Gaming Rig...Help please!

[MMElite77]

Hi there everyone, I am deciding to build my own gaming rig this summer. I already planned out the specs of my computer and it turns out to be pretty solid spending about $2650 on the Computer alone.

Specs:

AMD Phenom II x6, 1090T Black Edition $320

ATI Radeon XFX PCI-E XXX HD 5870 crossfire $450(x2=$900)

1000 Watt Corsair Modular Power Supply (Required if Going to Crossfire) $250

Corsair 8GB Dominator PC3 12800 Dual Channel DDR3 1600 $290

Western Digital 1TB Cavier Black SATA III 64mb Cache Hard Disk $95

Coolmaster Storm Scout Case $200

Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card with Dolby/DTS $270

Asus Crosshair IV Formula w/Dual DDR3 1333, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, USB 3.0, 1394, CrossfireX $250

Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD-RW DRIVE, SATA, BLACK $35

Total Cost: $2650



The main issue is i want my rig to last me at least 3-4 years! Judging by the specs, do you think it's possible?

Also, a couple of my friends told me why the heck are you going with AMD? Get an i7. I'm like asking them i can't afford a freakin i7 for goodness sake! If i purchase an i7 965 for example, then i'll have to remove one of my HD 5870's and that'll give me a big disadvantage in graphic performance in the future. Also I want to crossfire;p And another friend of mine said to just crossfire a 4890 and get an i7. Then again, the 4000 series cards will be obselete in like a year or so, I defintley can't do that! I'm aiming for a price range is somwhere around $2500 for the PC alone.

I heard some rumours that said that the 6 core 1090T from AMD is ranked like 10th place in overall cpu ranking which is not bad for the price.

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End
PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

I also heard that the i7's support triple channel ram while the AMD's only support dual channel which kinda made me sad in a sort of way.

One of my friends also told me that when you compare an AMD processor to an Intel processor especially the all popular 6 core ones, the intel processor will always have twice as many threads as it's counterpart AMD. is this true? AMD processors can't really be that bad can they?

Any ways, i need your guy's opinion on my current setup and what i should change in terms of parts and specs. Again, i am planning of keeping this pc for a very long time, lets say around 3 years. Do you think this setup will get me there? What do you recommend i should get in terms of parts and how can i ensure i have a high end gaming rig?

Yet another of my friends told me why i'm getting an ATI GPU and why the 5870? Well, first i said that i liked the design of the card especially the xfx model. I also noticed that the bus speed of the processor of the card was much higher than any of the cards in the 5800 series and the 5900 series which shocked me. I was going to get a 5970 card but after seeing the dramatic drop in the bus speed, i just decided to crossfire the 5870 instead.

The system i planned out was as top of the line i could go with AMD/ATI and fell perfectly within my price range. How weird... ;/ I am assuming the Intel equivalent system will probably be twice as expensive! The whole reason i am switching to pc is cause my mac is becoming outdated and the ps3 games these days are getting kind of old to me considering you can't mod them or cheat etc. So i decide what the hell, i'll get a top of the line pc! The big question is should i go for a high end AMD or a High END i7 machine? Can the system fall somewhere within my price range?

Your help is deeply appreciated.

Thanks
MM

again sorry for posting a long thread

[SugarJ]

The Storm Scout is $100, not $200. And if you like the looks, the CM690 II Advanced is much better to build in. My wife's PC is in a Scout, and I just did a build for my boss in the Advanced.

You don't need a 1000 watt PSU for crossfiring 2x5870's. A 750 would be fine.

This build is as top of the line as an AMD gaming rig gets. It should run everything that comes out for the next couple of years at max details at 1920x1080.

[boggtrotter59]

Originally Posted by MMElite77

i want my rig to last me at least 3-4 years!

It's unlikely anything you buy today will be relevant in 3-4 years... given the pace that the technology is advancing ... both AMD and Intel will probably be getting new cpu sockets next generation.. that said... a videocard upgrade in a couple years could extend the lifespan quite a bit...

Awesome build though... *drools all over keyboard...

[jcmaz]

For me, I would get a more "basic" computer. IE: Single 5870, 4gb ram, Phenom X6 and then upgrade when you need to and save a some $$$.

Honestly, you won't "need" all the graphics power unless you are going the eyefinity route...

[_dangtx_]

totally agree with the above. spend a minimalistic 1 video card(top dog ati for of course) and possibly an 850 watter from corsair. keep the remaining casho for future upgrades. better invest 5k in 5 years than 5k now.
clock per clock the i7 is faster, yes. not going around that. in gaming, at higher resolutions tough, that wont make much of a difference anyway. i think.

[icecoals]

Some possible good advice I came upon on from one of my own rate my rig threads is you can get the X6 1055T, just 400Mhz slower than the 1090T, which you can easily oc, for about $100 less. I read it could be possibly stable on air alone, but quadruple check to be sure.

[fishingfanatic]

Like the guys said, small tweeks could save you a few $. As for AMD vs Intel, the price of the 980x is the same as buying the cpu, psu, mobo, and maybe even the ram, depending on the make. There are some good reviews on this and, god forbid, other sites which may help you decide which way to go. OCing is something else as well, because of temps. These guys are pretty knowledgeable, so their opinion shouldn't be taken lightly. There may also be a half decent substitute by the summer for any number of items on your list. Enjoy the build, hope to see some pics.

[MadCan]

Alright here are some information that will make you feel better about your AMD decision. first of all eve nthough i7 is a hyper-threaded machine not everything (including most of the games right now) use concurrent threading as well as the CPU can actually handle. One of the main reasons why the CPU is much more expensive is the fact that intel believes in time the programs and the games will be more concurrent friendly. However by the time people make all the games 4x2 core fully associational there will be 8 core machines will hyperthreading.

On top of that, if you are not considering playing games in 3d in the near future you probably are not going to need that much computing power anyways. I also agree with the others. Instead of insisting on the crossfire just stick with the single 5870. Also if you insist, I would recommend you not to underestimate the power of dual 4890s... Also if you are going to buy the dual 5870s make sure about the size of your case and the motherboard before you buy them both. Another suggestion is that you can buy a 5870 now and let it go as much as it can, then buy another one when you really think its necessary.

i7 vs x6 well if you are sticking with 5870s it is certain that AMD cpu and mobo is going to give you a better performance than the i7.

Ram instead of corsair dominators i would recommend the G-Skill Ripjaws instead. I have been using those in my old dualcore extreme and in my new build im using the G-skill ECOs for low power and better latency. But most likely the rams end up giving you the same results.

Also you can easily 1055T instead of 1090T as stated above and OC it to the same level. For the cash difference you can get a decent CPU cooler and still make the CPU run cool.

[MMElite77]

Thanks for the replies!

I Updated my specs and it turned out i saved nearly $700 WOW!

Here's my updated setup. Yes i decided to stick with one graphic card for now and upgrade later. Same goes for the ram. I got 4GB Dominators-GT PC3-16000 Dual channel Ram which runs at a crazy bus speed of 2000mhz! But then again, it's pretty expensive. I am liking the red design though.

So here's my current planned setup

AMD Phenom II x6, 1090T Black Edition $320

ATI Radeon XFX PCI-E XXX HD 5870 $450

1000 Watt Corsair Modular Power Supply (Required if Going to Crossfire) $250

Corsair 4GB Dominator-GT PC3 16000 Dual Channel DDR3 2000 (2x2GB) $260

Western Digital 1TB Cavier Black SATA III 64mb Cache Hard Disk $95

Coolmaster Storm Scout Case $130

Asus Crosshair IV Formula w/Dual DDR3 1333, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, USB 3.0, 1394, CrossfireX $250

Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD-RW DRIVE, SATA, BLACK $35

Windows 7 Home Premium $220

Total cost :$2000


Again i am amazed of how much money i saved! I'll do some more research and try to bring the price lower if i can, maybe even down to $1500 ^^

My Friend "Bubzilla" you probably know him, posted another thread to help me out on my Rig

~$2700 Gaming rig

And no my price range is Below $2000 not $3000! Wow, he must think i'm rich!

The future is unexpected! Maybe the best choice is to not get a gaming rig at all! Every while a new graphic card, processor, etc comes out and you will waste more money upgrading it. I personally think a gaming console is more worth it. But then again, there will be no mods, cheats, Crysis ;( Really a tough decision!

BTW, i know i'm not suppose to share accounting info but i have nearly $7000 in my bank account ^^! The big question is should i spend it or save it ?

Thanks for the replies!

[fishingfanatic]

I think half the fun of putting together a new rig is researching parts based on what you want/spend. The when you have a idea what you want, price matching everything. It's amazing just how much you can save this way. Then when assembled, that 1st boot up after everything is in and updated. The AMD is the better choice for the money. Enjoy.