Bang for my buck?

[Xpace]

Good day to everyone! This is my first post, so here's a quick intro; I'm a gamer, I love my games and I spent more time playing that I am with anything else. I don't buy high-demand games such as FarCry 2 or Crysis, that's what my 360 is for; I'm more into WoW, Warhammer, Oblivion, and upcoming titles such as Starcraft 2 and Diablo III. I want a rig that can play all these games at max settings (even Diablo III when it comes out, say, three years from now? lol). Having said that, two most important things came to mind when building my rig: worth the cost, and not-so-demanding games that come out a year or two from now can be handled without upgrade.

Without further ado:

Motherboard - ASUS Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard P6T Deluxe/OC Palm LGA 1366

Processor - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

Graphics Card - ASUS GeForce GTX 280 1GB ENGTX280 OC/HTDI/1G 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

RAM - Kingston 6GB DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Hard Drive - Seagate 640GB 7200 RPM ST3640323AS 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

My biggest conflict was between getting the GTX 280 over Dual ATI Radeon HD4850 512mb. Was it a good decision to get the GTX 280?

Comments and suggestions are very much welcome; I'm not too knowledgeable in hardware as you might have guessed.

 

[spigen]

I would get this ram.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

then with GPU
Newegg.com - ASUS EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
cheaper and better.

the 280 and 285 are pointless cards to get. If you want a Nvidia card then get a

Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

both of these are cheaper than your listed 315 dollar open box.

motherboard is fine, I dunno if you need to get the Palm edition. I would just get this one.
Newegg.com - ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

the 920 chip is GREAT

hard drive is up to you just get one at 7200rpm or faster.

with the parts I suggested your build would end up being 100 bucks cheaper. So I would get a sound card.

P.S. your going to need a case, power supply, and optical drive too, unless you have them.

 

[Xpace]

Yeah, I got a 600-watt and a case on hand.

Why's the GTX280 a pointless card to get? Is it because of its price tag?
How's much better is the HD 4870 against the GTX260?

If it ends up being a lot cheaper, I might scout around for a Creative card.

 

[spigen]

http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/graphics-card-rankings-139202/

It's not pointless I guess but at the price point there is better options. For a hundred bucks less you can get either the 4870 1GB version or the core 216 which are great cards. The core 216 is newer tech than the 280. While the 285 and 295 are the newest Nvidia cards.

i guess to put it another way you need to look at money to performance ratio.

you can get more of a feel for the graphics cards by reading about benchmarks and testing. In most games the 280 is about 3-5fps better than either the 4870 1GB/260 core 216. 100-125 dollars more isn't worth an extra 3-5 fps.

The 285 has about a 10-20 fps just on the 48701GB and the core 216. but it is also 430 dollars!! that is like 200 dollars for a 10-20 fps increase. Which isn't very good either.

Know..

The fps between a 4870 1GB and 4870x2 is 30-50. which is a much larger jump. but the 4870x2 prices have dropped to about 450 bucks. (200 dollar differance or less)

the fps between a nvidia 260 core 216 and there new 295 chip is about 40-50 too. but there new card is around 500 dollars. (250 dollar differnace or more)

these benchmarks are coming from high resolutions and just take them very loose, not exsact here, just giving you a feel.

Also you can find benchmarks for the certain games you want to play, sometimes ati cards play games better than nvidia and vis versa.

example: Nvidia's SLI scales much better in Crysis, while ATI cards play the game GRID a lot better.

 

[maroon1]

I recommend
GTX 260 (55nm version) for $199.99 after MIR
Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

It supports Physx, which is supported by some games like UT3, Mirror's edge.......

 

[gurusan]

A GTX 280 and 4870 are very, very close in pretty much all games. I had a GTX 280 for about a week but it was actually significantly slower than the 4870 in CoD4, and since that's pretty much the only game I play I switched back to the 4870.

I also paid 150 gbp for the 4870 vs 220 for the GTX...

And physx was a joke tbh, in mirror's edge the fps took a significant hit with physx enabled and the effects were retarded. To see them you have to hang around not playing the game looking at stuff and breaking glass......lame-o

 

[Xpace]

I'm pretty much torn apart between the core 216 and the 4870. Based on the price, it looks like the 4870 pulls ahead, but the core 216 does perform better in some games that I'm interested in. I saw some reviews about the core 216 pulling ahead in games like Red Alert 3 and Warhammer Online. Pretty much boils down to paying more for my type of gaming ><.

Should I just suck it up and buy a GTX295?

By the way, when it comes to overclocking, I know almost everything about it but how to do it. So no overclocking for me. Lol. Thanks a bunch for your feedback, guys =)

 

[gurusan]

The GTX 260 core 216 is a good card and has a much better cooler than the reference 4870 if you care about noise.

 

[spigen]

The GTX 260 core 216 is a good card and has a much better cooler than the reference 4870 if you care about noise.

the asus 4870 i recommended is the non-reference edition with nice fan and heat sink.
Newegg.com - ASUS EAH4870 DK/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

225 bucks after mail in rebate. When you looking at benchmarks you need to make sure you looking at the 4870 1GB not the 4870 512mb. Thats half the power, because most benchmarks I've seen the 4870 is ahead of the 260 except for crysis, crysis war hammer.

 

[gurusan]

That asus card is not bad at all...and yes I prefer the 4870 as well...also I thought my 512mb performed well in CoD4 at 2048x1152, my 1gb 4870 seems to be getting a good 30% higher fps!