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$800 build, which path to take?

ebolamonkey3

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So my pastor asked me to build him a new computer :)roll:) and his budget is $800 not including peripherals and monitor. He can stretch up to $1000 (max) but would prefer not to go beyond $800.

Computer is for normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming. He plays mostly strategy games like Company of Heroes and Civ 5, so nothing to extreme, I figure that a single GTX 460 768mb would be plenty in terms of graphical horsepower, and he can always SLI in the future.

So which platform should I take? On the one hand, P55 seems perfect, but it's a doomed platform. On the other, X58 is awesome, but probably out of his budget. Then there's AMD, but AM3 is also going to be replaced shortly. So what do you guys think?

Oh, he can wait till end of Nov, for the Black Friday sale, so I have some time to decide what to build for him.

*Edit: Oh, since my pastor's 40 something and don't know anything about computer, he won't be overclocking.
 
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Hmm, a nice AMD 965 would be good. It's good for photoshop and good bang for buck. I would go with this:
Amd 965
4gb ddr3 ram
650w (ish) psu
AM3 890x with sli capability so if he wants to get into some serious gaming he can just buy another gtx 460
Case, whatever he wants
HDD: two 500gb wd cav blacks would do fine.
Thats about it, great and cheap. It can easily do what he's asking and more.
 
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Why does everyone think i3/i5 is doomed? Socket 1156 is the perfect example of balance between cost/performance. Get him a 530, cheap Gigabyte mb and a decent video card and he can do most anything he wants. (And can do it on the stock hsf as well)
 
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Why does everyone think i3/i5 is doomed? Socket 1156 is the perfect example of balance between cost/performance. Get him a 530, cheap Gigabyte mb and a decent video card and he can do most anything he wants. (And can do it on the stock hsf as well)

Because for the most part the i3 5xx is doomed, although its enough for every day tasks, in terms of value for money it costs more than and Athlon X4 which outperforms it in most tasks with ease which is why we all avoid the i3. The Phenom II X4 costs almost the same as the i3 which makes me wonder why the i3 even exists?
 
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D

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Because for the most part the i3 5xx is doomed, although its enough for every day tasks, in terms of value for money it costs more than and Athlon X4 which outperforms it in most tasks with ease which is why we all aoid the i3. The Phenom II X4 costs almost the same as the i3 which makes me wonder why the i3 even exists?

Can your X4 do this?

 
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no...but than again if pure clocks is your game go for a Pentium D...otherwise a unlocked Phenom II or even a Athlon II would do the trick
 
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Clock for clock it will run much cooler than any other chip out there.
 

ebolamonkey3

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Hmm.. maybe a cheap Phenom II 955 would be the better route.

Reason I'm not going w/ 6850 is b/c it's $50 more than a GTX 460 768mb, which is already more than plenty for him.
 
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genta3d

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Im a little confusing here, is it really a $800 PC needed ?

Because with this build :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER 460W for $30
BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 for $58
AMD Phenom II X4 810 AM3 for $116

GRAND TOTAL $527

Mostly you can play smooth any games at HD resolution, 1920x1080 (MSI Cyclone is rocks !!). Especially your friend only want to do "normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming". Even if a X58 on his budget, its just a waste of money (just my opinion).

But hey, you want a $800 so be it :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER SIlent Pro M700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W SLI at $80
MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVDIA nForce 980a SLI Ready for $150
AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE for $181

GRAND TOTAL $734

It has an SLI ready motherboard, SLI ready power supply, and the CPU have enough power to take on SLI if you want to attach another 460GTX.

Hope you like it...


EDIT :
For case, mostly is possible. Just pick up some $50 case with good brand like coolermaster, antec, etc. They good for you. Or a $100 COOLER MASTER 922 for your ready SLI....
 
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Why does everyone think i3/i5 is doomed? Socket 1156 is the perfect example of balance between cost/performance. Get him a 530, cheap Gigabyte mb and a decent video card and he can do most anything he wants. (And can do it on the stock hsf as well)

Because Socket 1155 is already slated to be released this quarter or the next.

Im a little confusing here, is it really a $800 PC needed ?

Because with this build :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER 460W for $30
BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 for $58
AMD Phenom II X4 810 AM3 for $116

GRAND TOTAL $527

Mostly you can play smooth any games at HD resolution, 1920x1080 (MSI Cyclone is rocks !!). Especially your friend only want to do "normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming". Even if a X58 on his budget, its just a waste of money (just my opinion).

But hey, you want a $800 so be it :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER SIlent Pro M700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W SLI at $80
MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVDIA nForce 980a SLI Ready for $150
AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE for $181

GRAND TOTAL $734

It has an SLI ready motherboard, SLI ready power supply, and the CPU have enough power to take on SLI if you want to attach another 460GTX.

Hope you like it...


EDIT :
For case, mostly is possible. Just pick up some $50 case with good brand like coolermaster, antec, etc. They good for you. Or a $100 COOLER MASTER 922 for your ready SLI....

Leave room for an operating system. Not everyone steals them ;)
 
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^

I agree, this rig can be built on sub $600. The second rig with the X4 970 can be swapped with the X6 1055T which is $10 more.
 

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What has a synthetic benchmark got to do with anything. I'd rather have a processor that is crap at benching but is better in actual applications.

"Computer is for normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming."

That be the case then just upgrade to the i5 750...it won't be beaten down by any of the above offerings in any application.

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache L...
 
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460 with an i5 is more than enough. My rig is outdated and I run Dirt 2 with mostly high settings at 30fps+
 

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Wow, thanks for all the responses guys!

SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 ...
20$ more than the cheapest 460 and has stock volt regulation

A 460 768mb is $40 cheaper today. But all depends on the price on black friday I guess.

What has a synthetic benchmark got to do with anything. I'd rather have a processor that is crap at benching but is better in actual applications.

Very true!:rockout:

Im a little confusing here, is it really a $800 PC needed ?

Because with this build :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER 460W for $30
BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 for $58
AMD Phenom II X4 810 AM3 for $116

GRAND TOTAL $527

Mostly you can play smooth any games at HD resolution, 1920x1080 (MSI Cyclone is rocks !!). Especially your friend only want to do "normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming". Even if a X58 on his budget, its just a waste of money (just my opinion).

But hey, you want a $800 so be it :

G.SKILL ripjaws series 4GB (2x2GB) PC10666 at $70
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB for $88
MSI 460GTX cyclone 768MB for $165
COOLER MASTER SIlent Pro M700 RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W SLI at $80
MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVDIA nForce 980a SLI Ready for $150
AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE for $181

GRAND TOTAL $734

It has an SLI ready motherboard, SLI ready power supply, and the CPU have enough power to take on SLI if you want to attach another 460GTX.

Hope you like it...


EDIT :
For case, mostly is possible. Just pick up some $50 case with good brand like coolermaster, antec, etc. They good for you. Or a $100 COOLER MASTER 922 for your ready SLI....

Many thanks for the build list! I guess I should've elaborated, he's the kind of person that would keep a pc and use it for 6 or 7 years w/o upgrades except for adding RAM and hard drives, so I want to max it out as much as possible given the budget constraints.

^

I agree, this rig can be built on sub $600. The second rig with the X4 970 can be swapped with the X6 1055T which is $10 more.

Yup, will probably go w/ Thuban if I go the AMD route.

Im forget about that @_@

But dont know, since he says :

Haha, he's buying the Win7 family 3 pack. It would be hugely ironic if my pastor's computer is running on pirated OS :roll:
 
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"Computer is for normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming."

That be the case then just upgrade to the i5 750...it won't be beaten down by any of the above offerings in any application.

Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache L...

The i5 750 would be a much better choice than a dual core i3. The i5 750 is arguably one of the better processors discussed thus far, but in "any" application I'm not sure, it still has weaknesses.
 
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The i5 750 would be a much better choice than a dual core i3. The i5 750 is arguably one of the better processors discussed thus far, but in "any" application I'm not sure, it still has weaknesses.

"Computer is for normal multimedia use, some light photoshop, and some light gaming."

As does any processor, but not weaker than anything that has been offered here. ;)
 
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Many thanks for the build list! I guess I should've elaborated, he's the kind of person that would keep a pc and use it for 6 or 7 years w/o upgrades except for adding RAM and hard drives, so I want to max it out as much as possible given the budget constraints.

I wouldn’t advise that he keeps the rig 7 years, from trends we can see that multithreaded applications is rising in popularity so IMO thuban is the best bet for anyone that's keeping a rig for almost a decade. Also according to many tech sites socket AM3 will be supported with variants of Bulldozers which are around the corner if he feels that more power is needed. In this situation, I would either get one of the two fastest from AMD or Intel, or I would get a budget Athlon II X3 or X4 and deliver a rig way under budget and offer to build a new rig in another 4 years.
 
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1156 is not a doomed platform whatsoever. when 1155 launches and everyone see how terrible it is that you cant overclock unless you buy specific cpu's sandy bridge will flop. k cpu's are nice but overclocking has always been about manipulating the buss speed for more performance and taking that away well is a big mistake. I would get him a nice P55 setup. p55 performance is much better the amd's and about the same cost. going amd is an absolute last resort option.
 
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1156 is not a doomed platform whatsoever. when 1155 launches and everyone see how terrible it is that you cant overclock unless you buy specific cpu's sandy bridge will flop. k cpu's are nice but overclocking has always been about manipulating the buss speed for more performance and taking that away well is a big mistake. I would get him a nice P55 setup. p55 performance is much better the amd's and about the same cost. going amd is an absolute last resort option.


You seem to think that the majority of people who own computers overclock it. This is simply not the case and a sandy bridge chip would be absolutely perfect for this pc that will never be overclocked and the performance it offers.
 
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Aw heck, go all out on it and there will be no need to think upgrade...:laugh:



 
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