Gaming How's this setup?

[Joe88]

thats just the windows overclock app
comes with almost all motherboards
asus, gigabyte, and a few others all have apps to "overclock without going into the bios"

its not recommended because they somethings mess things up pretty bad when attempting to set the bios
its better to get familiar with the bios and the options

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

You can see what black friday deals are at Fry's if you live near one. Otherwise try and find the black friday deals for any online retailer you like. Newegg has a few decent deals and discounts, you might find a general black friday discount code that you can apply to the whole cart.

 

[Evo.lve]

The Phenom II 1055T isn't Black Edition and is only 2.8ghz, so I'm guessing it's not good for overclocking. And it's $30 more. The X4 955 can be overclocked easily without messing in BIOS to 3.8ghz

Actually, considering they are both 4 (or 6?) core processors, the difference in the few hundred MHz will be negligible, 2.8GHz is less of a strain on your PSU.

 

[wohoo]

I think you have an awesome deal there. The F3 might be a better choise though.

Of course one powerful GPU is a better choise a lot of the times, but now crossfire scaling is soo good that in most new games they preform completly amazing. And for the older ones, i'm sure you will do fine even if crossfire isn't supported at all.

for the CPU, (correct me if i'm wrong here) but most of todays games will probably be slower on the hex-core, considering it's clocked a bit lower. The 1055T will on the other hand most likely be a better deal with the future in mind, or if you run heavy aplications. The question is, how long will it take and is it worth the wait?

 

[Originality]

PhenomII X6 can disable half its cores on-the-fly to push up the speeds a fair amount, so speed betwen cores isn't really that much of an issue. Most people actually don't need more than 3 cores, especially not with games (that use 2 cores in nearly every case).

I had a quick look on newegg to see if I could build a better Core i7 system, however it seems like the lowest they're selling now is the i7-950 except in ready-built systems. Getting one would push the price way over the budget, so it seems this time I can't recommend it.

 

[ACDCGAMER]

The Caviar Black is a great drive but right now the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is on sale on Newegg for $55. It performs similarly to the WD Black but I would totally go for the F3 right now. I personally have one and it's awesome. Don't be enticed by the 6 Gbps Caviar Black though; hard disk drives can't even saturate 3 Gbps. The only drives that will easily come close to saturating 6Gbps are SSDs, when the new Sandforce-controlled ones come out by next year.

I'm a bit skeptical about Sapphire, as I've heard some good yet also bad things about them as well. I'd be on the safe side and get this ASUS 6850 instead. I've heard great things about ASUS video cards.

 

[ACDCGAMER]

PhenomII X6 can disable half its cores on-the-fly to push up the speeds a fair amount, so speed betwen cores isn't really that much of an issue. Most people actually don't need more than 3 cores, especially not with games (that use 2 cores in nearly every case).

I had a quick look on newegg to see if I could build a better Core i7 system, however it seems like the lowest they're selling now is the i7-950 except in ready-built systems. Getting one would push the price way over the budget, so it seems this time I can't recommend it.

If it's just for gaming, the i7 is just a waste of money. I'd go for the i5-760 instead, it performs just as well (even better in some games as hyperthreading can actually bog down the i7's performance a little bit) as an i7 without the hyperthreading, which is unnecessary for games. I've heard great things about the Phenom II X6 processors but I hear they lack in gaming benchmarks compared to the i7's or even the quad core i5's for that matter.

 

[Originality]

I mentioned before that AMD CPUs manage 30% less IPS than Intel CPUs, and this statistic is based off a comparison between the top PhenomII X6 and the Core i7-930. When trying to balance cost to performance, all the reviews I've seen so far put the i7-930 as the king of CPUs when gaming. I don't know if it still holds the place since the 950 is slightly more powerful, but it's also slightly more expensive than the 930 was and yet doesn't overclock any higher.

But still, newegg doesn't have the i7-930 and making a system with a 950 goes over the budget, so it's all academic. I can't remember how the Core i5 stacks against the PhenomII X6, or even the X4, so I can't make a recommendation based upon it.

 

[ACDCGAMER]

I mentioned before that AMD CPUs manage 30% less IPS than Intel CPUs, and this statistic is based off a comparison between the top PhenomII X6 and the Core i7-930. When trying to balance cost to performance, all the reviews I've seen so far put the i7-930 as the king of CPUs when gaming. I don't know if it still holds the place since the 950 is slightly more powerful, but it's also slightly more expensive than the 930 was and yet doesn't overclock any higher.

But still, newegg doesn't have the i7-930 and making a system with a 950 goes over the budget, so it's all academic. I can't remember how the Core i5 stacks against the PhenomII X6, or even the X4, so I can't make a recommendation based upon it.

The problem with the 1366 i7's is that you would have to get a 1366 socket motherboard, which will run you $40 or more compared to an equivalent 1156 board if we're talking Intel here. You would also "need" to get triple-channel memory - a 6GB set of RAM will set you back about $30-40 or more compared to 4GB. Sure, you get triple-channel memory and x16/x16 SLI and Crossfire support, but the performance differences compared to x8/x8 crossfire and dual-channel memory are very negligible. Also, you really don't need more than 4GB for games, tops. See here, here, and here. For the potential $100 or more you spend on getting a 1366 mobo, 1366 CPU, and triple-channel memory for such small performance increases compared to an 1156 build with dual-channel memory, it's a waste of money and, as such, not worth it. I'd go for an i5-750 or 760 build or an AMD Phenom II X4 build instead.

 

[overslept]

Thanks for the help everybody. This is my updated build:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz

ASRock 880G EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6GB/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

2x (8gb total) G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 9

Two SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850s in Crossfire

Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200rpm 3.0Gb/s 32mb Cache

LITE-ON Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner

Antec TruePower TP-750 750W 80+ Certified Crossfire Ready

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler

ARCTIC COOLING MX-4 Thermal Compound

Any comments?

 

[exangel]

http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2010/2010102...able_cores.html

There is a new generation of Phenom II's coming out, including a Phenom II x4 3.5GHz with potentially unlockable cores, turning it into an x6 3.5 GHz. I would look into that, and other existing processors with unlockable cores, before spending $180 on a 2.8 GHz 6-core. Just make sure you pay attention to part numbers if you are going to be saving money that way, and read every comment of feedback if you decide to get a CPU with the intention of unlocking it.
BTW, I already looked, and they are not in stock on Newegg yet. But there are other AM3 CPUs with unlockable cores that are in stock. They are mostly lower end than what you seem to be aiming for though.

I also agree with others saying it's pretty much a waste to crossfire those cards, when getting a single higher end card will do you nicely. You might also be setting yourself up for a lot of avoidable frustration doing a crossfire setup on your first full self-build. I'm not saying it's any harder-- but for instance, if one of the cards is DOA, or if you have other issues, it could take you a whole lot longer to get from "point of sale" to "dream machine" within your budget.
(As opposed to getting a single card, which is a setup you've done before, and you'll be able to figure out what, if anything, is wrong, a lot more easily.)

I just think that you'd save money and/or headaches by setting yourself up to do a Crossfire and/or high end/unlockable-core processor later on when Crossfire is more broadly utilized; and getting a less expensive CPU now because of the newer, better ones on the way within months.

 

[overslept]

I would, exangel... but I can't wait

These Black Friday deals, like the 8gb of G.SKILL RAM for $90, or the AMD Phenom II X6 1075T Thuban for $180, or the Antec 300 Illusion, only come once a year. I have to get them now :/

 

[Originality]

I should make a comment about the psychology of sales, commerce and marketing tactics, but I wont.

 

[thieves like us]

you might want to look into a modular psu if your budget allows for it. I've got a corsair 850 and love it. it's whisper quiet, and because it's modular, you don't have the rat's nest of extra cabling that you have to tie off and stuff somewhere inside your case.

here's a link for the 750w equivalent:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...9-010-_-Product

one other question, since I'm running an i7 and not too familiar with the AMD phenom line, I'm assuming that the motherboard that you're purchasing doesn't support/require triple-channel ram? otherwise, I would be surprised that you're opting to only purchase 2 modules. however, windows 7 64-bit does hum along very nicely with 6GB or more

 

[hullo8d]

It isn't too hard to find deals if you know how to keep tabs. If I remember correctly Microcenter was selling i7 950s for 200 6 days ago.