Is this a good gaming build?

[mrwhit30ut]

Hello, and I went to the forums and couldn't count how many times this had been asked but I'm looking to build a gaming rig, Crysis 2 maxed out or close to. Do you think I could get the graphics I am looking for with this setup?
Processor AMD Phenom II 1100t Black Edtion (Not looking to buy now. should I wait for Bulldozer?)

Motherboard Asus Sabertooth 990FX

Power Supply Corsair TX750 V2

CPU Cooling Corsair H50

Ram Corsair Vengence 8GB (2x4GB)

Graphics Card HIS IceQx Turbo Radeon HD 6950 (Will eventually go crossfire on these)

Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM

Fan Contoller NZXT Sentry LX LCD

Disk Drive Asus DRW-24B1ST

Computer Case Thermal Take Chaser MK-I Full

And also I have been seeing some people who bought 6 core processers having to turn some of the cores off to play older games. Would that be the case with something like COD 4?
I know this is alot to ask, if you see this and read through it all to hear you can answer one or all of my questions. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

 

[jpoos]

If you're intent on going the amd route, consider holding off til bulldozer. it's so close now that i can almost taste the new silicon worth at least seeing the performance figures for it before buying. at the very least it'll bump the price of the 1100t down abit, or could turn out to be an exceptional new architecture & worth the wait.

if you have no qualms about using intel & would prefer it sooner rather than later, consider the i5 2500k instead 😀

 

[mrwhit30ut]

Oh, Forgot to mention that this is subject to lots of changes as I will probably not be starting this build until next summer, Once i have a job my budget will be decided. I am hoping to keep it under 2 grand for now until I know how much I'm going to make.

 

[trogdor796]

Then just save your money until you have enough to build the entire machine.

Trying to plan a build that won't happen for a year isn't smart. With computers, new processors and graphics cards are constantly being released, which affects the prices of everything and makes certain components outdated. A year from now people may be recommending completely different components, so it's nearly impossible for us to help plan anything.

Don't mean to sound rude, just trying to explain how this market works.

 

[mrwhit30ut]

Thank you Trogdor, I do realize that the market is constantly changing, but I still would like to know if i have the right idea on how to build a gaming computer. I've built other computers in the past but none really for gaming. Also is AMD worth looking into for gaming? because it is cheaper and seems like almost the same as Intel. Forget the time period, I would just like to know how this build would work.

 

[trogdor796]

What AMD has our right now can't touch Intel. Others will try to tell you how you never need the the power that Intel Sandy Bridge offers, and that may be true in many cases, but it's a fact right now that Intel currently offers the more powerful choice for gaming.

Of course, Bulldozer is right around the corner(September I believe). Nobody can say anything until it releases and benchmarks are put up.

In my honest opinion though, I highly doubt it will beat Sandy Bridge, let alone match it. However, look what happened back with Athlonx2 vs Pentium 4. So AMD might surprise us, but I wouldn't count on it.

Intel plans on releasing the Sand Bridge E series soon, which will be enthusiast level chips, comparable to those found for the 1366 platform. For the common gamer this will not be a suitable choice I am thinking due to the price likely being very high.

Then there is Intel Ivy Bridge, said to be released in early 2012. These will apparantly use the same socket as Sandy Bridge CPU's, but nobody knows about chipsets from what I understand.

So, if any of that makes sense, I would advise atleast waiting till Bulldozer launches and we can get some benchmarks. Then start saving, whether it be for bulldozer if it turns out good, and if not by the time you say you will have enough money saved up Ivy Bridge will likely be out so you could go with that.

Also, it is heavily rumored/known that AMD will be releasing their 7xxx series GPU's at the end of this year. There's a good chance these will be built on the 28nm process, meaning less heat and power. Nvidia will also likely release their 6xx series(also supposed to be 28nm) by early 2012. Since you say you will not be building the system till after those dates, you may wish to plan to buy one of those when they are released. This is especially true it it is 28nm, if not I will likely not be a huge performance increase, similar the the 5xxx to 6xxx and 4xx to 5xx.

Hope that some of that made sense, and helped you out in your planning. If you want me to clear anything up or if I typed something confusing(wouldn't be surprised with all I wrote) feel free to ask and either myself or someone else on here will be glad to help clear it up.

 

[mrwhit30ut]

Thanks, well now that I think about it i can get the money I need really fast, so now the only thing is do I wait for the new GPU's and Processors? or do I buy with my specs. I mean does anyone know how good the new GPUs from amd and Nvidia are going to be? Also I would like to know the difference between AMD and Nvidia which would be a more suitable choice for gaming?

 

[trogdor796]

Nobody really knows any details on the new graphics cards. It's all pretty much speculation at this point. And I'm not saying the current cards are bad. They are very powerful and work great, the new ones will simply have more features and run more efficiently(use less power generate less heat).

But if you are going to buy now I wouldn't go with a 6-core Phenom. Games don't use over 4 cores, most don't even use over two. Right now the i5-2500k is the BEST gaming CPU for the money. All the i7-2600k offers over it is hyper-threading, which isn't used in games and only helps if you do stuff like encoding and video editing.

At this point though I would honestly wait and see what Bulldozer brings. It's only weeks away, and even if it doesn't beat or match Sandy Bridge you could see some price changes.

As for AMD vs Nvidia currently, they are pretty equal. Some games run better on AMD, some on Nvidia, but it's never a huge difference.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[mrwhit30ut]

Okay, So i changed up my setup to accommodate the AMD to Intel switch.
Intel Core i7-2600K
ASUS P8P67 LE B3 Intel P67 Motherboard
Will this motherboard be able to handle gaming? I don't really understand the motherboard all I really know is it transfers data to each of the components and it is the power hub for most of the computer. How does a motherboard effect gaming. And also I will be doing video editing so I need the hyper threading.