[ned99]

Hello everyone. My friend Jon asked me to build him a computer and I need some advice. He's got a budget of about $1500 Canadian, will use it entirely for games, and will not be overclocking it.

I thought at first that I should get him the i7 920 as it seems like the CPU of choice for many new builds. However, the higher cost of LGA 1366 vs. LGA 775 motherboards and DDR3 vs. DDR2 Ram has me thinking that price/performance wise it might be a better investment to get the cheaper q9550 and spend the extra money on a better GPU. I was thinking SLI'd GTX 260s with the q9550, or a single 260 with the i7.

Also, since he will not be overclocking at all would it make even more sense to get an E8500 that comes stock clocked at 3.16ghz vs. the q9550 at 2.83 and the i7 920 at 2.66?

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[Shane1244]

Just games? LGA775 then.

The price of a 1336 in Canada is pretty steep. At least $650 for just the mobo + CPU.

 

[the3lement]

id get the Q9550 if he has no plans on overclocking..

 

[xobile133769]

Personally, I'd go with the i7 because it's more futureproof. If your friend sticks with the Core 2 brands, it'll cost him more in the long run if he upgrades to Lynnfield or Nehalem.

Take the i7 920, stick it in a Bloodrage GTI, and slap a 260 in it. After that, if he wants to upgrade, he can add another 260 in there for SLI.

But if you are more of a budget, I'd go with the Q9550 in a UD3P. Great CPU.

 

[ned99]

Hey everyone thanks for the help. So with pricing on Newegg.ca I came up with these two possible builds:

i7
Foxconn Bloodrage: 259.99
Core i7 920: 319.99
OCZ Gold 6 GB DDR3 1600: 104.99
Total (before shipping/taxes): 684.97

Core 2 Quad
Gigabyte UD3P: 169.99
q9550: 249.99
G Skill 4 GB DDR2 1006: 68.99
Total (before shipping/taxes): 488.97

I think I'm going to go with the Core 2 Quad because he still needs a GPU, PSU, Harddrive, and Case and I think it would be better to invest the $200 saved going with the Core 2 Quad on a good quality PSU and GPU.

Thoughts?

 

[linskingdom]

You need other components to complete the rig so core quad is the way to go. The UD3P will be a big help for that 8.5x quad chip if your friend decides to OC.

 

[SniperXX]

I just threw out a suggestion for what I think would be a solid gaming rig. I used newegg.ca so prices are Canadian.

I was thinking to use something like the Antec 300 or 900 but the 300 includes a psu on newegg.ca and they dont have the 900. Plus a case comes down to personal choice. I also didn't see you mention if he needed a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.

 

[vdek]

It's a shame he isn't overclocking because the i7 920 is a beast

But yeah, for that budget go with a Q9550 and SLI GTX 275s IMO.

 

[ned99]

Hey thanks for the suggestions everyone. Since he won't do another upgrade for the next 4-5 years I'm going to go with the q9550 in the UD3P board with a GTX 285. Do you think a corsair 520 watt PSU would be enough for that? The Corsair PSU finder thingy says it is but I thought I'd ask here as well.

 

[SniperXX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ned99 Hey thanks for the suggestions everyone. Since he won't do another upgrade for the next 4-5 years I'm going to go with the q9550 in the UD3P board with a GTX 285. Do you think a corsair 520 watt PSU would be enough for that? The Corsair PSU finder thingy says it is but I thought I'd ask here as well.

Yeah, you will be fine. My sig rig maxes at like 500w and thats 2 285s.