Replacing my PC with a Maingear box

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rbanzai

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
446
I've been mulling this over for a while and had decided to wait until Windows 7 came out. I've settled on Maingear as the source for either their small case, or the regular old minitower. They're both within about $150 of each other and I like the idea of finally having a small PC.

I'm a bit perplexed by the X58 vs. P55 choices, as well as i7 vs. i5. I feel like the more I read the more confused I get. My primary usage is playing games. Anything else is too lightweight for the CPU/MB choice to matter. I think they offer Core2 on one of these models but I'm not sure if the reduction in cost is worth it when I'm upgrading from an old machine and would rather move forward than stick with older tech.

Looking at the video card choices a 275 seems to be the best bang for the buck. Pretty much everything else will just be the defaults. If I can just get my CPU/MB choice sorted out I'll be good to go. :)
 
X58 boards will support later chips more than p55, but given that you are buying prebuilt my guess is that you are not looking to upgrade something like that yourself. For most cases especially if your primary goal is gaming the core i5 750 is a better value than either than i7 860 or i7 920. If you are heavy into things like video encoding, a task which utilizes the extra threads from HT i7 920, then it is a better value, but for you a i5 750 is probably what you should shoot for. Core 2 is a bad choice right now in general value wise, if you want more budget I think amd's offerings are superior cost vs performance compared to core 2. Intel's i5/i7 do perform better than those though.

As for the video card, the 5850 is better than either the 275 or 285 and fits somewhere between them in price, it is a pretty good choice if you are looking for extra oomph. the 5750 and 5770 give direct x 11 but unfortunately do perform a bit worse, closer to a GTS 250 than a 275. It is decent bit cheaper though so not a lose lose proposition. What size monitor/resolution do you game on? That can help determine just how much graphics power you need.
 
I don't do much video encoding but even if I did it would probably smoke my P4 since there are four cores even if they are not multi-threaded cores.

I have a 1440x900 LCD so I'm not pushing my graphics card in terms of res. At Maingear that 5850 is $100 more than the $144 275 and it's difficult to compare cards head to head so I was uncertain about putting out the extra money for it.
 
Here's some direct comparisons: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=5

Generally the 5850 is about 10-20% better than a 275. The 275 is generally about 30% better than a 5750 1gb. At your resolution you may not notice that much different between the 275 and 5750 as you just have to push out relatively few pixels. If you don't mind the cost and want a bit of future proofing the 275 is not bad, but if you want best value for your buck right now it'd be to get the 5750 and upgrade in a year or two since a 100-150 dollar card in a year or two will out perform a 275 probably handily. Up to you though.
 
rbanzai, thanks for considering Maingear for your next purchase...it's always awesome to add another [H] member to our family. We'd love to have you call in and talk with us about your build, but most of the guys hanging out here won't steer you wrong.

My two cents: The 5750 is better than the 275 if you're at all interested in DX 11 functionality, or Eyefinity. DX 11 titles include S.T.A.L.K.E.R., FUEL 2, and BattleForge. I like having that DX 11 ability, at least, even if I'm not using it with the titles that I'm playing now. So, that's something to think about.
 
I'm considering Maingear for my next computer, as soon as I can sell my wife on the idea. They've gotten a lot of positive comments from people on this forum.

I really like Maingear's new Shift case; I was leaning towards getting my next computer in a Silverstone RV-02 case, which also has the motherboard oriented 90 degrees with the typical 'back' of the motherboard pointed 'up' on the case. The Shift case is clearly a cousin.

This just makes so much more sense, both in terms of heat and in accessing all of the various ports on your computer. I hate having to move and/or climb behind my computer to see what I'm doing when I have to unplug/plug devices.

I am concerned about the reported length of the upcoming ATI 5970 card and these two cases; the RV-02 only has a 12" clearance for expansion cards, which may not be enough (reports vary, but say it is 12.1 to 13.5 in length.) No clue on the clearance for expansion cards in the Maingear Shift case.
 
Bal, thanks for considering us. If you'd like, I can try to talk her around for you. ;-)

The clearance in the shift is 13.5"--I confirmed this with Wallace. You should be good to go.

If you have any questions for me--or want me to try to sway your sweetheart--don't hesitate to PM me!
 
Thanks for the info, Heather; I'll be in touch if/when the Mrs. can be convinced.
 
My pleasure. Just let me know if you have any questions in the interim. I'm always hovering around the [H] forums.
 
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