Suggestion for Core i5, Win7 build

[jo5]

I'm getting components together for a replacement for my E6400 machine.So far I have
Centurion 5 case
24" monitor
win 7 64bit
1T hard drive & 320 hard drive
2 DVD burners (blu ray later)
Pny 9800 GT 1024mb EF
Earthwatt 500 EA500 PSU(2yr old never used)
i5 cpu(don't have yet )
Undecided on motherboard and ram(leaning toward Gigabyte)
I don't do much gaming or overclocking but I'd like too be able to if I want
My questions are
Will my power supply be enough?
Is my video card OK ( I can still take it back pd $100 for it )
Need help on motherboard (don't need a high end one but a good one )
Need ram 4 g or More ?
I'll be buying this from Newegg
Thanks for your advice an help
I've enjoyed this forum its been most helpful

 

[1Kurgan1]

I would look for a more powerful PSU if your looking to go i5 and have a decent videocard. The 9800GT in your current build is fine, pretty balanced, but with an i5 the 9800GT is going to be your weak link, I would really look to step up the videocard while your at it. 4GB of RAM should be plenty enough also.

 

[dividebyzero]

I see your psu is dual-rail 17+17 Amp- should be plenty with a mainstream graphics card.
If youre not too worried about gaming performance then the 9800GT represents good-bang-for-the-buck. Going to next generation graphics (HD5770 for example) adds $65-70 to the price.
The Gigabyte boards have a nice feature set for the price. Most P55 boards offer roughly the same performance-price changes with the amount of (some debateable) features,storage options and quality of onboard components. The P55A-UD3R seems to offer a good feature set for the price. the UD3 is a little cheaper but has an inferior audio codec (ALC888 as opposed to ALC889) and no eSATA and firewire (should you ever need them).
Looking at Newegg's memory listings for 4Gb -no point in buying 2Gb as it's not much cheaper and 64-bit OS will require about 1Gb to run- these look like reasonable choices:
Kingston HyperX KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX ($104)
Corsair Dominator CMD4GX3M2A1600C8 ($95)
Both have reasonably good timings and both Kingston and Corsair work well with Gigabyte boards (as do G.Skill, Crucial and OCZ). Going to looser timings (C9) might save you $5-10 but the performance drop isn't probably worth the savings.

 

[Ritwik7]

It would be nice if you could give us a budget for the build. I'm assuming that you're not considering buying a case / HDD / monitor.

As for the GPU, I would suggest the Radeon HD 4850 or Radeon HD 4770 for better performance than the 9800GT at the same price point.

 

[jo5]

Have a 24 " monitor
1T& 320GB hard drive
budget is moderate rather feel bad when I buy something thaa everytime I use it so its flexable
thanks

 

[Ritwik7]

Moderate as in? A few numbers would help.

 

[jo5]

I don't want to spend $200 for a motherboard or $200 for a video card

 

[dividebyzero]

I don't want to spend $200 for a motherboard or $200 for a video card

Thats why I suggested the Gigabyte mobo. The MSI P55-GD55 at $125 looks to have some value too- If MSI have the BIOS running sweet with experience with the GD53/GD65/GD80 boards.
I assumed that you were limiting yourself to $100 or so on the video card- the HD5750 ($145) would offer a marginal upgrade over the 9800GT at best, while the HD5770 ($160-180) is quite a price hike from $100. If you're not gaming then its paying for extra features you arn't using.

 

[jo5]

I want to thank all of you for your expertise and time
Thanks again

 

[jo5]

Well I want a build I can add too so I got a Corsair 650TX pus
Still undecided on motherboard I'm between the
Gigabyte P55 UD3R
Arock P55 extreme
MSI P55 GD65
also what cpu fan do recommedd
I'm looking at the AC freezer 7 pro
thanks again

 

[Ritwik7]

A great choice of PSU.

For the motherboard I'd say go for the MSI GD65. However, I also do like the ASrock P55 Extreme.

How much do you intend to spend on the CPU cooler. The Xigmatek S1283 would be a good choice if you have a large enough case.

Have you decided on your video card? In the $100 range only the HD 4770 and HD 4850 would give you better performance than the 9800GT.

 

[dividebyzero]

Any of the three boards would be a good choice. Gigabyte and MSI have a better quality control - that is to say the chances of the board arriving D.O.A. is pretty low. If the possibility of RMA doesn't bother you then the only other differences would be :
ASRock P55 Extreme: sparce accessory bundle, single Gb LAN, no firewire, Realtek ALC890 onboard ( this codec isn't listed on the Realtek site !)
Giga. P55-UD3R: no SLI, Crossfire not feasible either, single Gb LAN, no firewire, Realtek ALC888 audio (no Blu-Ray playback. If you get the P55A-UD3R then that's equipped with ALC889 which supports Blu-Ray).
MSI P55-GD65: Good accessory bundle, 2 x Gb LAN ( for teaming), PCIe based firewire.
Other than that virtually any P55 motherboard is going to offer more or less the same feature set and performance level. Most seem pretty stable too.
As for a cooler this is a better performer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065
(Cooler Master Hyper 212).
GPU- Ritwik7's advice sounds good...A quick check of Newegg shows:
9800GT 512Mb $98-$120
9800GT 1Gb (a better option) MSI and Palit ($110), Zotac ($109), Sparkle ($105)
HD4850 1Gb (much better) VisionTek ($117), HIS ($130)
HD4870 512Mb (better still) XFX ($155)
HD5770 1Gb (the best choice if you can afford it) Sapphire and PowerColor ($165).

Hope you have a troublefree build.

 

[jo5]

Thanks again I'm still in between on a motherboard ordered a i5 cpu an AC freezer7 pro today(looked at the other one an don't know if it will fit in my case
I'm going to get a better graphic card
Came home today started my computer No Display seated my EVGA GE 7600GT card
Still no display Put in the new 9800GT an all's well
Thanks again

 

[jo5]

I'm back
Ordered a GA P55 UD3R like the expansion slots an amount of connections also I've used gigabyte in
the past with good luck
Now all I need is my ram
Some of the ram suggested is 1.65v an the board says 1.5v (does this matter)
I've looked at Kingston hyper x,Consair xms3,all types of gskill
The G skill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ is on gigabyte approved list and has good reviews
I have a AC freezer 7 pro cooler an need a ram that won't interfere with it Also I'm thinking about 4 -2 G
sticks (8G) while I'm at it then they will all match
Any thoughts?
Thanks for the time an help

 

[compdata]

Which CPU did you end up getting? I was going to recommend the i7 860 for the multi threading capabilities (the i7s have hyperthreading, but the i5 doesn't), but looks like it might be late. Either that or the i5 750 are both great buys. Guru 3d has a great review of the differences in the P55 processors here: Core i5-i7 review

I myself would probably pick the i7-860 but i do a lot of heavy multitasking/processing with photo editing software, so the hyper threading would be more of a benefit in those cases.

 

[jo5]

I got the i5 should be here today
I don't really need it but I wanted a new one
If I only did what I needed too I would'nt do much