What Should I Build/Buy?

[Cilraaz]

There's no major difference between Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, so far as gaming is concerned.

[awebz]

but assuming 64bit over win7-32? thanks for responses

[Cilraaz]

Yes, as a 64-bit OS will work with as much RAM as you can stuff in the system. A 32-bit OS will only address 4GB RAM, including video RAM. Since almost any video card today has at least 1GB on it, that leaves the system only able to address roughly 3GB of system RAM.

[nwo]

Intel's Core i7 870 & i5 750, Lynnfield: Harder, Better, Faster Stronger, the Anandtech article.

I'd like to see an i5 at stock, with turbo disabled under the same conditions of that benchmark.

It's not reliably enabling turbo that matters, obviously, it's how well the CPU will react when turbo is needed, and how far it will overclock itself.

The point I was trying to make is that since the i5 750 and 955/965 are both able of reaching 4GHz clock speed, the i5 750 is the clear winner. With turbo mode enabled, it is still not going to surpass the stock clock speed of a 965. With turbo mode enabled, in nearly all games, if it kicks in, it will disable 2 cores, which would bump the clock speed to around 3GHz.

When was the last time someone even suggested a Phenom II 965? As far as I can tell everyone suggests an 955 at $160, the reason? They're the same thing. I was using the 965 as a reference to a Phenom II x4 at 3.4ghz, not specifically at the 965 price, you can't buy a 2.3ghz i5 720 and overclock it to the level of a 750 because it doesn't exist.

It is mentioned in the OP under AMD recommended CPUs, as well as other threads on the forum. But that doesn't matter because the only reason I mentioned it is because I quoted your previous post which mentioned the following:

Obviously four cores running at 4.0ghz is better than two disabled and the other two running at 3.2ghz, but at stock clocks I'd have to say the Phenom II 965 and i5 750 with turbo are pretty close to being equal. Again, is the 5 - 10% performance worth 20% increase in price?

What I'm arguing here is that the i5 750 is not the best deal at $1000, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot buying a socket 1156 i5 750 right now considering you can get a 1055T at the same price, with far more value in the motherboard and CPU. Buying an i5 750 at its current price is ridiculous, if you want an LGA1156 CPU you should be looking further down the line at an i7 860/870. I'm not suggesting a 1055T, but at the same price as an i5 750 why would you get the i5? There's lower priced CPUs that offer similar performance, or CPUs at the same price (1055T) that offer more features and better performance at what the i5 750 excells at.

This thread is specifically here to help people build a gaming PC. The only difference between the 2 CPUs is that the 1055T has 2 additional cores which will not make a difference in gaming, and since it has a lower clock speed, i5 750 would be the clear winner. At only 2.8GHz, it is significantly lower clocked than a 965, and an i5 750 outperforms the 965.

The only part of your post I agree with is the fact that the socket that the i5 750 uses is not very future proof, unlike AMD's AM3.

[Dethh]

Yes, as a 64-bit OS will work with as much RAM as you can stuff in the system. A 32-bit OS will only address 4GB RAM, including video RAM. Since almost any video card today has at least 1GB on it, that leaves the system only able to address roughly 3GB of system RAM.

I had a 32 bit in here for a week or two with 4g of ram it recognized 3.75g.

[Cilraaz]

I had a 32 bit in here for a week or two with 4g of ram it recognized 3.75g.

Then you had a 256MB video card.

[Ryker]

Couple of questions-

How good is the $800 dollar build for gaming, on like a scale of 1-10?



Can I use the windows CD that came with my laptop on the computer one im done building it?



Are there any websites you could suggest that would have a couple of builds on it?

[nwo]

Couple of questions-

How good is the $800 dollar build for gaming, on like a scale of 1-10?



Can I use the windows CD that came with my laptop on the computer one im done building it?



Are there any websites you could suggest that would have a couple of builds on it?

All of the builds are very good for gaming. An $800 build will easily handle any game you throw at it, as long as you don't go too insane on the settings and resolution. With that said, the performance depends on the game and settings you use, so it' s hard to give it a number.

You cannot use the windows CD that came with your laptop for a newly built computer. The CD that came with your laptop is most likely just a windows recovery disk that will only work for that laptop and nothing else.

Cyberpower and ibuypower are the only 2 websites that I would recommend for ordering a pre-built custom PC.

[khalpone]

I'd add something to the FAQ

Q: Which version of Windows 7 should I buy?
A: For gaming, there is no appreciable difference in Windows 7 versions. However, you should buy a 64 Bit version as this will allow more than 4gigs of RAM (system + video card). Home Premium is what most people use. If you ever find the need for Professional or Ultimate, you can simply unlock your current version without performing a new install / upgrade by paying the difference. Comparison Chart

[Nixia]

The best PSUs are made by seasonic. Corsair and antec use PSUs made by seasonic but they slapped on their own stickers and has their own warranty.
A 400W Seasonic PSU will be enough for a midrange build with a 5770, i7/phenom II and 1-3 hard drives.

[Jiran]

I said it once, I'll say it again. If you upgrade the 120mm fan, and buy a second one for push pull, and the awesome deals you can find this for now at retailers, like bestbuy etc. The new revised Corsair H50 is beating most high end air coolers now, and is a bit cheaper.

It's great for those who want max cooling, do average overclocking, but dont want to dive into a full blown WC setup. I put one of these on my wife's PC (i5 750 @ 4ghz), she was running a Noctua D14 (pretty much the king air cooler), and her temps dropped 8c, but using the same noctua 120mm fans, but putting them on her h50 radiator.

[Cilraaz]

Most people don't want the hassle of a water cooling system. There's always the possibility of a leak, even with a self-enclosed system. The H50 also cools only slightly better than a decent air cooler, which usually costs just a bit less.

[Jiran]

Most people don't want the hassle of a water cooling system. There's always the possibility of a leak, even with a self-enclosed system. The H50 also cools only slightly better than a decent air cooler, which usually costs just a bit less.

I have never seen one report of the corsair h50 leaking, as far as hassle goes? I bet you can install an h50 faster than you can an air cooler.

As far as it only slightly out performing a decent air cooler? No, it outright out performs "decent", it edges out the top air coolers.

[Jiran]

Seperate view point, to not even recommend it, at its current price point at $60, is absurd, and an extra fan at $14.99, still makes it cheaper than high end air cooling.

[Cilraaz]

Seperate view point, to not even recommend it, at its current price point at $60, is absurd, and an extra fan at $14.99, still makes it cheaper than high end air cooling.

Hardly absurd not to recommend something like that in this post. If someone is knowledgeable enough about cooling to use water cooling, they'll know their options. To suggest water cooling to someone not knowledgeable enough about it is absurd. Basically, I don't want someone water cooling their system and then coming back to complain to me when they spring a leak and fry $1500 in components.

I'm seriously debating getting rid of the fucking sticky. Both chaud and myself put a decent amount of time into it as a favor to the forum and people have done nothing but bitch about what we've chosen.

[Jiran]

Hardly absurd not to recommend something like that in this post. If someone is knowledgeable enough about cooling to use water cooling, they'll know their options. To suggest water cooling to someone not knowledgeable enough about it is absurd. Basically, I don't want someone water cooling their system and then coming back to complain to me when they spring a leak and fry $1500 in components.

Because the corsair h50 is known for leaking as long as you don't tamper with it, lol. Or heck, most well built custom WC loops, I mean if this thread is for dummy proof products only, I can understand a custom loop is not a recommendation, but to throw out the h50? That's WC'ing for beginners right there. You need a little risk vs. reward for the best performance, and to say theres much risk in using the h50 is still a long shot. It's your forum.

One can also install an air cooler incorrectly, and overheat their processor.

[Cilraaz]

I didn't want to include water cooling. Period. If you want, go make a thread about how awesome water cooling is. Nobody's stopping you.

[awebz]

Q1: why do you recomend amd cards over invidia?


Q2: what exactly do you put on the ssd? win7 + wow? just win7? just wow? guide to setting this up for someone who hasn't built in a while?

[vesseblah]

Q1: why do you recomend amd cards over invidia?

Better price/power ratio. Also requires lot less powerful PSU and makes less noise. It's win overall unless you want absolutely fastest hardware for DX11 games.

Q2: what exactly do you put on the ssd? win7 + wow? just win7? just wow? guide to setting this up for someone who hasn't built in a while?

Everything you use the most often. Windows definitely. WoW and whatever games you play daily... Basically whatever you can fit in it starting from the most used things.

[Cilraaz]

Better price/power ratio. Also requires lot less powerful PSU and makes less noise. It's win overall unless you want absolutely fastest hardware for DX11 games.

Less heat, too. That allows for a better CPU and/or GPU overclock.

Everything you use the most often. Windows definitely. WoW and whatever games you play daily... Basically whatever you can fit in it starting from the most used things.

Also any constantly used applications, such as Firefox (or your browser of choice), Ventrilo, etc. Also, if possible, I'd look to off-load the pagefile to a normal hard drive. I'm not sure if this is still sound advice. I have yet to get an SSD, so I haven't fully checked the latest "must do's". I know this was originally a suggestion based on the SSDs having a limited number of writes per sector.