Gaming rig?

[RJC]

Faster

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
HIS ATI Radeon HD 6870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE CODMW2 PC-Game £194.99
(£165.95) £389.98
(£331.90)
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £144.98
(£123.39) £144.98
(£123.39)
MSI P55-GD65 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard with Free USB 3.0 PCI Controller Card £99.99
(£85.10) £99.99
(£85.10)
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £69.99
(£59.57) £69.99
(£59.57)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
(£56.16) £65.99
(£56.16)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.98
(£34.88) £40.98
(£34.88)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.91
(£10.99) £12.91
(£10.99)
Sub Total : £701.99
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £124.60
Total : £836.59

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=191

 

[Porcelina]

RJC's build is ace.

On a somewhat related note; when did the TruePower PSUs drop to such reasonable prices? Wanted one when I was building my curernt rig, but back then they were a lot more expensive than the alternatives.

 

[mathwat]

but my spec is better for gaming

 

[RJC]

On a somewhat related note; when did the TruePower PSUs drop to such reasonable prices? Wanted one when I was building my curernt rig, but back then they were a lot more expensive than the alternatives.

There was a thread last week regards the PSU, can't remember if it's once stock is gone the price goes up!!

but my spec is better for gaming

Looking at the link I posted it shows the i5 beats the AMD in the majority of tasks including gaming!!

 

[Jony27]

you could always drop a i7 8xx on to a p55.
rjc's build looks spot on, only thing missing is a SSD(but im sure you can get that at later date). with that build you wont have to upgrade anytime soon, can even skip sandy bridge, get what you need "now" .

 

[jakesnake]

the OP wont get everything he wants to go with the i7 i understand that because of his budget. He will get down the core of the system which he wont have to worry about for a long time and he can add to it. no matter what comes in the the next 3/4 years the i7 is versatile enough to adapt and soldier on for another couple after that. in the long run the extra £150 will pay off with his board cpu and memory. it will be wiped out a lot sooner invested in a gpu which is the most changed component in a rig.

 

[Jony27]

and what makes the i5 not versatile enough to adapt and soldier on for the next 3/4 years?
is it hyperthreading? we dont know the future so might as well get the gaming pc we need "now" than for the future.

 

[skylineboy]

sorry mathwat the hexcore is ott. the hexcore is unnecessary for gaming right now, therefore +1 to RJC build. mathwat how is your build better?

I got my antec true power when they were expensive and am gutted at the drop in price but I am totally happy with it.

 

[jakesnake]

RJC's build is a good i5 build but its over budget and doesnt have an aftermarket cooler.

wots wrong with a 470? i dont se it as cutting down the gpu just to get an i7.

 

[Jony27]

nothing wrong with gtx 470, just that 6xxx series supposedly scale better in crossfire

 

[skylineboy]

RJC's build is easily sorted with a single 6870 and then you could crossfire them later when/if they don't cut it, then you have moneyy to buy a cpu cooler.


Also I agree the gtx 470 is a great card.

 

[jakesnake]

why are you compairing a single 470 to crossfire scaling????????

by the time a 470 starts to struggle he will be looking at a new single more powerful gpu anyway.

 

[Jony27]

same applies to by the time the i5 struggles he will be looking at a new more powerful cpu anyway

 

[jakesnake]

LOLOLOL

i just speced him an i7 setup with more power more potential and under budget. wot more do you want?

i dont care if he spends the same amount and ends up with an i5 and an extra 15fps cuz he has crossfire. im just throwing stuff into the mix so he can make his own mind up.

im sick of ppl posting an i7 rig for gaming and then the i5 fan brigade jumping in shouting ther mouths off brainwashed saying i7 is ott and too expensive when its not the case. if you have the money to get an i7 then its defo the best place to slot into pre sandybridge.

also i5 is better with a single card its i7 that runs crossfire or sli better.

 

[Liampope]

LOL jake - not this again!! Look you'll just have to accept that most people aren't like you - obsessed with having the 'best gear' even if it makes no financial or technical sense. Bang for buck is key in most PC builds, and sorry - i7 just doesn't cut it. You think anyone recommending an i5 is just trying to justify their compromised purchase - but maybe they just researched the actual facts about their perfomance and chose them on that basis, and just want to be helpful and inform others of the facts.

The facts being, even in this hypothetical awesomely coded game you think is just round the corner that fully utilises 8 threads and therefore benefits from i7's hyperthreading, the i7 is only gonna 'pull ahead' and 'soldier on' by an absolute max of 25% perfomance clock for clock over i5. We know this from benches of tasks that are already optimised for multiple threads. It's mostly much less than 25%, and a game is simply never going to be able to be optimised that much.

So potentially, possibly, up to 25% better perfomance. An i7 costs 50-60% more than an i5, then there's the mobo. Is that a good deal? I'd even hesitate to recommmend an i7 for someone using apps that make use of HT. Sure it's the fastest, but as above - 50-60% extra cost for up to 25% extra perfomance - you're into major diminishing returns. With tripple channel RAM and x16/x16 x-fire/sli shown to be pretty much worthless, i7 is meh imho. If I had wanted one, I would have bought one. i5 wasn't a compromise purchase I was forced into and am trying to justify.

If someone wants to pay the diminishing returns and go for an i7, that's fine by me. Enjoy it. I'll never recommend one though, and especially not in a tight budget where that choice reduces the overall system performance by forcing compromise on GPU/SSD/etc.

Your 'reasoning' makes literally no sense

 

[jakesnake]

"obsessed with having the best gear" LOL i just call it "getting what you pay for"

an i5 rig isnt bang for buck because the price difference between it and an i7 isnt substantial enough. an Athlon II X4 Quad & 460 768mb rig for gaming is bang for buck.

the rest of your post is just waffle


he can get an i7 with a 470 for "UNDER" his budget "NOW" and the 470s are getting so low in price he could sli very soon if he wanted. sli performs better on i7.

 

[Liampope]

"obsessed with having the best gear" LOL i just call it "getting what you pay for"

Yup - pay more, get the same performance. Congratulations

an i5 rig isnt bang for buck because the price difference between it and an i7 isnt substantial enough.

Hmmm... that looks like English... well it probably makes sense in your head... I guess...

an Athlon II X4 Quad & 460 768mb rig for gaming is bang for buck.

Perfectly true. But rather less bang than what the OP can get for his buck.

the rest of your post is just waffle

Because it contains technical facts you dont like and/or can't understand?

he can get an i7 with a 470 for "UNDER" his budget "NOW" and the 470s are getting so low in price he could sli very soon if he wanted.

Yep, sure can. Or he can get an i5 with x-fire 6870s. One rig has up to double the gaming performance of the other. Which one do you think that is? This may help...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/163?vs=160

...bearing in mind we know 6870 x-fire performance pretty much = 5870 x-fire performance.

sli performs better on i7.

Yes - a whole 1-2% better. Wow.

When are you going to accept the facts and stop deluding yourself that the i7 absolutely must be the best thing since sliced bread, cos, well, it's more expensive, and 7 is a higher number than 5. Who's trying to justify their purchase?

 

[jakesnake]

Yup - pay more, get the same performance. Congratulations

the i5 is in its glory days and at its peak. the i7 hasent even broke sweat yet.

Hmmm... that looks like English... well it probably makes sense in your head... I guess...

if it looks like english then read it? dont you speak it?

Perfectly true. But rather less bang than what the OP can get for his buck.

thats right, just IGNORE that its a substantialy less amount spent. which is the key factor in "bang for buck" theory. you seriously have no clue about it because i remember when u specced a £1500 rig and called it BANG FOR BUCK

Because it contains technical facts you dont like and/or can't understand?

no, its just WAFFLE. why use percentages when you can just say that the difference between i5 and i7 is £150.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/163?vs=160

...bearing in mind we know 6870 x-fire performance pretty much = 5870 x-fire performance.

you didnt just compare crossfire 5870s to a single 470 did you??

Yes - a whole 1-2% better. Wow.

waffle percentages again all you have to say it that YES ITS BETTER ON i7.

When are you going to accept the facts and stop deluding yourself that the i7 absolutely must be the best thing since sliced bread, cos, well, it's more expensive, and 7 is a higher number than 5. Who's trying to justify their purchase?

ok whatever you say

 

[jakesnake]

@Firebouncy

at the end of the day m8 you are paying an extra £150 for an i7 cpu,board and memory. it gets you new tech like sata 3 usb 3 and your memory is 6gb triple channel rather than 4gb dual channel. this is all next to hyperthreading which the i7 has and the i5 doesnt. another thing is that the i7 socket has a Hexcore which is insane prices at the moment but who knows wot can happen (didnt the i7 950 used to be double wot it is now?) these extras may not be in full use right now but it ensures you have plenty of potential and headroom in the future, and could easily benifit you if you start to use your computer for more than gaming. thats a question you should ask yourself actually.

the computer world moves very fast and a lot of cowboys on here think your deluded on here because your doing some very minimal futureproofing for a few extra pounds. i think they are deluded if they think this new tech wont get into full swing soon. especially with a new socket around the corner.

good luck with your build

 

[EXMailman]

@Firebouncy

at the end of the day m8 you are paying an extra £150 for an i7 cpu,board and memory. it gets you new tech like sata 3 usb 3 and your memory is 6gb triple channel rather than 4gb dual channel. this is all next to hyperthreading which the i7 has and the i5 doesnt. another thing is that the i7 socket has a Hexcore which is insane prices at the moment but who knows wot can happen (didnt the i7 950 used to be double wot it is now?) these extras may not be in full use right now but it ensures you have plenty of potential and headroom in the future, and could easily benifit you if you start to use your computer for more than gaming. thats a question you should ask yourself actually.

the computer world moves very fast and a few people think your deluded on here because your doing some very minimal futureproofing for a few extra pounds. i think they are deluded if they think this new tech wont get into full swing soon. especially with a new socket around the corner.

good luck with your build

Well said