I'm thinking I'll just go with the Phenom X4 Black Edition thing you suggested for the CPU. Seems good enough.
Help: Specs for a gaming PC.
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I must say... I think that case looks hideous, i like the idea behind it, but.. no. (also the price tag... that is nuts)Scrumpmonkey said:Also the antec 900 is still a great gaming case. if you want to go absolutely insane buy this bad-boy;
The Thermaltake Level 10. Thing of beauty.
It also looks like it could have some cooling troubles. How does it fair there?
Should I go with the Corsairs or the GSkill? I'm not sure, the Corsairs are pretty sweet.Wolfram01 said:
Thanks, I'll put it in the list.Wolfram01 said:
Also, wow, I didn't expect help like this. Really, thanks again.
Well, again again, I guess.
This build is almost completely different from what I had in mind.Wolfram01 said:I like this stuffkiller-corkonian said:
Also, now that you have a fairly good build you might conisder taking it over to tomshardware, there's always lots of help available there http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-31.html
I like it.
For you. Also, you have gained 100 internets (Redeemable at Net City Hall, terms and conditions apply)
well im using an apple computer right now not on my desktop but go to this website: http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri
and search a game (any) and they'll have a link below going to a website with amazing cheap gaming computers, i got 1 off the site for $900 that had: 1TB, 4G RAM, Nvidia GeForce9800 and a 26 Inch monitor for $250.
and search a game (any) and they'll have a link below going to a website with amazing cheap gaming computers, i got 1 off the site for $900 that had: 1TB, 4G RAM, Nvidia GeForce9800 and a 26 Inch monitor for $250.
Couple of personal insights.
The first question is... how long do you expect to be using this rig? See thing is people will tell you this and that about parts, which ill do the same later. Fact is, you really dont need to overpay for parts to get a good exp out of a game. I built my PC about 2 years ago, and I can still run full specs on any game thats came out this year minus a minor improvement on video card and running one video card. things like tri SLI/xfire ect is just spec whoring.
The reason I ask is because you have to look at how long you expect this rig to live. With such, your primary for a PC is to build it with the focus on the right parts. You need to focus primarially on processor/mobo first and foremost because you want to be in a situation where if you really honestly genuinely need to upgrade the processor, your just as well to build a new box all together. So go for the highest end processor speed and Front side bus rating possible. (not hard to get a 1600 fsb mobo these days)
Ram, Video cards,power supply, Sound cards (which honestly I dont get the point of sound cards as you can typically run off onboard sound off a decent mobo these days.)are all fairly easy work wise to replace and upgrade, and typically fairly cheap to do so too considering your mobo/processor guide the possible upgrade parts anyway, and the longer you use the mobo/processor, the cheaper that working parts for it gets typically. Just upgrade what you need, when you need it.
On the parts suggested... ehh.. I would say go with Gskill ram, simply because ive just been extremely lucky and have bought 8 different sticks without the slightest hint of a problem from them.
On video cards, this is just me, but ive personally found that Nvidia cards are built more for longevity, and ATI cards are built for bleeding edge. I personally say an EVGA Nvidia card will last you longer than that specific box will, and perform the same as the first day you install it, whereas and again this has just been my experience, ATI cards are truly superior in graphical performance with things like faster refresh rates and core clock speeds, but for some reason their performance tends to deteriorate over time to the point you would be more likely to replace the card before your ready to replace the box.
These are my opinions, I know plenty of people would dissagree on various levels. All I can say to it, is Im running a two year old box, with a 2.33ghz DC processor, 4gb of 2ddr ram(on a 32bit system) 1gb geforce 250, and seriously, I can play anything I personally like at full specs without a hickup, with the exception of MMOs which that has more to do with server related issues. The only serious spec related problems I have had with any sort of game, was related to project dolphin (Wii/GC emulator) to which thats really not the computers fault as much as it is the fact that its an emulator.
So my real suggestion? Not a good idea asking people on an open forum what you need, because youll typically find an abundance of people willing to tell you that you need to drop a couple thousand worth in parts to even be able to get to a load screen for a new game. Its bogus and only leads to paying thousands more for what your not even going to be using to its full potential for a couple of years from the point of build, just to win an imaginary pissing contest against yourself.
The first question is... how long do you expect to be using this rig? See thing is people will tell you this and that about parts, which ill do the same later. Fact is, you really dont need to overpay for parts to get a good exp out of a game. I built my PC about 2 years ago, and I can still run full specs on any game thats came out this year minus a minor improvement on video card and running one video card. things like tri SLI/xfire ect is just spec whoring.
The reason I ask is because you have to look at how long you expect this rig to live. With such, your primary for a PC is to build it with the focus on the right parts. You need to focus primarially on processor/mobo first and foremost because you want to be in a situation where if you really honestly genuinely need to upgrade the processor, your just as well to build a new box all together. So go for the highest end processor speed and Front side bus rating possible. (not hard to get a 1600 fsb mobo these days)
Ram, Video cards,power supply, Sound cards (which honestly I dont get the point of sound cards as you can typically run off onboard sound off a decent mobo these days.)are all fairly easy work wise to replace and upgrade, and typically fairly cheap to do so too considering your mobo/processor guide the possible upgrade parts anyway, and the longer you use the mobo/processor, the cheaper that working parts for it gets typically. Just upgrade what you need, when you need it.
On the parts suggested... ehh.. I would say go with Gskill ram, simply because ive just been extremely lucky and have bought 8 different sticks without the slightest hint of a problem from them.
On video cards, this is just me, but ive personally found that Nvidia cards are built more for longevity, and ATI cards are built for bleeding edge. I personally say an EVGA Nvidia card will last you longer than that specific box will, and perform the same as the first day you install it, whereas and again this has just been my experience, ATI cards are truly superior in graphical performance with things like faster refresh rates and core clock speeds, but for some reason their performance tends to deteriorate over time to the point you would be more likely to replace the card before your ready to replace the box.
These are my opinions, I know plenty of people would dissagree on various levels. All I can say to it, is Im running a two year old box, with a 2.33ghz DC processor, 4gb of 2ddr ram(on a 32bit system) 1gb geforce 250, and seriously, I can play anything I personally like at full specs without a hickup, with the exception of MMOs which that has more to do with server related issues. The only serious spec related problems I have had with any sort of game, was related to project dolphin (Wii/GC emulator) to which thats really not the computers fault as much as it is the fact that its an emulator.
So my real suggestion? Not a good idea asking people on an open forum what you need, because youll typically find an abundance of people willing to tell you that you need to drop a couple thousand worth in parts to even be able to get to a load screen for a new game. Its bogus and only leads to paying thousands more for what your not even going to be using to its full potential for a couple of years from the point of build, just to win an imaginary pissing contest against yourself.
I agree with viranimus. Lots of good points. As to audio cards well, some people are audiophiles, and a decent audio card is leaps and bounds better than even high def onboard sound. Like a Civic to a Corvette. But, in many situations and for many people there's not much difference.
As for video cards, you raise some good points. NV tends to have better drivers it seems, and SLI scales slightly better than crossfire. To save a little money, going down from CF 5850s to SLI GTX460s would be a decent choice, and from the reviews I've read the 1gb model of the GTX460s can OC like crazy. With voltage control, I read of one going up to 920mhz core speed, and in SLI they nearly matched stock 5870s in crossfire! Of course that's only in one case, in general CF 5850s and 5870s are going to win and of course they overclock.
I know a thing or two about 5850 performance tho, since I'm running CF 5850s myself. For one, they also OC nicely. At stock voltage I can get 875 core, 1200 mem speeds (up from 725/1000). With a little extra voltage they can go as high as 985 core. Some people can push them over 1000 and the mem into the 1300 area, but that's just getting lucky (since they use the same parts as 5870s but are binned to be worse). In Metro2033 at Very High detail, DX11 with tesslation and depth of field, 16AF+AAA, my OCed 5850s pull off 50+ FPS most of the time, at the worst it's 35 or so (only in the absolute most intense rendering where there's a lot of light and smoke). In Crysis at Very High 2xAA it's almost 55+, Crysis Warhead Enthusiast (highest) 4xAA it's 60+. I made a post with benchmarks here [http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289809-33-single-5850-furmark-crysis-stalker-dirt].
As for video cards, you raise some good points. NV tends to have better drivers it seems, and SLI scales slightly better than crossfire. To save a little money, going down from CF 5850s to SLI GTX460s would be a decent choice, and from the reviews I've read the 1gb model of the GTX460s can OC like crazy. With voltage control, I read of one going up to 920mhz core speed, and in SLI they nearly matched stock 5870s in crossfire! Of course that's only in one case, in general CF 5850s and 5870s are going to win and of course they overclock.
I know a thing or two about 5850 performance tho, since I'm running CF 5850s myself. For one, they also OC nicely. At stock voltage I can get 875 core, 1200 mem speeds (up from 725/1000). With a little extra voltage they can go as high as 985 core. Some people can push them over 1000 and the mem into the 1300 area, but that's just getting lucky (since they use the same parts as 5870s but are binned to be worse). In Metro2033 at Very High detail, DX11 with tesslation and depth of field, 16AF+AAA, my OCed 5850s pull off 50+ FPS most of the time, at the worst it's 35 or so (only in the absolute most intense rendering where there's a lot of light and smoke). In Crysis at Very High 2xAA it's almost 55+, Crysis Warhead Enthusiast (highest) 4xAA it's 60+. I made a post with benchmarks here [http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/289809-33-single-5850-furmark-crysis-stalker-dirt].
Here's something to keep in mind with PC gaming - the specs needed will always go up, so you always want to just get the cheapest thing you possibly can.
Right now the issue is PCI-E graphics cards, if you go ultra cheap second hand you'll get a PC with an AGP slot and that does you no good. Get a motherboard with a PCI-E 16x slot, potentially two so you can do crossfire/SLI. Next, make sure the motherboard has a CPU socket that will handle upgrades, for AMD for example you'd want to look at a socket AM3 motherboard.
CPU wise, looking on price comparisons I've found about one of the best ones to be the AMD Phenom II X3 720 - which if you get the right motherboard has a good potential for unlocking the fourth core and overclocking (of course the right cooling is an issue too).
For any specs you're looking at, find the best price/performance ratio, and get what's cheapest. For instance for hard drives you could look at one that's 1TB and $70 or another that's 1.5TB and $85 - the $85 one is a much better price/GB ratio. If the 2TB one comes at $150, you definitely don't want to go that high. This always changes and will depend on where you can buy from and what the shipping fees are.
Also, right now memory prices are really expensive, so you'll want to get the minimum and cheapest necessary to play a certain chunk of games, and just put up with it until memory prices come down and upgrade then.
There really isn't any reason to be spending more than $600. If you spend $1200 now, a year from now you'll be able to put together a $600 system that's even faster, so just start at the low end and regularly upgrade whatever component happens to come on sale. If you have 2GB RAM and there's a sweet 6GB memory sale, upgrade that right away. If there's a major CPU price drop thanks to a new one coming out, that's the right time to upgrade.
Right now the issue is PCI-E graphics cards, if you go ultra cheap second hand you'll get a PC with an AGP slot and that does you no good. Get a motherboard with a PCI-E 16x slot, potentially two so you can do crossfire/SLI. Next, make sure the motherboard has a CPU socket that will handle upgrades, for AMD for example you'd want to look at a socket AM3 motherboard.
CPU wise, looking on price comparisons I've found about one of the best ones to be the AMD Phenom II X3 720 - which if you get the right motherboard has a good potential for unlocking the fourth core and overclocking (of course the right cooling is an issue too).
For any specs you're looking at, find the best price/performance ratio, and get what's cheapest. For instance for hard drives you could look at one that's 1TB and $70 or another that's 1.5TB and $85 - the $85 one is a much better price/GB ratio. If the 2TB one comes at $150, you definitely don't want to go that high. This always changes and will depend on where you can buy from and what the shipping fees are.
Also, right now memory prices are really expensive, so you'll want to get the minimum and cheapest necessary to play a certain chunk of games, and just put up with it until memory prices come down and upgrade then.
There really isn't any reason to be spending more than $600. If you spend $1200 now, a year from now you'll be able to put together a $600 system that's even faster, so just start at the low end and regularly upgrade whatever component happens to come on sale. If you have 2GB RAM and there's a sweet 6GB memory sale, upgrade that right away. If there's a major CPU price drop thanks to a new one coming out, that's the right time to upgrade.
Of course there is picking a specific game you want to play and making sure you have the specs for that, but there's no point in getting just the highest end components for their own sake. Say you have $3000 to spend, spend it all now, or spend $1000, and then $500 in upgrades every year. Over 3 years you've spent the same amount, but if you start off with $1000, your $3000 will overall have gotten you a much better system.
Suggestions:killer-corkonian said:
-1TB HDD instead = save money and hassle on a later upgrade
-LGA 1366 or LGA 1156 based CPUs seems to have more future-proofing options and you can start with a Value-Price Core i3 for games like COD4 / Left 4 Dead / TF2 which are fine on dual-core then move up to Quad or Hex core as needed.
-if this is your first build don't fuck with crossfire, especially two card where each is powerful enough (crossfire 4770 is actually great value)
-I wouldn't recommend surround sound from a dedicated card, many motherboards offer adequate
I also recommend the Samsung 2494HM monitor.
750GB is quite a bit, depending on usage. Some people require tons of space but on a gaming PC even 500GB would be enough for quite a while. If you like to save a lot of movies and pics then that might start getting filled up, but adding a HDD isn't difficult at all. Plug and play... well, format, then play.
The Intel i series is better in many respects than the AMD equivalents but also pricer. Having an i3 vs an X4 955 tho, the X4 is better. X4 vs i5 750, well then the i5 is better. Anyway, the X4 is a good CPU and should work great for several years.
Crossfire is no big deal IMO. My current rig is my first time ever building my own PC and I stuck CF5850s in it, it was easy. Plus, lots of info available online.
And for dedicated sound card, well I disagree as I tried 5.1 speakers off mobo sound then off a sound card and it easily sounded better and crisper off the sound card. Plus you also get a lot of features mobo sound doesn't have. If you just "want sound" then whatever, but if you're into sound quality then you can't not have a sound card. Just depends how you rank on the Audiophile-o-meter.
I actually agree with the monitor, as I was looking over many when I bought my PC and I choose the Samsung 2494SW - exact same thing just without speakers. It has a very very good image, great colour quality, lots of contrast (easy to see details playing Penumbra, a very dark, dark game). But I'm sure the ASUS is good too, as it's a good brand name (at least for PC parts).
The Intel i series is better in many respects than the AMD equivalents but also pricer. Having an i3 vs an X4 955 tho, the X4 is better. X4 vs i5 750, well then the i5 is better. Anyway, the X4 is a good CPU and should work great for several years.
Crossfire is no big deal IMO. My current rig is my first time ever building my own PC and I stuck CF5850s in it, it was easy. Plus, lots of info available online.
And for dedicated sound card, well I disagree as I tried 5.1 speakers off mobo sound then off a sound card and it easily sounded better and crisper off the sound card. Plus you also get a lot of features mobo sound doesn't have. If you just "want sound" then whatever, but if you're into sound quality then you can't not have a sound card. Just depends how you rank on the Audiophile-o-meter.
I actually agree with the monitor, as I was looking over many when I bought my PC and I choose the Samsung 2494SW - exact same thing just without speakers. It has a very very good image, great colour quality, lots of contrast (easy to see details playing Penumbra, a very dark, dark game). But I'm sure the ASUS is good too, as it's a good brand name (at least for PC parts).
I don't follow the latest gaming hardware any more, but I do seem to recall hearing that two recent releases of ati video drivers had issues, as I was seeing forums posts (not here) that people were rolling them back. Might want to go with Nvidia instead.