Rate my Black Friday Gaming Rig - $800

[tbates757]

Mind you, I've been out of the hardware scene for 4-6 years so I'm pretty rusty. It's about time I upgraded my Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / nVidia 7800 GT rig so I took the plunge and ended up with this, for about ~$800 minus about $70 in rebates:

1 x CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
1 x SAPPHIRE 100281-3SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
1 x Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model TS-H663C/UOAH - OEM
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
1 x A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model AD3U1333B2G9-DRH
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1 x ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

I have a 24" Samsung monitor that I bought last year that I'm very happy with, so no monitor in that purchase. I will be gaming at 1920x1200 bliss. How'd I do?

 

[DominionSeraph]

That Sapphire is sold out.

How about $688 with $90 in rebates?

Or you could go right for SLI, bringing you up to $125 in rebates.

 

[muskie32]

^ +1

You will see more performance with a i5 gaming build. Also since it is still under $800 you may want to get a GTX 470 or a SSD.

You may not want to get the Evga mobo ether...
Look around the general hardware section. There are many threads thick with i5 builds!

 

[DominionSeraph]

Going with a higher rated SLI-capable motherboard ups the price by $15 and loses $20 in MIR.

Of course if you have the money and are going for GTX 460 SLI just double up on that combo and get 8GB of RAM for $20 more.

 

[mfenn]

I'm with muskie. Depending on your gaming desires, GTX 460 SLI may not make sense in place of an SSD.

 

[Jhatfie]

Mind you, I've been out of the hardware scene for 4-6 years so I'm pretty rusty. It's about time I upgraded my Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 / nVidia 7800 GT rig so I took the plunge and ended up with this, for about ~$800 minus about $70 in rebates:

1 x CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
1 x SAPPHIRE 100281-3SR Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
1 x Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
1 x SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model TS-H663C/UOAH - OEM
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
1 x A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model AD3U1333B2G9-DRH
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1 x ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

I have a 24" Samsung monitor that I bought last year that I'm very happy with, so no monitor in that purchase. I will be gaming at 1920x1200 bliss. How'd I do?

I think you did fine, like it has been mentioned a i5-750 is generally better for gaming, but I own both a i5 and a X4 and they both game very well. I personally like the Antec 300 as I have done several build for people using those cases. Corsair power supply is a solid choice and if you did manage to get that 5870 deal, it is a excellent card for the sale price. There are a couple minor revisions I would have made overall, but they are just personal brand/model preferences, overall your build is pretty solid for under $800.

 

[tbates757]

Thanks for the input guys. I placed the order yesterday, I'm glad to hear it's a semi-decent setup. I like the flexibility of being able to go Crossfire down the road maybe in a year when the price of another HD 5870 is on the clearance rack.

I'm surprised nobody has commented on the RAM. I remember back in the days when RAM was one of the most vital components when overclocking, people would get their 133mhz RAM and try to push the FSB upwards of 180-200mhz. Is it that important anymore? I don't plan on doing much, if any overclocking. Maybe down the road I'll look into it when the performance starts to wane.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Thanks for the input guys. I placed the order yesterday, I'm glad to hear it's a semi-decent setup.

Yes, that Sapphire was a very good deal with promo code VGA112235.
But yesterday... that means you missed the i5 760 + mobo for $245 that they had going then.

I'm with muskie. Depending on your gaming desires, GTX 460 SLI may not make sense in place of an SSD.

When it comes with 4GB RAM, I'd say, "Welcome to my Ramdrive."

 

[Jhatfie]

I'm surprised nobody has commented on the RAM. I remember back in the days when RAM was one of the most vital components when overclocking, people would get their 133mhz RAM and try to push the FSB upwards of 180-200mhz. Is it that important anymore? I don't plan on doing much, if any overclocking. Maybe down the road I'll look into it when the performance starts to wane.

RAM is still vital, but with on die memory controllers and a plethora of setting options in bios for dividers and so on, the real world penalty lets say from 1333mhz to 1600mhz at similar timings is rather small, maybe a couple fps at best.

 

[betasub]

Thanks for the input guys. I placed the order yesterday, I'm glad to hear it's a semi-decent setup. I like the flexibility of being able to go Crossfire down the road maybe in a year when the price of another HD 5870 is on the clearance rack.

I'm surprised nobody has commented on the RAM. I remember back in the days when RAM was one of the most vital components when overclocking, people would get their 133mhz RAM and try to push the FSB upwards of 180-200mhz. Is it that important anymore? I don't plan on doing much, if any overclocking. Maybe down the road I'll look into it when the performance starts to wane.

The 5870 prices are approaching "clearance" levels now. Stock is being cleared out for the arrival of their 69x0 replacements. Don't count on being able to buy a 5870 new in a year's time. Anyway, by then there will be replacements much faster than 2x 5870.

As for RAM speed: the era of overclocking relying on RAM speed is long gone. Modern BIOS have plentiful options for memory speed multipliers/dividers, and progress through DDR2 and DDR3 has required the motherboards to handle a range of memory speeds. By dropping memory speed to a low setting, it is pretty much removed from the equation when CPU overclocking by the bus.

 

[mfenn]

The 5870 prices are approaching "clearance" levels now. Stock is being cleared out for the arrival of their 69x0 replacements. Don't count on being able to buy a 5870 new in a year's time. Anyway, by then there will be replacements much faster than 2x 5870.

This! :thumbsup:

You know, I think I need to start a document that explains common mistakes when spec'ing out systems so that I don't have to retype explanations over and over.

 

[tbates757]

This! :thumbsup:

You know, I think I need to start a document that explains common mistakes when spec'ing out systems so that I don't have to retype explanations over and over.

I'm not terribly concerned with buying another 5870 new in a years time, I'll gladly buy one used. It's my understanding that going Crossfire or SLI, even when my video card might be old hat, will restore a lot of life into the system and make it handle games with ease again. I'm not too keen on spending 300-400 for the latest and greatest single graphics card, either.

And, is it an exaggeration to say that in a year there will be a single card that will be "MUCH" faster than 2x 5870?

 

[betasub]

The 6990 (scheduled for Jan 2011 release) is expected to be faster than 2x 5870. And in a full year's time we can expect the 7xx0 series and Nvidia's competitive cards to blow past that.

Nevertheless, 5870 is a good card for now. The future is merely great expectations.

 

[Blain]

Rate my Black Friday Gaming Rig - $800

How'd I do?

4.76 out of 10