New game rig

I put together my budget PC last week and it should beat that system in gaming performance because of the graphics card. You dont need an i7 because games are GPU bound. Just overclock a cheap dual core to 3.0+Ghz and it wont bottleneck games.

E5200@ 3.3Ghz
G31 Mobo
4GB DDR2 Ram
Force3D HD4870 512MB
DVD writer
Wireless keyboard+mouse
Coolermaster Elite 330 case
460W Coolermaster extreme power plus PSU

All the above came to around R6700 and I can max out every game I have with anti-aliasing on full @ 1360x768 resolution.
 
Well i can assure you now that gta4 will run like poorly on that setup due to the dual core and the i7 in gta4 will kill your system by some margin, games are starting to to use more than 1 or 2 cores and your pc i don't think is future proof and within a year you will need to replace it, should he get this i7 system he won't need to replace anything but the vga card for sometime.

I get what your saying but future proofing is not a bad thing and let's be honest that i7 will run just about any game that will come out in the next 2-3 years with ease i would imagine where as your pc will not.
 
I think the OP wants to spend about 16 Grand if my calculations are right, he can get a 4870X2 if he wanted, with a quad core and other nice stuff too - he just needs to shift some money off the expensive screens and power supply's/etc...

SaiyanZ is right that games aren't that heavy on CPU, and more on 3D Card, and killa is right with the quad - if you're spending 16G's then a quad is minimum. more future proof too.

So my Suggestion:
get a 4870X2, a 620W/750W Corsair PSU, the Samsung 2494HS that slyFly recommended and definitely a Quadcore CPU, don't get a dual!
 
I agree with the above. Don't get a dual core if you're spending that much. There are some games that use more than 2 cores and it will only increase in future. I was just comparing the prices of the systems. R6200 for mine (excl keyboard and mouse) and R13000+ for his (excl screen). Either way, even with games that utilize more than 2 cores the graphics card is still most important and for R6200 I'll have better performance (until he crossfires the 4770's :)
 
Well thank you ;)

I must say the mobo is fine (Good price), the CPU is fine, but the PSU is overkill, the 3d card is a waste and my recommendation for the monitor is awesome :p If you get that monitor you will have the extra money for the 3d card, also get a cheaper PSU and you'll have more money to spend...
 
killadoob said:
I get what your saying but future proofing is not a bad thing and let's be honest that i7 will run just about any game that will come out in the next 2-3 years with ease i would imagine where as your pc will not.
Click to expand...

Future proofing comes with a price penalty though. 6mnths from now his pc will be "old" if I could call it that.

I went down the same path a few years back and got the latest and greatest of everything but to be honest I don't think it is worth it. These days I just buy stuff that hits the price vs performace sweet spot. I don't get any bragging rights from it but I save a lot of money this way.
 
Thanks a lot for all the great feedback. I have no problem going smaller on the monitor, is 1920x1080 supported by games or will you get resizing of the image, that was the main reason I went for the 1920x1200? I don't want to mess with the native resolution and loose quality, if this is not an issue I would love to spend that money on the gfx card. That and the saving on this power supply will get me the 4870. Does that sound like a better plan?

What is the general feeling, are we due for a GPU/processor price cut soon (within a month) or not?
 
ponder said:
Future proofing comes with a price penalty though. 6mnths from now his pc will be "old" if I could call it that.

I went down the same path a few years back and got the latest and greatest of everything but to be honest I don't think it is worth it. These days I just buy stuff that hits the price vs performace sweet spot. I don't get any bragging rights from it but I save a lot of money this way.
Click to expand...

Strange you say 6 months? People who bought q6600's are in a better position than his e5200 and how long ago did the q6600 come out? It also is not much more expensive maybe 1k more than a cheap dual core for something like an e8200. So it's not banking breaking by any means.

If your buying intel's top cpu's then yes of course 9k for a cpu will hurt but 2k for a quadcore is hardly expensive compared to 700 bucks for a dual core and it will last a lot longer.
 
A 4870 would be much better. I still say core i7 is a waste at the moment (for gaming) value-wise unless you got a HD4870 1GB, GTX260 or better graphics card. Core i7 will be better in a years time if you replace the current gen graphics that you're putting in now. (but in a years time we will all replace our CPU+GPU combo as well)

The money you save now on a quad core system can get you a HD4870x2 instead of a HD4870 which would give you a much larger performance increase than going from quad core to Core i7 because all games are GPU bound and very few games are CPU bound. Also at high resolutions the jump in going from quad core to Core i7 gives a hardly noticable increase in performance because most of the load is on the GPU.
 
Maybe I should clarify something, I have not played the latest games for a while. Is the display option of 1920x1080 standard for most new games or is it usually 1920x1200 only. If it's the former, no further discussion is needed on going for the smaller moinitor.
 
It's all of them - there is no "native" resolution for games, these days the new DirectX Drivers enables the game to scale to any resolution.

btw, 1920x1080 is a better native resolution, because that is the native resolution for blu-ray.
 
LOL

Thank God for these forums, I somehow had this idea of 1920x1200 'native res' in my head.

OK it's done then, moving to this:

Samsung 2333SW

and

HD4870

and

Corsair HX620W

Will I still be able to possibly Crossfire on this PSU later?

I feel a lot better about the setup now, you guys have been brilliant as usual, thanks a lot. Any last words of wisdom?


EDIT:
PS:

What is the difference between TX650W and TX620W
 
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Deonlr said:
LOL

Thank God for these forums, I somehow had this idea of 1920x1200 'native res' in my head.

OK it's done then, moving to this:

Samsung 2333SW

and

HD4870

and

Corsair HX620W

Will I still be able to possibly Crossfire on this PSU later?

I feel a lot better about the setup now, you guys have been brilliant as usual, thanks a lot. Any last words of wisdom?
Click to expand...

You could definitely Crossfire 2 4870s on that PSU. But, a single card to the value of both cards you're wanting to Crossfire, will be better. ;)
 
I would like to know though why you are spending 3.5k on a vga card from comx when www.pcint.co.za has the same ati 4870 for a lot less.

HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI-I / TVO Toxic R 2,050 excl. R 2,337 incl. That is over 1000 bucks cheaper than your planning to buy. As is the monitor cheaper.

I mean check this out, HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI-I / TVO R 2,399 excl. R 2,734 incl. that is still cheaper than the 4870 you plan to buy and it would be faster.
 
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What do you guys think about this rig?

Dell Studio XPS Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
6144MB (6x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
640GB (2x320GB) Serial ATA Non Raid (7200RPM) Dual HDD
6X DVD+/-RW Drive
512MB ATI Radeon 4850 Graphics card 1 S
Audio Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital capability
Dell Multimedia Wireless Keyboard Black & Mouse Black
English Genuine Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) including Media
4 Year Hardware Support - Next Business Day
4Yr Accidental Damage Support

The accidental damage support is for when I dc in Ulduar :):)
 
BelAl said:
What do you guys think about this rig?

Dell Studio XPS Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
6144MB (6x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
640GB (2x320GB) Serial ATA Non Raid (7200RPM) Dual HDD
6X DVD+/-RW Drive
512MB ATI Radeon 4850 Graphics card 1 S
Audio Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital capability
Dell Multimedia Wireless Keyboard Black & Mouse Black
English Genuine Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium (64 BIT) including Media
4 Year Hardware Support - Next Business Day
4Yr Accidental Damage Support

The accidental damage support is for when I dc in Ulduar :):)
Click to expand...

Eek, what are you paying for just the PC?
 
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