Can You See Anything Wrong With This Build?

[MulletBoy]

Im building my friend a new computer, he wants it to run any game around today with flying colors and have a large headroom for future upgrades

budget is around $2000
(all prices are listen in Australian Dollars, but as you can see im under budget anyway so its not really an issue)

here is what i have so far

my thinking is to go with core i7, even if i am using the base model processor, because the x58 chipset will provide large upgradability in the future. Im also going for a top of the line graphics card due to its purpose as a gaming rig, and secondly in the future when these things are way cheaper, going SLIwill be an option and the better card will provide larger gains when upgraded to SLI over a lesser card. (powersupply may need to be upgraded at the time however)

core i7 920
- $469 - MSY

Asus P6T
- $359 - MSY

6G (3X2) GSKILL 1600Mhz
- $209 - MSY

Antec 300
-$108 - MSY

Western Digital Black 640GB
-$130 - PCCaseGear

EVGA GeForce GTX 285
-$613 - PCCaseGear

ASUS DRW-20B1LT DVDRW
-$45 - PCCaseGear

Coolermaster 600W PSU
- Already owned

4x Antec 120mm Case fans
- Already owned

Samsung 2233SW 21.5" (1920x1080)
- Already owned

Some crappy keyboard and mouse
- Already owned

$1933

so yeah, tell me what you think and if you have any differing options to mine please share them, also im interested in any known hardware clashes between any of the parts iv selected

thanks, and i appreciate all comments

(edited for better HDD...again)

[ToTTenTranz]

I don't like the GTX285 (but I do know it's a subjective opinion, there are many GTX285 lovers in this forum).
I also don't think the premium price you pay for a Nehalem doesn't compensate in performance, relatively to a Phenom II or a Core 2 Quad.

Nehalems are for people who are aiming for the top.. not for cost-conscious buyers.

By cutting down the costs of the motherboard, CPU and RAM (Phenom II+790GX+4GB DDR2 or C2Q+P45+4GB DDR2), you could switch the graphics to a HD4870X2 or a GTX295.
That way you would spend the same ammount of money and get a (very) superior machine for gaming.

[MulletBoy]

thanks for your reply, ToTTen

i see what you mean by the performance gains to price ratio of going to nehalem, however one of the objectives of the build is to be highly upgradable in the future, and i figured there are no new chips coming out for core 2

so it was basically sacrifice a bit of graphics performance for upgradability

so the questions now is. will the 285GTX provide sufficient FPS for my friends gaming (on a 1920x1080 resolution screen)

games he plays at the moment are

dawn of war 2
fallout 3
world of warcraft wotlk

wants to play
crysis
gta4

wants to be able to play games coming out for the next 12 months without upgrading

all at max, or close to max graphics with good FPS

if the answer is no, i think ill most likely push to upgrade to 295GTX and still maintain nehalem chipset for upgradability

[B.E.E.F.]

i see what you mean by the performance gains to price ratio of going to nehalem, however one of the objectives of the build is to be highly upgradable in the future, and i figured there are no new chips coming out for core 2

That is correct. So basically you have a choice between PhenomII and i7.


wants to be able to play games coming out for the next 12 months without upgrading

At HD settings with max settings? Nope. Not even a GTX295 will do that. It's marginally better than the HD4870X2 while costing waaay more.

Instead of buying a super expensive computer now to cover your bases in a year, buy a cheaper computer now, and then upgrade it later. In the long run its cheaper and you always have the latest hardware.



Buy a PhenomII + HD48xx system for like $800 (it will play Crysis nice), take the $1200 put it in the bank with interest and then use it for an upgrade next year or buy another high-er end $800 computer.


BTW, stay away from the "Green" drives. Look at the WD6400AAKS. 640GB of performance cheap! And no computer can play GTA4. It's badly coded.

[MulletBoy]

thanks for your comments

if we take the money out of the equation and compare power between rigs

the phenom II w. 4870 vs i7 920 w. 285gtx

what kind of performance difference could i expect

i also am inclined to shy away from CF or SLI solutions due to the sheer number of issues those setups cause with older games like WoW which probably accounts for 70% of my friends gaming

[B.E.E.F.]

i also am inclined to shy away from CF or SLI solutions due to the sheer number of issues those setups cause with older games like WoW which probably accounts for 70% of my friends gaming

That's very sensible.


the phenom II w. 4870 vs i7 920 w. 285gtx

what kind of performance difference could i expect

Probably something like 20-30% max more performance at 200% price best case. It really depends on the application. For media encoding like H.264 the difference is massive, for something like Crysis its a couple percents.

The GTX285 is a little faster than the HD4870.

Anandtech

PhenomII 940 review (i7 included): http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3492&p=1
GTX285 review (HD4870 1G included): http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3501


Here's a system for you:

1. HD4870 1GB $195
2. 8GB DDR2-800, Geil Black Dragon $90
3. Jetway 790GX $110
4. PhenomII X4 940 $200
5. WD6400AAKS $75
6. SATA DVD Burner $24
7. Case - Antec Sonata Elite $100

Total: $797

And I didn't choose the cheapest parts! Prices from the egg, so it can be had for cheaper again.

[MulletBoy]

okay thanks for all your help, i think we probably have enough to go on now

we are also considering cheaper brands such as gigabyte and inno3D instead of asus and evga for the MB and graphics cards respectively

we have decided to go with your suggestion for not using a green HDD and i have changed the original post to reflect the "blue" edition

and we will definitely consider our options for
Phenom II AMD vs Intel i7
Nvidia VS ATI

ultimately i think it will come down to what my friend feels more comfortable with now and going into the future, money seems to be a secondary consideration to him as long as we keep it under 2k

once we make the decision and get the parts ill update this thread with final specs and a build photo or two :P

[B.E.E.F.]

Good luck. Updated my post. Forgot you had a PSU. It's now under $800USD.

[MulletBoy]

2. 8GB DDR2-800, Geil Black Dragon $90


how would this ram compare to the RAM i have listed in my original spec list?

6G (3X2) GSKILL 1600Mhz (this is DDR3)

they seem pretty different

ddr2 - ddr3
8gb - 6gb
800Mhz - 1600Mhz

[B.E.E.F.]

DDR2 vs DDR3 makes no difference for PhenomII.

[jagass]

I don't see anything wrong here...

[zanzabar]

the WD blue is slow get the black and can u get a dfi over the p6t the p6t dosnt do turbo and dosnt have normal ram timings

[MulletBoy]

the WD blue is slow get the black and can u get a dfi over the p6t the p6t dosnt do turbo and dosnt have normal ram timings

lol i started with green... now blue... next black, im working my way throught he whole rainbow of WD harddrives ... (black is $10 more than blue, so no problem, upgrade locked in :P )

what is this "turbo" you speak of

the ram i have chosen is this:
http://newgskill.web-bi.net/bbs/view.php?id=g_ddr3&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=48

you sure the P6T wont like it?

[B.E.E.F.]

the WD blue is slow get the black

Tiiiiiny difference in performance. Check it out. Its called the WD6401AALS.

[ToTTenTranz]

My suggestion is the same as B.E.E.F.
I would switch the Phenom II X4 940 for a Phenom II X3 720 BE, and spend the extra money on a HD4850X2 2GB -> It will have better performance in games.



Spend 800$ now on an excelent system (or wait until we know exactly what's coming out of ATI's hat on April 6th) and within a year he can spend another $500 or so in another CPU and graphics card.

Buying expensive future-proof systems is always a mistake with gaming hardware.