Ok... its kind of going to be a multipurpose rig and handle some multi-monitor trading duties but eventually be used primarily in a sim racing rig i'm going to put together (Obutto Rig, Fanatec Turbo S + Clubsport Pedals, etc) to play rFactor and iRacing, Forza and GT5 when she comes out.

BUT I honestly don't want to drop that much coin (or think I need to considering most of these games don't require much grunt to perform).

Soooo I have an 900.00ish price range i'm trying to come in under w/o monitors.

My first inkling is to get a "custom" rig from a place like iBuyPower.com. Specifically their Paladain 825 i5 rig.

Basic specs are:
CPU: i5-750
Mem: 4G
GPU: ATI 5750

As configured, WITHOUT window OS its 881.00.

Then I stumbled onto a HP deal on slickdeals...

I can get the same CPU, a free upgrade to 6GB ram, I can spec it w/o the GPU so I can buy one myself for a savings (and get a better HIS version w Dirt included) AND a legit copy of WIndows 7 64 bit for 720.00

Obviously I feel like i'm getting more with the HP but i'm concerned that the Mobo and other components might be crap and the overall speed of the rig will be reduced compared to the iBuyPower rig running an Asus or MSI mobo.

What would you guys do?

 

Definitely NOT Hp or dell

 

My advice spend a few more bucks for a core i7 920 and get a Ati 5870 or 2 5770's

 

Do you already have a monitor/kb/mouse?

Are you willing to put it together yourself?

 

I'd stay away for HP, they are nothing but problems, like the other Russian said I'll also agree on the i7.

And you can save, or build a way better system if you do this yourself. Just a thought.

 

I can build it myself and I already have the monitors/kb/mouse... my last rig was an overclocked P4 with watercooling but i've been out of the pc gaming community for some time so i'm trying to catch up with all the new equipment spec.

Hell I went and spec'ed everything myself off pricewatch but it came out 100.00 more than the iBuyPower PC for the same stuff so it seemed slightly pointless.

The i7-920 is only a 40.00 bump over the i5 so that seems well worth it. As for the GPU, again this is something i'll probably upgrade in the future, but rfactor honestly runs perfectly on my 256mb X1600 on my laptop, let alone a DX11 card with 1gb of memory...

 

I don't think these guys know who they are dealing with. Show them your trading rig.

 

Spent all day reading reviews and specing and pricing and my head is spinning...

I found this review to be particuarily enlightening: Part 3: Building A Balanced Gaming PC : Balanced Platform Series Introduction, specifically it pretty much points out that spending money on the higher priced i7-920's just really isn't worth it as they give almost identical gaming performance to the i5-750's...

it also pointed out that while the ATI's have the eyefinity stuff for multiple monitors Nvidia has their 3D Vision stuff out now and I think that might almost be more awesome on some 73" Mitsu DLP than 3 24" monitors (and since PS3 isn't multi monitor I could have that much more fun in other games as well).

So the specs right now are as follows:
MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 – 150.00
Intel Core i5-750 – 194.00
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 260OC 896MB – 190.00
(2) OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 8GB Total – 206.00
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Heatsink/Fan – 30.00
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Buffer Serial ATA SATA II 3GBS – 48.00
Chiefmax 750W Power Supply – 35.00
NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Case – 30.00
LG GH22NS Serial SATA LG 22X DVD Burner – 25.00
Total: 898.00 (W/Shipping)

Time for you guys to tell me what I need to change or modify. If I build it myself and "acquire" a windows OS I think i'm probably getting a much nicer rig... better GFX card, same processor, better Mobo, 8GB of memory...

*edit* switched the mobo to a lower cost option that did well in a P55 shootout review.

Seemed like the Nvidia cards are simply outperforming the ATI's at the ~200.00 price range unless i'm missing something?

 

If you check the combo deals on newegg.com (which is where you should buy all of your gear regardless) you could in all honesty piece together a rig for ~$450 that would max out rFactor and iRacing. Also, I have never heard of Chiefmax ($35 seems low for a 750w PSU) and you could get equivalent RAM for a 1/4 of the cost.

If you want some futureproofing, the 470 and 5850 are great DX11 choices. As you already know the Nvidia cards have PhysX/CUDA/3D and the ATI cards have eyefinity. Any model of the i5/i7 line would suffice as well.

I'm debating on whether I should build a 470/i5 rig or buy a new 17" MacBook Pro myself, probably will end up doing both. If I build the PC I'll certainly post my build/benchmarks.

 

I might take the plunge on the 470 as well... hadn't considered the DX11 issues.

How important is getting "good" memory? I was spending more for the OCZ stuff because i had used it before and it was great for overclocking. I don't plan on having to OC this rig so does any bargain basement DDR3 suffice these days?

I'll reconsider the PSU and get something a bit more well known. If in the future I do go SLI whats the minimum wattage I need? 600? 700?