Tom's hardware dec $2500 build

PsichoDM

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 24, 2006
Messages
161
Hi.

I was thinking of upgrading my currently 2yo PC in light of Bad Company 2 coming out soon. It works fine right now, but I like to have my games run at max settings at constant 60fps, and with a 1920x1200 that's not always easy. One thing to keep in mind is that currently the game uses only 50-60% of my GPU's load (according to GPU-Z) at high settings, which lead me and most other people to suspect that the true bottleneck in that game is the CPU.

I'm currently running a Q6600 which I purchased at the end of 2007, and it appears to me that it might be time to upgrade to an i7-860. I also have a 4870, and since it's not even being used to its limits, I don't see a reason to upgrade yet. I will certainly do that at some point in the future, but for the sake of the budget it's no rush at the moment. Here's the build:

Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P LGA 1156
Chipset: Intel P55 Express $170

Processor Intel Core i7-860 2.80 GHz
4 Cores, 8.0MB L3 Cache $280

Memory 2 x Crucial 4.0GB DDR3-1333 Dual Channel Kit
4 x 2.0GB (8.0GB Total), CAS 9-9-9-28 $168

Case Lian-Li LanCool PC-K7B $90

Power Corsair CMPSU-850HX Modular 850W
ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80 PLUS Gold $180

CPU Cooler Xigmatek HDT-S1284EE Cooler Plus
Crossbow ACK-I5363 Bracket Kit $47

The intel X25-M G2 SSD: $300

for reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-new-pc,2497.html

The total should be around 1300. I have plenty of spare hard drives for storing stuff outside of the SSD, and as I said I'm just going to reuse my Radeon 4870 since it's not an urgent replacement, but eventually I'd like to SLI a couple of cards, if a worthy killer app comes out.

Does that build above sound reasonable, or is there anything out there right now that will give me a bigger bang for my buck and maybe increase the longevity of this system?

Thanks!
 
I think you'll do very with that build. I was recently in the same boat and couldn't decide between 920 or 860. I went 920, but from the benchMarks I checked they seemed neck in neck.
 
I would go with the 920, you might be spending a little more on a board for it but you will be able to slap in a hex chip if you find the 920...... slow... lol
 
You do realize that CPU makes very little difference in games. At that resolution you are better off getting a faster video card.

Constant 60fps for a brand new released game is wishful thinking. I doubt you'll even reach that with that set up. Not with 4870 in your way.
 
You do realize that CPU makes very little difference in games. At that resolution you are better off getting a faster video card.

Constant 60fps for a brand new released game is wishful thinking. I doubt you'll even reach that with that set up. Not with 4870 in your way.

I think you misread what I wrote. Bad Company 2 (despite what they say) is essentially a console port, not optimized for PC like for example Crysis was.

In its current state the bottleneck is the processor as it needs to compute the physics of 30+ players blowing things up on the screen at the same time and also takes care of a ton of other aspects of the engine. GPU-Z reveals that even at highest graphics settings, at a resolution of 1920x1200, the game barely goes up to 60% GPU load of my 4870. Upgrading my graphics card would thus give me more or less 0 additional frames per second, since the CPU is the one determining the maximum frames per second.
 
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I think you'll do very with that build. I was recently in the same boat and couldn't decide between 920 or 860. I went 920, but from the benchMarks I checked they seemed neck in neck.

I would go with the 920, you might be spending a little more on a board for it but you will be able to slap in a hex chip if you find the 920...... slow... lol

The 920 sounds interesting, I read that you can very easily OC it to about 4.0 ghz with only a simple aftermarket air cooler.

Besides the motherboard, what else in my setup would have to change if I wanted to switch over to the 920?
 
You didn't read what I wrote. Bad Company 2 (despite what they say) is essentially a console port, not optimized for PC like for example Crysis was.

In its current state the bottleneck is the processor as it needs to compute the physics of 30+ players blowing things up on the screen at the same time and also takes care of a ton of other aspects of the engine. GPU-Z reveals that even at highest graphics settings, at a resolution of 1920x1200, the game barely goes up to 60% GPU load of my 4870. Upgrading my graphics card would thus give me more or less 0 additional frames per second, since the CPU is the one determining the maximum frames per second.

So you are saying you won't get better frame rates with a faster GPU just because GPU-Z says it's 60% gpu usage? You know how ridiculous that sounds? Why is that 5850 and 5870 perform much faster than your 4870? At times nearly 2x the performance on console ports.

You are right about 1 thing. CPU does limit minimum fps to keep frame rates up but that's before you have a system that has been GPU saturated which your 4870 is far from being saturated to a point of linear CPU scaling.

Far as I know BC2 is a console port that might be not optimized for PC but it does have dx11 path. Why not just wait for the game to come out first? Upgrading for future game is kind of pointless or are you working with the beta version?
 
Besides the motherboard, what else in my setup would have to change if I wanted to switch over to the 920?

Go for triple channel RAM for the fuck of it:
$160 - Corsair CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

With that said, not exactly sure of GPU-Z's accurate reporting of GPU usage.
 
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