Building a new rig - suggestions?

[==Troy==]

For the last half of the year I was thinking to get something new, and for the first time to try to switch from expensive intel chips to the cheaper AMD ones.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably priced rig with phenom II (tri, or quad, maybe even tri -> quad) and nvidia, or even possibly ATI SLI/Crossfire support?

Or are there any general recommendations on the case?


(I am in no way interested in i7 and how good it is.)

Thanks.

[Forboding Angel]

amd+phenom II+3.4ghz x4=jizzfactory

Tri->quad is a really dumb idea (so I herd u liek errors).

[Sheekel]

Are you sure the i7 isnt worth the extra thousand clams?

http://tinyurl.com/y9d9ho9

[Jazcash]

Anything from here MESH is a good deal.

[REVENGE]

Are you sure the i7 isnt worth the extra thousand clams?

http://tinyurl.com/y9d9ho9

God I hate Extreme Edition pricing.

For what it's worth, I think the pre-production sample 6 core i7 cpu got sold for about the same amount of dough on eBay.

But anyways, I've seen some dirt cheap Phenom II X4 + Mobo combos here in the US. I'd go with that + a HD Radeon 5XXX series midrange GPU, or one of the NVIDIA 9800 GTX clones that are on clearance.

[aegis]

instead of 8800 and 9800, gravitate toward the gts 250 - it's about the same price/performance but: it's not as long (inch or two shorter than the 9800 gtx+), has a revised board layout, only needs one pci-e power connector instead of two...

unless you're using a monitor smaller than 20", then you're fine with something like a 9600 gso

you *really* don't need anything more than a gts 250 for most games unless you have an epic monitor

if you're building a budget amd-based system, go for am2+/ddr2 instead of am3/ddr3 - the performance boost isn't worth your dollars on the low end.

the phenom II 940 can overclock cleanly to 3.4+ghz on multiplier alone, probably even on the (really nice) stock heatsink/fan, and it'll cost less than the equivalent newer phenom quad chips

for case, just pick something you think looks nice with intake/exhaust fans.

you'll need a decently-rated 500w or so psu

[imbaczek]

for gfx i'd suggest a 4850 (or 5850 if you can find one).

[Das Bruce]

I've got an 8800 at the moment, what's the equivalent model from ATI?

[REVENGE]

instead of 8800 and 9800, gravitate toward the gts 250 - it's about the same price/performance but: it's not as long (inch or two shorter than the 9800 gtx+), has a revised board layout, only needs one pci-e power connector instead of two...

Ie the 9800 GTX/+ clone that is being cleared out atm. It was on sale for less than $40 during the Black Friday weekend.

Do not buy the current crop of 9600 GSOs. They are no longer re-badged 8800GSs.

[MidKnight]

I personally prefer ATi graphics cards, and, as Aegis said, The GTX series is the way to go. I, however, would spring for the more powerful GTX 260 core 216.

[Neddie]

I personally prefer ATi graphics cards, and, as Aegis said, The GTX series is the way to go. I, however, would spring for the more powerful GTX 260 core 216.

This being my card, which is excellent for everything, and two widescreen monitors.

[aegis]

but he said he's building a budget system - the gts 250 is still a very powerful card for the price.

[Tribulex]

Heres your budget (dollar is really weak you can get lots of them for not many euros):

130 USD Phenom x4 whatever the best one is its like better than i7 extreme but 1/10th the price on good sites.

500 USD nVidia fucking gtx 265 its crazy. I recommend the platinum whatsit edition from Asus Micropenis Inc.

180 USD 8 gigs ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820211410

68 USD 640 gb drive http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017X ... B0017XUX7O

169 USD case with psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129064

Some of this bullshit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835233009

Oh yeah this is kind of important too: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130243

it adds up to who knows what get a calculator you lazy ass.

anyway this is all pretty much amazing advice. Obviously the vid card is ridiculously good and maybe you could save alot on that, but i dont know the math on this comes out to costing the same as my laptop im using right now, which is about 1/10th (not real math) as powerful. has 2.4 ghz core 2 duo 4 gigs ram nvidia 8600m and some other shit. Guru3d recommends 700 watt power supply and i only gave you a 650 watt so maybe u need a bit of an upgrade there.

anyway im sure everyone knows not to click on links posted by jazcash but just in case you should know that building it will make your machine last longer and cost less. Also that link he posted, which i did click, sucked.

[aegis]

d_b, that's about $600 more expensive than it needs to be.

[Argh]

Wouldn't a pair of 220's SLI'd be about as powerful as a 250, for all practical purposes?

[aegis]

bad idea.
even with two combined, you'd have less (and probably slower) stream processors, it'd cost more, and not everything will even take advantage of SLI

it'd also mean a more expensive motherboard and psu

[Argh]

Hrmm, so basically SLI still doesn't make any sense to buy still, for anything but an uber-rig? That sucks.

Been pricing stuff- I really need to upgrade this box. I already have a nice PSU, but I can't afford to go more than $500 for mobo, GPU, CPU and RAM.

[Neddie]

SLI doesn't even make sense for an uber rig. Multiple graphics cards are for, as always, multiple monitors. It is always better to buy one good card than two mediocre ones, and if you need the cards for multiple monitors, you have the card which precedes the one you just bought.

[aegis]

nah, sli makes sense on the really high-end. I can run games at absolute max with my sli, compared to absolute max without max antialiasing when sli is disabled.

[Neddie]

For what? What are you going to use your second 280 for? Nothing, nothing requires that extra 30% performance you might push out of having two of them.