Need Advice on New PC

[Chai]

Originally Posted by goldfries

my browser crashed when i was typing my reply earlier, so the above was a re-draft

anyway about the i5 part - just to clarify - what i'm saying is that if you already have an existing fast system then it's not worth just to jump over. and what i missed out was that i am referring to stock i5 750. I was on P45 X3320 4GB D2 setup, i benched that vs the P55 i5-750 4GB D3 setup and found that if i switched from one to another, it incurs quite some cost with not so much gain.

after OCing - now that i5 750 is really a nice beast. 4.2ghz is awesome CPU-Z Validator 3.1 I was just limited by my RAM (OCZ 1066). it passes all the benchies i threw at it but i can't run Forged Alliance with 4.2ghz.

in your case, yeah i5 is the way to go.

as for the HD5770, do you think it's inferior to HD4870?

I've tested (read my article) the HD5770 and I found it to be really close to the HD4890, I guess you can say it's between HD4870 and HD4890 BUT remember that you're getting DX11 support AND something that consumes less power, which means it generates lesser heat too.

I'm actually seriously considering to move to i5 from my C2D setup, purely for performance/clock and excellent idle power consumption, but I can't afford the upgrade. So I will still stick with C2D for now.

5770 would have been a great choice if it's cheaper. But ATI is getting deperate.

[jasperchc]

for ATI 5770 / 4870, they both can still run all the latest games without any problem right?

and chai you have any mobo to recommend? cause the one i picked are actually the cheapest in the price list

[Adrian Wong]

The ATI Radeon HD 5770 / 4870 should have no problem running all games in the market. You may only have performance issues if you intend to run at 1920x1200 or higher with high AA levels, but that depends on the game as well.

[Chai]

Originally Posted by jasperchc

for ATI 5770 / 4870, they both can still run all the latest games without any problem right?

and chai you have any mobo to recommend? cause the one i picked are actually the cheapest in the price list

Maybe you can pick P55-UD3, but then it's not as cheap as your selection...

[jasperchc]

these are some of the board i came across, the
Asus P7P55D and Gigabyte P55-UD3P are price almost the same. But i prefer the asus more cause i think the audio codec is better VIA VT1828S where as gigabyte use ALC888.

Also i have a old creative audigy LS at home, would it be any better (or worst) compare to the built in audio codec these days?

Price below are bundle with i5-750

Asus P7P55D @ $513
Asus P7P55D Pro @ $552
MSI P55-GD65 @ $535
Gigabyte P55-UD3P @ $520
Gigabyte P55-UD4P @ $589
EVGA P55LE P55 @ $569

[Chai]

Although both have similar price, but the pros and cons are quite different. Decide which features are more important for you.

[jasperchc]

got another question, i am thinking of getting 2TB hdd, would it be better to get 1 x 2TB or 2 x 1TB and set it up in raid 0?

[Adrian Wong]

Why do you want RAID 0??? Do you need the speed?

RAID 0 will give you a high throughput but with double the risk of losing all your data. One of the two HDDs die, all your data goes down the drain.

On the other hand, it's cheaper to buy two 1 TB hard disk drives, than it is to buy one 2 TB hard disk drive. In fact, I think you can buy THREE 1 TB hard disk drives for the price of one 2 TB HDD.

[PsYkHoTiK]

I've never really had major problems with RAID 0. Though it never hurts to have backup. Current RAID 0 user right now...

[jasperchc]

review on raid 0 seems to be mixed, so i think i will go with just one 1TB WD Caviar Black, cause didnt find any black version more than 1TB