Buying this config this weekend, need any final thoughts... look good?

[Mahou86]

Case : Antec Three Hundred AB

Mobo : GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

GPU : HIS H585FN1GD Radeon HD 5850

Processor : Intel Core i5-760

Ram : G.SKILL F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM

PSU : Scythe 650W (KMRK4-650A) highly recommended japanese brand (I live in Japan)

HDD : Western Digital WD5001AALS

Keyboard : Microsoft Sidewinder x4

Mouse : Logitech mx518

Total : 950 Dollars

I live in Japan so unfortunately I can't get any of the neat newegg rebates >.<

What do you guys think? Is it solid? My primary focus is gaming, mostly FFXIV.

 

[Wolygon]

Looks pretty nice. But...

The board only supports crossfire in x16/x4 PCIe mode, this is a decent bottleneck for even small crossfire setups like 2 HD 5770s. So if you are looking to get a second HD 5850 then I would encourage a different board.

If you don't need SATA/USB 3 then the ASUS P7P55D PRO is a good board but if you need it then the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro is $40 more.

*EDIT delete*

Theres some stuff to think about .

 

[Mahou86]

Hi Punkinator,

Thanks for your advice. I thought hard about crossfire but I don't think I would ever do it honesty. I can't go with a full tower right now due to my budget / living situation so I couldn't do crossfire with the 5850 anyway (because of how huge it is) I checked out the board you recommended but it's 300 dollars where I live. Way out of my budget >.<

This is the only computer i'll have for now but i'm primarily building it / designing it to play final fantasy XIV at the moment and that'll be the most graphic intensive game on it for a long time. With this current setup, I can own it nicely.

Out of curiosity though, do you know if a board in the 150 range that can do crossfire with the 5850? When time comes for a upgrade again, i'll probably just upgrade to a better primary graphics card, but I was just wondering if I had an option I wasn't catching.

 

[Wolygon]

Hey glad I could help.

I'm pretty sure 5850 crossfire should fit in most cases...

I only picked that board because it was cheap on newegg, . The board you were looking at was $120 and mine was $140. Here is a nice list of boards which sport the x8/x8 PCIe:
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/p55-motherboards-crossfire-sli-performance-problem/
Note its not the first list thats ones to avoid!

Check some of the boards on here for prices as I cannot predict your prices considering they were so different then neweggs.

 

[gordon_81]

actually if he was going to add a second gpu in the future it would make more sense to go for 2 gtx 460s, as 2 gtx 460s in SLI perform on par or even better than 2 5850s in crossfire

 

[gordon_81]

Looks pretty nice. But...

The board only supports crossfire in x16/x4 PCIe mode, this is a decent bottleneck for even small crossfire setups like 2 HD 5770s. So if you are looking to get a second HD 5850 then I would encourage a different board.

If you don't need SATA/USB 3 then the ASUS P7P55D PRO is a good board but if you need it then the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro is $40 more.

Also do you know that Intel and AMD are releasing new processors soon. This makes now a bad time to buy, but obviously if it is needed then it is needed. So if you have a fully functioning PC at the moment then I suggest waiting for the new processors and maybe buy the HD 5850 now and chuck it is your old PC to tie you over for a few months.

Another technique if you don't have a PC to use till then is to buy an AMD system with a weak processor (like the Athlon II X2). Then when the new processors come you can just smack in a new processor and off you go.

Theres some stuff to think about .

socket am3 does not support the upcoming amd cpus, only socket am3+ will but socket am3+ will be backwards compatible and support the athlonII and phenomII processors

 

[gordon_81]

how much does the p55a ud4p motherboard cost in your country? in my country it actually works out quite a bit cheaper than the asus board mentioned earlier i dont know why though, and if you go for a gtx 460 go for this 1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127518&Tpk=gtx%20460%20hawk according to somebody 007, Linus OCd it past 5870 levels and was comparing it to a gtx 480, also money saved on going for the gtx 460 can be spent on getting an SLI capable motherboard

 

[Mahou86]

Ah, I did some research.

It seems like all the boards than can do 8 x 8 are out of my price range here but i'll do some more research tonight.

 

[Wolygon]

socket am3 does not support the upcoming amd cpus, only socket am3+ will but socket am3+ will be backwards compatible and support the athlonII and phenomII processors

Thanks for pointing this out, guess I haven't kept up with the news.

 

[Mahou86]

Yea, I did some research and if I did choose to go with SLI, it would put me seriously over budget. I think i`ll be fine with the single card though, and if I do need more power down the road, i`ll just upgrade the primary card.

I researched the parts alot and for the purpose i`ll be using it for, a single 5850 should be more than suffecient for my uses (Final Fantasy XIV, Stalker, Steam games) and I plan on overclocking it also to about the 5870 speeds so that will help me too. I just wanted to be able to play FFXIV on high-ish settings.

I know the processor is a powerhouse and very very overclockable as well. Up until now I survived on my gaming laptop that I bougth 3 years ago and it`s been a trooper up until now being able to run everything that has come out so far at at least medium until Final Fantasy XIV.

 

[Wolygon]

I think you've got it figured. It does not sound like you will require a board and it would thus be a waste of money.

Also be aware that you CAN run Crossfire with x16/x4 and still see a large increase in performance. I'd say with a 5850 you might waste 50% of the performance of one card.

Yes that CPU will last you a lot of graphics card updates without becoming a bottleneck.