1k Budget i5 PC Build--Sry :/

[laxninja]

I know there are alot of threads on here about builds for FFXI, Aion, and FFXIV but I have literally been looking at other forums for a long time. I'm actually using some other forums, but I would like to get an opinion about my build from you guys because until now, I haven't had anyone who was planning on playing FFXIV actually give me advice on a build. SO

I'm a student on a budget mowing lawns and doing shit work etc for a roughly 1k computer build MAINLY AIMED at FFXIV (Aion would be nice too, unfortunately I no longer play ffxi). So I'm incredibly stingy about my computer build. Here it is. If ANYONE has any other suggestions about other builds PLEASE feel free to post it or link it. Again, sorry for ANOTHER POST but I'm tired of reading pages of forums in geeky jargon. Thank you ahead of time ^^

EDIT: Wow, won't let me post links cuz new user....wow.

Power Supply: CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

GPU: XFX HD-587X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

CPU:Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale 3.33GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 87W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I5661

Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Server Memory Model CT2KIT12872BA1067

Motherboard: ASUS P6X58D Premium LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Everything else I already have: IHD, OS, OD, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse etc

PS: Any suggestions or links for GPU. This is a weak spot for me because its a 400 USD GPU, but if it marginally the best GPU for FFXIV I don't mind paying the extra.

THANKS ^O^

[OWS_Tonx]

I'm no master like a lot of the guys on here, but I'd put more than 2 gigs of ram. As for the rest, idk.

[OWS_Tonx]

I plan on putting 8 gigs on mine for example.

[sruon]

Case, PSU and Motherboard are fine but...

RAM: Get 2x2 at the very least, I don't know a specific model but Crucial, G-skill etc, you name it. Expected cost $90 to $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193

CPU: That's a dual core+dual thread, you should really get a i5 750 at the very least. Expected cost: $195

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-215-_-Product

As for the GPU, well, it's hard to say, but the newly released GTX 460 are pretty damn interesting, maybe someone can confirm, but for the price... ($190)

Edit: I built my computer with a VERY limited budget (like... I spent $500 total buying motherboard/ram/CPU) and I run FFXIV near flawlessly

[dejet]

also as was posted in a few other threads(I picked one up too lol)

i7 930 for $199(+tax) if you have one close to your house like I do.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0331303

Its a new mid grade GPU its should get the job done, but the question is if its worth that price tag it holds.

as two other posters have told you get more RAM. You will want at the least 4Gb. You wont need more then that really, you can but on a budget you should get 4 GB, nothing more nothing less.

Also you could save a few bukes on a lower end PSU, you wont need a 750 on a budge PC(not true for all but for most)

edit: links dont matter much, many of the techs on this forums know most of the items you can post, and if they dont they can find them very easy lol. Reason why links are limited is simple; as a gaming forum we would get bombed by RMT >.>

like I can see very easy that the PSU you posted will cost you from newegg 139.99 with a rebate that brings it down to 119.99 ~_~

[Dmitry]

I plan on putting 8 gigs on mine for example.

8 gigs is most likely overkill just for games. 4 gigs should be plenty.

Looking at a few other things, that board won't work with the i5. Board is socket 1366, i5 is socket 1156.

Another thing with the board, it's wayyyyy expensive for a budget, you can more than likely find a good board for around $150-200, not $310. Same with the video card. If you're on a budget, you can get a 5770 for half the price of that which will still run FFXIV more than likely very well.

One more thing. You already have a hard drive, is it SATA or IDE? If the latter, you may want to consider getting a SATA drive since it'll be faster, but to be honest it won't make too much of a difference.

[Isiolia]

Do -not- use that i5. The i5 750 is the only one worth considering. The rest of the current i5 lineup (on the desktop at least) is more expensive than it should be in part due to the integrated GPU. Since the 750 is actually marginally cheaper than the 661, that shouldn't be a big deal to swap.

4GB of memory for that platform (well, the CPU, wrong motherboard as pointed out), or 6GB on an X58 (though your budget doesn't quite allow for that without downgrading something else).

As for the GPU, well, it's hard to say, but the newly released GTX 460 are pretty damn interesting, maybe someone can confirm, but for the price... ($190)

Price/performance on the 460 looks to be stellar, but it wouldn't match the performance of the 5870. That said, two of them in SLI would be better for about the same money, assuming FFXIV scales well with multiple GPUs. The issue then might become the 1156 platform and its PCI lane restrictions. Possibly an alternative then would be to build with a single 460 1GB now, and add a second one later, with the lower cost of the GPU making up for the increased cost of an X58 mobo n' possibly i7 930 (though he did already spec an X58 motherboard, albeit a more expensive one, for a CPU that won't fit it).

[Jurgen]

Good advice here so far. As everyone else has mentioned, i5-661 is a waste of money. Go with the i5-750 at the absolute minimum if your budget is around $1000. You'll also want 4GB of RAM. If you need to cut costs somewhere, I'd recommend getting either a HD5850 and overclocking it, or getting a GTX 460 now and going SLI down the road when you feel you need more performance.

[laxninja]

Good advice here so far. As everyone else has mentioned, i5-661 is a waste of money. Go with the i5-750 at the absolute minimum if your budget is around $1000. You'll also want 4GB of RAM. If you need to cut costs somewhere, I'd recommend getting either a HD5850 and overclocking it, or getting a GTX 460 now and going SLI down the road when you feel you need more performance.

Thanks for all the advice, you made me cry because I've been looking for people that knew this stuff more than I did. OK so after reading everything here is what I have come up with but please feel free to correct me.

MB: I was thinking about getting the GTX 460 for now, and then down the road doing SLI, but the Motherboard needs to be able to support SLI right or am I just misinformed? If so, this was the default MB I was looking at:
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard w/ USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s
(This time it matches the chip XD)

GPU: As I said above, I think I may just go with SLI down the road, but as someone else suggested its risky because we don't know how well FFXIV will perform with 2 GPU's. I remember in Aion Crossfire wasn't even supported until like 5 months in. Suggestion on this again would be helpful, this time giving advice about SLI vs Crossfire, reflection of GPU on MB, and 5770 vs GTX 460 vs 5870 price and performance.

Memory: 4 gigs, got it lol :
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3

Power Supply: Took physics 101 and thats it. So pretty stupid when it comes to calculating how much voltage I need while at the same time trying to predict what power needs I might need in the future when upgrading into a SLI or Crossfire build (I dont know how that will affect power). Was looking at a couple of good ones on Newegg with great reviews and in the 50-80 USD range just need an estimate on Voltage is all. Someone suggested 750 was too much for my system so I looked at 500, 550, 600, and 650. All great and cheap I just need some advice kthnx.

Processor: Yea I was origanally going with the i5 750 until someone on aionsource suggested I go with the i5 661 or w/e because quad core is useless with games, I only need 2. BUT I didn't know that the 661 came with a GPU (lol!) until you pointed it out. Anyway, I think I will just stick with the i5 750. I DID look at that microchip link but I live in Boise, Idaho. el oh el.

I might look at shipping costs but they will prob be threw the roof. If its not threw the roof, I may have to get that tasty looking i7 930. Ill get back to you on that. It would be good to upgrade to i7 for like maybe 20 bucks more (in the end) but would suck to have to restart build.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE HELP!!!!!

[Myth]

These days SLI/Crossfire certified boards are pretty much the norm. I'd say it is actually harder to find a card that won't run an SLI setup. Just have to be careful of how it runs the SLI, as in x16 and/or x8. The motherboard you've picked looks good for your budget though.

And if you're worried about PSU and what wattage you need check out this link. It has a calculator which you can use to get an estimate on your PSU needs.

As far as the i7 930 is concerned at Micro Center you have to pick it up from one of their stores unfortunately. So that offer isn't available for shipping.

Edit: Forgot the link, LOL.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[Isiolia]

MB: I was thinking about getting the GTX 460 for now, and then down the road doing SLI, but the Motherboard needs to be able to support SLI right or am I just misinformed? If so, this was the default MB I was looking at:
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard w/ USB 3.0 & SATA 6 Gb/s
(This time it matches the chip XD)

Yes, the motherboard needs to support SLI. That one does. A caveat, however, is that the socket 1156 platform chipsets have limited PCI Express lanes by design. You can still do dual GPUs, but performance is restricted a bit (last I saw it wasn't crippling, but maybe a 5-10% performance drop). As noted there too, running dual cards will also cut the USB 3.0 ports down to USB 2.0 speed - again a limitation of that particular platform.

That's why I'd noted that you -may- want to try and work a socket 1366 based motherboard/CPU/RAM setup in. i7 930, X58 board, and probably a 6GB RAM set (3x2GB for triple channel). That'd be a better setup for SLI, though it'd cost a bit more as well.


Regarding PSU, it'll depend in part on other system components. Total system power needs with 2x GTX 460s will likely fall into the sub-600W range, but headroom is always good. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3810/n...vendor-cards/6 has some basic numbers, but keep in mind that a few more HDDs or something will push things a little higher. IMO, the 750W is about right.

Processor: Yea I was origanally going with the i5 750 until someone on aionsource suggested I go with the i5 661 or w/e because quad core is useless with games, I only need 2.

As time goes on, that'll become less true. There are quad-core aware games, just as there are more 64-bit compatible games and so on. At one point in time, it was a debate between a faster single core and dual core. It's largely a moot point with the newer series CPUs though, since they have Turbo Boost or whatnot to clock higher when fewer cores are in use, effectively giving you the best of both worlds (though you lose that if you overclock...but usually you overclock faster than it would have gone anyway).

These days SLI/Crossfire certified boards are pretty much the norm. I'd say it is actually harder to find a card that won't run an SLI setup. Just have to be careful of how it runs the SLI, as in x16 and/or x8. The motherboard you've picked looks good for your budget though.

I think it's less a matter of hardware, and more a matter of software. The FFXIV benchmark doesn't support multiple GPUs, not sure about the beta...I'd have to assume that the release game will though.

[njitjk68]

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=15133906
i7-930, 6GB RAM, GTX 470
$1,094.94 (Before tax/shipping)

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=15134226
i5-750, 4GB RAM GTX 470
$934.94 (Before tax/shipping)

As others have mentioned if you want to cut cost a bit more, can go for GTX 460 and save around $100.

Edit: Just noticed you live in Idaho. I believe you won't get taxed there, so should only worry about shipping.

[laxninja]

ok so new build would like this

Processor: i5 750

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Memory:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

GPU:SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

PSU: XCLIO GREATPOWER X14S4P4 600W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

MB: ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

+ IHD

= ~680 with all the rebates. Throw in another crossfire in there make it like 830.

Now here is the part I need some pro advice on. Now that I have the i5 build ready to go (assuming that this build is good) is this going to be better or worse as far as price/performance ratio is concerned with an i7 build. The i7 build looking something like this:

Case: Same
CPU: i7 930
GPU: SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Memory: same
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7
MB: EVGA E758-A1 3-Way SLI (x16/x16/x8) LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
+ IHD

= ~1k

Suggestions and comments welcome :D THANKS AGAIN

[sruon]

The performance changes are going to come mostly from the usage of multithreads, while they're used by a lot of apps (Winrar etc), games is a different story, some do, some don't.

The higher you go in resolution, the less the difference is, and even on the lowest resolution, the i5 750 will already give you awesome performance.

tl;dr If you have the money, go with i7, it will give you a faster everyday experience, if not i5 is very good and I'm very happy with mine.

[Xaxius]

Just commenting on the i5 750 setup, since it's very similar to the build I have. I would highly recommend upgrading to an after-market cooling solution, since it is a very easily over-clockable proc.

Mine is currently sitting at 4.0Ghz w/ the Noctua NH-D14 ($89.99). There are cheaper solutions out there, I just went that route due to it being a more quiet solution. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is also a pretty good choice and it can be had for about 1/4 that. I would just recommend adding an additional fan for a push/pull air flow through the heatsink. In any case, upgrading over the stock cooling can get you a little more bang for the buck.

Good luck!

[laxninja]

The performance changes are going to come mostly from the usage of multithreads, while they're used by a lot of apps (Winrar etc), games is a different story, some do, some don't.

The higher you go in resolution, the less the difference is, and even on the lowest resolution, the i5 750 will already give you awesome performance.

tl;dr If you have the money, go with i7, it will give you a faster everyday experience, if not i5 is very good and I'm very happy with mine.

yea just concerned that i5 wont be enough to support ffxiv graphics but i need to stop worrying and just stick with the build i have. Don't have that much money cuz goin to school etc so think this build will do just fine + i can just add on another 5770 down the road if i need moar, thanks for hte help on the forum everyone ^O^/

[Xaxius]

yea just concerned that i5 wont be enough to support ffxiv graphics but i need to stop worrying and just stick with the build i have. Don't have that much money cuz goin to school etc so think this build will do just fine + i can just add on another 5770 down the road if i need moar, thanks for hte help on the forum everyone ^O^/

It should be fine... I hit 5158 in High and 7541 in Low on the FF XIV benchmark test with the i5 750 system specs below. Granted I went with a more powerful card, but you should be fine from a CPU standpoint.

Proc: Intel i5 750 @ 4.0 Ghz
MB: MSI P55-GD65
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
Video: XFX Radeon 5870 1GB
PS: COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro 1000w
OS: Window 7 Ultimate (64-bit)