Advice on new build

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Rhodan

n00b
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
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31
I'm looking at putting this build together:

CPU
Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067&cm_re=INTEL_CORE_I5_760-_-19-115-067-_-Product

Motherboard
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621

RAM
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145263&Tpk=CORSAIR CMX4GX3M2A1600C8

CPU Cooler
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242001

Case
Antec P183
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129061&Tpk=antec p183

PSU
CORSAIR HX Series 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012&Tpk=cosair 650w modular

GPU
EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 SUPERCLOCKED 1GB EE GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TX460_SUPERCLOCKED_1GB-_-14-130-567-_-Product

Note: I already have a couple of Seagate 7200rpm drives which I'll use in this build.

Purpose of the build

- Gaming (Mostly RTS games like Total War, Civilization and Starcraft 2. FPS games like the Crysis and Stalker series)
- Browsing & downloading
- Occasional editing of vacation photo's and video
- Dual boot with Windows 7 x64 & Ubuntu

Advice needed on:

- What monitor should I get, considering I want to game at Full HD resolution? Please limit options to Samsung, AOC, LG and Viewsonic as that is what's available where I live.

- Do you think the GPU will be good enough for most games these days at Full HD? I *might* be able to fit in an ATI 5850 if it offers much more for the money?
 
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Thanks for the reply. The cooler will fit the motherboard OK.

Do you think the CPU / GPU combination will offer the best bang for buck? I can't really afford much more than this.
 
for cheaper you could go with a 6core amd cpu/mobo and use the difference on that GPU upgrade.
 
If you got the spare change up the Ram, makes it a little easier when the next game technology starts coming out. No big deal if you dont have the extra ram but really nice if you do.

goodluck
 
dajet24 said:
for cheaper you could go with a 6core amd cpu/mobo and use the difference on that GPU upgrade.
Click to expand...

Maybe so. But in this particular case the AMD 6-core is slower than the i5-760. And the price difference between the current choice of a GPU for the Intel platform and the GPU that would have been required by the AMD 6-core CPU platform to make up the gaming performance difference would have been significantly higher than the current price differential between the Intel mobo/CPU combo and the AMD mobo/CPU combo. In other words, the OP would have spent $100 more on the AMD 6-core build than he currently has slated for the Intel i5-760 build for a comparable level of gaming performance. (Simply put, the AMD 6-core CPU/mobo combo is not sufficiently cheaper than the i5-760 CPU/mobo combo to compensate for the slower performance of the AMD CPU.)

And I agree with lt_shiro about the RAM. There is very, very little difference in benchmarked throughput between DDR3-1600 CL8 and DDR3-1600 CL9 - to the point that the difference in real-world performance is virtually zero. Plus, Corsair does not currently offer DDR3-1600 memory modules that work at any voltage lower than 1.65V without having to lower the memory speed to DDR3-1333 or lower; hence, the overclocking headroom isn't as good with the Corsair modules compared to those DDR3-1600 modules that work at 1.5V at the advertised memory speed and timings.
 
Thanks for the replies, appreciated.

I can squeeze in a little more to change the RAM, what do you think the optimum configuration would be for the RAM?
 
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Rhodan said:
I can squeeze in a little more to change the RAM, what do you think the optimum configuration would be for the RAM?
Click to expand...

4GB of RAM is all that you really need for a gaming PC.
 
Actually, for not all that much more I can go for a i7 870 or 930 CPU, with the relevant 6gb RAM and motherboard.

Thoughts on that approach as opposed to the i5?
 
Rhodan said:
Actually, for not all that much more I can go for a i7 870 or 930 CPU, with the relevant 6gb RAM and motherboard.

Thoughts on that approach as opposed to the i5?
Click to expand...

Neither route will provide that much of a performance increase in games to justify the cost. The i5 route is the better bang for the buck value.
 
Check out this months issue of Maxium PC good scoring economic machine, and they went with the i5 and 1156 socket and it faired very well.
 
New Zealand.

I could also look at HP and Dell monitors, but that pushes the cost up $$$.
 
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