Gaming Building a new PC- Intel Quad i5

[Santee]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=144
The Core i5 barely beats the Phenom ll 955 and is cheaper and the amd motherboards are cheaper as well and if you want to upgrade the cpu in a year you wont have to buy a new motherboard and the stock heatsink should be able to get you to 3.6ghz to save you more money.

And with the money you save you can get a GTX 460 for better performance and more future proofy and it should be able to get at least 50fps in 1080p at max in most games.

EDIT: What resolution are you using the lower it is the less of a powerful Graphic card you need.

EDIT2: This is also a highly recommended board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813138193

 

[granville]

The CPU and GPU i am not going to change. I have uses for the extra speed and even instructions Intels provide. Emulators in particular heavily favor intel processors, such as Dolphin and PCSX2. I don't mind paying a bit more. From what i've seen, Core i5's appear to be cooler and use less power, also capable of overclocking higher while remaining stable. I'm no Intel fanboy, but i have uses for the speed they provide currently. And i can't wait till next year for the Bulldozer AMD's which are supposed to be amazing.

As for the motherboards, it is speculated than the current socket will be scrapped and a new one used with the new Bulldozer CPU's from AMD coming next year. Back compatibility would be gone if this is the case. It may not happen, but many people seem to believe it will... That socket is something that won't protect your forever.

As for the GPU, i've no doubt the Geforce may be faster, but it's not something i intend to change. I can always add another card later via crossfire to enhance performance. Looking at benchmarks, the 5770 seems perfect for me. Only real things i might change- memory, motherboard, heatsink/cpu cooling, and whatever else misc parts. I built my system around the Core i5 though, and the GPU is something i've been looking at for a long time.

 

[Diablo1123]

The CPU and GPU i am not going to change. I have uses for the extra speed and even instructions Intels provide. Emulators in particular heavily favor intel processors, such as Dolphin and PCSX2. I don't mind paying a bit more. From what i've seen, Core i5's appear to be cooler and use less power, also capable of overclocking higher while remaining stable. I'm no Intel fanboy, but i have uses for the speed they provide currently. And i can't wait till next year for the Bulldozer AMD's which are supposed to be amazing.

How about an i5-760? Its a few dollars more for a higher multiplier which helps when you overclock.

 

[Madridi]

The CPU and GPU i am not going to change. I have uses for the extra speed and even instructions Intels provide. Emulators in particular heavily favor intel processors, such as Dolphin and PCSX2. I don't mind paying a bit more. From what i've seen, Core i5's appear to be cooler and use less power, also capable of overclocking higher while remaining stable. I'm no Intel fanboy, but i have uses for the speed they provide currently. And i can't wait till next year for the Bulldozer AMD's which are supposed to be amazing.

As for the motherboards, it is speculated than the current socket will be scrapped and a new one used with the new Bulldozer CPU's from AMD coming next year. Back compatibility would be gone if this is the case. It may not happen, but many people seem to believe it will... That socket is something that won't protect your forever.

As for the GPU, i've no doubt the Geforce may be faster, but it's not something i intend to change. I can always add another card later via crossfire to enhance performance. Looking at benchmarks, the 5770 seems perfect for me. Only real things i might change- memory, motherboard, heatsink/cpu cooling, and whatever else misc parts. I built my system around the Core i5 though, and the GPU is something i've been looking at for a long time.

I'm not really into first person shooting kind of game, but I'll tell you what I've experienced with the games I've tried so far (so you would have an understanding of what to expect from your card). I havent actually seen what fps I have for these games (now that I mention it, I dont know why I never did), so I'll just describe what I have noticed so far:

Pro evolution soccer 2010
Sonic and sega all star racing
Blur
Street Fighter IV

All of the above runs perfectly on highest settings. I would assume its 60fps (or at least around that)

Now the only game I run into so far that doesnt run perfect with highest settings would be "split/second"
The game lagged a lot during races, so I lowered the settings from very high to high, and as far as I can see it runs perfectly fine now.

I also have final fantasy VII and VIII but obviously these old games run perfectly fine..

I'm not sure whether the fact that I have an i7 and an SSD gave me a better result than whats expected to get on an i5 with 7200rpm hdd. But you should be expecting something like this..

The 5770 is a really good card from what I experienced, and you are right, you could always add a second one. But the thing is, a single card will run at x16, all other motherboards I've seen for the i5 within your budget range have x16 for one card, but x8, x8 for 2 cards. I'm not an expert on this but I dont think you will gain alot - if any - by adding a second card (someone please confirm this, as I'm a bit fuzzy when it comes to this)

The GTX 460 is apparently very good for its price, I'm just not sure if the extra money spent on it is worth it. But you also cant go wrong with the 5770 so you can just stick with that. I'm personally going for a GTX 480 soon..

Again, good luck with everything

 

[Splych]

How about an i5-760? Its a few dollars more for a higher multiplier which helps when you overclock.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...5-067-_-Product
^ $15 more...? if he can chip in more that is...

i am using the Cooler Master Hyper 212 and i got it for $30 . damn was it great and well worth it. attaching the fan to the heatsink was pretty complicated for me... the metal piece or what ever it was used to attach it was confusing for me .__. instructions weren't of much help, so that was my only con for it. it's priced at $50 which seems pretty overpriced... try buying it over another site or consider this CPU cooler:
Cooler Master V6
it has less heat pipes, so it might not cool as well, but judging by the design, it looks easier to manage then the 212 .

your graphics card, i got the same one but from Sapphire. and it's just the normal cooling design, it runs pretty well for me which is nice . it does what it does, and is a great boost from using a 4350 for me

.

 

[Joe88]

V6GT is a lot more efficient

I have a v8 though, works great

 

[granville]

That higher model i5 probably wouldn't help much. I don't think you can go much higher than 4ghz on air regardless. Unless it's inherently faster at identical clock speeds, i'd just stick with the 750 and use that extra $15 for something like a better cooler or whatever.

 

[Madridi]

granville, you're probably not interested, but in case you are wondering:
http://www.svc.com/silverarrow.html
The link above is the best air cooler available in the market. Comes with two fans with an option to install a third.

 

[Originality]

CustomPC did a whole article on the GTX460, putting it up against the HD5830 and 5850. The GTX460 comes in 768MB and 1GB flavours, and the HD5850 only beats the 1GB version in games optimised for ATI, yet costs £45 more. It makes for a very promising return to the GPU market for Nvidia.

However you're looking at the HD5770, which is cheaper still, so there's little point talking about the GTX460.

In any case, the parts look fairly good to me. Just to give some ideas, CPC recommend the SilverStone Raven RV02 case, Intel Core i5-750 CPU, Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 RAM, Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 MoBo, Gelid Tranquillo HeatSinkFan and Antec TruePower New TP-650 PSU.

 

[Santee]

Seems like everything is perfect but I have the same cpu, gpu, and Heatsink and don't expect dolphin to run every wii game flawlessly it is still being worked on I couldn't run mario galaxy 2 because of the stuttering, but psx2 gives me a steady 60fps no matter what.

But I had the same idea that you had to buy one 5770 then add another but bear in mind that the minimum frame rate stays practically the same when another card is added, The upside is that the GTX450 and the 6000 series should lower it down to around $90.

And the hyper 212 plus easily got me to 4ghz which is what I'm using now.

And the loss of 2 cards x8 and x8 is about 4% barely anything compared too two cards x16.

 

[granville]

I've been running Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 on my current PC. It's slow, but i'm sure the new PC will have amazing improvements there. I'd find anything over 45-50fps playable. Dolphin is always being worked on too, getting constant compatibility and speed improvements. A lot of your success with speed has to do with the revision you are using. I've seen people get Mario Galaxy 2 running on 4ghz i7's at full speed or greater. With any luck, i can hopefully come CLOSE to that. We'll see.

I'm getting the Core i5 for a variety of reasons, emulators being one, but games and even video editing/rendering also factoring in. I chose the i5 due to pricing and its similarities to the i7 processor.

 

[Santee]

Well I tried Mario galaxy 2 before Overclocking I'll try it again and tell you how well it works.

EDIT: An i7 and an i5 are the exact same chip except for the multi threading which barely helps in games you get probably an extra 1fps and it makes it run hotter not worth the extra hundred.

 

[granville]

Well there's your problem. If you're running the i5 on stock, it won't be able to handle Mario Galaxy 2 (very intensive game) at fullspeed constantly. If you can get to 3.5ghz or above, you'll probably see a huge speed improvement. I don't have an i5 or i7, but i know what benefits overclocking can have. I'm willing to bet you can hit fullspeed and should go below 55fpz. Heh!

And yeah i knew about hyperthreading and how it doesn't really benefit much (anymore anyways). I find it's a great tradeoff for running cooler, more efficiently, and at almost $100 less.

 

[Santee]

I just remembered that microcenter sells i5s for $140 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0325942 Do you live near any one of their stores?

 

[granville]

I'm afraid not. In Tennessee now, moving to Florida in a few days, but no locations in either state. I'm prepared to pay $200 for an i5, but i'm just using Newegg as a cart reference since they have huge stocks of stuff. I'll look elsewhere for deals as well.

 

[Santee]

In Mario Galaxy 2 it never drops below 58fps at 1680x1050 without any aa and af runs great but only on unofficial build not official.

EDIT: Same thing with maxed aa and af yours should run the same

 

[Madridi]

Sorry for this off topic post, but since you guys are talking about dolphin, anyone care to recommend a guide or something on how to get everything set up and running.

Well I obviously was able to run it (coincidently, ran Mario Galaxy 2) It told me to connect a wiimote and I got stuck there and closed everything lol
Also, any way to get it running with the system menu (I seem to recall if you place a dump in the wii folder you can? not really sure..)

 

[Splych]

I just remembered that microcenter sells i5s for $140 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0325942 Do you live near any one of their stores?

woah , that's such a STEAL!
i am gonna ask a relative if they can pick one of those up for me ^^

 

[Madridi]

I just remembered that microcenter sells i5s for $140 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_...duct_id=0325942 Do you live near any one of their stores?

woah , that's such a STEAL!
i am gonna ask a relative if they can pick one of those up for me ^^

Their i7 930 is $200 as well .. cant beat microcenter's processors prices

 

[granville]

In Mario Galaxy 2 it never drops below 58fps at 1680x1050 without any aa and af runs great but only on unofficial build not official.

EDIT: Same thing with maxed aa and af yours should run the same

Ah cool. I figured it would run great if you had it clocked higher than stock. I'm sure there are some Wii or GC games out there that will run slowly regardless of PC (even PS2). But most games should run great even in HD. Which is awesome. Dolphin loves great CPU architecture, but it also loves high clock speed WITH great architecture. Most mid-stream GPU's should be able to handle really high resolutions. Glad to know about AA too, jaggies begone, lol!

@madridi4ever

No worries about the offtopic. I've been running Dolphin for a while with any game that i can run on my crappy specs. Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 included. It's hard to get you hooked up with a guide, but i can tell you that your problem with Mario Galaxy is almost certainly in the Wiimote plugin configuration.

First of all, i'd get the latest revision from here- http://www.dolphin-emulator.com/download.html
This guy compiles very very quickly for both x86 and x64 versions of dolphin. Choose the one you need (use the one that your os will support).

I can help you if you like with other stuff, but the basics i can recommend are better shown off via screens. Since it sounds like your issue is Wiimote related, here's some pics for advice-

I suggest you use the NEW Wiimote plugin. There's an older one but the newer one is easier to deal with and better IMO. If you're using a REAL Wiimote via bluetooth, use real wiimote instead of emulated one. Just make sure it's not selected to none. Next-

Here's where i think you may be stuck. Where i circled has to be checked to nunchuck to work with Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. Otherwise the game will give you a message saying to connect one to the Wiimote. The rest of the options are up to you to configure to your keys/buttons/whatever. Make sure to hit config under the nunchuck option to configure the controls for the nunchuck.

I can help you out more if you need. I'm afraid i don't yet know how to boot from the Wii menu. I know you can as i've seen people do it, and you may find some info on the Dolphin website (zero tolerance for piracy there btw). I've never tried it though, and i heard it was buggy a while back (unless that's changed). You may need some files from your real Wii or the memory card...