Hey,
My old computer is broken and it's old enough that I don't see much point in trying to fix it, so time for a new one. I'm a bit of a noob at this. It's been a long time since I payed any attention to hardware and this will be the first time that I'm putting it together myself.
It will primarily be a gaming PC. I guess the goal is to run all modern games at max/near max settings and hopefully to future proof it a bit. I don't plan on overclocking. I don't plan on making any major upgrades in the near future. There's not really any set budget, but I'd prefer that it doesn't go all that much higher than what it's at now. I'm not actually buying it off of Newegg, but I linked the Newegg pages so there would be no confusion about what part I'm talking about.
Here's what I have so far:
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
I was thinking of going with the Phenom II X6 1090T, but it seems sort of pointless seeing as there's no games that utilize six cores. If there's some other reason that a six core is a better choice, I'll be willing to reconsider.
GPU - XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
The one component that I'm not being cheap on. I was planning on a 5850 at first, but now I'm thinking I'll go with the 5870 since it's within my budget. How much of a difference is there between the two? Do you think the difference justifies the price?
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
I don't know very much about motherboards and this is the part I'm having the most trouble with. The one I linked to there is cheap, seems to do everything I want it to, and has a lot of positive reviews. I'm certainly not decided on it yet, though. All I'm looking for is a motherboard that will support all my hardware and is high quality/unlikely to break. I'm willing to spend more money, but I don't want to waste money on features that I'll never use. I'd appreciate any input you have on this topic.
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
I've been having a bit of trouble choosing memory as well. A lot of memory seems to be intended for Intel builds, and I want to make sure the memory I pick is compatible.
Case - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU - Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Keeping in mind that I'm not overclocking, do you think I'll need any aftermarket cooling, or will the stock fans/heatsink be enough?
I've also been considering a somewhat higher end and more expensive Intel build with an i7 CPU and 6GB triple channel memory. How much of a difference in performance and future proofing do you think I'd be seeing with this?
Any help would be appreciated.
My old computer is broken and it's old enough that I don't see much point in trying to fix it, so time for a new one. I'm a bit of a noob at this. It's been a long time since I payed any attention to hardware and this will be the first time that I'm putting it together myself.
It will primarily be a gaming PC. I guess the goal is to run all modern games at max/near max settings and hopefully to future proof it a bit. I don't plan on overclocking. I don't plan on making any major upgrades in the near future. There's not really any set budget, but I'd prefer that it doesn't go all that much higher than what it's at now. I'm not actually buying it off of Newegg, but I linked the Newegg pages so there would be no confusion about what part I'm talking about.
Here's what I have so far:
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
I was thinking of going with the Phenom II X6 1090T, but it seems sort of pointless seeing as there's no games that utilize six cores. If there's some other reason that a six core is a better choice, I'll be willing to reconsider.
GPU - XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
The one component that I'm not being cheap on. I was planning on a 5850 at first, but now I'm thinking I'll go with the 5870 since it's within my budget. How much of a difference is there between the two? Do you think the difference justifies the price?
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
I don't know very much about motherboards and this is the part I'm having the most trouble with. The one I linked to there is cheap, seems to do everything I want it to, and has a lot of positive reviews. I'm certainly not decided on it yet, though. All I'm looking for is a motherboard that will support all my hardware and is high quality/unlikely to break. I'm willing to spend more money, but I don't want to waste money on features that I'll never use. I'd appreciate any input you have on this topic.
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
I've been having a bit of trouble choosing memory as well. A lot of memory seems to be intended for Intel builds, and I want to make sure the memory I pick is compatible.
Case - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU - Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Keeping in mind that I'm not overclocking, do you think I'll need any aftermarket cooling, or will the stock fans/heatsink be enough?
I've also been considering a somewhat higher end and more expensive Intel build with an i7 CPU and 6GB triple channel memory. How much of a difference in performance and future proofing do you think I'd be seeing with this?
Any help would be appreciated.