Gaming PC Build

Hi. I'm building a gaming pc for my brother and just want to know what people think of the basic setup. I've worked out everything on budget.

Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54 Socket AM3 (should support SLI/Crossfire pci x 8 in the future?)
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black edition.
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX560 Ti

Will this give enough performance for mid/highish end gaming?

Thanks

I would surf around for reviews on the CPU and gfx to see what motherboards were used in the reviews. Not an MSI user myself, so can't comment. The CPU and gfx will be fine for gaming, given that you're on a budget. Also google for the games likely to be used and see what others are using, hardware wise, just in case.

Well that rig will play nything out there, with ease, I trust you are using 4GB of ram and not a measly 2?

your paying I guess about £200 for the GFX, what size of monitor does he have and what is its refresh rate at its highest resolution?, what is its highest resolution?

No point in paying the bucks for a card that may well give you twice the framerate your screen can handle really.

BTW, what games does he play or intend to play?
I run an old 4870 1GB on bad company 2 1650x1050@60hz I have everything set on high and I average 64 FPS, until the next round of battlefield 3 comes I am not upgrading.

AMD boards only support xfire not SLI

In reply to a post by banger9365:

AMD boards only support xfire not SLI

You mean AMd chipset boards support only xFire? not that Nvidia will be around for long int he motherboard market

i got myself one of these the chipset is the same as the MSI, but the board seems so much better and only a few quid more. Over clocking is great on it, not that I like over clocking.

the CPU you are getting seems ok, I got the 3.5Ghz versiona and it is one hell of a chip for the price, 6 cores are not worth bothering with at the moment.

don't forget some decent memory, I got Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz 4 GB for £40 from ebuyer, I got 8Gb because it is so cheap at the moment. 1600 is a bit of a over kill, but if you over clock at it will be stable.

I know very little about GFX cards, so I can't say if the one you are looking at is good or not, i am not a gamer so I don't look into them, the one built into my motherboards does the job.

but at the cheapest I saw about £180, certainly out of my budget.

don't forget you will no doubt need a beefy power supply just to run the card never mind the rest. I have a 430watt Corsair supply, one of their cheaper models and it works for me, but you would need something a bit better just to run the video card. you would not be able to run SLi mind you not on a AMD chipset board.

i been told, that technology wise ATI knocks the spots off Nvidia, but they still have problems with their drivers. a mate of mine who is a gamer, have a ATI card inside his and is now a convert.

you must also get a nice case, if you are a gamer you need a case ot go with it, i recommend one of the coolermasters Haf cases, I got one of the smaller ones the 912Plus Haf and it is a amazing case, well worth £57, it is cheaper now from some places.

incorrect. Some AMD boards do support SLI. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/220147

In reply to a post by commandergc:

incorrect. Some AMD boards do support SLI. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/220147

which is why I said AMD chipsets boards don't support SLI, only Nvidia chipset boards do, because SLI is Nvidia technology