Help with a gaming rig

[LC_Nab]

Hello and good evening to all :

So the big question like we all do , I have done my searches,google and so far all i get is fanboysm and such . I need non bs clear tips , Im looking to build a awsome gaming rig but here is the question Intel or Amd ? Is it really worth getting i7 ? or just the Q9xxx . Or should I go with PII ?

True its all about money , but yet I cant decide if i got intel , if i7 or Q9xxx .
Or should i got amd 965 ? For cards Ive thought about GTX280 . Ive tried ati they are nice but all the games I play are nvdia coded .... yay >.> .

Anyways , tips , thoughts , anything is welcomed .

ps : Yes i did my search in the forums , but still cant really decide with all the fans from both sides .

[HuffPCair]

What is your limit on budget?

[zanzabar]

we need a budget to give u recommendations.

and IMO unless u fold or get a really good deal buying an NV card isnt practical the 4890 is the fastest gpu and its cheaper than the 275

[HuffPCair]

we need a budget to give u recommendations.

and IMO unless u fold or get a really good deal buying an NV card isnt practical the 4890 is the fastest gpu and its cheaper than the 275

Agreed on my current planning on my next build Im going ATI 4890 unless they come out with something new and that is worth the money. I dont see spending 500 bucks on a card that is going to be out dated in a few months as practical.

[LC_Nab]

3k is the maximum i can spend .

[LC_Nab]

we need a budget to give u recommendations.

and IMO unless u fold or get a really good deal buying an NV card isnt practical the 4890 is the fastest gpu and its cheaper than the 275

Mmm I see , and what about the new ati card the 5xxx series is it worth it ?

[iTravis]

Phenom II is right between Core i7 and Core 2 Quad so if you just use it mainly for gaming then it might not be a bad choice at all. But with that budget I would recommend get a core i7 and a decent X58 motherboard. The next gen video card is coming as well so you might wanna hold off for a bit, just get something cheap like a HD4870 or HD4890 then wait for HD5xxx series or GT300.

[zanzabar]

its such a hard choice to get the 4890 now or get the 58xx latter, if only evga or bfg sold ati cards.

with $3k i would start with a p2 965, ocz amd edition cas7 and gd70 then get 2 high end 58xx, an auzen x-forte sound card, enermax 1050W revolution and then liquid for everything.

u could also do i7, but the amd is more fun to oc and the 790fx boards (especially the gd70) have vary good IO for multi cardso u could do 4 cards although im not sure on the price point for that with liquid. with the i7 its a little faster atleast in heavy threaded int stuff but they are close in 3d mark and its a good general predictor of gaming cpu performance

[LC_Nab]

Mmmm so the i7 wont be really needed as much if I'm only going for gaming ?

GD70 looks nice , I wonder if there are water blocks for it xD .

And yes I'm planing to w/c the system , Was thinking of wc the board too but then , still dont know if its needed or its just bling .

Yeah its a hard choice , any good x58 board ?

Thank you all for your input .

[psyconut713]

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10820185

Check this out, under budget, can over clock the CPU with the water cooling you will add, and save some money for how, X-fire the cards until the 58XX's come out

[LC_Nab]

Oh wow , nice build and under the price too . The tera hd would be for storage and the ssd for the games mmmm , what about this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188039 or the asus PT6 Delux is better ?
I was thinking of buying the Cosmos S , since I have been looking and seems that its a nice case to fit a 360 rad and a 240 one .

Im looking to wc the board , i hope theres blocks for the Asus P6T delux or the Evga E758 .

Thanks psy for the input .

[Aothen]

3k is the maximum i can spend .

What I would build with 2 (USD) grand: :up:

OS: Windows 7 beta ;)
Case: Antec p-180mini http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129041
PSU: Corsair 750w http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Mobo: Asus Rampage 2 Gene http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131371
Mem: Corsair Dominator 3x2gig PC3-12800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224 Or you could bling it and buy Crucial's Ballistix mem! **thats what i did.
CPU: Intel core i7 920 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202
Heatsink: Scythe Mugen http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185093 OR you could just splurge and watercool everything **its what I'm doin
Hard Drive: WD velociRaptor 300gig http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136322
Video Card: XfX 4890 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150359 Or you could just wait for the 5k series! **its what I'm doin
DVD burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136167
LCD: Hanns G 28" 1080p Hdmi flat panelhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026
Keyboard: Razor LEhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823114008
Mouse: Razor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826153017
Mouse Pad: Razor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826999030
Case fansx2: Antec tri color 120mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209014
Headset: Creative Fata1ty headset http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826158081

Lemme know if you have any questions!

Aothen.

[WSP]

I had tried both Intel and AMD, and I must say, AMD plays games smoothly than Intel (E7200, E8200, E8400, Q6600, AMD PII X2 550, AMD AII X2 245) even at higher resolution

but I never tried i7 though

as for any good, cheap X58 mobo, I'd say MSI X-58 PRO-E ;)

[Aothen]

I had tried both Intel and AMD, and I must say, AMD plays games smoothly than Intel (E7200, E8200, E8400, Q6600, AMD PII X2 550, AMD AII X2 245) even at higher resolution

but I never tried i7 though

as for any good, cheap X58 mobo, I'd say MSI X-58 PRO-E ;)

Sounds like we have an AMD fanboy :down: There are other factors that affect overall gameplay. If your noticing smoother gameplay...erm.. just by cpu performance ....you must be right at the point of around 30fps to where its barely noticeable... ;)

[zanzabar]

Sounds like we have an AMD fanboy :down: There are other factors that affect overall gameplay. If your noticing smoother gameplay...erm.. just by cpu performance ....you must be right at the point of around 30fps to where its barely noticeable... ;)

until u try the p2 u wouldent understand its just smoother, and u can notice frames up to 100+ since there is input lagg. and there is more to a cpu platform than frames and cpu performance the cpu platform controls the pci-e IO and latency.


@OP do u want air or liquid cooling

and i would stay away from asus, i would get dfi or evga on the intel side and msi or dfi on the amd side

[psyconut713]

I picked the ASUS board for a few reasons:
1. I have always had good luck with their customer support/RMA department.
2. Whether you go ATI or nVIDIA, it supported both SLI and Crossfire

However, if you want to OC, might try Rampage or Classified

[WSP]

Sounds like we have an AMD fanboy :down: There are other factors that affect overall gameplay. If your noticing smoother gameplay...erm.. just by cpu performance ....you must be right at the point of around 30fps to where its barely noticeable... ;)

yeah....my HD4850 doing less than 30fps while I play guitar hero world tour @1280x1024res............. :p:

[LC_Nab]

Come on now be nice , Im just looking for ideas and opinions , not starting a fan war .

And yes I want to watercool the system , thanks for the input Aothen .

Man it really sucks , making up your mind lols .

I thought that the classified was only SLI not crossfire , unless its all promo and it really supports both since its a X58 chip , but I could be wrong , Any input on that ?

Another thing , SSD drives are they really wroth the $$$ or should I just stick to the Raptors ?

Again thank you all for the input .

[YukonTrooper]

Considering that an i7 system actually isn't that much more expensive than a DDR3 PII system, I'd say there's no reason not to go for i7. Even the cheapest i7 system is still faster than the most expensive PII system, so think about that for a second. Also, since you'll be watercooling and i7 clocks much better and loves water, I think the choice becomes even easier. Have you seen what the i7 920 D0 chips can do on water? Booyah, baby.

At this point in time, I'd only buy a PII system if I absolutely needed to save that last ~$150, and I didn't plan on overclocking.

[LC_Nab]

I don't know about that , triple DRR 3 cost more than double channel , also theres the PII 965 witch is 3.4 ghz , and its about 230 $ , i7 is only 2.xx ghz and cost abit more than the PPII not to mention the i7 boards are more expensive . Still thank you for the input .

Well the big question , no fans please :P , Is the i7 worth it only for gaming , ill be running 3 vid cards on a 1980x1200 , resolution so yeah is it worth the price o I can get the same kick ass performance with a PII ?

And are SSD hard drives worth it ?

x58 chip can run either crossfire or sli ? Then why is the classified saying only sli ? or it can also run xfire ?

[zanzabar]

ssd drives are nice, if u get 2 intel gen2 80GB that would make a great setup

[YukonTrooper]

I don't know about that , triple DRR 3 cost more than double channel , also theres the PII 965 witch is 3.4 ghz , and its about 230 $ , i7 is only 2.xx ghz and cost abit more than the PPII not to mention the i7 boards are more expensive . Still thank you for the input .
I was comparing a DDR3 PII system, not DDR2. Also, I mentioned twice that I would choose the i7 over the PII for its overclocking capabilities. Not only will the i7 chips clock higher, but they are already faster clock-for-clock. You can't compare just GHz numbers for accurately gauging performance, which is what you have done.

[dum]

I was comparing a DDR3 PII system, not DDR2. Also, I mentioned twice that I would choose the i7 over the PII for its overclocking capabilities. Not only will the i7 chips clock higher, but they are already faster clock-for-clock. You can't compare just GHz numbers for accurately gauging performance, which is what you have done.

But in your opinion p2 is better than a quad yorkfield?

[YukonTrooper]

But in your opinion p2 is better than a quad yorkfield?
Not necessarily. Between the PII and Yorkfield it's virtually a wash overall. Of course, it depends on what specific PII and Yorkfield you're looking at, but comparing both platforms really gets down to nitpicking. If I had to choose between the two, I'd for for the PII, simply because I'd support AMD getting back to it's respected status among the enthusiast crowd. It's good to have competition, and everyone wants to see the little guy get ahead, at least most everyone. I really do miss my Ultra-D and +3800 X2.

Having said all that, i7 is easy to recommend because it's noticeably faster than anything else in almost all areas. If you're going to overclock, crunch, encode, compress and/or want the very best gaming performance, i7 is worth the price premium, at least in my opinion. I do all of those things, so Intel easily made me its b*tch this time around. If AMD can catch up, I'll switch teams once again.

[Aothen]

until u try the p2 u wouldent understand its just smoother, and u can notice frames up to 100+ since there is input lagg. and there is more to a cpu platform than frames and cpu performance the cpu platform controls the pci-e IO and latency.


@OP do u want air or liquid cooling

and i would stay away from asus, i would get dfi or evga on the intel side and msi or dfi on the amd side

Since your talking about the p2 era of chips, motherboards ect.... sure, .... but now that more and more things are being intergrated on die.. IE: the i7 and future chips... from both the amd intel camps.. Back in the day thats why amd had a bump in performance becuase of the integrated memory controller on chip... Back in the p3 p4 until the i7... intel had to rely on its north bridge... this is why you would see and hear how amd is "a better gamming chip" this was a no brainer.... but its funny how the tables have turned ... ever since the Core2 came out...amd has not been able to keep in stride with intel... YAY, i love trips down memory lane!! hehH:rolleyes:

Aothen.

[zanzabar]

p2 is phenom 2, i dont think that any1 on XS would have any biz with the pentium2

[Aothen]

p2 is phenom 2, i dont think that any1 on XS would have any biz with the pentium2

Well, thats an intersting statement based on 'ta fact that there were many many of us with pentium 2's (back in 'da day!):ROTF:

Aothen...

**have a good weekend yall!:rolleyes:

[Donnie27]

Since your talking about the p2 era of chips, motherboards ect.... sure, .... but now that more and more things are being intergrated on die.. IE: the i7 and future chips... from both the amd intel camps.. Back in the day thats why amd had a bump in performance becuase of the integrated memory controller on chip... Back in the p3 p4 until the i7... intel had to rely on its north bridge... this is why you would see and hear how amd is "a better gamming chip" this was a no brainer.... but its funny how the tables have turned ... ever since the Core2 came out...amd has not been able to keep in stride with intel... YAY, i love trips down memory lane!! hehH:rolleyes:

Aothen.

QFT! Don't forget i5 with affordable motherboards.