Should I buy this?

[yusraraahima]

Hello!

Here are the specs of the system that a friend has suggested to put together for me. He chose the components according to my budget:

Intel® Core™ i5-2400 Processor

Intel DH61WW motherboard

8GB Ram - Need help on this. Please suggest a good brand.

Seagate 1TB Barracuda Hard Drive 3.5" SATA

Xigmatek NRP-PC 502 PSU

Nvidia GTX550Ti 1024MB / ATI Radeon HD 6770 1024MB (Which one is better?)


Will this be enough to run sims 2 / sims 3 on max setting?

[ajaxsirius]

What's your budget? What screen resolution will you be playing at? It seems odd that he went for an Intel brand board, you can usually get better value with 3rd party boards.

[Chicken0895]

I don't know much about the different ram brands, however these specs will be more than enough to run both games (quite possibly at the same time :up: ).

[whiterider]

Well, the 550 isn't that awesome :p . But it is reasonable. It will cope with TS3 and the currently available EPs, but it will start to falter in the next few EPs, so I would recommend saving up a bit more and getting a 560 or 570, which will last you longer.

Kingston is a great brand of RAM. Corsair isn't bad either.

[yusraraahima]

What's your budget? What screen resolution will you be playing at? It seems odd that he went for an Intel brand board, you can usually get better value with 3rd party boards.

Around $500. Resolution will be 1280x1024 but I really don't know why he chose Intel mobo. I'm not from US and the brands available in my country are limited and much more expensive. Maybe this could be a reason. Do you have any better suggestion for a motherboard?

I don't know much about the different ram brands, however these specs will be more than enough to run both games (quite possibly at the same time :up: ).

Thank you :) This made me happy!

Well, the 550 isn't that awesome :p . But it is reasonable. It will cope with TS3 and the currently available EPs, but it will start to falter in the next few EPs, so I would recommend saving up a bit more and getting a 560 or 570, which will last you longer.

Kingston is a great brand of RAM. Corsair isn't bad either.

Yeah I haven't been hearing very good things about 550ti either. How about the other graphic card I mentioned; amd radeon hd 6770? 560 is pretty expensive right now but maybe I can go for amd radeon hd 6790 if 6770 can't do the trick. I checked the wiki page and it seems that 6770 can run the pets ep as well.

[ajaxsirius]

$500 US sounds about right for that setup since you're not buying from the US. I would only replace the power supply. Tell him to get this instead:

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

To run the CPU he chose, and a AMD 6770, you need atleast 18.75A on the +12V rail. The Power Supply he chose has 20A. That's cutting it real close. I prefer to have about 25% more since PSUs degrade slowly with time. The one I suggested has 28A and should be about the same price.

You should only choose RAM from the list of memory that the motherboard manufacturer tested themselves to work. For the intel motherboard, this is the list:
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/dh61ww/sb/CS-032156.htm#tested

I don't like any of the brands on that list, but Kingston is the one I don't like the least.

I found other motherboards cheaper than the Intel one but I didn't like them. The one I found to be more reasonable was this one:
ASUS P8H61-M LX PLUS (REV 3.0)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131793

Compared to the Intel one its $5-$10 more expensive, and those 10USD give you: 2 additional PCIe x1 expansion slots for adding addon cards (Intel has 1, ASUS has 3), 4 additional onboard USB connectors (Intel has 2, ASUS has 6) 1 additional legacy PS/2 connector for mouse or keyboard (Intel has only 1, ASUS has 2), and I assume an easier to use BIOS (ASUS uses UEFI).
So really they're about the same, just go with whatever meets your needs best. If you don't need the additional stuff, get the intel one.

[yusraraahima]

@ajaxsirius: Thank you for such a detailed review. I showed it to my friend and he agreed. I'm a little over my budget but it's ok. All I need now are some comments about the graphic cards I mentioned. Not going to be gtx550 but I need help in choosing between hd 6790 and hd 6770.

[ajaxsirius]

Re: 6790 Vs. 6770 Vs. 550Ti

One thing you should know for AMD cards (6790, 6770 etc.) is that the first number refers to the generation. For example, the current generation of cards is 7XXX, the last generation was 6XXX and the one before that was 5XXX. The 6770 is a 5770 under a new name. That's pretty much it in terms of performance. So when I compare the 6790 and 6770 and the 550Ti I'm going to be using 5770 numbers instead of 6770 numbers, but they're pretty much the same.

I'm going to summarize this article from Anand Tech (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4260/amds-radeon-hd-6790-coming-up-short-at-150) for you.

The 6790 is just a bit better than the 550Ti (and in some tests just a bit worse), and the 550Ti is on average 10%-15% better than the 5770.

At the time the article was written, the 6790 was not "just a bit" more expensive than the 550Ti, it was 15% more expensive. The 550Ti on the other hand was 18% more expensive than the 5770, which was more in line with the performance increase.

So really when you choose, you should get the best card your PSU can handle, assuming that the percent increase in price is in line with the percent increase in performance. For example in the article, if your PSU could handle all of those cards, the 6790 would give the best performance, but the 550Ti was a better value. I would not have gone with the 5770 at all. So then you would choose between better performance and better value for your money. If it helps, I would then look at the difference in noise the two cards make and add that to my list of pro's and cons. For example the 6790 makes more noise than the 550Ti.

That article was written a while ago and prices have changed. Your mileage may also vary depending on what price you can actually get, not just what's listed online. But if you use the same logic to make your decision, you should be okay.

Edit: It appears that the 550Ti comes in both a 1GB model and a 2GB model. The extra 1GB will make a difference for more demanding games but, if you're only play the sims 3, I don't think its worth the premium price.