Advice Needed Please: Building a New Gaming PC

[Pistol Pow3r]

I need a new PC for gaming. I don't want to spend more money than I have to . I don't have much experience at system building and I am sure that some of you a prolific rig builders. So I require you're assistance . I want to play the latest PC games so playing console ports is just not enough. I assure you that I plan to overclock the PC so im trying to take this into consideration in the parts I am getting.

I already have a good PSU, Case, storage drives and DVD drive. All I need is some new components for the case .

I live in New Zealand and therefore new egg links and rebates are not that useful for me. It is also why the prices you are looking at are higher. I am getting my parts from this website which is basically an indexing site that contains most of the tech stores in my country, the parts they stock and the prices they charge (as well as stock availability). So if you look on there you can see whats available and what the prices that I will be paying are (the selection is not that impressive..).

I think I want something like this here below. However I am not sure what components are the best to get performance-money wise. Many of them are priced roughly the same to. As I am going to be OCing, different mainboards, ram etc will OC differently and it isn't exactly stated on the package how far they will go... So I need help to make sure I get the right components so that I can OC this rig heaps. So could some people please take a quick look on the website and correct me on what components I should get. Would be very,very, very much appreciated .

What I am currently looking at:
CPU: I5 750 $316.74 (Will OC)
CPU COOLER: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus $45.25
Mainboard1: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 $187.88
Mainboard2: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 $277.18
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL8 2x2GB $209.00
HDD: 2*Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 32MB 500GB $83.89ea ($167.78 total)
VGA Card: 1*Sapphire Radeon HD5770 (possibly another a second one later on but it depends on whether or not its worth it)

I heard that the coolermaster hyper 212 was good. I took a link to the site I heard it was good. It is allso cheap. I am willing to spend some more $$ on things like the coolers. I want it to overclock heaps like I have seen on some websites and in peoples specifications here. And I do not want it to be noisy.

As a note noise is important to me. I don't know how loud the new VGA cards like 5770 are but I am sensitive to sound and want not-loud preferably quiet cooling. This includes the CPU cooler. But at the same time I dont want to sacrifice on my overclock or run everything really hot. Therefore I am willing to spend more on graphics card and cooler as well. Need advice here . Also I see that their apear to be several different ATI reference card designs for the heat sinks on the 5770 and allso vendor specific and other coolers on the cards. I have absolutely no idea what they perform like or how loud they actually are. I have seen some reviews/articles about them but I feel someone who actually deals with them will be able to make a better decision than me.

About the board I am unsure again . Also I am leaning of going towards a UD4 over UD3 as I see UD4 supports SLI which is something I might not use... No preference for Gigabyte however there boards are cheap and I want alot of Sata ports and some esata connectivity. The new sata and usb features are not important to me.

Also they have to be in stock . Sometimes the shops no longer stock certain items but take forever to remove them from their websites. So if its out of stock it probably means they don't stock it anymore

And lastly I will be running those 2xWD 500 HDDs in RAID 0 as OS drive (win7 64bit ultimate).

Im only 17 so any help at all would be appreciated heaps, thanks so much in advance And I will save you time, the 5770 is the best card I can get before the prices jump like crazy in the country I live in

....And yes my psu is good enough HX650 corsair. (wishing i got the 750...) My case is Antec 900 II. Sorry for the long post, I tried to make up for it with formating.

 

[TVman]

have you considered a Phenom II X6 it will be better then i5 750 but will cost same! but if you want do go with i5 then the ud3 mobo will get you cpu to 4 ghz with out a problem,also one of those hdds will be more than enough,ALSO i might suggest getting the HD 5850 over the HD 5770 simply coz it will last you much longer

 

[BarbaricSoul]

actually, a Phenom II quad would be more than adequate for all games today, and you'd have the hexcore as a possible future upgrade.

 

[currahee440]

Why do you have 2 mobos on there? I would just get the P55 (non-A) ... people seem to like it a lot. A might just be a slight revision.
Noise depends on the cooler. I would go to review sites for specifica graphics cards you're interested in..

And one more note. DON'T get a Sapphire graphics card!!!
I had a Radeon HD 3650 once and the fan died on me in a week and because I sent the original UPC in for the rebate I was SOL. The rebate was $10. The ridiculous RMA "processing fee" was $15 plus I had to ship it to them.

I'm not sure if the processing fees will be smaller because you're closer to HK than I am in the states but it's still BS. I would investigate companies' warranties thoroughly before you buy a card. Just a warning

I heard that the 5770s scale really well in CrossFire. I would look more into it. I just ordered a 5770 as well Can't wait to test it out!

 

[Pistol Pow3r]

I will think about a x6 cpu. You realise that 5850s are almost twice as much as a 5770... And what are good brands of ATI cards. I haven't owned an ATI before.. I want to avoid any bad brands.

 

[TVman]

XFX is the best but sapphire is the cheapest coz it is atis biggest partner
as for what card do buy......it is the reference card see this link for more information

http://www.overclock.net/ati/705075-how-tell-ati-5xxx-reference-card.html

 

[currahee440]

XFX is a good one.
I bought an ASUS CuCore 5770, though I've heard some people have been having heat issues with it :S I chose ASUS because they're a brand I'm familiar with.
I think MSI and Gigabyte are good too. You might want to check their warranty policies though.

 

[BraveSoul]

ati 5850 for GAMING, i would do anything to get that, ditch cpu cooler, quad instead of six core, whatever it takes
_____________________________

Antec1200 filter project

 

[Pistol Pow3r]

You have tempted me into going for a 5850. That way it will last longer, but mainly I can get a better and bigger 1920x1200 screen like this (Dad works for HP, Im thinking discounts ). However then it will last less longer in that resolution .

Will my system be good in crossfire with two 5850s. Wishing I had a 750W now. It says my systems got enough power. But I think I will be running it in 16x/8x mode? Is this going to impact performance much if I want to run it in crossfire? And I will try to go after a reference card. And maybe install a aftermarket cooler on it if it gets to hot or loud. I am tempted to go 5850XFX I hear they have good warranty. I must say im scared of Over volting it but i might give it a try . This XFX should be good.

These are the only 5850s available for me if you wanted to know .

Thanks for the help so far it is much appreciated.

Is my ram good, what about my cooler. These are the links one and two to the products I have to chose from. I want my cooler to be able to handle 4GHz


***EDIT*** Bravesoul, why do you say ditch the CPU cooler. Most people have aftermarket ones I think. And this will help with case airflow too. I think I need a better cooler. Are you telling me that a stock cooler will be good enough when OC'd to 4Ghz? Or that the cooler is crap. Remember I want the cooler to be quiet and am willing to pay for that. The goal is to quietly cool CPU at full load at 4Ghz. So any help on the heat sink would be great.***EDIT***

 

[_JP_]

I'll cast my vote for the Powercolors...

I've owned Powercolor cards for some time and they never let me down. Noise is a downside with their cards, yes, but you can always get a new cooler.
In your case i would recommend a Thermalright heatsink, plus the additional fans. Please note that there is a reason why I'm saying this. Thermalright heatsinks are expensive, but they cooler very efficiently the card and can work without fans, if you have got enough airflow in your case and don't overclock the card. If you do, their heatsinks can fitted with any kind of fans (maker) for the size they state.

So, my recommendation would be:

AMD x6 Processor 1090T BE & a 880G or 890 board (because you plan on overclocking)
OR
AMD x4 Processor 965 BE or 955 BE 790FX board (for the same reason)
4GB 1333MHz of RAM (G-Skill, Corsair are good makes for OC)
PowerColor HD 5770 reference card (because it's the best one for OC) + Thermalright HR-03 (I think it's the Rev.A)

Now, the rest you picked seems fine. For the GPU heatsink I would recommend this fan. It's quiet and has enough airflow to aid the heatsink in case of extra heat.

NOTE: This heatsink can be adjusted in two ways, so if your going to do CrossFire later you can adjust the GPUs better.

If you need anything else, just ask!

Cheers!

 

[_JP_]

You have tempted me into going for a 5850.

You replied while I was replying as well...

Ok, a HD 5850 is very good for gaming, especially if overclocked and even better if OC in crossfire...that pretty much rocks as top these days...

It WILL run @ x16/x8 depending on the board you choose. Google wise, if you search for the manufacturers website for that board, they will tell you whether it will run like that or not.
It really depends on what chipset you're going with.

Again, go with PowerColor. Yes the RAM is fine.
As for the CPU cooler, any (good) cooler that states it can cool a AM3 cpu of 140W is fine.
An example is this one. Set it in the orientation you want, get 140mm fans and voilá! The 140mm fans are always very quiet and ensure very good airflow.

 

[Pistol Pow3r]

Yer thanks. Hey the cheapest 5850s in my country are a gigabyte followed by a xfx one. So I will take the XFX with warranty . And I will have to look at some more benchmarks now about the AMDx6. Some people say its good others don't. I think it works out exactly the same if I go for a X6 or a i5 750.

Oh and about the VGAs, im not going to find out that the cooling assembly has been glued to the card on any card I buy will i? I could imagine some of the manufacturers deciding to do that to make people buy there reference cards with nicer coolers on.

But could someone tell me a heat sink if I do decide to go for an i5 750. And out of interest why should I go for an x6 over an i5 750? I thought I5 750 performed better at gaming. And I doubt I will do much besides gaming, well maybe encoding that will benefit from 6cores. I thought I5 750 was better clock for clock and not all games support 6cores (although newer ones should). Point is I mainly want if for gaming. Why did they have to price them the same.

Which one is better. Im getting a headache. Ok I guess I should go look at the benchmarks again.

Oh and I thanked you guys for your'e help .

***Edit***OK how should I run the fans in the Cogage arrow? Do i run PWM fans? I have no idea how the fan setup would work. Should I use 3x fans? or 1x?***EDIT***

 

[Fourstaff]

I would stick with the i5 750, it edges out the x6 in games (and probably only games and other synthetic benches). If the x6 is cheaper by a significant margin, you might want to take a look at that though.

 

[_JP_]

I'll try to wrap this up not letting it become too extensive... (so that tl;dr doesn't apply)

It is faster, but the margin ain't much and, seriously, the eye doesn't see the difference. What a i5 runs a PII x6 runs also.
Take this in mind, AMD also uses a "Turbo Core" feature. It detects when there are extra cores that are not being used and "shuts them down". With the extra energy left, it raises the clocks of the remaining active cores, making them faster. So, if you're not using 6 cores, it scales down to 3 with a higher clock. Note that temperatures and power consumption don't change because of this.

If it helps, make your decision based on something like this:

AMD Phenom x6 1090T BE

• 
  Future proof (6-cores);

• 
  Will OC very well (proven you've got the right cooler and a good board/chipset);

• 
  Best for encoding or processor heavy duty apps, because of the number of cores;

• 
  Bang for the Buck performance. (with the right GPU...an ATI for example)

Intel Core i5 750

• 
  Very fast!;

• 
  Has a small margin over the AMDs in games;

• 
  Can provide very good OCs (with the same conditions as above);

• 
  4 Cores is enough for actual games (and my guess is that it will continue to be for a year or two).

See?
Of course Intel is going to change it's sockets in a year or two, so by that time you'll have an outdated CPU/Board while AMD will probable keep this one a little while longer. (So take this in mind)
I discourage any benchmarks, 'cause they only give you a possibility that the processor can achieve. In reality, it also depends on the rest of the system to preform at it's best. A good choice on the GPU and RAM is very important, and the motherboard also counts a lot!
I already said this on a previous post. I've had it with people making wrong decisions based on benchmarks! They don't even have the same system you end up having, so the performance will never be the same...but most people seem to forget this...oh well...

XFX is also good, but I'm only familiar with their nVidia lineup, dunno about ATI.

These days GPU manufacturers won't glue the cooler on the GPUs. They only do it if it has a heatsink with no screws and that can be easily spotted.

To OC a i5 get a tall heatsink with a 120mm fan (at least). That should be enough to keep decent temps while OC'ing. I'm not recommending any because you have to look at your budget to see if you can fit any one into it.

The Cogage Arrow/Thermalright IFX-14 can work with two 120mm or 140mm fans (Actually you can actually attach up to three fans to it) . These can be attached by wire clips to the heatsink. See this review to see how it works and preforms.
Of course the number of fans you attach also depends on how much space you have on the board.
PWM is the best, it regulates the speed according to the temp with more smoothness compared to 3-pin RPM measured fans. How to connect the fan comes explained on the motherboard manual. If your using 2 or more fans via PWM, you can get a splitter or get a Arctic cooling PWM fan. These use a neat feature called the PST. Check it out here.

Geez, guess it got too long anyways...damn it...

 

[currahee440]

Just my other 2 cents... since I'm going through something similar as you. With a Core i5 and Phenom II X6.

I've done some newegg configurations, the Phenom II X6 turns out to be a tad more expensive than the Core i5 (by about 30-40USD) so if you're interested in having more cores (come on 6 cores! who can say they have such a processor? ) try out a Phenom II X6 configuration. If you do some media encoding it might help to have the 2 extra cpus too though it may depend on the application.

BTW PowerColor seems like an okay brand to me. I know they've been with the Radeons ever since ATI allowed other distributors to sell their cards. Which is the R300 or Radeon 9700 era (Oh what an awesome card that was. Destroying the GE4 and FX!) but I just went on their website... no warranty link?!

I would recommend XFX or VisionTek. Second tiers which sound okay are MSI, Gigabyte, and ASUS simply becuase they make a lot of mobos for people.