Gaming Machine

chokedoke

chokedoke

chokedoke

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Joined
23 Jun 2009
Posts
180
I know there are loads of these threads but i really cant decide what to do

Im looking for a gaming machine that can play games on a 24" 1650x1080 monitor. I want to be able to play on high settings now and keep the pc for 2 to 3 years before really thinking about new upgrades. Just maybe more ram or new graphics

Now the first thought was to go for an i7 920 with 6gb of ram and most of the stuff listed below. Now trying to save a few pounds i put an i5 build together. Advice on the below build and wether i should just put down the extra cash and go for an i7 build?

I have a case, dvd drive and windows

thanks

HIS iCooler V Turbo ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card *Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Edition* £305.49
(£259.99) £305.49
(£259.99)
Intel Core i5 760 2.80GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £140.99
(£119.99) £140.99
(£119.99)
Asus P7P55D-E Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
(£93.61) £109.99
(£93.61)
Antec TruePower New Modular 750W Power Supply £98.99
(£84.25) £98.99
(£84.25)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £86.94
(£73.99) £86.94
(£73.99)
Corsair H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1366/AM2/AM3) £59.98
(£51.05) £59.98
(£51.05)
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD5002AAEX) £47.99
(£40.84) £47.99
(£40.84)
Sub Total : £723.72
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £128.49
Total : £862.7
 
I'd say push the little extra cash out and go for an i7 with 6gb of RAM, mainly since you say you want it to last a good 3 years, and 4gb of RAM is a bit conservative nowadays, and the i7's beefy enough to have a good run.

I'd personally swap the mobo to one that supports crossfire also - so you can pop in a 2nd 5870 down the line for peanuts and get a good boost.

edit, Depends the sort of games you play really, a 2nd 5870 would be overkill for that res, so unless you plan to upgrade the monitor.. ;p
 
Looks good, that HDD only has a 1 year warranty and isn't _that much_ faster than this though:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

Also this card is a bit cheaper:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-147-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1502

lower latency RAM for only a bit more cash:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-191-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

(you can always upgrade to 8GB RAM without too much hassle if you go for the i5 option.)
 
i keep coming back to samsung but i just cant get it straight in my head how a 6gb sata drive with a 64mb cache is only slightly faster than the F3. Is it something to do with the algorithms on the drive?

I may go for the i7 then and the 1366 board instead. Will intel be changing the socket for there next chip or will it be supported on the 1366?
 
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1366 is being replaced by 1365 next year, think all of the chips that are going to be released for 1366 have already been released now.

There's a lack of proper reviews on the big sites for the WD 500GB atm, if you really want that drive then it probably is slightly faster, but just because it says 'SATA 6Gb/s' don't expect an amazing difference. It wont get anywhere near maxing out a SATA 3Gb/s connection in reality.
 
thanks i suppose the bigger numbers do dazzle might be best to go for the F3

My big problem here is i might as well go for the i5 and upgrade in 2 years, rather than spending the extra on i7 without being able to upgrade the chip.

I suppose i could always wait till the releases next year but then it will be too expensive and i will wait for it to come down in price joining a cycle of constantly waiting ;)

So still stands do i go for the i5 and use the extra cash to get 8gb of ram and better mobo
 
Well everyone is saying 'i7 should be fine for the next 3 years in gaming' especially if you overclock it. However there's always the socket 1156 i7 chips if you really want to change to one with hyperthreading in a couple of years.

Getting 8GB with the i5 now is a possibility, personally I still think that's overkill for a gaming system and RAM prices will probably come back down again in the next 6-12 months (well hopefully).

Motherboard wise you could do what Moo suggested and go for one with Crossfire support.
 
Didnt realise that one didnt have crossfire that is something i defiantly want on either system im going to build.

Might look at spending about a £1000 on a new system. Should i drop to the 5850 is there a major performance difference between the two. Ive been looking at comparisions and there is only sort of 10fps in it and most of the time the frame rate is high enough on the resolution im going to be running it at
 
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