Need a heads up on this...

[Fisher]

Can people point me in the right direction of what hardware is the best out for a new gaming rig?

Currently I have what you see in my Sig but i want to upgrade my CPU memory and motherboard. I havnt done this since around 2005 so im not sure where to start. To begin, whats the best overclocking gaming CPUs out there? AMD or Intel?

Plus a good motherboard to go with this and about 4-6Gb of RAM would be nice. From what i have seen DDR3 is quite the norm these days.

I currently have to go with this:

8800GTX
OCZ GameXstream 850w
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS edition
35.5Gb Rator with Vista 64 and about 2Tb etc drive space
Antec p182

not too sure about the budget just looking at what is out there for time being but an ethusiast system would be nice that i wouldnt have to upgrade for another 4-5 years. I hope to overclcok it so i dont need the top of the range stuff

if people could just point me in the right direction ill do all the reading/reviewing myself and let you guys know what my final verdict is

thanks

EDIT: and one day I will get around to a solid state hard drive but waiting for prices to drop first

 

[Atomic Rooster]

I was thinking maybe a black edition Phenom 955, Asus 890GX motherboard, G.Skill DDR3 1600, and either one of the new Nvidia GTX 400 series cards or an ATI HD5000 series card that supports DX11.

 

[foothead]

I think you should go with what AR posted, but i would not even consider the GTX 400 cards personally. You will get much better performance for your dollar from the HD 5000 cards, with the HD 5850 being the king of price/performance.

Get the ASUS, visiontek, or HIS one, and flash it to ASUS HD 5870 BIOS. It will perform within 5-10% of a true 5870 in most games, while costing $100 less.

 

[Fisher]

ok thanks for your posts but im only looking at CPU mobo and RAM for time being. graphics card will come later

phenom 955 looks really good for the price but what do you guys think of the intel i7 930? i also heard that intel are brining out 6 core cpus sometime soonish? is it worth waiting till then to see if prices drop? does anyone know when they are coming out?

 

[foothead]

The six core CPU has been out for some time now. It's branded i7 980X.

there is no real benefit to getting an i7 over a 955 for a gaming rig. Get the 955 and you will be fine. Just do not expect your performance to increase by much from changing platforms. That 8800GTX needs to go asap.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

That 8800GTX needs to go asap.

LOL! I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm still gaming with an 8800GT. . .

 

[foothead]

LOL! I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm still gaming with an 8800GT. . .

Well that is true, but if he is buying a new rig for higher gaming performance, a new video card is definitely necessary. The 8800 would make an awesome physX card too...

 

[Fisher]

so whats the phenon like to overclock then? could it close to the performance of an overclocked i7 930?

 

[foothead]

so whats the phenon like to overclock then? could it close to the performance of an overclocked i7 930?

I saw a review with i7 920 vs Phenom II 955, and in gaming they performed extremely close clock-for-clock.

You should have no problem getting it to 3.8GHz or more if you have a good heatsink.

 

[Fisher]

im being turned to a phenom. what about the 965 its only another £20? would it be worth it? and the mobo + memory that atomic rooster suggested? would that be a good place to start looking or do you have your own preference of brand etc?