.8-4Ghz there is no contest.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Aye, but my above build costs £15 more than yours and includes a 5850 instead of a single 5770. True, the i5 isn't as awesome for crossfire as x16x16 AM3 boards - but there isn't a lot in it. Anyway, Crossfire isn't really an issue when you already have a card that is faster than you will need for a long time.

As for the i5 being slower than a X4 965, at this level there isn't much in it - games performance is determined by GPU not CPU. If you compare i5 to X4 965 in CPU dependant tasks, a stock i5 wins almost every time - and when overclocked to 3.8-4Ghz there is no contest.
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get the i5 overclock the b*lls out of it and the 5850 will be smooth with the latest games
 
Let us know what you decide please, I have have the same decision to make.
I have all the other components just waiting to order a Overclocked i5 or AMD Phenom II 965 watercooled bundle and GPU.
Kinda swaying toward the i5 but I have been using AMD for 6 years, cant decide hehe.
 
Thanks for all the feedback, its much appreciated :)

What about this?






Hopefully with this setup i wont need to do any major upgrading for a while right?

I went for the 5770 as it will do me fine atm, with 1440-900 res... Ill get another 5770 at a later date when i need it.. and as the mobo also supports x16-x16, it will increase performance! which is another +

And i think this mobo should be able to use all future AMD CPUS (6/8 core) which would be a big + for me..

I upped the PSU so im good for the future :P and wont need to replace when i upgrade

The one thing i cant decide on is RAM..
does AM3 socket support DDR3 1600 or just 1333?

Tell me what you think! :D
 
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Ive just ordered my gaming rig for around £800 and i went with the Phemon II x4 965 watercooled. Its performance is as good as the i7 apparently when overclocked.

Yes the i5 is awesome, and yes can be overclocked to 4GHz but good luck overclocking the i5 with the coolmaster cpu cooler, cause im going to guess its going to overheat.

And like some1 said its not about CPU power in games it GPU and withthe Phemon you have the luxury of adding an extra GFX card in xfire in the future.

Another point is that the AMD phenom is more future proof than the i5 due to the motherboard :)
 
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