Hi all. If you can't tell I'm a noob from these questions, you'll probably tell from my one-post post count! ;P
So I have approximately $750 to spend with about $10 over/under on the limit limit (not including shipping, which is being paid for by a family member). I am ordering one of these two rigs off IBuyPower's custom configurators, and I'm trying to get the most bang for my limited buck in as awesome a gaming PC as I can afford. I have two builds. One is AMD/ATI @ $748 total; the other is Intel/nVidia @ $756 total (but I have to order a low-end GPU to replace with a better card to save money).
Setup I: AMD/ATI
Case ( PSI CycloneX Gaming Tower Case - Black )
Processor ( AMD Phenomâ„¢ II X2 550 Black Edition Dual-Core CPU )
Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P -- AMD 770 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( 700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready )
Processor Cooling ( [Free Upgrade] iBUYPOWER AMD Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Primary Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit )
PRICE: $748.00 + $85.00 3-Day Shipping
Setup II: Intel/nVidia (switching out the 9400 GPU for an EVGA 9800 GT 512MB)
Case ( PSI CycloneX Gaming Tower Case - Black )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB) )
Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3LR -- Intel P45 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT - 512MB - Single Card )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( 700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready )
Processor Cooling ( [Free Upgrade] INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Primary Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit )
PRICE: $756.00 + $85.00 3-Day Shipping
The only thing holding me back from jumping all over the AMD/ATI build is:
a. I've never used AMD or ATI in a PC before. I'm hearing AMD's processor clock rates are marginally behind Intel's, and that ATI drivers are typically faulty, at least compared to nVidia's.
b. I have no idea how the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition compares to a Core 2 Duo E8500 (haven't found any reliable benchmarks), or if the difference is substantial enough to mean I shouldn't go for the AMD/ATI combo
c. in the same lieu, that processor on the Intel/nVid setup is pretty amazing IMO, but the Radeon HD 5770 is fantastic and may be superior for gaming
d. I don't know which one will flat-out perform better for gaming (we're talking 4-16+ hours of straight gaming on titles that are presumably more GPU-intensive than CPU-intensive -- think Crysis/Warfare, Champions Online, Aion, Left 4 Dead 2).
Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear back with your critique!
So I have approximately $750 to spend with about $10 over/under on the limit limit (not including shipping, which is being paid for by a family member). I am ordering one of these two rigs off IBuyPower's custom configurators, and I'm trying to get the most bang for my limited buck in as awesome a gaming PC as I can afford. I have two builds. One is AMD/ATI @ $748 total; the other is Intel/nVidia @ $756 total (but I have to order a low-end GPU to replace with a better card to save money).
Setup I: AMD/ATI
Case ( PSI CycloneX Gaming Tower Case - Black )
Processor ( AMD Phenomâ„¢ II X2 550 Black Edition Dual-Core CPU )
Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P -- AMD 770 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon HD 5770 - 1GB - Single Card )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( 700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready )
Processor Cooling ( [Free Upgrade] iBUYPOWER AMD Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Primary Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit )
PRICE: $748.00 + $85.00 3-Day Shipping
Setup II: Intel/nVidia (switching out the 9400 GPU for an EVGA 9800 GT 512MB)
Case ( PSI CycloneX Gaming Tower Case - Black )
Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB) )
Motherboard ( Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3LR -- Intel P45 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 9400GT - 512MB - Single Card )
Case Lighting ( None )
Power Supply ( 700 Watt -- Power Supply - SLI Ready )
Processor Cooling ( [Free Upgrade] INTEL Certified Liquid CPU Cooling System kit )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Primary Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( 22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) - 64-Bit )
PRICE: $756.00 + $85.00 3-Day Shipping
The only thing holding me back from jumping all over the AMD/ATI build is:
a. I've never used AMD or ATI in a PC before. I'm hearing AMD's processor clock rates are marginally behind Intel's, and that ATI drivers are typically faulty, at least compared to nVidia's.
b. I have no idea how the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition compares to a Core 2 Duo E8500 (haven't found any reliable benchmarks), or if the difference is substantial enough to mean I shouldn't go for the AMD/ATI combo
c. in the same lieu, that processor on the Intel/nVid setup is pretty amazing IMO, but the Radeon HD 5770 is fantastic and may be superior for gaming
d. I don't know which one will flat-out perform better for gaming (we're talking 4-16+ hours of straight gaming on titles that are presumably more GPU-intensive than CPU-intensive -- think Crysis/Warfare, Champions Online, Aion, Left 4 Dead 2).
Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear back with your critique!