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Where to buy new desktop
It's been five years since I bought my last gaming pc and I think it is finally time for an upgrade (actually it was three years ago). And once again I'm back here asking for advice. I think I may have actually lost knowledge relating to computers since then as I haven't been following them as much. I'm looking to spend a maximum of $1,500 dollars with warranty, tax, shipping etc. I would prefer to go lower than that if possible.
I've been looking at ibuypower's Chimera rig and some stuff at tiger direct. If anyone could link me a set up that looks good I would appreciate it. I was looking at doing AMD Phenom II's with two SLI video card set up. Would that be good or should I go with an I7 with one decent video card? I don't need a monitor or perephreals.
www.ibuypower.com/info/chimera2-system.aspx#p=p1
Crossfire Dragon seems pretty sweet.
www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp
Comments
Hey, how's it going? If you shoot me a PM with the price range you're willing to go with, I can put you together a wishlist on Newegg.com and get you the best bang for your buck. No, I don't work for them, but I do build and service PC's, servers, networks, etc. for a living and Newegg is by far my go-to online store for parts. I use Tigerdirect also when Newegg doesn't have the price I'm looking for.
Anyway, shoot me a PM with:
Price range
Games you'd like to play
Performance you'd like from those games (FPS, etc)
Later,
Chris
Or..........
He can post it here.
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Sent you a message.
Or..........
He can post it here.
haha
If you want someone to build it for you, try DigitalStorm:
http://www.digitalstormonline.com/
If you want to build it yourself, then newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/
Just set this up on newegg:
ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A6T/BLK/B/G - Retail
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ... - Retail
NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
XFX HD-575X-ZNDC Radeon HD 5750 XXX Edition 1GB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Retail. .........X2
GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5 AM3 AMD 790FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9A G - Retail
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ955FBGIBOX - Retail
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Total: $1,139.90
And this Tiger Direct pre-built has similar specs. But this pc has twice the ram and a bigger hard drive. Although I'm not sure on the quality of mobo compared to my build or quality of ram and video card by brand name.
Total: $1,361.00 w/ shipping
So the Tiger Direct one is around $225 more.
Thoughts?
It looks really good. I'm still not entirely sold on starting a PC with 2 budget cards in Crossfire instead of 1 top end card in single but the benchmarks do show 2x5750 and 2x5770 as being cheaper and faster than 1x5850 or 1x5870. But then you have to deal with the imperfections of dual GPU's even if the FPS is usually higher.
Newegg have the best stuff and allow you to modify their computers as you want.
As for SLI, it is not worth the bother. A better single card performs better in almost any games. MMOs usually don't have SLI support anyways. The boost SLI gives is usually something just over 10% even if up to 25% isn't uncommondepending on the cards and game, but no SLId card outperform a single 5970.
Here is a chart for GFX cards that shows you what you get out of a card. The best choice is as you see a HD 5970, or if you want a Nvidia card a GTX 295 which however isn't as good.
ive gone through cyberpowerpc.com on more than one occassion for my rig. am rather happy with the work they do. first one lasted 3-4 years until the cooling fan (think it was a vigor2 monsoon?) blew out and fried some of the mother board. have had this second one for about a year and a half to two years with no problems so far.
It looks really good. I'm still not entirely sold on starting a PC with 2 budget cards in Crossfire instead of 1 top end card in single but the benchmarks do show 2x5750 and 2x5770 as being cheaper and faster than 1x5850 or 1x5870. But then you have to deal with the imperfections of dual GPU's even if the FPS is usually higher.
I agree. Go with a single GPU. ATI GPU's are better right now, while Intel i7 processors are much more powerful. Go with a core i7 system and a single Radeon 5870 card, you will get more bang for your buck.
Here is the updated build. I switched out the hard drive, cooler and mobo.
secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx
Little over $1,500. Look good?
That looks great. The only thing is, you might have a problem fitting that CPU cooler into that case. If you don't mind spending a little more, you could get the Antec 1200, or the HAF 932. The Antec is a better case as far as cooling and quality goes, but the HAF looks better IMO. These cases are huge, so make sure ya got room for 'em!
If you do go with the mid tower case, the side panel has a plexi-glass window in it, so you could do some minor modding by cutting out a rectangle in the plexi a little larger than the size CPU cooler and put some black edge channeling around the cut to make it look finished. Just an idea.
You might also want to make sure the cooler doesn't interfere with the RAM slot orientation on that motherboard as far as mounting goes.
You could order all of the parts with the exception of the CPU cooler and just take some measurements, then order the appropriate cooler afterward.
Good luck with your project dude. That machine is gonna be a beast.
Edit: Another thing I noticed, which is quite serious! You'll either need to pick a 1366 processor, or pick a 1156 motherboard, because that processor won't fit on that board!
Also, the RAM won't work with that board either. You'll need to pick an 1156 motherboard that runs DDR3 1600 RAM. Good luck.
If you get that a Gigabyte board (they are fine, I use them all the time) you will have to update the BIOS before Windows 7 will run correctly on it. The F2 BIOS that comes on it has a slew of USB and RAM problems.
Go with the ASRock (Asus made) board I picked out before and all will be good!
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
Make sure you see cpc's edit, the i7-860 is a socket 1156 cpu, the mobo you have there is a socket 1366 mobo. You either need an i7-920 and 6gb of ram or switch the mobo to an 1156 one.