New Gaming Computer

[Zorat]

So I want to get myself a new gaming rig for upcoming titles (Mass Effect 2, KOTOR MMO etc...).

Anyone see any issues with this hardware list?

http://secure.newegg.ca/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=10155794

I'm looking to clock the i5 to 3.5Ghz+ as well as whatever OC the video card can take.

My target resolution is 1920x1200 (24" display) with the option to buy a second 5850 and run 2560x1600 in the future if I get myself a 30" monitor.

[Aradorn]

looks good but why not the same video card? why two different brands?

[Zorat]

Doh! You caught it before I deleted the second 5850. I would only get the single Sapphire 5850... or whatever 5850 is on sale when I decide to pull the trigger.

Edit: Yes I have confirmed the case will fit the cooler without modification. (just!)

[Ablate]

I'd go with a different PSU. I know Antec had a lot of quality problems in the last couple years, and my own Modular Antec went tits up and took most of the guts with it. There are better makes and models on the market for similar prices. PC Power & Cooling is what I'm using now, though the gamer themed brands make good ones too (OCZ, Seasonic, Thermatake, etc.)

[Aradorn]

yea a pcp&c or thermaltake toughpower would be good ocz makes some good ones that are at 90%+ efficiency

[GoodRevrnd]

I have to lobby against the i5's. Just spend the extra 60 bucks for the i7 860 (which is still socket 1156) and get some true power, or downgrade to the cheapest i3 (are these out in retail yet?) and overclock the shit out of it.

[Ablate]

If you're going cheap, I still use AMD :) Can't you get a discount on those Zorat?

[Zorat]

Hrm, fair enough call on the PSU. I was just trying to get something in the $50 range that puts out 500W+ from a reputable manufacturer. If I double the PSU budget to $100 I can easily pick up a slightly overkill 700W+ unit.

GoodRevrnd the i3 stuff has integrated graphics. Rest assured that i5 with the giant ass heatsink on it will clock to 3.5+ no problem. Maybe as high as 3.8. The 870 would be a good choice if I wasn't going to overclock it (higher default clock/turbo) but there is no need to buy the 870 when the thing will be clocked at full 'turbo' and then some 24/7. Same reason I chose i5 over a socket 1366 i7-920. No reason to spend ~$300 more on the mobo/cpu/ram moving up to a 1366 i7 just to get HyperThreading and triple channel memory which have essentially zero impact on gaming. Gaming is still mostly about single core clock speed. That and the 95W TDP i5 should run a bit cooler at the same frequency compared to the 130W TDP i7.

I don't work for AMD anymore. Broadcom bought AMDs DTV division last year so I work for them now. Not that AMD gave us any CPU discounts in the first place! :I

[Aradorn]

nm

[Cydus]

I havent heard anything about Antec PSU quality issues, my Antec PSU has worked wonderfully. Paying over 100 for a PSU is stupid imo unless you are going SLI and crazy overclocking there is no reason to even get close to 100 bucks, gone are the days of 20$ PSUs, but its gone into overkill for no performance gain. Spend that extra cash somewhere else that actually affects performance.

The PSU you had in the original link is fine, you can pretty much depend on newegg reviews especially if there are over 100, it is one of the highest rated PSU's and its a decent price.

From one of the reviews:

"Pros: Power supply put out a ton of power without any hiccups. Running a Corei7 system with 8 hard drives, 2 DVD drives, high end RAID controller and high end Video Card. Along with the usual bunch of case fans and misc components."

On another note, you WILL want more than 4gigs of RAM, you should definitely have 6+ gigs on a system running windows 7 64bit, I only went with 4 when I built my system a year ago and it's a bottleneck on my system where everything else is fine, and that will be the case even moreso on an i5 system.

[Mutt]

A PSU is much more efficient if you are using it below its rated wattage. Similar to how an empty hard drive performs way better than one thats 90% full. A good power supply can be kept from machine to machine

If you do a full new build each time, and its not your power bill screw it and get just what wattage you need

[Cydus]

hmmm never heard that, I'll read up on it

[Ablate]

You can pick up a 610W PC Power & Cooling for 70-80 bucks, sadly they aren't available on Newegg (the 750W is for 100). I'm not saying Antec still has quality problems, but they did have a whole slew of problems in 2007/2008, frankly, they just aren't good enough to recommend over brands that didn't cheap out on components during that time.

A quick google of Antec PSU Quality Issues yields:
http://www.pjrc.com/about/rambling/antec.html
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/77909585/m/145002922831

Take it for what you will, I personally replaced 3 Antec PSUs (A NeoPower 480, a Truepower 550W, and a NeoHE 500) that went tits up, luckily only the one in my machine took the processor and motherboard with it. IMO spend a few bucks more, maybe save yourself some money on shipping back an RMA, or headaches trying to figure out why the brand new system is unstable.

[Zorat]

I calculated the total system draw (overclocked) at load to be around 350W maximum (likely less due to i5) based on this:

http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review/2
http://hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review/7

so a 550W PSU should be just about perfect. Thing is though I do want enough headroom to maybe pop in a second 5850 at which point a ~700W PSU makes way more sense.

[Soushia]

When I built my tower I ran into the problem of having enough wattage to drive my machine, but not enough amps on the main rail to effectively drive my video card.

Just food for thought...

[GoodRevrnd]

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3724

*cough*

[Zorat]

Did you read the article? :P

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3724&p=2

The i5-750 gets nearly 20% more FPS at a slower clock speed. It's also absolutely crushes the i3 at more work oriented tasks like video encoding and such while barely using any more power.

IMO that's MORE then worth the ~$120 cpu/mobo price difference between i3 and i5.