Hardware Is this going to be a good system

Xoo00o0o0o · Jun 11, 2011

Originality · Jun 11, 2011

I assume that by including a Blu-Ray drive, Blu-Ray is important to you. You can save $47 just by getting a DVD writer instead.

You can get better performance from the HDD by getting a 1TB or smaller drive (either WD Caviar Blue, Black or Samsung Spinpoint F3) instead of a 2TB WD Caviar Green, then just get an additional drive if you need extra storage. Using a 1.5TB "green" drive or bigger will show much less performance as a Windows drive, which means slower booting/loading times.

That aside, it looks alright for a low/mid budget multimedia computer. For gaming, certain types of games (strategy) will suffer at higher settings (the CPU would be the bottleneck), but most games will run fine (putting most of the load on the graphics card).

Xoo00o0o0o · Jun 11, 2011

I can change the hdd but is the computer really that bad. I wanted it to be a decent gaming machine.

marcus134 · Jun 11, 2011

Well, it's somewhat decent for the price you want to pay.
you could always drop the heatsink ( there's one included with the cpu anyway) and put the money on something else (like a better gpu).
for the cpu, you can always get a 9xx BE instead of a 8xx (newer revision, easy to overclock)
you have a lot of spare room with the psu. (450 - 500 should be able to power it)
Your gpu should be alright for this year and the next one ( on low settings). Looking at the benchmark ( tomshardware), it pushes older games like call of juarez on medium just ok ( 56 fps) so don't expect the nirvana of gaming with this setup.

This is a personal preference but for a gaming pc, I would use a full atx mobo instead of a micro atx and also the M5(bulldozer compatible) boards are available.

Xoo00o0o0o · Jun 11, 2011

Chhotu uttam · Jun 12, 2011

HDD:If 500GB sufficient,then no regrets.
MoBo:a decent one for Amd.
GFX:A mid ranged graphics,will be able to play most of the games.(low/mid graphics)
PSU:A good one for recent configuration,but after a year or 2 you might SLI your GFX rather than buying a new one

RAM:4gb is almost enough for now.
RAM fan:Can't say,its free

Processor:you might want to get an i3/i5 in place of this one.
Blueray:if you need a blueray,have it or save money with a simple dvd/rw.
Case:looks are good with some place to keep your stuffs

.

overall:a decent computer for playing games in low/mid graphics.But an i5 would be better than amd.And in case you might want to SLI you graphics card,will be needing a higher PSU.

Velveteer · Jun 12, 2011

Chhotu uttam said:
HDD:If 500GB sufficient,then no regrets.
MoBo:a decent one for Amd.
GFX:A mid ranged graphics,will be able to play most of the games.(low/mid graphics)
PSU:A good one for recent configuration,but after a year or 2 you might SLI your GFX rather than buying a new one

RAM:4gb is almost enough for now.
RAM fan:Can't say,its free

Processor:you might want to get an i3/i5 in place of this one.
Blueray:if you need a blueray,have it or save money with a simple dvd/rw.
Case:looks are good with some place to keep your stuffs

.

overall:a decent computer for playing games in low/mid graphics.But an i5 would be better than amd.And in case you might want to SLI you graphics card,will be needing a higher PSU.

Why is SLI a consideration when you need a capable board to do so? The only SLI-capable AMD boards (ignoring really old nforce chipsets) are the 990FX series, which aren't what I'd call budget. You want a higher-end Z68/P67 board with Intel if you are considering SLI down the line, but it's not worth it with 550s.

CPU is fine. Spend the extra few dollars on a 1TB HDD. Capacity per dollar is much better on 1TB drives. SamsungF3/Seagate 7200.12/WD Black are recommended. Board is pretty cut down and the hardest thing to upgrade. Consider a cheaper 880 chipset for the better onboard sound, etc. Or possibly a AM3+ capable board for chucking in a cheap FX-4000 down the line. Memory is slightly overkill on a AMD system if you want to save cash. Consider Kingston/Corsair's budget 1333 2x2 kits. PSU is overkill, to be honest, but it does give you room to replace the GPU with something better down the line.

The graphics card is a difficult one. I'd probably go with a GTX460, to be honest.

By the way, the Phenom 840 is not an older Phenom, it's a rebranded Athlon. Good value, but it's underpowered for gaming.

Originality · Jun 12, 2011

I specifically recommend against Seagate HDDs. Put simply, every one I've ever seen (either in my own computers, external drives, or in friends' computers), has now failed. Sometimes it takes a couple years, sometimes it takes a couple months. In comparison, I've only seen one WD drive fail and three Hitachi, whilst I have a lot of Samsung Spinpoint (F1 and F3s) and none of them have failed so far. I also have a few WD drives scattered around, which are holding strong but don't have as good performance as Samsung drives.

Chhotu uttam · Jun 12, 2011

Originality said:
I specifically recommend against Seagate HDDs. Put simply, every one I've ever seen (either in my own computers, external drives, or in friends' computers), has now failed. Sometimes it takes a couple years, sometimes it takes a couple months. In comparison, I've only seen one WD drive fail and three Hitachi, whilst I have a lot of Samsung Spinpoint (F1 and F3s) and none of them have failed so far. I also have a few WD drives scattered around, which are holding strong but don't have as good performance as Samsung drives.

+1 for this.
I had 2 of those.
1 internal and 1 external.
Both are down now.Now i'm running with WD and they are pretty good than that of Seagate.
@Velveteer -I said for SLI coz the PC he's making is for a decent gamming.
In case if he didn't like his GPU or was not supported by a game,He still can buy the same one and save some money rather than waiting a year or 2 then replacing his MoBo.

Sop · Jun 12, 2011

The GPU isn't the best.

Originality · Jun 12, 2011

He hasn't said what his computer is for. If it was for casual gaming, then getting a GTX 550 Ti is all he needs and he can use any CPU. If it's for more intensive gaming, I would say stay away from any AMD CPU (unless Bulldozer changes things) because ALL Intel CPUs are better at gaming (specifically, they process much more Instructions Per Second than equivolently priced AMD CPUs). If it's just for watching Blu-Ray movies... a Sandy Bridge CPU and it's integrated graphics would be all he needs, or any AMD CPU with a budget graphics card from the last couple years.

The choice of motherboard falls down to what features he wants, and if he wants to overclock (I don't recommend overclocking on a budget motherboard).

@Sop, the best graphics card is a GTX 590. The best single-GPU graphics card is a GTX 580. The GTX 550 and 560 are both mid-ranged graphics card with a much lower price tag than the "best" graphics cards. In this case, considering the price range of the rest of the parts, a GTX 550 Ti might be a good choice. Remember that he said he intends to replace it with a next-generation graphics card when it comes out.

Chhotu uttam · Jun 12, 2011

Lolcat said:
I can change the hdd but is the computer really that bad. I wanted it to be a decent gaming machine.

QUOTE(Originality @ Jun 12 2011, 05:55 PM) He hasn't said what his computer is for. If it was for casual gaming, then getting a GTX 550 Ti is all he needs and he can use any CPU. If it's for more intensive gaming, I would say stay away from any AMD CPU (unless Bulldozer changes things) because ALL Intel CPUs are better at gaming (specifically, they process much more Instructions Per Second than equivolently priced AMD CPUs). If it's just for watching Blu-Ray movies... a Sandy Bridge CPU and it's integrated graphics would be all he needs, or any AMD CPU with a budget graphics card from the last couple years.

The choice of motherboard falls down to what features he wants, and if he wants to overclock (I don't recommend overclocking on a budget motherboard).

@Sop, the best graphics card is a GTX 590. The best single-GPU graphics card is a GTX 580. The GTX 550 and 560 are both mid-ranged graphics card with a much lower price tag than the "best" graphics cards. In this case, considering the price range of the rest of the parts, a GTX 550 Ti might be a good choice. Remember that he said he intends to replace it with a next-generation graphics card when it comes out.

There he said so.
I totally agree with you but in case if the price of GTX600 series is not affordable.
I'm not telling him to buy one.
But if he's prepared what's wrong?

damedus · Jun 12, 2011

Originality said:
He hasn't said what his computer is for. If it was for casual gaming, then getting a GTX 550 Ti is all he needs and he can use any CPU. If it's for more intensive gaming, I would say stay away from any AMD CPU (unless Bulldozer changes things) because ALL Intel CPUs are better at gaming (specifically, they process much more Instructions Per Second than equivolently priced AMD CPUs). If it's just for watching Blu-Ray movies... a Sandy Bridge CPU and it's integrated graphics would be all he needs, or any AMD CPU with a budget graphics card from the last couple years.

The choice of motherboard falls down to what features he wants, and if he wants to overclock (I don't recommend overclocking on a budget motherboard).

@Sop, the best graphics card is a GTX 590. The best single-GPU graphics card is a GTX 580. The GTX 550 and 560 are both mid-ranged graphics card with a much lower price tag than the "best" graphics cards. In this case, considering the price range of the rest of the parts, a GTX 550 Ti might be a good choice. Remember that he said he intends to replace it with a next-generation graphics card when it comes out.

The AMD cpu vs Intel CPU deal for gaming isnt 100% a fact even if the intel cpus can process more instructions, for example a 280 dollar phenom II x6 black edition does better than a 450 buck i7 in gaming (ran the numbers) but the 850 buck i7 Does beat it (wich is whats shes suposed to be replacing) so basicly Phenoms do beat an equaly priced intel cpu but arent better at gaming than what they are replacing intelwise. I have a Old sistem i my bedroom it has a x6 pII black edition at 4ghz per core OC and a pair of 5770's crossfire and it runs even the most demanding games at ultra settings just fine all of them above the 48 fps mark and most at the 55 to 62 mark, for a cheap pc (it was around 800 bucks to build at that time) its a great thing.

ID recomend getting an asus m3 mobo and a pIIx6 cpu with a crossfire setup it will save you money. Get a good 500g hd or 120gig SSD for the OS/Games and a 1tb~3tb drive for the files, I always do at least 8g of ddr3 ram (play wow with a ton of add ons

) blue ray if u need it otherwise a simple dvd will sufice (do we even use these anymore?) the most important part get a h2o sealed water cooling block, a good case with ventilation and fan space and plenty of fans. Video cards it all depends on how heavy you wana go and the PSU depends on the video cards, low casual play single 6770, decepnt play(most games mid some low) 6870 and anything gaming just get a 6990(x2 6970dual card) or 2 of them in crossfire, I curently have 2 of the latter ones with a pIIx6 4.2Mhz OC on my main board and all games run on ultra at top fps(88 aprox it a 240 3dtv) no bottleneck felt on the CPU and i play my games on a 62" HDTV at 1080p. MY i7 Laptop runs at lower fps(55aprox) but since it has a nvidia 560M buts its because of the videocard. Cpus might bottleneck a system but if u do your homework right you can get a CPU that is on the level with the video card you buy or above, personaly i prefer the video card being my bottle neck since its whats gets replaced the most.

Originality · Jun 12, 2011

@Chhotu, I missed that point. Still, he didn't say if he's trying to just "play" games, or play games in max settings on big screens.

@damedus, Somehow, I can't bring myself to put much faith in your words. For one thing, the majority of games are still optimised for dual core, with a few stretching for quad core and hardly any that will run better on a hexacore (or more) system. For another, the majority of game genres are GPU heavy, and don't use much of the CPU at all. I hear all too often how an old Intel P4 with a modern graphics card can play nearly any game at good rates. Also, most systems can't make full use of high end CPUs, even when they're configured to disable unused cores to boost the others (both the Phenom II and Core i series do this).

You also seem somewhat biased towards AMD in any case. nVidia currently makes the best graphics cards, with AMD's HD6 series being something of a disappointment in their flagship models (without even mentioning the drivers). Intel currently make the best gaming CPUs. In the days of Phenom II X6-1090T vs Core i7-920/930, every technology review site I frequent agreed that the 920/930 was "gaming king". Now there's Sandy Bridge that ramps up performance another level, and the rumourmill that AMD Bulldozer will go even further. That and there's Ivy Bridge waiting to be released, but Ivy Bridge is more of a die shrink than a new generation.

Last thing I'll touch on - water cooling. Simply put, water cooling is not recommended for the average user. A badly installed water cooling solution will almost certainly end up damaging the system. There's also the case of leaks or accidents causing the liquid to spill into the system, and everybody should know what they say about computers and liquids. Sure, liquid cooling can create a much cooler and quieter environment for the computer, in the hands of someone experienced enough to set it up properly, but the average user is better off with air cooling - especially if somethings goes wrong and they try fixing it with the help of google. That could get messy...

EDIT: small change for the sake of specificity

marcus134 · Jun 12, 2011

damedus said:
ID recomend getting an asus m3 mobo and a pIIx6 cpu with a crossfire setup it will save you money[...]

1. @damedus, It's nice to have 2K to burn on a computer, but the guy clearly doesn't have this kind of money, posting such recommendation ends up being more confusing than anything else for him

2. Game performance does not scale with the numbers of core in a cpu, unless a game is optimized to run on a 6 core cpu.
Also, if you look at those benchmark ( 1 , 2 ) you will see that the X6 doesn't perform better than their X4 counter parts in gaming.
(in fact, in the second link, the i5 performs better than the i7, but not by a significant margin)

3. SLI/Crossfire can be interesting when using higher ends gpu with high resolution display ( higher than 1080), but not with mid-range and low ends parts.
example: 2*550Ti =250$ = 6950 and the 6950 will show better performance in most game and situation.

4. intel vs AMD, the eternal question! your current CPU+mobo config cost 185$, if I try to do the same with intel (200$), I'll get an asus h61+ I3 2100 (dual core). Considering that some game already take advantage of a quad and that the number of games that does can only go up, getting a quad seems a better buy, but according to those article( 1 , 2 ), the i3 might have a little bit more to offer than meet the eyes, if you have the money for it. Also the lga 1155 has a better upgrade path than the am3 socket ( the same can be said for the am3+ socket)

5. Nvidia vs AMD, both solution usually works well (and both have their quirks), but both are also competitively priced in the mid range segment, 550 at 124$ is good buy considering that the amd counterparts(6790) is 10-15$ pricier right now.

Xoo00o0o0o · Jun 12, 2011

I want this computer to at least play games at medium level or higher. I did not plan on playing things like Civilization 5 or the such. Just mainly games such as Portal 2, Garry's Mod, L4D1/2, and maybe some Duke Nukem Forever. Plus I can't order all the parts at the moment as I am low on money. Tonight hopefully will be ordering MOBO, CPU, Case, & PSU. As I can use the Ram and GPU out of my old computer. It also happened to die today, kinda wanted to give it to my brother once I was able to give parts back to it, but the MOBO is fried.

marcus134 · Jun 12, 2011

The parts you chose should be enough to play the games you listed adequately

Hardware Is this going to be a good system

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