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Budget Gaming PC $1000

G

Gah Duma

n00b
Joined
May 13, 2007
Messages
20
Alright, so me and a couple of friends are going to be building identical PCs for the summer, with the intent of playing games like COD4, L4D, and other random FPS games. Our budget would be $1000 per computer and monitor shipping excluded. We live in Houston, TX and would likely be ordering from newegg so tax shouldn't be a factor. The budget should include everything that is included inside the case as well as a monitor, as we are only going to be reusing headsets, speakers, mouse, mouse pads, and keyboards. We plan on overclocking whatever CPU we get, so I'd prefer a mobo that offers decent OC options as well as stability at higher voltages. We plan on purchasing the systems in two weeks and are going to be putting Win 7 RC on all of them, so no OS required.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 Combo $219
XIGMATEK Dark Knight $40
Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 $245
Corsair 4GB DDR2 800 $47
Corsair 520HX $130
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB 7200 RPM SATA $70
Cooler Master Centurion 534 $45
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD SATA $26
ASUS VW224U Black 22" $150
Total $972 @ Newegg.com

I'm debating on whether this or an Intel build based around the E8400 would be better for the money, but I'm sure that can be solved with a bit of overclocking, what do you guys think? This is the main reason for me posting this here, but any other suggestions are welcome.
 
The Phenom II X3 720 CPU is a good choice of the money.

PSU wise, even though I own a Corsair 520HX myself, there are better and bigger modular PSUs for around $130 and less:
$110 - BFG Tech MX 680 680W Modular PSU
$140 - Antec Truepower New TP-650 650W PSU

I recommend spending the extra $5 for a lifetime warranty and significantly better customer support:
$250 - XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB PCI-E Video Card

Also for $5 more, you can get an extra two year warranty:
$75 - Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
 
Thanks, i guess I'll just order from ewiz website to save some money then. I'm going to be building the system in about two weeks like I said.

Also, would it be a terrible decision to change the power supply to a BFG LS-550 for about $80 to save a bit of money?
 
Gah Duma said:
Also, would it be a terrible decision to change the power supply to a BFG LS-550 for about $80 to save a bit of money?
Click to expand...

Nope not at all. The LS-550 is a good quality PSU and will be enough for your setup.
 
i7 build for $1000 (monitor included):

$280 - i7 920
$180 - Foxconn FlamingBlade GTI LGA 1366
$84 - OCZ 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ($15 rebate)
$110 - MSI Radeon 4850 512mb
$80 - BFG LS-550W ($20 rebate)
$55 - WD Caviar Blue 320GB
$55 - Antec 300
$23 - SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
$130 - Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" (with $10 off coupon)

TOTAL: $997 before rebates and shipping
 
Heh, that build looks like you tried your hardest to budget in an i7 and gimped on everything else. It would work if we plan to upgrade the other parts later on, but what we do us just buy a whole new PC every 2 years so a build with room for upgrade really does us no good. Perhaps next upgrade cycle...
 
Gah Duma said:
Heh, that build looks like you tried your hardest to budget in an i7 and gimped on everything else. It would work if we plan to upgrade the other parts later on, but what we do us just buy a whole new PC every 2 years so a build with room for upgrade really does us no good. Perhaps next upgrade cycle...
Click to expand...

I don't see what I 'gimped' on. Small hard drive because perhaps you don't need much data on a gaming computer. The video card is no 4890 but it should handle 1680x1050 on a 22" monitor with no problem. My 4850 still runs most of the latest games on a 24" 1920x1200 at high settings (with few exceptions). Keep in mind that your 22" monitor is 1680x1050.
 
Yeah I understand what you're saying that the 4850 is more than sufficient for the monitor size. However I feel that the cost of the i7 is unjustified at this point as the main focus of the build is for PC gaming. I don't think that changing the x3 720 to the i7 will create as big of a difference as a 4850 -> 4890, but I may be wrong.
 
Neither of you are wrong, per se, but for the best visual quality and/or the highest FPS possible, the HD4890 is more beneficial than the Core i7 920.
 
tiraides said:
Neither of you are wrong, per se, but for the best visual quality and/or the highest FPS possible, the HD4890 is more beneficial than the Core i7 920.
Click to expand...

Correct. But all else being equal, the OP can add $100 more to the price of build I recommended (for a total of $1,100) and have an i7 build with a 4890. I think that makes more logical sense than a Phenom II X3 build as it probably won't not require an upgrade until later.
 
I agree, $130 for the HX520 is way overpriced. The LS-550W is a good choice.

Re: PC_User's build... its missing a CPU HSF, and it cuts the HDD in half. Haven't read anything on that board. Got any review links? /me lazy, sorry.
 
I would stick with this but change a few things.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 Combo $219
XIGMATEK Dark Knight $40 w/free shipping
XFX Radeon HD4890 for $249 w/free shipping from Buy.com
Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 for $45 w/free shipping
BFG LS-550 for $57.49 w/free shipping from Buy.com
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA for $70 w/free shipping
Cooler Master Centurion 534 $45
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD SATA $26 w/free shipping
ASUS VW224U Black 22" $150 w/free shipping ($20 MIR)

Total: $901.49 before shipping and rebates.

Too bad no free ground shipping on that Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 card from e-wiz.com. It had it before. Might as well pay a little more for the XFX card with better warranty. It's not that much more and it's still under your budget.

What the hell, if you can go over $1,000 a little you can add this ASUS MK241H Black 24" for $270 ($20 MIR) w/free shipping

AMD Phenom II X3 720 + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4 Combo $219
XIGMATEK Dark Knight $40 w/free shipping
XFX Radeon HD4890 for $249 w/free shipping from Buy.com
Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 for $45 w/free shipping
BFG LS-550 for $57.49 w/free shipping from Buy.com
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA for $70 w/free shipping
Cooler Master Centurion 534 $45
Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD SATA $26 w/free shipping
ASUS MK241H Black 24" for $270 w/free shipping ($20 MIR)

Total: $1,021.49 before shipping and rebates.
 
Last edited:
Here i took a stab at building you an Intel C2Q based system in that price. It came out to $1003.11 (That's Shipped)

For the Monitor I would snag this awesome deal on this Asus @ ZipZoomFly:

$169.99 (FS / $20.00 Mail-in) - ASUS VH226H 22in Widescreen LCD Monitor 2ms 1000:1 300 cd/m2 Glossy Black Retail

The rest is from the egg.

$24.99 (FS) - LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM
$54.99 (FS) - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$69.99 (FS) - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA
$199.98 (2 x $99.99) - SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire
$79.99 ($20.00 Mail-In) - BFG Tech LS SERIES LS-550 550W Continuous @ 40°C ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.8
$62.99 (FS / $25.00 Mail-In) - OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
$39.99 (FS) - XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail
$284.98 (MB - FS & $15.00 Mail-In) - Q8400 and Asus P5Q Pro Combo

Subtotal = $169.99 (ZipZoomFly / FS) + $833.12 (Shipped to Houston, TX)

Total Shipped = $1003.11

One tube of AS-5 Should be enough to seat the HSF's in all of the systems.



Warning Mail in Rebate Total is Below If you don't think it should be in the cost of a pc post please read no further.

Total Mail-In Savings = $80.00

End Price After Shipping and Mail-In Rebates = $923.11
 
You brought up an interesting point, are 2x 4770s better performance wise than a single 4890? I quickly looked up reviews whose benchmarks seemed inconclusive, yet the articles concluded that the dual 4770s were better. What would you guys use?
 
I'd always choose the single card setup for anything under 2560x1600, but thats just me.
 
I prefer a single graphics card also. If you will be going with that ASUS VW224U 22" lcd, the 4890 is already plenty power for 1680 x 1050 res. It will also do fine for 1920 x 1080/1920 x 1200 res.
 
Gah Duma said:
You brought up an interesting point, are 2x 4770s better performance wise than a single 4890? I quickly looked up reviews whose benchmarks seemed inconclusive, yet the articles concluded that the dual 4770s were better. What would you guys use?
Click to expand...

If the game supports CF, HD47700 does outperform the HD4890 by a small margin.

But since you did ask what we would choose: I'd generally go for a single GPU setup just like Enginurd and HardwareGuru. Less hassle, less heat to deal with, lower potential of a game not scaling well with CF/SLI (like Crysis), and one single point of failure.
 
Alright, let's say I got the ASUS VH226H that bigwooly found that is 1080p. Seems like the main reason for going with a single card is simplicity's sake because looking at absolute numbers, the Xfire 4770s win out at 1080p resolutions except for poorly supported games.

In the past I would've absolutely gone with a single card solution, but crossfire support should have improved since then, right? Is there a list which spells out games that do not work well with crossfire? It seems tempting to save $20 and go with the crossfire setup.
 
Gah Duma said:
In the past I would've absolutely gone with a single card solution, but crossfire support should have improved since then, right? Is there a list which spells out games that do not work well with crossfire? It seems tempting to save $20 and go with the crossfire setup.
Click to expand...

There isn't a list AFAIK of what games do or do not scale well with CF. CF support has improved a lot in the past few years but it's still nowhere near the level of support by a single card solution.
 
I got the X3 720 with the Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P board. It's great, I went with that over the C2D E7400.

Not sure what the mobo MA790-UD4 is (missing the P), the specs look about the same as mine, but it looks like it's deactivated anyway. Go for the ma790-ud4p if you're going that route.
 
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