Intel Gaming setup: This a good deal?

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neokeelo

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 9, 2002
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I'm building a intel gaming pc for my brother and i have a limited budget. Someone offered me this setup. I might have him to include a DVDRW or a cheap case or sound card but by itself, Is it a good deal?

Q9550 SLB8V (L835B166) E0 (VID = 1.25)
4.0Ghz (500x8) w/ 1.328 vCore @ Load
Xigmatek S1283
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.1) F10j Bios
2x2GB Red Ballistix Tracers 800 @ 1000mhz 5,5,5,15
Sapphire HD4870X2: o/c: 778core / 950DDR5 via CCC

$650.00 shipped
 
neokeelo said:
How much slower is this system CPU wise compared to a stock i920?
Click to expand...

In single-threaded apps: about %10-20 slower.

In multi-threaded apps: it's not even close. The i7 920 destroys the Quad by %30 or more in every test (and it's clocked faster than yours).

In gaming (high-quality settings): about the same. Games can't take advantage of the massively-threaded 920.

This is the closest I could find to your processor (they benchmark a 3 GHz Core2Quad).

http://www.techspot.com/review/124-intel-core-i7-920-940-965/page6.html
 
I wouldn't bother with a sound card at this point, unless you need it to output to a home theater receiver. The prices look good all together, just adding them up in my head. You can get a Samsung burner and a case combined for well under $100 from Newegg. Don't skimp on a PSU though.
 
ok, after talking it over again, we agreed on $425 shipped for the following ,
Q9550 SLB8V (L835B166) E0 (VID = 1.25)
@4.0Ghz (500x8) w/ 1.328 vCore @ Load
Xigmatek S1283
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.1) F10j Bios
2x2GB Red Ballistix Tracers 800 @ 1000mhz 5,5,5,15

Seems like a good deal to me, i can add a cheap 4890 and case and be done.
 
i tryed to build the exact same setup on newegg and it came to be 530ish.

lets say you buy this for 425, antec 300 for 59.99, 4890 for 150 and PSU for 90 = 590.00 thats just a rough price but seems like a solid build to me.
 
Some people have suggested I buy an i5 750 cpu instead of a Q9550 but since I know this one will hit 4ghz for sure, i dont mind paying a few bucks more just to buy it , install it and set the bios settings and be done with it. I think in real life gaming it wont be very different with a 4890. Am I wrong?
 
neokeelo said:
Some people have suggested I buy an i5 750 cpu instead of a Q9550 but since I know this one will hit 4ghz for sure, i dont mind paying a few bucks more just to buy it , install it and set the bios settings and be done with it. I think in real life gaming it wont be very different with a 4890. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

No, you're not. The benchmarks I linked show this. The i5 has an upgrade path, but it's not likely to yield CPU power significantly above 4GHz.

Now stop second-guessing yourself, and pull the trigger :)

If you don't make a purchase, you can't have fun!
 
neokeelo said:
Some people have suggested I buy an i5 750 cpu instead of a Q9550 but since I know this one will hit 4ghz for sure, i dont mind paying a few bucks more just to buy it , install it and set the bios settings and be done with it. I think in real life gaming it wont be very different with a 4890. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Well first of all, the i5 750 uses a completely different socket than the Q9550. Second, for a majority of games out there, there isn't that much of a substantial performance difference between the i5 750 and the Q9550.

With that said, you can build a new Core i5 750 for not that much more:
$200 - Intel Core i5 750 CPU
$105 - Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 mATX Motherboard
$94 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
----
Total: $429 plus tax and shipping

Virtually little performance difference in games but at least you get new parts as well as an actual warranty in case any of the parts break down. In addition, future RAM upgrades will be significantly cheaper. And finally, should you want a faster CPU, the LGA 1156 does have a bit more of a CPU upgrade path than socket 775.
 
$425 shipped is a bit too much for that setup, IMO. For that much money, I agree with Danny, get the new parts instead. I don't think the used setup is worth such a high price, so it doesn't save you enough money to make it worth getting over the i5 750 setup danny posted.
 
OMG, this is getting tough. I was set on the Q9550 but for $385 shipped I can get a
i7 920 D0 @4Ghz no HT @ 1.34V and a Gigabyte EX58-UD4P Motherboard. hmmm..
 
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