Building a PC

[TheBrew]

After using soley MacBook Pros the last 5 years, I want to build a PC again! Mainly to run a few games as well as some IT tools and training that are Windows Only (yeah, I know I can Boot Camp).

I do most of gaming on my XBox, but I have some legacy games I want to play as well as try some of the new stuff like Star Trek Online and Starcraft II. My issue is that I am a bit behind on PC tech. I know Intel has the i3/5/7s and that DDR3 RAM is all the rage, but I am not sure what will actually fit my needs.

The GPU I am want to build my system around is a GTX 460.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125333

I want to build a mid-range system that can run the latest and greatest, but I don't need to run Cyrsis at full AA @ 2560X1600. I just want to run games like the ones I mentioned above well.

So what is good these days? AMD processors any good? Should I just get a Core 2 Duo to get the performance I want? DDR3 RAM worth? 4G or 6G of RAM? And any other component tips.

 

[Mr. B]

I'm going to upgrade an older AMD system to an Intel i5 system this weekend. I want AMD to do well but I wouldn't be buying their stuff right now. As for what to get, the latest/greatest your budget allows is a fine way to go. For me, $500 was as much as I wanted to spend on the upgrade (keeping existing HDs, PSU, case, gtx 260) and I ended up with an eVGA P55 FTW mobo, Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I don't believe there is much of a price advantage between Intel and AMD these days. In some instances, Intel is cheaper. If you can swing it, I would suggest a quad-core CPU. They can be had for under $200 now if you go for a Core 2 Quad. If you don't mind getting your parts from disparate vendors, I highly recommend pricewatch.com, which lets you scout the lowest price on each part you need.

Don't bother with more than 4GB of RAM unless you're running Windows 7 64-bit. Pricewatch has 4GB of DDR3 for under $100 so I don't see why you'd go with anything less than that.

The video card looks solid. I'm not a GPU nut so I don't know if there are any particular gotchas with this one, but the price is reasonable and it looks like a good card.

Make sure you have a sufficient power supply unit, minimum 600W. The graphics card needs its own power lead (should come with the appropriate cable).

 

[Yoda]

i5 and i7 are good choices, depending on your needs and budget.

GTX 460 is a good card, I'm looking at getting two of that very card from Newegg for SLI and surround gaming. One GTX 460 will kill Starcraft 2 no problem. My 9800GT that I'm going to upgrade from handles it at 1920x1200 with everything maxed. Frame rate is pretty decent still.

As for whether you want 6GB or 4GB of RAM, I think it depends on what socket you're going for. If you're going high end Intel LGA 1366, Core i7 9xx, then you'd want 3x2GB for triple channel memory... for the other Intel stuff I'm pretty sure it's all dual channel so you'd want either 4GB or 8GB. As for the AMD platforms, I have less of an idea, I assume it's all the same kind of DDR3 dual channel stuff. If you feel like you want a 6-core processor, AMD is the way to go on a budget.

I would definitely go with Windows 7 x64 for the OS, and I recommend ya know... pirating it... to help with the budget!

I'm not sure what 'IT tools' are, but my Core i7 930 (with a pretty mild overclock) and 12GB of RAM has no issues with anything I run. I typically have 20+ Chrome tabs going, Steam, wincvs, excel, 4 or 5 different IDEs, a couple of remote desktop sessions, 6 or 7 SSH sessions, a few copies of winscp, a Sun VirtualBox running linux, a mysql server, Skype, Trillian, and god knows what else running simultaneously.

The nice thing is with the 12GB of RAM I can just load up MW2, or really just about any other game and leave all the other stuff running in the background with no ill effects. Unless I'm maxing out the CPU on Sun VirtualBox, then my audio might stutter.

I recently helped a friend do his first PC build.

Intel Core i7 860
gigabyte p55 usb3 mobo
Antec 900 case w/ Antec EarthSomethingOrAnother 650w power supply
Intel 80GB SSD (the boy really wanted an SSD)
some random 1TB hdd
gigabyte 1gb 256-bit memory bus gtx 460 (you don't want the 768mb IMO)
4GB of ram
1920x1080 asus monitor
logitech wireless desktop

He sounds pretty happy with it so far, he hasn't gotten his copy of SC2 yet but I get the feeling he'll have smooth frame rates with maxed settings.

 

[TheBrew]

Nice system. By "IT Tool" I mean there are some training programs and basic tools (like a virtual network mapper training program to help set up subnets in networks) that run in Windows and I am too lazy to Wine them.

Also, I want an excuse to build a PC.

I have a new question; is there a real benefit to getting a Quad Core i5 versus a Dual-Core i5?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Depends on whether this will mostly be a "single-task" system or you'll be doing a bunch of things at once--say, browsing the web, downloading files, chatting, and watching a video all at once. If you are a constant multitasker then the more cores you have, the better. It's just overkill if you tend only to do one thing at a time.

 

[TheBrew]

If I am doing multi-tasking, it is light multi-tasking; like having Word, an internet window open and iTunes. I don't do stuff like play Video Games and Skype at the same time.