Building A Gaming PC - Looking For Some Advice

[Emasher]

I'm planning on putting together a gaming PC in a couple of weeks, I've spent some time looking through guides, and picking out the parts, but with a larger purchase like this, I figure its always good to have a second opinion.

 

The machine is going to be used primarily for Gaming, obviously I'll end up using it for some other things (Web browsing, Coding, mostly), but nothing that would be too demanding (No CAD, or Rendering or anything like that). Basically, I'd like to be able to play anything that's come out in the last little while on Medium to High settings at 30+FPS on 1680x1050. I'm hoping to be able to play the majority of stuff that'll be coming out in the next 2 to 3 years with at least Medium settings before I upgrade.

 

I've already got a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers and all the cables I'll need.

 

At the moment my plan is:

 

Asus P7H55 Intel LGA 1156 Motherboard

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131638

Asus EAH5850 Radeon HD 5850 GPU

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121375

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR3 1600

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

Intel Core i5 760

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

Antec 300 ATX Mid Tower Case

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

This Generic Samsung Optical Drive

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175

OCZ Stealth XStream 700W Power Supply

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit OEM

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754

 

I already have a 500GB SATA drive, that I'm planning on using.

I'm not 100% sure the motherboard is right for what I'm doing, especially regarding the RAM.

The video card is supposedly one of the best 5850 cards out there according to some reviews, but I'm not sure if I'm better off going with an ATI card, or Nvidia. It seems to be one of the best cards in my price range though.

The ram seems like exactly what I want, but I'm not quite sure how the speed factors in with the other parts.

The i5 760 seems to be the best value for the price, but I haven't really looked at AMD CPUs at all. I'm more familiar with Intel, but I might go for an AMD Processor if there was a comparable one for significantly cheaper.

I'm not too concerned with the case, as long as its somewhat durable and everything fits, this one was recommended in a few of the guides I looked at.

The Optical drive isn't going to be that important, as I'm only planning on using it to install windows, and then the few PC games I have that weren't purchased from Steam.

The power supply is the one thing I'm really not sure about. I tried using a Asus's wattage calculator, which recommended a 650W power supply, but I thought I'd rather be safe and go a bit higher. Is this overkill? Would I be better off going for something else?

I'm just planning on hooking it up to two speakers, or headphones, would buying a cheap Audio Card be worth it? I'm not an Audiophile.

In terms of the OS, is there any reason I should go for the full version over the OEM? If I want to play any older games will I need to go for the Pro version to get XP compatibility mode?

In general, is there anything that's overkill for what I'll be needing, where I should buy a cheaper part to reduce costs?

 

Thanks for any help.

[Nolan]

For a smidgen more (~$10) you could get a 6870 or for less you could get a 6850.

 

A 6870 is easily better than the 5850, while a 6850 tends to trade blows, but is a lower price and generally more efficient.

 

You may be wondering why the top end 5850 is basically as good as the new top end 6850, but in fact AMD pulled a stupid move and changed their naming scheme. Previously 5770 was AMD's mainstream card, well now with the new naming scheme the 6800's are mainstream and 6900's and high-end replacing the 5800 series. Needlessly confusing, but the cards improved markedly if the naming scheme is understood.

 

By the way, the 5850/6850 generally plays new releases close to max 1080p/2560x1600 so 1680x1050 is not going to pose any problems.

 

I'm wary of endorsing Intel, as last I heard they were already gearing up to quit supporting the LGA 1156 and LGA 1366 sockets and use a new socket. It hasn't seemed to happen yet, and likely won't be an issue for most users but when it does happen it kills off any upgrade path beyond what is out now. Then again they stuck with LGA 775 for far to long...

 

As to Nvidia GPU options, I only endorse the GTX 460/465 currently. The GTX 5xx series is quite expensive and the 470/480's are terribly hot and loud and power hungry compared to the Fermi revisions. The 460 though is a very good buy, it performs on close to the 5850 and prices actually go quite low since Nvidia actually dropped them to respective MSRPs. Either option (AMD or Nvidia) will get you great performance though.

[Sméagol]

Looks good, your MB is probably fine, Asus is a good brand.

 

Wattage:

I'm not really an expert, but I always hear that required wattage for a system is greatly exaggerated. You could probably do with a 500W power supply. Unless you are thinking of doing some massive expansion and / or OC'ing down the line.

But perhaps you should register at a specialised site for these questions to get a 3rd opinion. I'm not familiar with English sites, but I go to tweakers.net (Dutch). Those kind of sites are a great resource for this kind of info.

 

OEM:

The difference is, you aren't entitled to support (since you are the support). Other than that, you won't be able to install that OS to a new system (== new Motherboard), but you probably don't want to anyway.

I have a full version of W7, but I got it cheap at launch. I say go for OEM.

 

Old games:

I forgot what the exact deal was, but from what I've heard, XP compatibility mode in itself is not enough. I believe it was simply old games relying on old hardware, which you don't have. Unless you want to install old video & soundcards in your new system.. Again, don't know the details. How old are these games you want to play? Examples?

On my system: the oldes game installed is Myst at the moment I think.. It runs.. Mostly. It is playable at least. I tried C&C, but I couldn't get the image right. But I haven't tried really hard. A more recent old game like Giants runs like a dream. It's also dependant on the game itself. In general: Any games made for XP or higher runs without trouble. I'm pretty sure W'98 games run without trouble too.

 

Audiocard:

If you're not an audiophile, and aren't thinking of hooking up your computer to a receiver or something: don't bother.

[Konfucius]

If you get a good PSU, like OCZ or Corsairs 500 to 550 W should easily be enough.

 

It could be worth looking at AMD CPUs as they are a lot cheaper and any quad-core CPU of the last two years will have enough power for the latest games. Actually I think Crysis, which came out in 2007, is still the most hardware-demanding game. I also highly recommend playing it, the gameplay is just as brilliant as the graphics are.

 

For a two speaker setup onboard sound usually suffices and if you are not happy with it you could always plug an audiocard in.

[Emasher]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

I've decided to go with a GeForce 460 GTX 1GB instead of the Radeon 5850. I'm probably going to stick with the i5 760 though. I'll probably go with the 700W PSU just incase I want to do significant upgrades at some point. Its not ridiculously more expensive, so I figure its better just to be safe.

 

The only thing I haven't decided on is the Motherboard. Should I be looking at a P55 North bridge or and H55? Aside from the Socket, the expansion slots, and the RAM slots, what should I be looking for in a Motherboard?

[Sméagol]

Personally I start with which processor I want, then just go with a motherboard which is compatible. Making sure it has enough slots for anything I want to add. But the basic features are all the same on most of them, because of Intel's (or AMD's) specifications.

 

So just make sure you have enough slots and other connections (sata connections for your HD's, and USB for everything you want to connect), than you can look at built-in features (onboard LAN, sound, but again, most of these are standard on most boards), brand, or even appearance. You can also look for new features as USB 3.0 or PCI 3.0, and SATA 3.0. Also, make sure your MB fits in your case. Probably just ATX.

 

If you want to expand in the future by adding a second videocard (I've read an article that concluded 2x GTX 460 = best bang for buck), make sure you have 2 PCI-e x16 slots.

[Nolan]

Well look for good brands, and read up on what northbridges are high end and which are low. Make sure the form factor is something that will fit in your case. Generally not an issue though as mid and full towers will both take Micro-ATX and ATX, but some cases are odd (generally HTPC cases).

 

The placement of components can be important as well. A common problem with some boards is that a large aftermarket heatsink can interfere with some of the RAM slots making them unusable. You also have to think about cable placement and the distance between other hardware.

[Emasher]

The form factor isn't really an issue for me, the Antec 300 case supports ATX and Micro ATX. From what I've read the P55 seems to be the best option for anything with a dedicated video card. After finding that out, a quick search on newegg (taking into account the RAM speed) turned up this:

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634

 

I'm a little bit worried about all the DOA reviews, although, it is selective response, so I'll probably be ok.