Building an MMO gamer and TV/Movie streamer around an extra GTX 285

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diableri

Gawd
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
737
I posted this in the wrong forum a few days ago, sorry about that.

I'm back for more advice, seems like every year or two you guys help me out big time and guide me towards setting up the right machine for whatever I'm doing at the time.

I need to set up a new machine that is mostly aimed at handling my gaming habit as well as streaming TV/Movies (while gaming) on the TV. I want it to easily handle the new Star Wars MMO next year as well as new Bioshock and the games like that. I mostly play MMOs and FPS games from the usual suspects.

I have the following that I'd like to use if possible.

EVGA GTX 285
Corsair 620 HX PSU
Three different cases which would all be fine.
Monitors and res's = Gateway 24" @ 1920x1200 (which I would like to game at) and a 26" Sony KDL26L5000 HDTV @ 1360x768
Couple mid level SATA HDs
Nice LG BD Drive.

1. Is my safe bet to just pick up a 930, decent X58 board and 6-12GB of RAM and put it all together with the above?
2. Is the PSU enough for an i7 and that GPU?
3. Is there a big enough difference between something like the 930 and an i5 that it's worth the extra $? It only seems like $100-$200 or so which isn't much for me but not worth only a few % points difference in performance for what I'm doing. Hope that one makes sense.
4. If not on the above, what i5 should I be looking at and any particular board/chip-set for an i5?

Thanks as always, I've never really gone wrong listening to you guys.
 
For gaming with one high-end video card, a Socket 1366 setup isn't really better than a Socket 1156 setup because "comparative" processors (like, for example, the 1366 i7-930 versus the 1156 i7-860) only offer minimal (almost unnoticeable) performance difference when using similar configurations. The benefits that a 1366 setup have over a "similar" 1156 setup are increased RAM capacity and greater PCI-E bandwidth for CrossFire or SLI multi-card setups (though benchmarks show that there isn't that large of a performance boost with dual x16 SLI/CF over dual x8).

Right now, the GTX 285 is good enough for most games out there, and the HX620 can handle a 1366 setup along with one high-end card. However, as a long-term option, it would be best to replace both, provided you can afford it. If you have the budget for a 1366-based system we won't stop you, but you could get by with an 1156-based setup and use the "savings" towards a better video card or cards.

But before I can help you any further, please answer the questions listed in the "Asking for Build Help?" sticky. Additionally, please specify which of the "usual suspects" do you play most frequently.
 
tiraides said:
For gaming with one high-end video card, a Socket 1366 setup isn't really better than a Socket 1156 setup because "comparative" processors (like, for example, the 1366 i7-930 versus the 1156 i7-860) only offer minimal (almost unnoticeable) performance difference when using similar configurations. The benefits that a 1366 setup have over a "similar" 1156 setup are increased RAM capacity and greater PCI-E bandwidth for CrossFire or SLI multi-card setups (though benchmarks show that there isn't that large of a performance boost with dual x16 SLI/CF over dual x8).

Right now, the GTX 285 is good enough for most games out there, and the HX620 can handle a 1366 setup along with one high-end card. However, as a long-term option, it would be best to replace both, provided you can afford it. If you have the budget for a 1366-based system we won't stop you, but you could get by with an 1156-based setup and use the "savings" towards a better video card or cards.

But before I can help you any further, please answer the questions listed in the "Asking for Build Help?" sticky. Additionally, please specify which of the "usual suspects" do you play most frequently.
Click to expand...

First off, thanks a bunch! You're confirming what I was thinking after reading all the i5 vs the i7 stuff over the last few days. Makes me at least feel better about investing. Here are the questions:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly big name MMO's like WoW and the upcoming new Star Wars Old Repbulic as well as the first tier FPS games such as the Bioshock Series, Portals, Half Lifes, Team Fortress etc as well as Mass Effects. There's many more but I am assuming this isn't supposed to be a list of three dozen games? I usually stream movies and TV via Netflix and Hulu while playing MMOs on the same machine with the TV I listed above.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
It's tough to answer this question for me since I could afford to spend $1500 on a cpu, board and RAM. I just don't like to overtly waste money. I do not want to pay an extra $700 for 10%-15% extra performance in what I'm going to be doing. That just seems like a waste to me. So let's say $800 is the ceiling unless I can dramatically increase performance somehow with another $700 (which I don't think is possible).

3) Where do you live?
Central California. Microcenter is a $50 drive from me.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, Motherboard and RAM since the PSU seems to be enough for a higher end CPU and my current GPU with the understanding both could be upgraded in the future to extend machine life.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
EVGA GTX 285
Corsair 620 HX PSU
Three different cases which would all be fine.
Monitors and res's = Gateway 24" @ 1920x1200 (which I would like to game at) and a 26" Sony KDL26L5000 HDTV @ 1360x768
Couple mid level SATA HDs
Nice LG BD Drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
90% sure no. I haven't done it in a long time but I will admit I might get interested again.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1 x Gateway 24" 1920x1200 and 1 x Sony KDL26L5000 HDTV @ 1360x768

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I'd like to have it built by the end of this month (September 2010).

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
At least one Firewire port and I would like to have 6 RAM slots but it's not mandatory.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
No, I was planning on buying a Win7 64 Home Premium.

Thanks again for any help and advice!
 
$285 - Intel Core i5 750 CPU + Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 Intel P55 mATX Motherboard Combo
$80 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
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Total: $365 plus tax and shipping.

The Core i5 750 is pretty much the only i5 CPU we recommend around here for most builds. Occasionally the i5 760 when it's a good price.
 
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