The component that makes the most impact on a computer's gaming performance is the video card. However, choosing a video card is not as complicated as choosing the right combination of processor, motherboard, and RAM. Basically, any modern video card will work to its maximum potential in any of the system builds I listed earlier.
I won't be suggesting SLI or Crossfire setups, or video cards that are much over $200. I don't do this for the same reason I don't recommend $300+ processors. It's generally not worth it. If you really have the money to blow, however, I'm willing to help on a case-by-case basis.
I also won't be suggesting processors that just don't make sense for the price, such as the GeForce GTS 250 or anything in the GTX line beyond the 260. AMD's counterparts simply have better performance for the price right now.
Moving on, let's start with the inexpensive piece:
SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $100 (after $15 rebate)
This card has free shipping as well as some other possible deals. First of all, it has many amazing combo deals. One of these combine with DDR2 RAM that I recommend for an extra $20 in savings! If for some reason you don't want to use a combo deal, there is a promo code for $15 off the card until June 11th. You can't use it if you use a combo, but it does "stack" with the rebate to make a new price of $85.
To see how this card performs when compared with the competition, see this low-end benchmark article as well as this high-end benchmark article.
If you want to move up from the Radeon 4850, you really have to pay for it. There just aren't any good deals in the midrange right now. Last month, there was a Radeon 4870 512MB for about $130 with two free games, but that deal is gone now. Besides, the 4850 will smoothly play just about anything except Crysis on high settings at 1680x1050. (See the benchmarks above.) However, if you really must have more power and don't want to spend $200, I suggest you consider the following:
BFG Tech BFGEGTX260896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB - $145 (after $20 rebate)
This 260 is the original 192 core version. It doesn't come with any combo deals that I would suggest, but the shipping is free. It does have the potential to serve as a Physx processor in the future, but that technology isn't really taking off. It will certainly outperform the Radeon 4850, and its larger RAM will especially serve it well at higher resolutions. Check out this old benchmark article to see the differences between the various GeForce 260s and Radeon 4870s.
Finally, if you really must play all the latest games at the very highest detail, you will want to consider this one:
HIS Hightech H489F1GP Radeon HD 4890 1GB - $200
The shipping isn't free, but it does come with both Stalker: Clear Sky and EA Battleforge.
Anything beyond this, and you're just wasting your money. Video cards are easy to upgrade, so it's pointless to bother with SLI, Crossire, or uncompetitive products unless money is simply not an issue.
Remember, when factoring in the cost of going with SLI or Crossfire, you also need to make sure your motherboard and power supply are up to the task. While the motherboard in my last post will run any single card at PCI-E 2.0 x16, it will only run crossfire at x4. In order to get a dual x16 board, you'll have to pay an extra $10 and lose the $20 combo deal. That's an extra $30 in addition to the cost of the new board. Also, you won't have the option of using the 400W PSU because you'll definitely need more juice. Then there are the driver bugs that everyone is *still* complaining about. And the heat. And the space. Seriously, just stay away from multiple GPU configurations.
(Though I was able to come up with a neato triple Crossfire 4850 build for $867. It had a NZXT Tempest for the case and the triple-core Phenom II x3 720 BE for the processor. I call it, "Rise of the Triad.")
Finally, I'd like to mention something about PCI-Express 2.0. None of the major benchmarking sites seem to have done any recent PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 comparisons. I think this is mostly due to the fact that most modern motherboards use PCI-E 2.0. However, Tom's Hardware, in its seemingly endless failures, is still recommending PCI-E 1.0 motherboards in its system builds. Yes, it may not make a big difference now. However, I found one site with some more recent benchmarks that suggest we are getting close to the point at which it will make a noticeable difference. Page 7 has a good example using Crysis. If we're already noticing small differences on today's $200 cards, and very significant differences on today's X2 and Crossfire setups, what about next year or the year after? Your next video card upgrade should be able to work to its maximum potential with the system you buy today, and PCI-E 2.0 can be had for excellent prices right now. That's why I never suggest PCI-E 1.0 motherboards. AnandtTech won't either, even in their "Entry-level" PCs. Ignore Tom's Hardware. This is the least of their bad advice.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Bargain Gaming Rig
Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition - $110
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78 Plus - $70 (after $10 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $30 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $100 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB - $60
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX Black - $60
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD+-RW - $27
Discount: $55 (CPU/MB, VC/RAM, and Case/HD combo deals)
Shipping: $22 (to my area, anyway)
Total: $424
Wow! This is one killer machine for only $424!
The video card may not be the latest, but it's better than what I have at home. It should be able to play most of the newest 3D games smoothly at high settings. It even comes with an integrated HDMI port. I'll talk more about video cards later, but let me just say that you won't find anything better for anywhere near this price!
The hard drive is built for performance, having 32MB cache and dual processors.
The DVD drive is pretty straightforward. When shopping for these, make sure you get one with a SATA interface instead of IDE. It's much easier to manage SATA cabling inside the case. By the way, this optical drive as well as the hard drive do not come with their own SATA cables. Thankfully, the motherboard comes with two.
Cases are mostly about personal preference, but a family member of mine owns this one and loves it. It's definitely a bargain.
The power supply that comes with the case should have enough power to support this hardware, but if you plan on using more devices you might want to consider something just a little more beefy. As it is, you will need to use the power adapter that comes with the video card. You will also need to use the Molex-SATA adapter that comes with the motherboard in order to power one of your SATA devices (hard drive or DVD drive) because the PSU only has one SATA cable. If you'd rather have a power supply that takes care of all these issues, try this:
Power Supply: SIGMA Power Engine SP-535 535W - $25 (after $15 rebate) + $3 shipping
New Total: $452
Obviously, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and speakers. If you're upgrading from an old machine, you'll already have these. I'm only dealing with the stuff inside the box for now, but feel free to ask any questions if you want an opinion on something else.
Again, this machine is simply awesome for the price. Good luck finding a better deal anywhere else. If you want one, contact me about building it for you. Enjoy!
Note: At least one of the discounts ends on June 20th.
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78 Plus - $70 (after $10 rebate)
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 - $30 (after $20 rebate)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB - $100 (after $15 rebate)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB - $60
Case: Rosewill TU-155 Black Steel ATX Black - $60
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X SATA DVD+-RW - $27
Discount: $55 (CPU/MB, VC/RAM, and Case/HD combo deals)
Shipping: $22 (to my area, anyway)
Total: $424
Wow! This is one killer machine for only $424!
The video card may not be the latest, but it's better than what I have at home. It should be able to play most of the newest 3D games smoothly at high settings. It even comes with an integrated HDMI port. I'll talk more about video cards later, but let me just say that you won't find anything better for anywhere near this price!
The hard drive is built for performance, having 32MB cache and dual processors.
The DVD drive is pretty straightforward. When shopping for these, make sure you get one with a SATA interface instead of IDE. It's much easier to manage SATA cabling inside the case. By the way, this optical drive as well as the hard drive do not come with their own SATA cables. Thankfully, the motherboard comes with two.
Cases are mostly about personal preference, but a family member of mine owns this one and loves it. It's definitely a bargain.
The power supply that comes with the case should have enough power to support this hardware, but if you plan on using more devices you might want to consider something just a little more beefy. As it is, you will need to use the power adapter that comes with the video card. You will also need to use the Molex-SATA adapter that comes with the motherboard in order to power one of your SATA devices (hard drive or DVD drive) because the PSU only has one SATA cable. If you'd rather have a power supply that takes care of all these issues, try this:
Power Supply: SIGMA Power Engine SP-535 535W - $25 (after $15 rebate) + $3 shipping
New Total: $452
Obviously, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and speakers. If you're upgrading from an old machine, you'll already have these. I'm only dealing with the stuff inside the box for now, but feel free to ask any questions if you want an opinion on something else.
Again, this machine is simply awesome for the price. Good luck finding a better deal anywhere else. If you want one, contact me about building it for you. Enjoy!
Note: At least one of the discounts ends on June 20th.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Again with Feeling
It's time to re-evaluate the processors we will want to use in a gaming system for a few reasons. First of all, I would like to discuss overclocking. Second, AMD has just released something that I feel is absolutely perfect for a budget gaming system. Let's take a look.
AMD's new surprise is the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. This is basically a quad-core processor with *two* cores disabled. If you thought the X3s were a steal, you'll be thrilled to know that you can have this guy for only $110. You'll also be thrilled to know that it's no slouch on performance.
Now, let's talk about overclocking. If you really want to get the most bang for your buck, you are going to have to overclock. There are no buts about it. If you choose to ignore this option, you are not utilizing one of the best features of these great 45nm processors. Ultimately, my purpose here is to show you how to get the best gaming performance for your dollar. Therefore, I am going to base my suggestions in this post on the assumption that you will be overclocking these processors.
Here is a breakdown of the processors that I suggest, and the overclock percentages they are able to obtain under reasonable conditions:
[Updated 8/8/09]
Athlon II X2 250: 25% - Stock: 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.75 GHz ($79)
Phenom II X2 550 BE: 20% - Stock: 3.1 GHz, OC: 3.7 GHz ($103)
Phenom II X3 720 BE: 35% - Stock 2.8 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($119)
Phenom II x4 940 BE: 30% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($189)
Phenom II x4 955 BE: 22% - Stock 3.2 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($200)
Core 2 Duo E8400: 40% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 4.2 GHz ($168)
Core i7 920: 43% - Stock 2.66 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($280)
Core i7-975 Extreme: 23% - Stock 3.33 GHz, OC: 4.1 GHz ($1,000)
Remember that the price of the processor alone is deceptive. The motherboard and RAM also make a huge difference in price. I might revisit this later.
Anyway, these overclocks show us a few important things. First of all, the x2 550 might just be the right chip for you if you really don't want to bother with overclocking. It already comes with a high stock clock speed (higher than any of the others) so overclocking really can't push it much farther.
Second, the Phenom II x4 955 BE only overclocks by about 22%. This puts it at exactly the same speed as the x4 940, but for a lot more money. Therefore, I can't really justify it.
Third, the E8400 stands out as a possible sweet spot here. Its gaming performance is roughly on par with the x4 940, depending on what benchmarks you look at. The price and the overclock may give it a nice edge depending on your motherboard needs.
Finally, the value of the i7 920 really stands out. At a 43% overclock, it will very clearly outperform anything else here. The price is a little more justified with this in mind.
There are also some other considerations. First, you can disable hyperthreading in the i7 920 for a small (5%) boost in gaming performance. Second, you might be able to get away with "unlocking" the disabled cores in the Phenom x2 and x3 processors. There is no guarantee that it is doable, and it depends on your motherboard and its BIOS version. I don't recommend doing this because you won't be able to overclock as much and the game performance really won't improve a lot.
The Xigmatek heatsink and fan that I'm using should work with all of these processors except the i7 920. Overclockers will love it.
Remember, the performance of these processors really doesn't make a huge difference in gaming results as long as you have a modern video card. The GPU will be your bottleneck. However, having a faster processor will help to ensure that your machine is "future proof." A faster CPU will be able to keep up years down the road when games are more demanding and video cards are more powerful. This is why the unrealistic low-res benchmarks out there still have some value.
AMD's new surprise is the Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition. This is basically a quad-core processor with *two* cores disabled. If you thought the X3s were a steal, you'll be thrilled to know that you can have this guy for only $110. You'll also be thrilled to know that it's no slouch on performance.
Now, let's talk about overclocking. If you really want to get the most bang for your buck, you are going to have to overclock. There are no buts about it. If you choose to ignore this option, you are not utilizing one of the best features of these great 45nm processors. Ultimately, my purpose here is to show you how to get the best gaming performance for your dollar. Therefore, I am going to base my suggestions in this post on the assumption that you will be overclocking these processors.
Here is a breakdown of the processors that I suggest, and the overclock percentages they are able to obtain under reasonable conditions:
[Updated 8/8/09]
Athlon II X2 250: 25% - Stock: 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.75 GHz ($79)
Phenom II X2 550 BE: 20% - Stock: 3.1 GHz, OC: 3.7 GHz ($103)
Phenom II X3 720 BE: 35% - Stock 2.8 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($119)
Phenom II x4 940 BE: 30% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($189)
Phenom II x4 955 BE: 22% - Stock 3.2 GHz, OC: 3.9 GHz ($200)
Core 2 Duo E8400: 40% - Stock 3.0 GHz, OC: 4.2 GHz ($168)
Core i7 920: 43% - Stock 2.66 GHz, OC: 3.8 GHz ($280)
Core i7-975 Extreme: 23% - Stock 3.33 GHz, OC: 4.1 GHz ($1,000)
Remember that the price of the processor alone is deceptive. The motherboard and RAM also make a huge difference in price. I might revisit this later.
Anyway, these overclocks show us a few important things. First of all, the x2 550 might just be the right chip for you if you really don't want to bother with overclocking. It already comes with a high stock clock speed (higher than any of the others) so overclocking really can't push it much farther.
Second, the Phenom II x4 955 BE only overclocks by about 22%. This puts it at exactly the same speed as the x4 940, but for a lot more money. Therefore, I can't really justify it.
Third, the E8400 stands out as a possible sweet spot here. Its gaming performance is roughly on par with the x4 940, depending on what benchmarks you look at. The price and the overclock may give it a nice edge depending on your motherboard needs.
Finally, the value of the i7 920 really stands out. At a 43% overclock, it will very clearly outperform anything else here. The price is a little more justified with this in mind.
There are also some other considerations. First, you can disable hyperthreading in the i7 920 for a small (5%) boost in gaming performance. Second, you might be able to get away with "unlocking" the disabled cores in the Phenom x2 and x3 processors. There is no guarantee that it is doable, and it depends on your motherboard and its BIOS version. I don't recommend doing this because you won't be able to overclock as much and the game performance really won't improve a lot.
The Xigmatek heatsink and fan that I'm using should work with all of these processors except the i7 920. Overclockers will love it.
Remember, the performance of these processors really doesn't make a huge difference in gaming results as long as you have a modern video card. The GPU will be your bottleneck. However, having a faster processor will help to ensure that your machine is "future proof." A faster CPU will be able to keep up years down the road when games are more demanding and video cards are more powerful. This is why the unrealistic low-res benchmarks out there still have some value.
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