$2000 Gaming PCPost Date: 2010-04-13 |
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sparr0w 
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Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4 |
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 Topic: $2000 Gaming PCPosted: 13 Apr 2010 at 2:28pm |
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Hello all,
I have currently customized a low budget gaming PC and I would like some comments/suggestions on it. I am going to be gaming at a 1680x1050 resolution and my budget is around $2000. Here is the PC I created. Ticket Number: 399356 Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,972.00 Specifications: |
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sirsiddius
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Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 441 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 2:49pm |
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It seems to me you've spec'ed a very reasonable rig, right on the pinnacle of the price vs performance bell curve.
My only suggestion would be spring an extra $19 and go for the Noctua NH-U12 as it is a quieter and better preforming cooler. |
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Fearnot
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Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 76 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 3:06pm |
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looks like a good build man, one thing i would recommend is the EVGA motherboard instead :)
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sparr0w
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Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 3:30pm |
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Thanks for the input guys! I have just modified the motherboard and cooling according to your suggestions.
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Fearnot
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Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 76 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 3:34pm |
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awsome :) if you want , you could wait for DST4ME to take a look at your config to make sure everything is good, hes helped pretty much everyone with theirs :P
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DST4ME
DS ELITE 
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 4:20pm |
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ok listen this is better, you always want to go with a single card whenever possible:
Here you go Ticket# 399394 --- Price: $2017 (To see this build click here) Price after current promotion $2017 Copy of Specifications: Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932 Exterior Finish: - Not Available Trim Accents: - Not Available Processor: Intel Core i7 930 2.8GHz (Quad Core) Motherboard: EVGA X58 LE Edition SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire) System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) Expansion Bay: - Not Available Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Set 1 Raid Options: - Not Available Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 22x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: 1x ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB Add-on Card: - No Thanks Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: Cooler Master V8 High Performance Cooler (Compatible With ONLY i7 Processors) H20 Tube Color:- Not Available Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Red) Enhancements: - Not Available Chassis Mods: - Not Available Noise Reduction: - Not Available Boost Processor: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Requires Air Cooling Upgrade) Boost Video Card: - Not Available Boost Memory: - Not Available Boost OS: - Not Available Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition) Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Virus Protection: - Not Available Office: - Not Available Benchmarking: - Not Available Install/Test Game: - Not Available Display: - No Thanks Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: - No Thanks Mouse: - No Thanks External Storage: - No Thanks Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty |
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sirsiddius
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Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 441 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 4:42pm |
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Well there are benchmarks which prove the Noctua is 4-5 Celsius cooler than the V8.
And there are also benchmarks which prove that 5770 CF is roughly 10 fps better than one 5850. And as for ASUS or EVGA it's a personal decision they are both great board makers with great reputations, and on air they will both oc the same. I have a ASUS motherboard from the P4 days which is still chugging along nicely. But typically if something does go wrong EVGA will have better customer service. But since you'll be going thru DS it wouldn't really matter so you might as well save yourself 40 bucks. |
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran 
Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 5:31pm |
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lol guess I will throw in my $.02 also.
The Noctua cooler may be a bit more$ but a lot better cooler, build quality, quietness, cooling ability. but tight budget so basically up to the person to decide if the few bucks is worth it.
5770 in crossfire, with the newest drivers, does kick but, even matching the GTX 480 in a few games, in AVG FPS.. but the drawbacks are, multi cards, = more potential problems, Crossfire/SLI are both a lot better than they were years ago, but still have issues. And the minimum frames per second is worse than the 5850.
I would take the 5850, over the 5770's for a better overall gaming experience, but again the difference are pretty minimal
Asus, I have a few of their boards still. They made some good ones. But the X58 ones have not been that good, so far I have trashed 5 of them, and will not buy another. X68 platform, hopefully will be better.
Evga builds ok motherboards, their X58 ones have been vastly better than their 775 boards. So I would get the Evga Micro, if DS is still selling it, it is a better quality board than either the ASUS P6t or the Evga SLI board.
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sirsiddius
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Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 441 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 5:50pm |
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I agree with the cooler bit, it's up to the person to decide.
As for the crossfire 5770's having lower minimum fps Overclock3D did a 5770 CF review and it showed that the 5770 CF had higher minimum fps than the 5850 in every game in their test suite. Here's the link BTW: http://bit.ly/c75fX5 And since I don't have an i7 system yet (though I plan to build one based on the Asus P6X58D) I can't really comment on who has the best 1336 socket board. |
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran
Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 6:13pm |
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I don't think I explained myself very well then, lol. When Crossfire/SLI scales well, yes it is a great thing, and they both scale a lot better than they use to, but when they don't, that is the problem, the few games listed in that review scale well, I imagine that is why they chose them. I game a lot with new ATI and Nvidia cards, mostly in Crossfire/SLI configs, and just trying to share some knowledge..A slightly slower single GPU is always a better choice in the long run, no micro stutter, tearing, Crossfire profile issues. But anymore, either way is still going to make a good experience, and also leaves the door open to crossfire 5850's. Motherboards, Asus hopefully gets their crap back together, they have had a ton of issues, and serious flops with the X58 platform. If I was to build a new gaming now, I would go with the Gigabyte UD9, no questions asked.
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sparr0w
Newbie
Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 7:36pm |
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I modified the PC thanks to everyone's help.
Ticket Number: 399444From searching around the internet I decided to go with the 5870 instead of the crossfire 5770. Any more suggestions/comments would be awesome. Thanks. |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:08pm |
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5870 for is a waste which is why I didn't recommend it, the 5850 will give you smooth gaming at your res, so don't waste your money.
teh micro is a great board but remember with one gpu, you only have 2 pci slots open, with 2 gpus you have no pci open. as far as asus goes, they are not what they used to be, their support is not as good as evga either. as for gpus, I also believe that whenever possible go with a single card, why bother with cf/sli bugs when you don't need to? also sirsiddius the review you point to has only 5 games, and the average is always above 60 fps for both cards, so even if the 5770 is doing better it won't matter cause you can't tell the difference. change your os to win7 pro so you have xp mode. Edited by DST4ME - 13 Apr 2010 at 8:09pm |
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sparr0w
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Joined: 13 Apr 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:17pm |
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Do you think I should stay with the micro motherboard or switch to the LE
Also I don't know a lot about XP mode. Any quick info on it would be extremely helpful. Edited by sparr0w - 13 Apr 2010 at 8:20pm |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:24pm |
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xp mode is basically a way of allowing you to run apps that run on xp but not win7.
only you know whether to go with micro or LE, it all depends if you are gonna be using wireless cards, tv cards, sound card, usb cards or any pci cards now or in the future, if you are then go with LE, if you are not then stick with micro. Edited by DST4ME - 13 Apr 2010 at 8:25pm |
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sirsiddius
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Joined: 18 Aug 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 441 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:28pm |
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Even if the average is above 60 fps you can still make out a difference if the minimums frames start dropping.
For example you would defiantly notice as per the review that crysis dropped to 5 fps on the 5850 vs 11fps on the 5770 CF. And beside xbitlabs also has a review of 5770CF cards with 20 games and out of those 20 games only one game experienced stuttering which was subsequently fixed with patches/drivers. And FYI I still think Asus are great motherboard manufacturers. |
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DST4ME
DS ELITE
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36758 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:35pm |
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go talk to some of the people I referred to asus rampage and see if they agree with you, they won't, which is why I stopped recommending them.
minimum fps can be for a split second, so its not that big of deal, if we knew the extent of minimum fps then that would be different but if that 5fps happened for a split second then who cares, and even tho 11fps is more it still sucks ass. We go by average cause that is your experience most of the time, yes you can tell the difference between 5 and 11 fps but at the end they both suck ass. assuming that there are no bugs, which there are, why take up 2 pci slots? why use more power for cf? nothing about cf here makes any sense what so ever. Edited by DST4ME - 13 Apr 2010 at 8:38pm |
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justin.kerr
DS Veteran
Joined: 06 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5084 |
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Posted: 13 Apr 2010 at 8:38pm |
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from the Xbit labs review, you are talking about.
Originally Posted by XBITLABS
Although the CrossFireX configuration built out of two Radeon HD 5750 was overall superior to the single Radeon HD 5850 and the two Radeon HD 5770 were faster than the single Radeon HD 5870, I wouldn’t say that they are preferable. The problem is that the CrossFireX tandems are often inferior in terms of bottom speed due to the AFR rendering mode and 128-bit memory bus. The latter shows up in high-quality modes and at high resolutions. So, while CrossFireX boosts the average frame rate to the level of top-end graphics cards, the bottom frame rate remains rather low. And it is the bottom speed that determines the level of playing comfort.
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