€800 to spending on New Gaming machine - What would you put in it

NeVeR

Hi all.

I'll be buying this in the next few days and wanted to know what you would pick,

Should i go Intel or AMD ?
post your builds

IrishGrimReaper

Peripherals/Monitor/OS included? Or Just the box itself.

NeVeR

No i have monitor and OS,

I might get new mouse.. but lets say it's not included in the build.. so all the money is on hardware.

IrishGrimReaper

NeVeR wrote: »

No i have monitor and OS,

I might get new mouse.. but lets say it's not included in the build.. so all the money is on hardware.

Hmm, well. You could get an i5 in there with a 5770. What do you feel about AMD either? Their Phenom II doesn't get as much credit as it deserves!

£717 = €797
Intel

£698 = €776
AMD


Not much between them, AMD saves you a bit. I'd go with the i5 myself. But you wouldn't notice a difference in performance between them.

P.s: That's on overclockers, try a few sites it might be cheaper elsewhere!

www.komplett.ie
www.scan.co.uk
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.elara.ie
www.dabs.ie

NeVeR

I dont mind AMD.. I have one at the moment served me well teh past 2 years.

My current Power supply is a NorthQ 550W. Dont suppose that would be any good ?..Also i've got a DVD drive forgot to say that.

Do i need the extra CPU cooler ? Do you not get one when buying the processor ?

StopNotWorking

You get a rather poor stock cooler with the CPU. It's always a good idea to get an aftermarket one though. In general it keeps the cpu in better condition with or without OCing. Obviously you can overclock it higher with the better cooler.

Also just to note, I have an alpenfohn gross clock'ner cpu cooler and it's not the best at all. Maybe drop the PSU to a 550w and use the extra dosh for a better cooler.

On a €800 budget I would probably go heavier on the GPU. Is a Phenom II x3 720 BE + Gigabyte UD3P+DDR2 RAM outdated now? I'm thinking so...

I tried pricing some stuff but an i5 build really couldn't work without a GPU around 120-150. For a gaming rig I would want a better GPU then a 5770. It's not exactly great.

IrishGrimReaper

StopNotWorking wrote: »

You get a rather poor stock cooler with the CPU. It's always a good idea to get an aftermarket one though. In general it keeps the cpu in better condition with or without OCing. Obviously you can overclock it higher with the better cooler.

Also just to note, I have an alpenfohn gross clock'ner cpu cooler and it's not the best at all. Maybe drop the PSU to a 550w and use the extra dosh for a better cooler.

On a €800 budget I would probably go heavier on the GPU. Is a Phenom II x3 720 BE + Gigabyte UD3P+DDR2 RAM outdated now? I'm thinking so...

I tried pricing some stuff but an i5 build really couldn't work without a GPU around 120-150. For a gaming rig I would want a better GPU then a 5770. It's not exactly great.

I very much agree, no experience with the apelfon myself, but I have heard it was alright of a cooler, too bad OC uk doesn't stock the Rev 2 of the Mugen for 1156 support.

But I had a little flick through and I got something with a 5850 in there.

Comes in at €783 approx, with a good 12 to spare for shipping.

Couldn't get an i5 in there though. If you're fine with the AMD then go with it, it's a great CPU none the less. i5 and PII are the way to go these days.

uberpixie

NeVeR wrote: »

I dont mind AMD.. I have one at the moment served me well teh past 2 years.

My current Power supply is a NorthQ 550W. Dont suppose that would be any good ?..Also i've got a DVD drive forgot to say that.

Do i need the extra CPU cooler ? Do you not get one when buying the processor ?

No, not a good psu in any way shape or form.
Replace it.

NeVeR

uberpixie wrote: »

No, not a good psu in any way shape or form.
Replace it.

Thanks will do.

I'm in 2 minds on whether to get the Core-i5 2.66GHz or the AMD Phenom 11 X4 955 AM3 3.2GHz

both are Quads but the AMD is bigger... I wont be over clocking as I dont know how to lol

Also I do want a good graphic card, As i do 3D design as a hobby... So in saying that i will want a good bit of RAM for rendering. I dont mind starting with 4gig but i will be upgrading to 8 or 12gig the month after or so...

I'm a massive downloader :rolleyes: So HDD space is a big thing... again i dont mind starting with 1TB but I will be moving up...

SOOOOO one more question at the end of all this is about the PSU... will something like 750watt be ok ?.. At some stage there might be 3 HDD's in there.

Cheers guys.

RoyalMarine

StopNotWorking wrote: »

For a gaming rig I would want a better GPU then a 5770. It's not exactly great.

well now. i picked one of these up and love it! ive got a 23" hd monitor @ 1920 x 1080 and its playing everything i throw at it full whack.

uberpixie

NeVeR wrote: »

I'm in 2 minds on whether to get the Core-i5 2.66GHz or the AMD Phenom 11 X4 955 AM3 3.2GHz
both are Quads but the AMD is bigger

The AMD runs at a higher clock speed, but this is no indication of performance over the i5.....

You can only compare clock speed directly if both chips are of the same family or architecture.

Try comparing a late P4 D 3.4ghz to a core2duo running @ 2.4ghz
(hint: the core2duo eats it for breakfast....)

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/05/19/real_world_gameplay_cpu_scaling/1
Have a look here, this will give you a rough idea of how various intel and amd chips fair in games running @ high resolution.

NeVeR wrote: »

I'm a massive downloader :rolleyes: So HDD space is a big thing... again i dont mind starting with 1TB but I will be moving up...

SOOOOO one more question at the end of all this is about the PSU... will something like 750watt be ok ?.. At some stage there might be 3 HDD's in there.

750W is total overkill and will prob last another 2 builds! You can trim it down to a good 500w or 600W if required. The aim of the game when buying is to get a "good quality" PSU than will actually supply the amount of watts written on the side of it, unlike cheap PSUs which are just death traps.

Re harddrives: 1.5 terebytes are under €100 theses days.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=482721
samsung ecogreen 1.5 TB 95.60 (not ideal as a main OS and game drive, but slightly less power use than a regular harddrive and is perfect for file storage, don't let the 5400RPMs fool you, this drive will run as quick as some old SATA 7200RPM drives...)

Solitaire

Hmm... if you can't get both the i5 quad and the HD5850 within budget what about switching down to a virtual quad Replace the i5 with an i3-530 and OC the beggar. Could save a few pennies (well, up to €70 actually...)