help build me a gaming rig pc

[smouty]

I've just added a couple of intel x25-m SSDs in RAID0 for 500 mb/s read speeds
They are quite reasonable now although still nowhere near regular HDD prices.

[dh2005]

abigsmurf;

Thanks for the detailed, prompt reply.


... ooof! £230 for a 5850... I'm sure it's gorgeous, but I really don't think I can justify that.

Is there any argument for fitting two older video cards, rather than one more current one?


smouty;

Thanks for the insight.

SSDs are fine, for me. I'm absolutely swimming in hard drives - I can fit a 2TB 3.5" drive and use it as a 'reservoir', and copy what I need across to the SSD as and when.

[abigsmurf]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/195442

£50 cheaper and only a slight drop in performance from a 5850.

Other than that, the 5770s are the best bet but the big drop in price is reflected in the performance.

[dh2005]

Thanks, dude.

So, when you said that getting an SSD wouldn't make much difference for gaming... why is this? I figured that games needed to truck data from a hard drive all the time.

[charlesr]

I've just got an i5 750 and can report that while the fan is quiet when not doing much, it's pretty noisy when all 4 cores start firing up.... I'll be visiting quietPC.co.uk soon (again - I just bought a quiet PSU from them omg it's so shiny and you only plug in the cables you need).

[Valken]

Hello guys,

Excuse me for butting-in. But I am also looking to build a gaming PC.

I'm looking at a Shuttle SX58J3, as the base:

http://global.shuttle.com/product_detail.jsp?PI=1389

My thoughts for components are:

CPU; i7/920
RAM; 4GB of DDR3
Drive; 80GBish SSD

A few questions:

1. Some folks have said to me that the i7 is overkill for a gaming machine, but the bottom-end i7 isn't much more expensive than the i5, so spending the extra few quid seems like the right move to me. Anyone disagree?

2. D'you reckon 4GB of RAM is enough? Should I push to 6, or even 8...?

3. Is an SSD advisable? The small capacity is not a concern for me.

4. I really don't know where to start, re the graphics card. It's been so long since I last looked into building a PC, and so much has changed... essentially, I'll be looking to run games at circa 720p, with as high detail-levels as reasonably possible.


Appreciate any input. Thanks,



DH.

1. I've got an i7 860 on my gaming machine but to be honest, I think an i5 750 is fine for a "standard" gaming PC.

2. i7 9xx CPUs use triple channel memory so it's 6GB, 12GB, etc...

[averybluemonkey]

I've seen a few benchmark tests between the i5 750 and i7s and they are almost exactly the same when it comes to game performance:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=361&Itemid=63&limit=1&limitstart=7

The only benefit to the i7 really is for batch-processing apps that can span the work across the 8 virtual cores rather than the i5 750's four physical cores.

I've also read, though can't find the link now that the i5 750 is very easy to overclock which pushes it's performance past the i7 800s.

[dh2005]

Thanks for the advice, fellas.


So, overclocking... back in my day, people rarely did it. But I gather it's quite mainstream, now.

[charlesr]

The i5 overclocks itself. It's all automatic. Magic.

[dh2005]

Oh, I see... man, things have moved-on!


If I can ask the same question slightly differently... if one had a free choice between an i5 and an i7, would there be any reason to actively favour the i5 for a gaming machine?

[abigsmurf]

If the money doesn't matter, get the i7, has a few bonus features (hyper-threading for 8 logical cores) as well as a much faster base speed.

[dh2005]

Thanks. I'll take that into consideration.

I realise that I've been advised already about the graphics card situation, but if I can be slightly more specific... I'm using a 720p television at the moment - I probably will, until the bulb goes and I'm forced to buy a new TV or monitor.

So, the resolution I'll be using for playback will be no higher than 1280 x 720. That said, I'll want to compensate by maxing the scalable settings. And I'll want 30+ frames per second on everything I play (yes, including Crysis...!).

In view of that, could I make do with an older card (say, an HD 4890, or something like that), until my television dies and I'm forced to upgrade? Or, if I want to max-out the settings, am I still looking at an HD 57xx or better?

Sorry for the third degree.

[dh2005]

Any takers...?

[abigsmurf]

I'd advise against getting a 4890.

They suck up lots of power and they have an outdated feature set (hardware tessellation is a big feature).

At a minimum go for a 5770

[NW2013]

Yeah, get the best you can afford to give you a bit of future proofing for when you want to update your monitor and for future games. Buying twice costs more than spending, say, an extra £50 now.