Yeah i know - another "i need help building a high-end computer" thread.

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mystical_ice

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You guys are probably sick of this by now, but i've been reading articles on HCP for probably 7 or 8 years now, every couple of months.

In late 2005 I built my last gaming computer. An Opteron 148, Asus A8n32-SLI motherboard, 2GB of corsair 3500LL RAM, and a nvidia 7800GTX, with two 500GB sata drives. At the time it was pretty close to top of the line, and i think it's still pretty decent to be honest. I work hard, and only have time to play games several hours each week, and the games i play are usually counterstrike source, half life 2, warcraft 3, and even starcraft sometimes. I'd always intended to overclock the 148, but who am i kidding, i'm a noob when it comes to overclocking, so i never got around to it *embarassed*

Anyway, i decided to download the Crysis demo at work, after getting a good computer, just to "test the specs" (shh, don't tell my boss). I was impressed with the game, so that night i purchased and downloaded it on my home 'gaming' computer.

I was very distressed that my 7800GTX had trouble running it, even at 800x600, and everything on 'low'. A game like that, i came to the realization, either has to be played on high settings all around, or not at all...

So that's when I decided i needed to build a computer that would be able to run Crysis well, perhaps not on 1920x resolution, but at least on 1024x768, or maybe 1280x1024. Looking for good framerates, and the ability to play other games, like, say Half Life 2, at highest settings, as well as being able to scale.

At the moment, i'd like to only run a single graphics card, just because i don't think i'd be able to run two. I'd definately like the abilty to run 2 though, as in the next few months i would be willing and able to purchase a second card.

Operating system, i've always run XP Professional, but if you think it would be worth installing and running Vista Ultimate 64bit, i'm open to the possibility if the performance would justify it.

Anyway, here's what i've come up with for now - tell me what you think. I've heard it's good to match RAM frequency to FSB frequency, or something like that. Is that true?

Here's what i came up with:

- XFX Radeon 4890 XXX Edition with 1GB DDR5. ($219)
- Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard ($309)
- Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz ($269)
- Corsair TX750W 750W power supply ($114)
- Corsair XMS3 Tri Channel 6GB PC10666 DDR3 3x2GB ($109)
- Hard drive i'm not sure of. i'd love to get one of those SSDs, but i don't think i can afford it. whatever ya'll suggest for a nice, very fast hard drive, that doesn't cost $250.00, i'm fine with.

I'd like to overclock a little, as long as it's going to run stable. My gaming computer at home sits off, and i turn it on only when i'm ready to play a couple of games.

Any suggestions overall, i'm happy to listen to. If you think i can get similar or exact performance from cheaper hardware (perhaps the motherboard?) then i'm all ears! Really don't want to spend more than i have in the above list if at all possible. maybe $100 or so. I already have a case, fans, etc.

Thanks for your help in advance.


To answer the questions required:
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
100% gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
see description
3) Where do you live?
Houston, TX USA
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
see description
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
only the case and fans
6) Will you be overclocking?
if i can do it safely, then yes :)
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
an Acer 22" widescreen
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within a week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
N/A
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
yes
 
tl;dr. the parts you chose look fine. as for the hdd, get a WD caviar blue or black 640gb or 1TB... nearly as fast as the vraptors, but cost much, much less.
 
The HD4870X2 is overkill for a 22 inch monitor. Go with the HD4890 instead.

Any system you get now would perform better, especially with Crysis, than what you're using now. If you want to save some money, go with an AMD Phenom II build. Most of today's games are largely dependent on the video card; a Core i7 processor is not a necessity for a "100% gaming" machine.

The best bang-for-your-buck HDD that we could recommend is the Western Digital WD6401AALS. It's only about 10% slower in benchmarks compared to the 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor.

Out of curiosity, which case and fans are you reusing? And give us an estimate, to the nearest $100, of the most that you're willing to spend on this build (including shipping and taxes).
 
so i've heard get an i7, and don't get an i7... one thing i do know, is that the Phenoms don't even compare to the quad core intels, and the i7 beats them both. i've read enough [h] reviews to see how much the i7 rapes the Phenom :( ... in games!
 
If you want a Core i7 build, get a Core i7 build.

I never told you to not get a Core i7 build -- I simply said that there wasn't a need for it.
 
Phenom II's perform up to par with their price-equivalent Core2's. i7 only rapes with multi-GPU configs. Single GPU configs don't need an i7 for good gaming performance since, as tiraides already mentioned, you'll be more GPU limited at or above 1680x1050 than CPU limited.
 
tiraides said:
The HD4870X2 is overkill for a 22 inch monitor. Go with the HD4890 instead.

Any system you get now would perform better, especially with Crysis, than what you're using now. If you want to save some money, go with an AMD Phenom II build. Most of today's games are largely dependent on the video card; a Core i7 processor is not a necessity for a "100% gaming" machine.

The best bang-for-your-buck HDD that we could recommend is the Western Digital WD6401AALS. It's only about 10% slower in benchmarks compared to the 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor.

Out of curiosity, which case and fans are you reusing? And give us an estimate, to the nearest $100, of the most that you're willing to spend on this build (including shipping and taxes).
Click to expand...

Case is your standard full-tower ATX case, with a 120mm fan in the front bottom, and one in the back top, right below the PS mount. it also has one 80mm on the left side (which is clear plexiglass). i don't know the brand off-hand, but i didn't think i'd need to get another case :/
The case fans, while i don't know the brand, are pretty powerful. I remember when i purchased the 120mm fans a few years ago, i wanted fans that moved 150CFM, so the 120mms are a minimum of 150cfm.

Thanks for the suggestion on the hard drive.

Thanks for info on the core2quad/i7/phenom too. I'd like to run a second GPU soon, even though right now i can only afford one.
 
enginurd said:
Phenom II's perform up to par with their price-equivalent Core2's. i7 only rapes with multi-GPU configs. Single GPU configs don't need an i7 for good gaming performance since, as tiraides already mentioned, you'll be more GPU limited at or above 1680x1050 than CPU limited.
Click to expand...

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTY0NCwzLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
Here's the article. They used 2x 4870x2s. i7 performed better but I wasn't extremely impressed. Probably for simulation type games it is a worthwhile buy but otherwise it isn't.

Here's why I would not get an i7:
Cost is way too high. 270 for the cpu 200(300 for what you picked) for the motherboard? That's crazy considering a Phenom II 550 (~200$ for CPU+motherboard) will probably perform similar enough most of the time (you will lose a few frames but nothing to kill the game...). Upgrade the CPU when you need to but right now you do not need an i7 for anything and it is not worthwhile most of the time.

Get it if you can is a dumb argument there is no reason to piss away money when you don't have to.

EDIT: I think AMD Performs better than price equivalent intel chips. Especially with the recent price drop.
EDIT2: Yeah 720 BE down to 120$ That's pretty good...
 
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Crysis aside, you don't need a multi-card CF/SLI setup or a dual-GPU video card for a 1680x1050 resolution. The HD4890 would be more than enough for most games at that resolution, and even though Crysis is more visually intensive than the average FPS, you'll still get decent performance at that resolution.
 
The computer you have at work where you downloaded and installed Crysis Demo on it, what is the specs of your work computer? Your home computer the Opteron 148 single core cpu, 2GB DDR ram and a 7800GTX video card is obviously very slow to even play Crysis. The resolution you mentioned playing Crysis at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 is not asking too much. I played both Crysis and Crysis Warhead on an 8800GT, Q6600 cpu (stock) and 2GB RAM at 1440x900 res high/gamer settings with no AA and no AF enabled. Now, an 8800GT is considered slow these days.. so.. a Radeon HD 4870 or GTX 260 will easily run Crysis at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 with high settings. I would say a Phenom II X4 940 build, Radeon HD 4890 1GB, 4GB ram will be a HUGE upgrade already over your single core opteron cpu build. With these specs, you should be able to play Crysis on all high settings at 30fps with no AA and AF enabled at 1680x1050 res.

I was already quite happy playing Crysis on high settings, no AA and AF enabled at 1440x900 res on my 22" HP W2207H monitor. I'm not running Crysis at my monitors native res. But, you will be able to.
 
Jospeh said:
...
EDIT: I think AMD Performs better than price equivalent intel chips. Especially with the recent price drop. ...
Click to expand...

Well, yah, when they launched, they were more expensive, lol. So now, of course, they probably outperform the current price equivs until Intel drops some prices.
 
AA and AF make games that much better - sooo i need to be able to play with them and still get 40+ FPS. i know i won't be able to play on my monitor's native res, but i'm not used to playing games at resolutions higher than 1024x768 anyway to be honest =p

Just want to be able to play any new game, or game out on the market now (Far Cry 2 for instance) with all details on high, including AF and AA, and ~1024x768, and get very decent framerates :)
 
You need to revert back to a CRT man hehe. 1024x768 is pretty low res to display on a 22" lcd with a native res of 1680x1050. 1024x768 being stretched to fit on a 1680x1050 res display won't look so good no matter how much AA and AF you enable. It's like you're taking a photo that is 1024x768 in size/resolution and then you enlarge it digitally to 1680x1050 size. But, I guess you're more concerned about fps and smoothness of the gameplay than how the game looks.
 
OK true, so in that case i want to be able to play on my native res, WITH aa and af.

sound reasonable?
 
Then you might as well go with the HD4850X2, especially if Crysis is one of those games that you play frequently.

But the HD4890 is still a good card, if you're willing to make a few sacrifices.
 
Stick with the HD 4890 video card. The Radeon HD4850X2 is one HUGE ass card. That card is longer than a 4870x2. I'm referring to the Sapphire Radeon HD4850X2. You don't have to run Crysis at 1680x1050 res but, just go higher than 1024x768. I would have to say go with 1280x800 res or 1440x900 res and have video settings all on HIGH and AA set to 2x or maybe 4X and AF at 8X or 16X

1280x800 Res
Video Setting = All on High
AA = 4X
AF = 8X

1440x900 Res
Video Settings = All on High
AA=2X
AF = 4X

You should do pretty well on these settings.
 
New graphics cards are coming soon. Keep that in mind. Beyond a 4890 is ...eh.
 
Why not get a 1GB 4870 instead of 4890? On NewEgg you can pick up a good 4870 for around 150 if you search for one on sale or with MIR. From what few rumors I've heard - which are totally unsubstantiated and may in fact be FUD, ATI's next gen 5870 will be roughly twice as fast as the 4870, which would put it on par with a pair of 4870s in crossfire. Unless they can drop a 2 GB 5870 at 300 dollars or less ar launch, a pair of 4870s will be cheaper now and later, while delivering the same performance. You can always wait until some preview units make it out in the wild and see if the actual benchmarks bare this out and then make a decision.

I just picked up a Sapphire 1GB 4870 with some fancy pants x-vapor cooling... I guess it's supposed to be very quiet at 20-21 dba until the fan kicks in at 85C and bumps it to 30 decibels. Still not terribly loud, but anyway I digress. The point is I paid 149.99 for the card and it has a $10 MIR (that may or may not show up) bringing the final price to 140. The money you save over a 4890 has you half way to the second card if you do actually end up needing it.

That's just my two cents. Disclaimer: I'm not well versed in modern PC gaming, just getting back into it and building a new rig for my myself.
 
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just wanted to give an update here.

put it all together last week:
newcomputer_before.JPG


and then cleaned it up yesterday:
newcomputer_after.JPG

newcomputer_after1.JPG


the only thing that's going to be changing is me adding the second video card in a week or two.
 
Are you still using that 22" monitor?

Which games are you playing that you feel you need CF for?
 
Damn, I think a 4890 is overkill for 1680 x 1050 but CROSSFIRE 4890's??? my 4850 runs everything fine at 1680 x 1050 , I had to turn down the res for crysis but still got through it fairly well.

Also nice power supply.
 
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