need help making a rig

**Mobi** · 06-24-10, 11:06 PM

I'm looking into getting a customized rig that I can use for graphic arts work and gaming

The programs I need it to run is
Crysis 2
Arma 2
Battlefield Bad company 2
And Adobe CS5

I'm wanting to at least spend under 1,300

anyone have suggestions?

**hannibal** · 06-25-10, 12:03 AM

**iamjohnnyrico** · 06-25-10, 12:52 AM

Here's a list of a rig:

CPU: Intel i5 - $200.00 (neck and neck with the i7)
MOBO: Intel 1156 - $130.00 (good value and intel always works)
RAM: Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) - $165.00 (dependable and accurate)
GPU: Gigabyte HD5850 - $310.00 (best value for the money)
SSD: WD 64GB - $130.00 (this is for your OS and games)
HDD: WD 1.5TB - $110.00 (lots of storage for your graphics & other things)
Case: Antec 900 - $100.00 (good case with plenty of airflow)
PSU: Antec 750W - $115.00 (true power for the money)
DVD-RW: Samsung (OEM) - $20.00

The i5 750 series is neck and neck to the i7 920, but you save approx $150.00. Also, you only need one exceptional video card to run the games you listed and doing graphic designs. I selected two hard drives - one SSD and one HDD; the smaller drive (64GB) is for the OS and games, the larger for your designing needs. Case is a little bit small for me, yet I think it will do nicely.

Hopefully this helps!

**damian** · 06-27-10, 01:05 PM

The 750 is a good processor but i wouldn't say "neck and neck" with the 920. It is a little slower, depending on the application you are running. In multi-threaded programs the 920 is exceptionally faster. But for games and or single threaded programs, then i would say they are neck and neck (with the ladder going to which ever cpu has a higher cpu speed). Also that set of memory is triple channel, Socket 1156 uses dual channel. Best to go the dual channel route in this case.

For graphics work, I7 won't let you down.

**Guyver** · 06-27-10, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by hannibal

I like that.

**Mobi** · 06-27-10, 04:33 PM

The xfx got me worried because of its poor reviews on new egg

**damian** · 06-27-10, 06:42 PM

woops i meant I7 in my post not 920.

don't worry about the reviews on newgg, 3/4th of them are written by people dumber than a sack of potatoes.

**hannibal** · 06-27-10, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by damian

woops i meant I7 in my post not 920.

don't worry about the reviews on newgg, 3/4th of them are written by people dumber than a sack of potatoes.

Yeah all of them are complaints about the drivers and OC features, both of which are easily solved:

1. Only use ATI/AMD Catalyst driver not the ones in the box.

2. Get an MSI card and use afterburner, or install and configure rivatuner.

This is a factory OCed card so I don't understand why you would want to try to OC it, if you wanted to do that, get a cheaper stock card and go from there.
-H

**masterPAINb** · 06-28-10, 06:25 AM

Mobius, if you live in Texas you should be able to get to Microcenter (microcenter.com to check out inventory and store locations) and pick up your i5 or i7 processor for about $50 cheaper than on Newegg. Also check your other parts there, you might be able to get a lower price.

**iamjohnnyrico** · 06-28-10, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by damian

The 750 is a good processor but i wouldn't say "neck and neck" with the 920. It is a little slower, depending on the application you are running. In multi-threaded programs the 920 is exceptionally faster. But for games and or single threaded programs, then i would say they are neck and neck (with the ladder going to which ever cpu has a higher cpu speed). Also that set of memory is triple channel, Socket 1156 uses dual channel. Best to go the dual channel route in this case.

For graphics work, I7 won't let you down.

Originally Posted by damian

woops i meant I7 in my post not 920.

don't worry about the reviews on newgg, 3/4th of them are written by people dumber than a sack of potatoes.

It depends on the software program the user is running. Please remember the i7 has 4 physical cores and 4 virtual cores whereas the i5 only has 4 physical cores. I have the i7 920 @ 2.66 Ghz (no overclocking) and I have yet to use all of it's cores simultaneously. Tom's Hardware did a review of this and it's interesting to see that some programs the i7 is quicker and some programs the i5 is quicker:

Comparison between the i5 and the i7

Hannibal put together a fine system and for the price it looks great. The CPU can only compute something as fast as it gets it. Although being an i7 owner, there is a vast difference in work productivity with having a fast HDD/SDD and an average one.