Building a Decent Gaming rig (although i might have over cooked it)

DONT go AMD! or i5

if you plan to keep your GPUs well in the highend sector and eventually
crossfire or SLI then the AMD cpus will be the bottleneck.
this could be said for i5 shortly down the line but im trying to get info.

I read a review that an AMD 1055T (yes 6core cpu) Overclocked @ 4.0Ghz with SLI 480s
COULD NOT keep up with an i7 930 and 470s (not massive but lesser GPU)
the 1055T even @ 4ghz was Holding the 480s back.

If your spending this much on a new gaming Rig (which i understand, because i am to)
then why would you want to save £100 and go i5. its stoopid.
if your spending 1k or over on a new rig then saving £100 makes no difference at all.

been hunting out info and reviews for the last month to help me build
a Beast to destroy games for the next few years at least.
i7 is defo the way to go its NOT overkill, because the 1055T proved it.

wots going to happen in 18months wen ppl can afford SLI 480s like they can now with 460s
there not going to get the full shabang!! out of them because of ther lesser cpu bottlenecking.

its your choice. ive made mine (sig)

You get wot you pay for.

gl m8:)
 
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DONT go AMD! or i5

if you plan to keep your GPUs well in the highend sector and eventually
crossfire or SLI then the AMD cpus will be the bottleneck.
this could be said for i5 shortly down the line but im trying to get info.

Good luck trying to find that info. You wont.

I read a review that an AMD 1055T (yes 6core cpu) Overclocked @ 4.0Ghz with SLI 480s
COULD NOT keep up with an i7 930 and 470s (not massive but lesser GPU)
the 1055T even @ 4ghz was Holding the 480s back.

Jolly good. And an i5 760 would have performed exactly the same (in fact a little faster), assuming we're talking gaming tests, as that i7 930.

If you spending this much on a new gaming Rig (which i understand, because i am to) then why would you want to save £100 and go i5.

Because the i7 offers no more gaming performance than the i5 7xx.

its stoopid. if your spending 1k or over on a new rig then saving £100 makes no difference at all.

£100 is a better GPU, bigger SSD etc etc. Unless your budget has no limit wasting £100 does make a difference.

been hunting out info and reviews for the last month to help me build
a Beast to destroy games for the next few years at least.

Did any of that info suggest an i7 is, or will ever be, better than an i5 7xx in games?

i7 is defo the way to go its NOT overkill, because the 1055T proved it.

Some test with a 1055T said precisely nothing about i7 vs i5 7xx.

wots going to happen in 18months wen ppl can afford SLI 480s like they can now with 460s
there not going to get the full shabang!! out of them because of ther lesser cpu bottlenecking.

its your choice. ive made mine (sig)

You get wot you pay for.

gl m8:)

I'm glad you've convinced yourself to waste money. Well done. Doesn't mean you have to try to convince others to do the same :p
 
@Liam

well its nice to see your responce is all about i5, clearly because you own 1.

i didnt say anything about i5 performance.
i clearly said that i was looking into more info on i5. and thats why i only
commented on the price difference. its clear the OP is going to spend a
1k+ amount which would bring a £100 saving suggestion to its knees
then 60 kicks in the face.
if he was on a £500 budget then its a different field of dreams.

your on the last cpu in the i5 sector, your facing a brick wall m8.
another PLUS for the OP would be that he would have a chance
of a HEXCORE in the future which he has no chance of with i5.

i think any1 with an i5 rig would trade it in with £100
to get an i7 rig. but i xpect you u say OH NO I WOULDNT!

Addition: every single 1 of ur responces suggests that i was slagging i5 performance. which i didnt once lol.
so that makes ur counters completly VOID m8 unlucky
 
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and why did u quote the last 2 words of a completly different
sentence infront of a brand new shiny sentence.????

your quote beginning with "its stoopid"

if your going to quote then u have to quote the full sentence.
was it because i said dropping to i5 to save £100 is STOOPID?
u tryed to make the last sentence look bad or sumthing? wots ur angle?
 
@Liam

well its nice to see your responce is all about i5, clearly because you own 1.

Lol! - at 31 my days of CPU fanboyism are well and truly over. In fact they never occurred in the first place :). I'm not defending the i5 just because i own one. Having said that it's no coincidence i own an i5 either - it is afterall arguably the best gaming CPU available.

i didnt say anything about i5 performance.

Er your first line was 'DONT go AMD! or i5', then the rest of your post was essentially questionable waffle all about how much better an i7 is than an AMD X6 or i5.

your on the last cpu in the i5 sector, your facing a brick wall m8.
another PLUS for the OP would be that he would have a chance
of a HEXCORE in the future which he has no chance of with i5.

If hyperthreading (the only real advantage an i7 has over an i5 7xx) ever becomes a significant advantage in games, an i5 7xx owner can simply fit an i7 8xx into their mobo. The upgrade path to i7 9xx 6-core is a reason for going x58/1356 actually worth considering, I'll grant that, but to be honest by the time an i5 7xx or i7 8xx doesn't cut the mustard, both 1156 and 1356 will be old hat and the sensible upgrade will be something else altogether. Making a purchasing decision now based on future upgrading never really makes a lot of sense if we're honest with ourselves (how many people who say ooh I might SLI/xfire at a later date actually ever do?).

i think any1 with an i5 rig would trade it in with £100
to get an i7 rig. but i xpect you u say OH NO I WOULDNT!

Well I wouldn't, because it'd be £100 for nothing, and I dont see any other i5 7xx owners queuing up to trade for an i7 either.

Addition: every single 1 of ur responces suggests that i was slagging i5 performance. which i didnt once lol.
so that makes ur counters completly VOID m8 unlucky

Whatever you say, 'm8'. Lol :p


and why did u quote the last 2 words of a completly different
sentence infront of a brand new shiny sentence.????

your quote beginning with "its stoopid"

if your going to quote then u have to quote the full sentence.
was it because i said dropping to i5 to save £100 is STOOPID?
u tryed to make the last sentence look bad or sumthing? wots ur angle?

You see that character between 'save £100 and go i5' and 'its stoopid'? Yes, the one that looks like a full stop. Well it is a full stop. A full stop that you put there. So I didn't put 'the last 2 words of a completely different sentence infront of a brand new shiny sentence', did I? I had no intention to misquote you or take what you said out of context - hence i did neither!

Your opinion makes sense in relation to the AMD 6-core which is clearly outperformed in gaming by the i7, however your comments re the i5 make no sense at all - the i7 offers no performance gain over an i5 7xx in gaming, and likely never will. If you want one though, go ahead. You'll enjoy it.
 
I'm really not sure it's worth going i7 for gaming. i5 7xx is every bit as fast in gaming - in fact slightly faster due to the on-chip pcie controller. Check out some benches. This build is a similar price to the i7 build but trades i7 for xfired 5850s instead, keeps your bluray drive and adds a conventional HDD for storage (that little SSD could be full very quick!).

OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) £232.64
2x XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card ***Supplied with Stalker & Assasins Creed Games*** £399.48
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £158.99
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £124.98
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
Antec TruePower New Modular 650W Power Supply £89.99
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £62.99
Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP 8x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW Drive - Black (Retail) £45.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
Sub Total : £1,135.67
Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £201.32
Total : £1,351.74

spending nearly £1400 on an i5 setup i think is complete :confused::confused::confused:

your filling his slots with "still decent" gpus but none the less over the hill now. seeing that you have to sli them to stay ontop.

my opinion is that he should be looking to get a foundation down and
add to it rather than removing stuff down the line.

470s r cheap enuff now and will be even cheaper wen the ati 6000 series
hits the shelf. so one 470 now and another just after christmas in the sales has great potential.

the SSDs r BIG BUCKs now cuz they r so new. and dropping to an i5
to get a 120gb £232 drive is wasting money. get a 500gb sammy f3 hdd @ £33 for now and grow into a ssd wen they r a little cheaper.

as ive said before you can potentialy get a Hexcore if you go i7 which u cant with a i5.
Who knows ur local Chav might find a 980X that fell off th back of a lorry ;) and he might be silly enuff to sell u it for £100 for a bottle of buckfast and 20cigs and a good night out.

gl:cool:
 
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Your opinion makes sense in relation to the AMD 6-core which is clearly outperformed in gaming by the i7, however your comments re the i5 make no sense at all - the i7 offers no performance gain over an i5 7xx in gaming, and likely never will. If you want one though, go ahead. You'll enjoy it.

games r starting to gather pace again and again now. with direct x 11, 3d vision surround, battlefield 3 halflife 3 all rumouring now who knows wots gonna be in 18months and hyperthread could easily be part of it, its getting that more demanding. the only way we will see is in 18months time and we will just have
to wait. but id rather spend a few £s more and be armed with an expandable i7
rig than going all out to fill an i5 rig.

if you dont agree with wot im saying then u r an i5 fanboy its clear. :)
 
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Well it seems i have sparked a debate off here.

My personal opinion is swaying to the I7, which seems to be a better future proofing option however i do agree the I5 offers me the same experience but a little bit less (not masses) Also i do have the possibility of the hexcore which makes sense Even though liampope could well be correct by that time i might be changing a lot more.

There are a lot of variables that could change but the price difference isnt significant enough for me to drop the I7 for the I5..

Thank you Liam and Snake as i appreciate both opinions equally like anything it goes down to which side of the fence my own thoughts have gone.

Im looking at Stulids build and i dont think it is missing anything and seems quite solid.
Would it be worth going to the 950 over the 930??
 
OK
i5 is faster than i7 for gaming with a single card set up due to the onchip PCI-E connector, thats a given FACT as proven in multiple benchmarks
however for dual GPU set ups i7 is faster as i5 only runs x8/x8 which is a slight bottle neck, I did say slight
As such it makes sense to either go i5 and get the single best card you can, or go i7 and get dual cards, i5 + dual cards or i7 and single card (except with view to add a 2nd pretty quickly) is not best combination
 
Your opinion makes sense in relation to the AMD 6-core which is clearly outperformed in gaming by the i7, however your comments re the i5 make no sense at all - the i7 offers no performance gain over an i5 7xx in gaming, and likely never will.

how does my comments about i5 make no sense?

i5 doesnt have hyperthreading which i7 does and games have MORE chance
of using this in 18months than not using it.

i5 cant upgrade to hexcore and i7 can.

thats basically all i said about i5. you clearly no it was more aimed at AMD
because u agreed with me about it.

dropping down to an i5 to save £100 to fund a £200+ overpriced SSD
is making no sense. which is wot u suggested.

:cool:
 
If you get either the i7 or the i5 then you wont be dissapointed if you are happy paying either price. Unless you are doing other things such as encoding apart from gaming then the i7 becomes even more logical, if its just gaming you are primarily after then the idea of dropping from an i7 to an i5 is logical.

heres a quick comparison between the i5 750 and the i7 920 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/109?vs=47 - as you can see the i7 is much better in coding, emulation etc and other stuff but falls short in games using the same hardware, and as has been said the money you save from dropping to an i5 will get you a superior gpu which will give significantly better performance in a game aswell. a gpu upgrade will weild better gaming results than any cpu upgrade will give excluding where bottlenecking is concerned (high end i5 wont bottleneck any single gpu at stock so when overclocked it will last a long time).

The argument about games gathering pace is a bit redundant as the games market is quite stagnant at the minute because of ps3 and 360 restricting the market until the next gen again comes out. The current benchmark for systems is a game from a few years ago now (crysis - metro is a contender but all that brown....). Games have barely had a chance to take hold of dx10 possibilities before dx11 was shoved out and is still in its infant stage. Going on how games have come on since multi core processors came about (quite a few years ago) and most are either still using single or dual cores at most and theres no real evidence that they will all of a sudden jump up to 6, in a year or so I can see 3-4 becoming the norm which the i5 will be coping exactly as it is now but by then you will most likely be looking for upgrades anyway for anything.

It comes down to what you want and if you are happy spending the money. If you are happy at the price of an i7 then you will be happy with it. If you would rather get the i5 and save some then you will still be equally as happy. My 2c but more expensive or newer doesnt make it better in every scenario. Its the same as having massive amounts of memory just for gaming when the truth is you will barely use 3gb of it for most games which is why the smart fellows on here say 4gb is a good amount for gaming as anything more is just for bragging rights (just talking about games here)
 
liampope could well be correct by that time i might be changing a lot more.

i personally dont agree with this.

hes basically saying that by the time the 980Xs r affordable for the likes
of me and you, that you will be looking to upgrade to a Sandy Bridge
or Bulldozer rig.

As far as gaming is concerned the Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer dont appeal
to me at all. and i plan to skip this generation of cpus.

as we have been saying games are not even at the level to utilize hyperthreading
but i think its inevitable that they will and it will be sooner rather than later.
so a potential 980X with Hyperthreading is going to be all the CPU muscle u will need, and the only thing u will be buffing along th way is your GPU.

i currently have an AMD Athlon 64 dual core with a 8800GT and i didnt
need to look at Phenom II , i3 , or i5, wen they wer first out. its only the last
12months my pc is showing its age and its mainly GPU based.

Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer will be for benchmark freaks.
Socket 1366 has more than enuff untapped Juice in it for gaming
Skip SB and Bulldozr generation.

Addition to ^^ new architecture and sockets. bound to be teething problems.

:cool:
 
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The current benchmark for systems is a game from a few years ago now (crysis - metro is a contender but all that brown....). Games have barely had a chance to take hold of dx10 possibilities before dx11 was shoved out and is still in its infant stage

im a bit confused:confused:the current benchmark for systems now is a
game from "a few years ago"

to me that sounds like that game was ahead of its time? which clearly
states the potential of a even more hungry game to get released at any time?
(Battlefield 3 with hyperthreading?)

the dx10 and 11 comment is just the same as windows vista and win7
a lot of flaws removed and even more potential added. which clearly
is going to grow and be more demanding?

:cool:

Addition: look i see the computer and electronic world about looking to the future
and all the excitment of wot its going to throw at us. you can never be fully furtureproof
but wot little furtureproofing we can do makes the i7 come out ontop.

just to clarify, i never slagged the i5 at anytime (its powerful the benchs show it)
go back and read my posts.
i just highlighted a couple of potential downfalls i think would be worth correcting
for an extra £100 (hyperthreading/hex upgrade) if your paying over 1k you may aswell
stretch that bit extra to breath a little easier on a better path.
 
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i5,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) £232.64
(£197.99) £232.64
(£197.99)
Asus GeForce GTX 470 V2 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with MAFIA 2 £229.11
(£194.99) £458.22
(£389.98)
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £158.99
(£135.31) £158.99
(£135.31)
Asus P7P55D Evo Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £137.99
(£117.44) £137.99
(£117.44)
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £124.98
(£106.37) £124.98
(£106.37)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply £102.99
(£87.65) £102.99
(£87.65)
Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMD4GX3M2A1600C9) £76.36
(£64.99) £76.36
(£64.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £1,139.72
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £202.03
Total : £1,356.50


i7,

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with MAFIA 2 £352.49
(£299.99) £352.49
(£299.99)
Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Bloomfield) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail £220.89
(£187.99) £220.89
(£187.99)
Intel X25-M Mainstream 80GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SSDSA2MH080G2R5) with FREE EZ Upgrade Kit & FREE Game - Retail £164.49
(£139.99) £164.49
(£139.99)
Antec TruePower Quattro 1000W Modular Power Supply £159.99
(£136.16) £159.99
(£136.16)
Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard £149.99
(£127.65) £149.99
(£127.65)
Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £124.98
(£106.37) £124.98
(£106.37)
Geil Black Dragon 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Triple Channel (GB36GB1600C8TC) £114.99
(£97.86) £114.99
(£97.86)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.91) £13.99
(£11.91)
Sub Total : £1,136.00
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £201.38
Total : £1,352.13
 
im a bit confused:confused:the current benchmark for systems now is a
game from "a few years ago"

to me that sounds like that game was ahead of its time? which clearly
states the potential of a even more hungry game to get released at any time?
(Battlefield 3 with hyperthreading?)

the dx10 and 11 comment is just the same as windows vista and win7
a lot of flaws removed and even more potential added.

:cool:

Nope the point is that graphics havnt come along way in a long time. We havnt had any major improvements that have tested systems since that game. there are no games just around the corner that will change things. A game will not just show up with insane requirements like crysis purely because it showed to be commercial suicide. Consoles rule the roost when it comes to developers so none will step out and make a game that wont run on one. Until we get the next gen of consoles then devs will BEGIN to look to the possiblilities - this is still quite a few years down the line and no matter what you get now it will become a bottleneck of sorts.

No its not the same as windows. windows is needed as a base to run, dx is a feature, if the possibilities of dx10 have barely been explored then whats the point of dx11, it allowed further development but if we havnt got to the bottom of dx10 then its not that necessary. It also shows how little graphical innovation has moved along, weve had new gimmicks such as physX and tesselation but both are still in testing stages really. Theres also no evidence pointing to hyperthreading being used (for one it would rule out amd and console users - commercial suicide once again).

As ive said though both are top of the game processors and get i7 if your happy with the money. If you do have a budget and its gaming you want then a better gpu will serve you better than a more expensive cpu.
 
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get i7 if your happy with the money. If you do have a budget and its gaming you want then a better gpu will serve you better than a more expensive cpu.

that makes it sound like the difference for cpu/board/ram is around £300
between the 2. wen its around the £100 mark, and he hasent posted a budget.

well anyway its all good :cool:
 
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Nope the point is that graphics havnt come along way in a long time. We havnt had any major improvements that have tested systems since that game. there are no games just around the corner that will change things.

Ok this is confusing me:confused: if you could help on this. If GPUs havent came along,
then why does a 6core processor overclocked @ 4GHz bottleneck and
hold back 480SLIs?

Addition: and i think cyrsis has been beaten on benchmarks lately
so i guess wer r looking forward after all.
 
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