Building a new rig

[Soul_of_a_Sinner]

So... I am planning on building a new rig pretty soon. I am basically just buy parts by the month until i get the whole thing done. Here is what i intend to get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.265488
First off what do you guys think of the motherboard?
And the second thing is that i am not really familiar with the new ATI video cards, so my second question is what would you guys suggest for that. Price range for cards anywhere under $200.

Thanks for any suggestions.
-SOAS

 

[Furiosity]

Be careful of buying parts 'til you can build. Things can arrive DOA(Dead On Arrival), and you can't really tell until you build the system, and by then it might be too late to return it. I think you only have 30 days to return defective products from Newegg(not 100% sure)

Great Card (According to reviews, you can check benchmarks: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447 or any of the 5700's really.

 

[PewPewBangBang]

That motherboard seems fine, do you know if Crossfire runs both slots at x16 though?? if it does, all the better.
The CPU is find too, should be great for gaming but it will lack compared to the i7 chips in every aspect pretty much. I would recommend getting an aftermarket cooler and overclocking it for the best performance you can get.

As for GPU's, the new ATI 5 series cards are good and well worth it. They are a bit expensive now so i would recommend you wait for the price to drop. When ATI comes out with the 5850x2 and 5870x2, they will drive the single 5850/5870 down. The 5770 is good and all but i would wait for a 5850 to go on sale or something later on. The 5850x2/5870x2 are expected to be like $500 and maybe like $600, they are supposed to be cheaper than buying 2 separate cards for CFX from what they say so far. All the better when i go to buy a 5870x2/5850x2

 

[Ryken]

I'd go with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.265478

And spend the $50 you saved on bumping your GFX budget up to $250, which would allow you to get a 5850

 

[SomfT-]

I would go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.266482

then after buy Processors for 100 bucks or soo i think you'll save a bit this way

 

[xenophek]

It's a decent combo, I think. I've always had great performance out of my Gigabyte boards. I do agree though, that you shouldn't buy the parts until you have enough for the whole shebang. DOA sucks, and it would suck even more if you already passed Newegg's return date.

As for video cards, you can nab a 4890 for under $200, and you'll be set for quite some time. It's not the latest and greatest, but it's no joke either. It still whups most of what nvidia offers. If you can save money in a few other places you could afford a 5000 series, but it would be a waste of money IMO. Your system's performance as a whole is only as good as the weakest link, and you'd probably be better off investing the extra moneys into a sound card and a speaker system. It makes all the difference, trust me.

 

[JunK]

4890?? seriously?? the 5770 is cheaper, by like 50 bucks, performs basically the same as a 4870 (same price), and has all the benefits of the new features, keeping you up to date in video card technology a lot longer than what a 4000 series dx 10.1 card would do.
or 5850 is bout 50 bucks more expensive, again all the benefits of new card technology, and beats a 4890 at everything

 

[3vlNomad]

What these guys are saying about DOA's (dead on arrival) is VERY TRUE. I've had a $350 brand new top of the line motherboard ship DOA. I've had a monitor ship with dead pixels. I've had expensive RAM die on boot. I've had a PSU fail one week after setting it up. (Most of these happened with different builds, not all on the same build lol)

You never know when QC is gonna miss something so be prepared, buy everything at the same time or at least within the same week. Save up so you can do this or else you could end up being stuck with a DOA because you missed the deadline. Newegg is 30 days for most things, I think cheaper items that rarely DOA get a longer time though.

Even the case can be DOA (so to speak), I got a case once that had the front ports wired incorrectly for audio and usb. Not sure how that happened.. I didn't feel like RMA'ing it so I just didnt use em.


Hope that helps, saving is never a bad thing

 

[shadows5631]

Use Tiger Direct. I've never had a DOA item in almost 5 years of shopping with them.

 

[xenophek]

4890?? seriously?? the 5770 is cheaper, by like 50 bucks, performs basically the same as a 4870 (same price), and has all the benefits of the new features, keeping you up to date in video card technology a lot longer than what a 4000 series dx 10.1 card would do.
or 5850 is bout 50 bucks more expensive, again all the benefits of new card technology, and beats a 4890 at everything

Let's not forget about support for the card. I jumped on the 4850 bandwagon when they first came out, and the thing performed like crap for me for several months. It wasn't until a few driver releases later that I got everything I needed.

As for the DX 10 vs 11, please tell me how many DX 10 games are really in use out there? I mean, there's the givens like Crysis... but all the fun stuff (I don't think any of Valve's games support DX 10 yet) is still behind the curve. Even still, I don't notice the difference between DX 9 and 10, and from what I've been shown, I can't really notice the difference between 10 and 11.

The older hardware is about to get much cheaper, and it would be easier for him to afford another card for that fancy crossfire motherboard he chose. I'm glad you gave your opinion, but leave the ?????? behind next time. It makes me think you're getting flustered at me, and it makes me want to come break your fingers.

P.S. Besides, these are just our opinions and we should encourage SoS to go out and compare legitimate reviews with our advice and form his own opinion.

 

[JunK]

exactly, there are not many dx 10 games out right now, hell is there just as many dx 11 than there is dx 10? because that was not a worth while upgrade, at all...however dx 11 is shaping up to be that, and seems to have much more support.
you're right about the driver support, it will be that way for now, but the current benchmarks are with the current drivers, meaning it will improve. so the 5770 probably will be just as good as the 4890 with time.
it is our personal opinions, and im throwing mine out there which is always based on my own experience/needs etc. i don't need to play crysis on a 60 inch screen at like 9000x6000 resolution or anything like that and im sure 90% of everybody doesn't....
for majority of gamers the 4850-4890 is all you need, and then some. however just to avoid upgrading again in a couple of months you might as well get the new technology, if you're upgrading now...or ya, wait until the price drops a little bit.
as it stands now, price per use/features the 5750, 5850 are looking to be the best deals you can possibly get

i want to upgrade my video card, i was going to get a 4850/70 because thats all i need, but now i'll get a 5750 or go for a 5850 just so that i don't need to upgrade again for another couple of years - but thats just me

 

[PewPewBangBang]

Im gonna have to go with DX 11. The 5850 gives crazy performance regardless of driver support. All the benchmarks they show are using the drivers from release date or beta drivers yet they perform amazing already so i wouldn't be worried about that too much.

I say either go 5770 or 5850. If you get a 5770, overclock it so you can get performance close to a 4890. The 5850 is just plain fast, it beats a GTX 285.

 

[Soul_of_a_Sinner]

Tanks for all the input guys, it?s been a great deal of help. I am pretty sure I know what I am going to get. I am still going to stay with the combo deal that I found and I?m looking to get the 5850... I?m just going to have to raise my budget a little bit more. I was kind of out of the loop with video cards. However, the whole reason that I wanted to drag the build out over the course of months is so I could pay for other things.Text books and college are not cheap ya know. I still might drag it over the course of the next two months or so since major changes are not going to occur as quickly, and as long as i know what i want ahead of time it should still be alright.
Once again thanks for the assistance
-SOAS

 

[PewPewBangBang]

If your gonna be waiting to buy all your stuff, make your Video Card the last thing you buy. I can almost guarantee it will go down in price or some sort by the next 2 months, they will probably come out with non-reference boards also and rebates and stuff. So wait to buy the 5850 or something.