need help with building a new i7 gaming rig

[iPROTechman]

I'm personally an AMD guy. I think the new 95w thuban 1055t is an absolute amazing chip, Can easily overclock to 3.8ghz matching core i7 930 performance near enough identical in games plus you're getting two extra cores, overall its cheaper IMO aswell. You could also wait for a graphics card until the new ATI ones come out towards q4 or q1 2011. - Just my input mate.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Do you mean that it can overclock to 3.8 and match a 930 at stock (2.8GHz)? The 930 overclocks easily to over 4GHz, so any advantage the 1055T had is lost there. I like AMD too but the i7 chips are incredible performers and right now Intel is in the lead. AMD is in the lead for graphics though, while the 5870 is falling behind in performance it still has more useful features than the GTX480 (3 monitors, Eyefinity, more monitors through CrossFireX, etc) and the 5970 is faster than the 480. If you can wait a year for the HD6000 series go for it, but I'd just get a 5870 now and wait for the HD7000 series which is the new 28nm chips.

 

[iPROTechman]

Do you mean that it can overclock to 3.8 and match a 930 at stock (2.8GHz)? The 930 overclocks easily to over 4GHz, so any advantage the 1055T had is lost there. I like AMD too but the i7 chips are incredible performers and right now Intel is in the lead. AMD is in the lead for graphics though, while the 5870 is falling behind in performance it still has more useful features than the GTX480 (3 monitors, Eyefinity, more monitors through CrossFireX, etc) and the 5970 is faster than the 480. If you can wait a year for the HD6000 series go for it, but I'd just get a 5870 now and wait for the HD7000 series which is the new 28nm chips.

Yeah it beats it when overclocked and when the i7 is in stock. However, the AMD isnt too far behind, even when both chips are overclocked, AMD can do better. Hopefully their new chips will be extraordinary.. I'm not holding my breath though, I have high expectations for the new cards though. :] I've always liked AMD, never liked intel due to the way they do business and mess customers around with new slots/chipsets etc.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I do have to give AMD credit for keeping their sockets compatible for such a wide range of chips, if you upgrade your CPU a lot AMD would be the way to go. I plan on keeping my build for a while and by then I'll probably need a new motherboard anyways but I do think Intel changes the platform too often. I do like Intel's chipsets since they support both SLI and CrossFireX while AMD you have to choose between an AMD CFX chipset or an nVidia nForce with SLI chipset. My old desktop is an AMD (AthlonXP) and I really didn't have any problems with it up until now (think the motherboard is failing, but it's like 7 years old and a cheap HP board) and my server is a Sempron.

 

[iPROTechman]

I do have to give AMD credit for keeping their sockets compatible for such a wide range of chips, if you upgrade your CPU a lot AMD would be the way to go. I plan on keeping my build for a while and by then I'll probably need a new motherboard anyways but I do think Intel changes the platform too often. I do like Intel's chipsets since they support both SLI and CrossFireX while AMD you have to choose between an AMD CFX chipset or an nVidia nForce with SLI chipset. My old desktop is an AMD (AthlonXP) and I really didn't have any problems with it up until now (think the motherboard is failing, but it's like 7 years old and a cheap HP board) and my server is a Sempron.

Ahh nice My motherboards just failed too sadly. I've got a new one arriving in the morning then I'm going to upgrade to DDR3 Ram and a phenom x6 or maybe athlon x4

 

[ruacon]

im looking for some good monitor, full hd, about 21.5 to 23 in, i think i go with 3 of them, can you guys give me some suggestion about which monitor will be good, i use them for gaming mostly thanks

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Just to be clear, you did decide to go with a 3 monitor setup and a 5870/5970 for Eyefinity? I know you wanted multiple monitors but what graphics card did you buy? If you bought an nVidia GTX you'll only be able to run 2 monitors and you will not be able to game across them, if you bought an ATi Radeon HD5 series then you will be able to use 3 monitors (or 2) and game across them.

If you went with the Radeon, go with 3 monitors, 2 isn't practical for gaming.

I would look for good deals on 21.5" or so screens and get 3 if you can. I managed to get 3 1080p Dell ST2210 21.5" LCD's for around $450, they were $140 each on sale. They are pretty nice monitors too, good color, fast response, DVI/HDMI/VGA input with analog/digital sound inputs and analog sound output (no speakers, but it can decode the HDMI sound if you plug in a set of speakers).

I've heard ASUS and Samsung make good monitors as well, see what you can find on Newegg in your price range. Also remember that to use 3 monitors one has to connect to DisplayPort, so monitors with DP inputs would be best but may be too expensive. If your monitor doesn't have a DisplayPort input, you can buy an active adapter (VGA - $20, Dual Link DVI - $100+). A passive adapter (most of the cheap DisplayPort-DVI and DisplayPort-HDMI ones) will NOT work as active adapters require the card to produce a DVI signal and when you're already running 2 monitors the card can't produce any more DVI signals.

 

[ruacon]

i decide to go with the HD 5870, between the 1 gb and 2 gb, the 2 gb would be a better choice right, i also thinking about the 5970 i might go with that one