A Question

[HPsucks]

I am currently building a rig on iBuyPower's website.

I don't want to break a bank however, I need a decent rig.

Wha do you think about this

RAM 6 gigabytes 1333 mHz

Graphics card: ATI 5750 x2

Intel i7 720 2,66 gHz

HAF 932 case

Astek Liquid cooling

800 Thermalke Though Power

Windows 7 64-bit

1 terabyte 7.200rpm

 

[jyjjy]

If you don't want to spend much the first thing you should do is drop the water cooling. A good air cooler should be fine and much cheaper.

 

[zach538467]

It will definitely perform well. If you are trying to save money, I would lose the liquid cooler unless you want to do a massive overclock.

Also, you might consider building one yourself, you can usually save money that way, get better components, and it isn't as hard as you would think, there are plenty of guides/youtube vids.

If it were I building, I would opt for a single 5850 instead of xfire 2 5750's, due to scalability and the fact that if you want to upgrade you will have to swap both of them out. However, the xfired cards will perform better in most games, and even games where xfire doesn't work well they should do pretty good.

 

[Maziar]

+1^
Also what resolution are you going to play at ?

 

[TheRealUyi]

If you are trying to save money, id drop the ram to 4gb if this is for gaming. Also I agree with jyjjy, loose the watercooling and go for aircooling, maby a coolermaster v10 or

v8. If I were you i would go with the a single 5850 or 5870 (or 4890, because imo the 57xx series isn't worth bothering with). Also it wouldn't hurt to go quad core instead of

corei7, it may save you some cash, and for gaming, quad cores haven't been used to their full potential and neither have corei7's so the performance difference may be

small. Also Intel has come out with 2 new socket types I believe, one for the next gen corei7's (LGA 1156) and the other one they recently announced (don't know much

about it). So if it saves you money I'd go quad core and upgrade later on.

Here are links to the Coolermaster V8- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103055&cm_re=v8-_-35-103-055-_-Product
and the Coolermaster v10- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103056

You may be able to just ask iBuyPower to put on stock cooling and you could put one of these heatsinks on later.


Hope it helps

 

[HPsucks]

Thanks guys!!!
Water-Cooling is currently a free upgrade (sorry forgot about it)))

lowering to 4 gb ram 1600 mhz

Will be playing at 1650x1500 res or lower depends on the monitor i buy ( Which One do you reccomend)

THANKS AGAIN AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 

[jyjjy]

Well, there is no i7 720. There is the i7 920 and the i7 750 however. The 920 is LGA 1366 which uses 3 channels of ram so if that is the one you meant you should get either 3 or 6 gigs of ram.

 

[jyjjy]

For a resolution of 1680x1050 I highly recommend a single HD5770. Later on you can add another in crossfire if you desire.

 

[HPsucks]

+1^
Also what resolution are you going to play at ?

Depends...

If I find a good monitor and a good size

maybe on 1650x1050 or 1920x1080

 

[HPsucks]

Well, there is no i7 720. There is the i7 920 and the i7 750 however. The 920 is LGA 1366 which uses 3 channels of ram so if that is the one you meant you should get either 3 or 6 gigs of ram.

Thanks a lot!!!!

Yeah I got confused because there is an i7-720Q or something for laptops....

I will get 6 gigs and i7-920 ( isnt that an Quad-Core)


Thanks

 

[zach538467]

Yes, the i7 is a quad core. I think what threaluyi meant was that the i7 is hyperthreaded, so you get 4 physical cores, and 8 logical cores. If you are playing and 1650x1050 then a 5750/5770 would do just great. If you do find a good deal on a 1920x1080(and they are out there, my stepdad got a 23" acer at newegg's cyber monday sale for like $140) I would definitely xfire the 5750's or more optimally like previously said, one 5850.

And if you decide to build it yourself, head on over to the homebuilt forums and we'll help you with an entire build there.

 

[Maziar]

Like others for 1680x1050 i would recommend HD 5770,however for 1920x1200 its better to go with a HD 5850

 

[HPsucks]

Is there a card that is within my budge and can work with both of 1680x1050 and
1920x1080????

 

[jyjjy]

The HD5770 should be fine for both of those resolutions at the moment. With 1920x1080 you may want to add another in crossfire at some point in the future. Two in crossfire will perform similarly to an HD5870.

 

[Maziar]

+1^
If you can't afford a HD 5850 go for 1 HD 5770,it will be fine at 1920x1200 too,i recommended HD 5850 first because it would be better for resolutions like 1920x1200

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Even for 16x10 I would recommend the 5850 for better consistency of lower fps as well as for the long term, 1 HD5770 may be ok for most of today's games, but does anone every build to just play today's games. I would get the HD5850 for a little more forward looking rig, especially if ever moving beyond that level of power adding a second HD5850 is easier than anything for the dual HD5770 setup, a single HD5770 will do for now, but only just.

 

[Maziar]

Yes and that's why i said if you can't afford the HD 5850

 

[jyjjy]

Are you kidding? An HD5770 is fantastic for 1680x1050 and should be for a good long while. If you are going to go around recommending $300 video cards for 1680x1050 you should offer to pay for it as well.

 

[HPsucks]

OK so I am going to get PowerColor 5850 for 299.99 USD!!! And I will be playing in 1920x1080

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

jyjjy, HD5770 is not 'FANTASTIC' for 1680x1050 and worse at 1920x1080; it's capable as mentioned, but limited, especially going forward as games get tougher and going further with Xfire in mind just makes matters worse if someone is considering that too.

If you can't understand that then don't whine about it to the rest of us. [:thegreatgrapeape:6]

 

[jyjjy]

That's simply untrue. Maybe you need every game to never dip below 50 FPS with settings maxed but most people don't have such crazy standards.
And why would the possibility of adding another in crossfire make it even worse? That doesn't even make sense. You get performance similar to an HD5870 for the price of an HD5850. Unless you really hate having money that's a GOOD thing.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Do your research J, you're misinformed as usual.

I'm not saying the HD5770 is a bad card, but for what he's looking at doing, especially now that it's 1920x1080 the HD5850 is a better option, and why adding another one in Xfire makes it worse is because the return on investment drops the performance and now limits you (adding a third card offers even less return and so on) whereas the HD5850 is not as limited in both power and features.

You pretend that the HD5770 is 'Fantastic' (so then what are the GTX285, HD5850, GTX295, HD5870, HD5970; SuperCalaFantastiche?), where it's only capable. I'm not trying to oversell either, but don't ignore that the HD5770 is limiting, and even going Xfire is limiting as well.

I'm not about wasting money, but I also don't tell people looking for advanced setups that they should simply turn down their settings on a 'make do' part. That's not my definition of 'Fantastic'.

 

[jyjjy]

You pretend that the HD5770 is 'Fantastic' (so then what are the GTX285, HD5850, GTX295, HD5870, HD5970; SuperCalaFantastiche?)

At 1680x1050 what I would call those cards is "a pointless waste of money."
What precisely are you refering to with "misinformed as usual"?
This is an HD5770 in 1680x1050 we are talking about. It IS a GREAT card for that resolution. If you don't think so I suspect you've never used it at that res or looked at benchmarks. If you have problems with my choice of adjectives the monthly Tom's video card guide refers to much weaker cards as "exceptional" for that resolution. If you want to call it pretty good but "limited" in 1920x1080 or higher then sure, that's valid but the option of adding another in crossfire if one finds it lacking largely mitigates the "limited" part. In fact 2 HD5770s in crossfire is clearly the best deal on the high end from a price/performance perspective so I have no clue what you are talking about with "return on investment." That you single it out as a bad idea is simply baffling to me.

 

[Maziar]

Are you kidding? An HD5770 is fantastic for 1680x1050 and should be for a good long while. If you are going to go around recommending $300 video cards for 1680x1050 you should offer to pay for it as well.

I didn't say HD 5770 is a bad card,it performs really well in 1680x1050 and in most games in 1920x1200 but HD 5850 is indeed better,especially for 1920x1200 resolution.
Check this review:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446.html
As i said although a 5770 can handle games fine,HD 5850 is noticeably faster so IMO if you have the money its worth to get HD 5850

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

J, I have looked at the benchmarks, and obviously more than you, and if you think you can simply make up for it by adding a second HD5770, means you DEFINITELY didn't read enough of the reviews showing the limiting effect on higher resolution compared to the HD5850 especially when it comes to min fps and having smoother performance and not just boosting their easy parts giving the impression of equal avg performance. Running on two HD5770 means that's it for scaling, anything beyond that is limited, and also far from guaranteed, whereas the HD5850 will always perform like an HD5850, not drop 50% because a profile isn't support in drivers, or a game doesn't support Xfire or SLi without a hot-fix which may or may not come.

The HD5770 is a right now solution, and factoring in a second HD5770 at launch makes it a forgone wasted path. If all he ever needed was an HD5770 and was satisfied with turning down the sliders in games to accommodate the lower power, then that would be fine, but if he's looking for a consistently good experience from the start, and with growth into the tougher games that are already out (heck Crysis at enthusiast already chokes the HD5770 even in Xfire) , then the HD5850 is the better choice and with more upgrade options as well as more features too.