helping a friend out

[koyeall]

my friend wants to build a PC too. he's got a $700 budget. he'd like to be able to play today's games and is not really focused on being able to upgrade in the future (he said he'll just build another PC when this one is too old). he's already got a monitor/keyboard/mouse and such, so that's not taken into consideration.

this is what I personally came up with, but i don't know. if you've got better ideas, help me out. =) thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131668 (mobo)
ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898 (gpu)
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 (psu)
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808 (cpu)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231275 (ram)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098 (hdd)
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021 (case)
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

this comes out to about $680

[edit]
switched from hd 5750 to 5770

 

[snowbrd]

Case? Have him look at the mid towers to see what he likes. and maybe a aftremarket cooler if you have the money.
Lastly

 

[koyeall]

Case? Have him look at the mid towers to see what he likes. and maybe a aftremarket cooler if you have the money.
Lastly

yep, got a case. forgot to put it in the post, i edited it now though. thanks.

i originally tried my best to squeeze in an i5 into a $700 budget but when i went to changing the motherboard and such around i just couldn't do it. the AMD phenom II x4 I selected appears to be worth it's price, though. hope i'm not messing up.

 

[psionic98]

if it fits.. i'd jump up to DDR3 1600 ram at CL9.. softer timings, but quicker ram in general.. and you could possibly tighten down the 1st part to an 8 and run something like (8-9-9-24-2t)

 

[Theocnoob]

Stop goin for the frickin blue/green WD drives. You want black. Ideally 64MB buffer. 32 if you have to. Much faster. Not much more money. On a lean budget, the Antec 300 is the way to go. I don't particularly love it generally speaking. It's just really good for the price and offers a similar layout to the 900 with slightly inferior cooling and much thinner panelling at a much lower price.

An ATI 5770 isn't going to play today's games much better than a hamster in a wheel is, honestly. I would not go any lower than a GTX 460 or a 6850. Ideally a GTX470 or 6870 and if you can manage a 6950, all the better.

Also, you need to budget in 3 extra 120mm fans for the Antec 300 (or just one if you buy the illusion model).

Another thing- if you're buying a black edition CPU, you want to overclock it. The multi is unlocked so you can basically overclock it until you run too high on voltage or heat. Your friend would be better served to find another $200 to throw at this build for a good aftermarket cooler (Silver Arrow, D14, H70 for example) and to make sure you get a decent video card. That's at the $900 point. At $1000 you can move this to a 2500K Sandybridge build and DESTROY even the six core AMD CPU's by a very large margin. It's not $100 more for a 10% increase. It's more like 60-70%

Also keep in mind that for like $30, you can go to a six core 1055T, which is a lot faster than a 4 core 955. It's all Opteron but 6 Opterons are faster than 4 Opterons.

 

[psionic98]

An ATI 5770 isn't going to play today's games much better than a hamster in a wheel is, honestly. I would not go any lower than a GTX 460 or a 6850. Ideally a GTX470 or 6870 and if you can manage a 6950, all the better.

Sorry to say, but you most certainly can play every modern game with a 5770. I've had one for a while now and haven't had a game I couldn't play. Your suggestions for better are wise since, yes this is not a great card, but it will surely play modern games especially if overclocked.

 

[Theocnoob]

Sorry to say, but you most certainly can play every modern game with a 5770. I've had one for a while now and haven't had a game I couldn't play. Your suggestions for better are wise since, yes this is not a great card, but it will surely play modern games especially if overclocked.

I'm underwhelmed by even my 6870 and wish I'd gone for a 69XX or a GTX 580. Sadly money tightness got in the way.

Even my 8800GTS can play modern games. It just doesn't play them well enough in my opinion. Some things out there will eat everything you throw at them. Metro 2033 for example. Even Flight Simulator X with real environment X, max everything, an advanced model aircraft and scenery addons will max out a 980 CPU and a GTX 580.

 

[EarthDog]

A 5770 will not play COD:BO at 1920x1080 with 4xAA/16xAF very well at all. Some people's standards are different though. It would break my heart to buy a new system and not be able to run modern games on the highest detail levels with AA/AF... And trust me I had a GTX 260 216 so I know how fast a 5770 is. Oh and a 5770 doesnt have enough ummph to run DX11 stuff very well either, especially as time goes on...

 

[psionic98]

Well that's true. Plus I'm sportin a 17" junky HP monitor at home.. so screen res for me is limited to 1280x1024.. I've had every game I own up to max settings AA/AF (aside from crysis) and been able to keep frames up w/o spotting really. Trust me, I'm not saying this is a workhorse card, but it will play most modern games rather well. I'm all for opting to better gfx whenever necessary.. waiting on a few things to come in so I can sell some parts to buff up my paypal and get something better.. I do want out of the 5770 market!

 

[EarthDog]

Jesus.. EXACTLY. You are rocking a very low resolution which explains why....

 

[Theocnoob]

Jesus.. EXACTLY. You are rocking a very low resolution which explains why....

Please don't bring a certain someone into conversations related to framerates .

Seriously though guy who posted this thread- you want something with more power than a 5770. I would say 6870 or GTX 470 zone would be the lowest you should go. GTX 460 if you have to. Honestly wouldn't go lower. Not if you want to play the latest games at high settings.

 

[snowbrd]

Good back on track. I agree with ocnoob.