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Getting new parts for Christmas, Help Please.

498 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  joshconsulting, 
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Hello, diden't know where to post this but I'm 17 and I'm getting a new motherboard/CPU/GPU and Ram. Ive got a pretty good case/powersupply. But heres my current rig.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40 GHz (can overclock to 2.8ish)
Core Volate 1.696 v

Mobo: Abit IN9 32X MAX

Memory: DDR2 2MBs,Single channel, Timing 5.6.6.17.26

Graphics Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX

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Not sure what the budget would be, but my birthday is a month after Christmas so I could probably spend a decent amount. I was hoping you guys could recommend me a solid setup for gaming, thats all I will be using it for.
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J
Get an i7 920, overclock it (it'll go pretty far, even on the stock cooler - keep voltages low and push the clocks)

A Radeon 5850 looks to be the best choice for GPUs at the moment, at least until Fermi hits the market. Which brings up another point... Why is this in the NVIDIA section? You could ask a mod to move it.

I like the P6T Mobo, but if your looking for something cheaper, you could get an i5 and save some on the mobo\\RAM. Depends what your budget is, 'decent' is somewhat subjective.

If you go triple channel, get either 6GB or 12 GB of the cheapest name-brand DDR3 - speeds matter less then capacity, and your better off with double the capacity of a slightly slower RAM if your sticking to a certain price point.
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Quote:

Originally Posted by joshconsulting View Post
Get an i7 920, overclock it (it'll go pretty far, even on the stock cooler - keep voltages low and push the clocks)

A Radeon 5850 looks to be the best choice for GPUs at the moment, at least until Fermi hits the market. Which brings up another point... Why is this in the NVIDIA section? You could ask a mod to move it.

I like the P6T Mobo, but if your looking for something cheaper, you could get an i5 and save some on the mobo\\RAM. Depends what your budget is, 'decent' is somewhat subjective.

If you go triple channel, get either 6GB or 12 GB of the cheapest name-brand DDR3 - speeds matter less then capacity, and your better off with double the capacity of a slightly slower RAM if your sticking to a certain price point.
I was going to go with Nvidia, but is Radeon really better for gaming?
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fencefeet
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Novus View Post
I was going to go with Nvidia, but is Radeon really better for gaming?
not to be fanboy-ish but personally IMO with the addition of the (granted) very rare and limited 58xx series from ATi and how viable the 48xx series still remains, ATi's has an extremely competitive selection of graphics cards at just about every price point.

to say they are "better" for gaming would start....well.....a flamewar
, so I am just going to say that you can't really go wrong either way.

as far as the parts to buy what exactly were you planning on spending?? I know you said you don't exactly have a budget but a rough estimate always helps us
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Dilyn
If you can FIND a 5850, go for it


Aside from that, if you're into spending loads of dough, get a GTX 285 or a 295. Amazing cards, but expensive as hell.

i7 920 is an amazing deal. People have dragged those things up to 4 GHz on air cooling, it's insane o_O
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Quote:

Originally Posted by fencefeet View Post
not to be fanboy-ish but personally IMO with the addition of the (granted) very rare and limited 58xx series from ATi and how viable the 48xx series still remains, ATi's has an extremely competitive selection of graphics cards at just about every price point.

to say they are "better" for gaming would start....well.....a flamewar
, so I am just going to say that you can't really go wrong either way.

as far as the parts to buy what exactly were you planning on spending?? I know you said you don't exactly have a budget but a rough estimate always helps us

For all of them, maybe 500$-800$ish.

I will probably go with the i7-920, Not sure at all.

No idea on the mobo.
No idea on the GPU.
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fencefeet
Quote:

Originally Posted by Novus View Post
For all of them, maybe 500$-800$ish.

I will probably go with the i7-920, Not sure at all.

No idea on the mobo.
No idea on the GPU.
hmmm okay so.....assuming you go with i7 you are going to want a good solid board to start your platform on (because you may possibly go i9 in the far future when the series goes mainstream -- fyi i9 will use the 1366 socket just as the current i7's do). I'm going to say a nice mobo will run ~250, the i7 920 runs at about ~250 also, and about 6GB (3x2) of good DDR3 RAM will run you ~130.

so that means not including the gpu you are looking at ~ $630. assuming you have $800 to spend that leaves enough green for about a 5770 for the GPU (or a 4890, which is somewhat noticeably faster, but the 5770 has dx11 support)

that all being said how do you feel about that kind of a setup??

EDIT: oh and fyi a 5770 is roughly the equivalent of what would be between a GTX 260 and a GTX 275, whereas the 4890 is slightly faster than a GTX 275.
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N
Quote:

Originally Posted by fencefeet View Post
hmmm okay so.....assuming you go with i7 you are going to want a good solid board to start your platform on (because you may possibly go i9 in the far future when the series goes mainstream -- fyi i9 will use the 1366 socket just as the current i7's do). I'm going to say a nice mobo will run ~250, the i7 920 runs at about ~250 also, and about 6GB (3x2) of good DDR3 RAM will run you ~130.

so that means not including the gpu you are looking at ~ $630. assuming you have $800 to spend that leaves enough green for about a 5770 for the GPU (or a 4890, which is somewhat noticeably faster, but the 5770 has dx11 support)

that all being said how do you feel about that kind of a setup??

EDIT: oh and fyi a 5770 is roughly the equivalent of what would be between a GTX 260 and a GTX 275, whereas the 4890 is slightly faster than a GTX 275.
I like it, probably going to go with the 4890 and the i7. Not sure what mobo to get yet.
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fencefeet
yeah I just got my second 4890 and put in CF about a week ago and man am I loving it. They both just tear games apart even at high res (and yes that includes Crysis
). I have built four i7 rigs so far for several clients and two had Gigabyte mobos while the other two had ASUS mobos. Quite frankly I came away slightly preferring the ASUS boards, but they were all very effective platforms.
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drjoey1500
Quote:

Originally Posted by Novus View Post
I was going to go with Nvidia, but is Radeon really better for gaming?
Its not that Nvidia is bad, ATi is just ahead at the moment. Nvidia's next gen. isn't out yet, so its old cards are expensive, and the new ATi cards are on top (as far as price/performance, an yes I know this is somewhat debatable).

I've always had ATi cards, not because I'm a fanboy, ATI has just always had better price/performance for my price range when I was buying.
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fencefeet
ASUS x58 mobo (P6T)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131359

Gigabyte x58 mobo (UD5)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128362

check these two out
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J
I second the P6T, but it's so close to the UD5 that it doesn't really matter. And if you have the budget, go for 12GB of DDR3. It's only 130$ extra, but really helps with multitasking & 64 bit apps. I can run 4 VirtualBox machines at once, each with their own 2GB of RAM while still having more then enough for heavy photoshopping on my main PC.

From what we've seen with previous NVIDIA vs. ATI cycles, each company rules for ~6 months after they release a new product. ATI is a couple of months into the cycle, so when Fermi hits in Q1 of 2010, nVidia will be back on top. If you want the best, wait until then. I would have gone with a 5890 if it was out at the time. I purchased my 295 a few months ago knowing it would be usurped literally weeks later by the 58xx series.
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