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955 will be just fine.Originally Posted by BigBear
Is it 'inferior'? Yeah, in some ways. But is it more than sufficient? Yes. We could go over all the pros / cons, but for your needs the 955 will be just fine.
IMO I definitely would not say a 955 is "inferior", it is third in line to the top amd Chip, 955 is more than fine, they have not even started writing programs taking advantage of Quad core to its full extent, save your money and go with AMD, if really want spend $300 for a 6 core 1090T black edition, you wont get a 6 core for less than a grand from Intel. Best bet is to educate yourself on the parts you will need and see which ones will get you what you need the cheapest, here is a nice article on the new 6 core from AMD, and you can read alot of reviews on the other parts you will need.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ling,2652.html
Getting back to the original post.
the setup you have and suggest will only require a 750w PSU at most.
this will even allow for expansion such as SLI cards, a spare HDD etc.
for gaming purposes I cannot express the importance of Memory in both fashions.
you are getting Win7 64b I recommend a MINIMUM 4GB
Its cheap right now, so its not that much.
Swap, very touchy subject for some.
You didnt list your HDD so I am going to guess that its a Run of the mill typical 7200rpm 500 GB.
with the price free-fall on HDDs right now... you might consider a stripe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
If you play MMOs with PvP or high resolution games as I think you do, you may want faster read/writes. This can be achieved by either SSD, SCSI or RAID.
It will definitely support a small array with no difficulty and will actually make better use of those kick-ass channels. all you would need to do is order 2 500GB HDDs. Just something to consider
Thing is, with Win7 its SUPER cake to set up. Seriously, you just switch CDs or use a thumbdrive or a second CD drive for the drivers.
It's so easy, a caveman can do it.
What are your specific need?
I’ve been doing a lot of reading at Tom’s Hardware site. It is very informative and often breaks things down into a concise and comprehensive manner unto which I greatly appreciate, as I am neither mechanically nor technologically inclined soul.
I’ve also come to the opinion that today’s’ onboard sounds is decent enough to negate the use of a soundcard so I’ve been able to shave a few hundred off the price there. Mutt did say this a while back, but I had to do my own research and verify for myself to agree.
So, posted below is what I’m currently looking at. A simple (read = CheapER) gaming rig to play mainly FPS’s with all the eye candy turned up, music writing/editing, photo editing, and common day to day nuances such as checking mail, writing papers, etc. Will this meet and/or exceed my needs without the need to upgrade in a year or two? A simple yay or nay will suffice.
Chassis Model: Cooler Master Elite 310
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz) OC’ed between 3.5-3.9
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Power Supply: 750W
Hard Drive Set 1: 500GB Western Digital
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB
Sound Card: Onboard Audio
Boost Cooling: High Performance Cooler
Boost Airflow: Zalman Performance Fans
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Total costs about $1800
I know the RAM may be overkill, but I was under the impression of “the more, the merrier”. The overclocking may be a waste, but I don’t know. Thoughts? If I got rid of it I could save on the removing the fans, etc…
The next problem is figuring out which monitor to buy… I’ve read of ghosting issues with some, lack of response with others, etc.
Here is what I think the common gamer recommends:
- 2-5ms response time
- High contrast ratio
- Between 22 to 24 inch widescreen preferred (don’t know why though)
Thoughts, opinions? Acer has a pretty cheap 22 inch I found that meets all those specs.
As far as running two HD's and RAID and all that stuff... I'm honestly fine with a single HDD that I back up onto an external every week or so....
Everything except the FPS part can be done on a 400MHz 256MB ram used GoodWill special.So, posted below is what I’m currently looking at. A simple (read = CheapER) gaming rig to play mainly FPS’s with all the eye candy turned up, music writing/editing, photo editing, and common day to day nuances such as checking mail, writing papers, etc. Will this meet and/or exceed my needs without the need to upgrade in a year or two? A simple yay or nay will suffice.
Get a 1000 Watt, as ratings are more a marketing item than fact.Chassis Model: Cooler Master Elite 310
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 (3.2GHz) OC’ed between 3.5-3.9
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3
System Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Power Supply: 750W
Get the 2G WD drive, as it typically rates as the fastest non-SSD out there. Also, music files aren't small. Get a BlueRay instead of the plain DVD, as it does both BluRay and DVDs.Hard Drive Set 1: 500GB Western Digital
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW
the OC is indeed a waste, as nothing you are doing is CPU intensive (except maybe some audio/video encoding). You need throughput, and the ram + that video card is just the ticket.Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5970 2GB
Sound Card: Onboard Audio
Boost Cooling: High Performance Cooler
Boost Airflow: Zalman Performance Fans
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Total costs about $1800
I know the RAM may be overkill, but I was under the impression of “the more, the merrier”. The overclocking may be a waste, but I don’t know. Thoughts? If I got rid of it I could save on the removing the fans, etc…
http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/hprem...ing/price-listThe next problem is figuring out which monitor to buy… I’ve read of ghosting issues with some, lack of response with others, etc.
Here is what I think the common gamer recommends:
2-5ms response time
High contrast ratio
Between 22 to 24 inch widescreen preferred (don’t know why though)
Thoughts, opinions? Acer has a pretty cheap 22 inch I found that meets all those specs.
24" 1920x1200 monitor for less than $300. Note that the HP Business stuff is NOT a lesser resolution 1920x1080 monitor. I've got 3 of the HP or Compaq 24xx series monitors and they just work.
The machine I'm typing this on is a 955x4 Phenom II, it'll do fine. I have an 8800GTX on an ASUS motherboard, 750W PSU. 1 SSD 1 laptop drive 1 10krpm 74gb drive. All my real storage is on a Drobo in the rack, local disks are just fast and small.
H.
You're at $1100 for the parts above on Newegg.. the big missing bit is the video card. $700 for a video card is too much. So is $500. You can get something in the sub $300 range that will kick butt for two years. And in two years the fans on it will have died anyway, and it'll be time to replace it. That's $400+ that you really don't have to spend on it. You'll get a better perceived performance increase going with a SSD drive to install Windows on, and keeping all your data (music, etc) installed on the 500gb drive.
The price/performance curve tapers off pretty swiftly. That extra $400 might buy you only a few % increase. My 0.02, save the cash and plan on replacing it every 18 months or so.
H.
I configured a system as you specified plus I upgraded to the 6 core AMD Phenom 1055 for $1737
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/A..._Configurator/
You'll have to re-configure it, as the link doesn't retain your choices.
(FYI - I prefer the lintel processors)
Grandpa's Sheriff Badge, Littleton 1920's
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