New Budget Gaming Rig - Please Critic

M

Mr Liopleurodon

New Member
Hello,

I am new to the forums and my brother swears the help on this forum is great so I wanted to get criticed on my build. I have been out of the loop on PC equipment for a couple years. I greatly appreciate the advice and help. For a bit of specification I would like to be able to run most newer games. Crysis would be nice but I won't get my hopes up. My build is as follows:

GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

EVGA 512-P2-N773-AR GeForce 8600 GTS 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W SLI Ready-ATX12V V2.01 Power Supply

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

This build will run me about $700. I will utilize the on-board sound. Peripherals and Monitor I have already.
Again thank you for the help. I want to get the best bang for my budget.
 
For a couple more bucks you could get the 8800GS or possibly the 9600GT, which are better than the 8600GTS
 
If you were going to buy a Radeon 3870, you might as well just buy a Geforce 8800GT. An 8800GS or 9600GT would work well enough on Crysis, and would destroy the 8600GTS.

As for the E8400 vs Q6600 debate, I personally would go with the Q6600, as both are overkill for even Crysis at this time. Video card is all that matters atm, once you get past a certain point in cpu power. Sure, the E8400 is going to come up with a tad better benchmarks than the Q6600 RIGHT NOW, but it won't make the transformation into real-world play. You are essentially pitting the future of 4 cores vs higher clock speed, because at this time it doesn't matter which you choose.
 
Steelshivan said:
If you were going to buy a Radeon 3870, you might as well just buy a Geforce 8800GT. An 8800GS or 9600GT would work well enough on Crysis, and would destroy the 8600GTS.

As for the E8400 vs Q6600 debate, I personally would go with the Q6600, as both are overkill for even Crysis at this time. Video card is all that matters atm, once you get past a certain point in cpu power. Sure, the E8400 is going to come up with a tad better benchmarks than the Q6600 RIGHT NOW, but it won't make the transformation into real-world play. You are essentially pitting the future of 4 cores vs higher clock speed, because at this time it doesn't matter which you choose.
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Thanks for the info.

Im gonna kinda hijack this thread but i assume the OP would have similar questions ;)

So, the 8800GT is the best video card in that price range ($150-200)?

How long do you think it will be until 4 cores will have the advantage?
Does anyone have links to benchmarks comparing E8400 and Q6600?

The Q6600 is 65nm and also has the older stepping (both older technology than the E8400). Would it not make sense to buy this CPU over the E8400 if the buyer is planning on overclocking?
...i guess according to you, the CPU is already overkill so there'd be no point in overclocking.
 
epidemik said:
Thanks for the info.

Im gonna kinda hijack this thread but i assume the OP would have similar questions ;)

So, the 8800GT is the best video card in that price range ($150-200)?

How long do you think it will be until 4 cores will have the advantage?
Does anyone have links to benchmarks comparing E8400 and Q6600?

The Q6600 is 65nm and also has the older stepping (both older technology than the E8400). Would it not make sense to buy this CPU over the E8400 if the buyer is planning on overclocking?
...i guess according to you, the CPU is already overkill so there'd be no point in overclocking.
Click to expand...

You can usually find an 8800GTS in the upper range and just above the $200 mark. Otherwise, I would say the 8800GT has it.

As far as the Q6600 vs E8400 neverending debate. :) No one really knows when 4 cores will start to make up for lower clock speed in games. Basically you're taking into account that, plus overclocking, and of course how long you plan to go until upgrading again. Assuming you didn't upgrade for 5 years, I personally don't know which would be the better buy for gaming. I would guess the Q6600 due to overclocking, but it's simply too early to say. Pick your horse. :) I will say that it would be an utter waste and highly unlikely if more than 2 cores weren't taken advantage of in games regularly, relatively soon however. Especially with 8-core processors likely coming out with Nehalem.
 
I do not mind Epidemik as we are pretty much on the same page.

I took the $20 leap from the 8600GTS to the 9600GT. Seems the amount of power increase is worth that $20.

I've been reading in debate about the Q6600 and the E8400. The conclusions I have drawn is that the Q6600 is better for video encoding and such while the E8400 is better for gaming now. But the real question is which you do more I suppose. Either way by the time the Q6600 is utilized both CPUs will be outdated anyway.
 
Mr Liopleurodon said:
I do not mind Epidemik as we are pretty much on the same page.

I took the $20 leap from the 8600GTS to the 9600GT. Seems the amount of power increase is worth that $20.

I've been reading in debate about the Q6600 and the E8400. The conclusions I have drawn is that the Q6600 is better for video encoding and such while the E8400 is better for gaming now. But the real question is which you do more I suppose. Either way by the time the Q6600 is utilized both CPUs will be outdated anyway.
Click to expand...

Good call on the 9600GT upgrade. I would check out 8800GS vs 9600GT benchmarks, as they are very similar in games. The 9600GT seems to do better in higher resolutions while the 8800GS usually has it in lower ones. And the 8800GS is usually cheaper, sometimes considerably so. Just another thought to throw out there.

As for your Q6600 vs E8400 opinions, I completely agree. IMO the only way it should be an issue is if you weren't planning on upgrading for a considerable length of time. One other minor point to mention is that the E8400 is around $20 cheaper.
 
Steelshivan said:
Good call on the 9600GT upgrade. I would check out 8800GS vs 9600GT benchmarks, as they are very similar in games. The 9600GT seems to do better in higher resolutions while the 8800GS usually has it in lower ones. And the 8800GS is usually cheaper, sometimes considerably so. Just another thought to throw out there.

As for your Q6600 vs E8400 opinions, I completely agree. IMO the only way it should be an issue is if you weren't planning on upgrading for a considerable length of time. One other minor point to mention is that the E8400 is around $20 cheaper.
Click to expand...

I am reading more and it appears the 8800GT might actually be a strong point in videocards. The 9600GT is newer so new drivers might call for better performance but the 8800GT seems to be solid and highly rated. It's clock speed is only 3% lower than the GTX and is only a $30 difference from the GS.

As for the CPU I think I may change over to the E8400 as I don't do much in the means of encoding video and can afford an upgrade down the road. I know it's hard to tell but what do you think an E8400 will last in length of time compared to a Q6600?

Edit 1 - EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card Is only $110 at regular price. Yet this video card out does the 9600GT and 8800GS with a whopping $40-70 price difference. Strange.

Edit 2 - Okay so newegg's pricing is messed up at the moment and that card is actually $170
 
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Steelshivan said:
Here's some benchmarks of the cards you are looking at:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249751-33-8800gs-8800gt-9600gt

Scroll down aways, they are embedded right into the page.

Unsure what the other system specs were at, at least I didn't catch them while skimming the page. Should give you a good idea of their performance differences though.
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Wonderful! The 8800GT seems to be top dog on high resolutions. I will run 1900 resolution so that is a plus. I know the 3870 is good but doesn't seem as balanced amongst the others. Thanks Steelshivan. That helped a lot in my GPU choice.
 
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