$700ish quad core build for gaming

R

robotlegs

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So I've been out of the pc building game for maybe 5 years now...want to build a pc again. I understand hardware specs etc overall but I'm struggling with finding the sweetspot of price/performance ratio. Also, mobos vary a lot in price but I'm not sure what's so different about them or which ones are good price and stable.

Right now my main desktop is C2D E6420, 4GB ram, nvidia 7950GT.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
main purpose is gaming; programming/development; some virtualization
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$700. I'm a little flexible especially if theres a big jump in performance for very minor cost increase. I'm going to say tax and shipping not included, but i dont want that to be a significant additional cost.
3) Where do you live?
USA, prefer buying from newegg
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
  • I need every single thing except keyboard,mouse, monitor.
  • I want an intel quad core CPU.
  • I want 4GB ram minimum (with ability to expand to minimum 8gb later)
  • I prefer fast HD over large capacity. I don't need tons of space on the initial HD
  • I prefer nvidia over ATI
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
just keyboard mouse monitor
6) Will you be overclocking?
I want to do some mild overclocking, maybe 10-15%? I guess as long as I have this option to do down the road I won't OC initially
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a 28" 1920x1200 + 20" 1600x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
june
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
SLI support would be nice so I could add a 2nd graphics card later. I don't need RAID or firewire. Just gigabit lan
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
no. I will probably run Win 7 RC for a while and then buy win 7 when it comes out. Or is it cheaper to buy vista and get the free upgrade to win 7?

Few extra questions:
  • Do I need to buy thermal paste?
  • Do I need an aftermarket CPU cooler? Remember I'd like to do mild
    overclocking, but I hear intel CPUs OC easily
  • Do parts these days come with all the cables they need? SATA, power, etc.

I know quad CPU won't be as good as a same price (but faster core) dual CPU but I want quad for my non-gaming stuff. I hope my price point isn't too unreasonable. Thanks for any input!
 
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Hmm.. with that budget I would go with either Intel Q8400 quad cpu + P45 mobo or an AMD Quad Phenom II 940 cpu + AMD 790X chipset mobo
 
Let's start off with something like this:

CASE – Antec 300 for $55 w/free shipping
PSU/VIDEO CARD – Antec EA650 + EVGA Geforce GTX 260 (216) for $240 $25 MIR on video card
CPU/MOBO – Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66ghz + GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R both for $290 ($15 MIR on mobo)
HDD - WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM for $75 w/free shipping
OPTICAL – LG 22X DVD Burner for $24 w/free shipping
HEATSINK - XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm for $40 w/free shipping

Total: $724.00.

Use your existing 4gig RAM.
 
To answer your questions:
- Not really. Comes with the stock as well many 3rd party HSFs
- Yes. The stock HSF of any CPU is pretty damn crappy.
- Yes.

Here's what I recommend (breaks many of your preferences;))
$270 - AMD Phenom II X4 940 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P AMD 790X AMD Motherboard Combo
$45 - A-Data ADQVE1B16K 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$140 - XFX HD-485X-ZDFC Radeon HD 4850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$75 - Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$25 - LG GH22NS30 DVD Burner
$80 - BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU
$55 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$40 - Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm HSF
-----
Total: $735 plus tax and shipping

I believe the above offers more bang for your buck than an Intel socket 775 Quad setup. There aren't any worthwhile Nvidia cards between $77 (9600GT) and $170 (GTX 260) AFAIK.

Here are my thoughts on SLI/CF:
Markyip1 said:
Just some info on SLI / Crossfire: It's absolutely not worth considering if a) you're gaming at a resolution under 1920x1200 (as you'll see no performance benefit over a single card,) and b) if you plan to buy one card now and another later. SLI / Crossfire as an upgrade path is usually a very poor idea, as by the time you're ready to get that second card, a new single card solution will likely be available that will outperform two of your older cards in tandem. Furthermore, there really is no cost benefit to the SLI Upgrade Route, as any additional cost in getting the new card can be easily mitigated in most situations by selling the original. By avoiding an SLI / Crossfire solution when it will not be of benefit, you gain a cooler running, simpler to maintain system and more importantly, access to a much better (and broader) selection of motherboards.
Click to expand...
 
I agree with Danny also. Personally, I would go with a Phenom II 940 quad over a Core 2 Quad build. If I am to go an Intel Quad now, it would be a Core i7 build.
 
Appreciate the input so far. Maybe I will go AMD/ATI but I'd really rather not. But how about this build? Where can I improve on this? Total is $777.88 with all items free shipping. I dont live in a state where newegg charges tax :)

This is more than I want to spend, if only I could drop it to $725 or so....


$380 combo Intel Q9400 + EVGA Nvidia GTX 260
$170 combo Antec 300 case + Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mobo
$59 G.Skill 4GB DDR2 1066 ram (more expensive than suggested but faster)
$75 Antec EA650 650W PSU
$70 WD 640GB harddrive
$24 LG DVDR drive

TOTAL $777.78, shipped

I guess I'm not sure where my leeway is here. Would dropping to the cheaper (but slower) ram be noticeable? And dropping to Q8400 from Q9400...noticeable?

I still haven't picked a cooler yet though, that will add some cost.
 
Danny Bui and HardwareGuru designed AMD-based systems for you since the AM2+/AM3 boards that they've chosen for you can support the new Phenom II processors. The Core 2 processors and Socket 775 motherboards have practically reached EOL status; the board and processor you end up choosing will most likely be the board and processor that you'll (have to) keep for over the next few years.

If it's been a while since your last upgrade, any quad core that you end up with will offer noticeable improvement in everyday tasks as well as with resource-intensive software and games. Go with Danny's build; it even comes with the aftermarket CPU cooler.
 
I would go with Dannys build. But, for $20 more I would go with this combo in place of the Radeon HD 4850 and BFG PSU. Faster GPU plus a more powerful power supply.

PSU/VIDEO CARD – Antec EA650 + EVGA Geforce GTX 260 (216) for $240 $25 MIR on video card

$270 - AMD Phenom II X4 940 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P AMD 790X AMD Motherboard Combo
$45 - A-Data ADQVE1B16K 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$75 - Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$25 - LG GH22NS30 DVD Burner
$55 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$40 - Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm HSF

Total: $750
 
I concur with HardwareGuru: That EA650 + GTX260 is well worth the extra $15 over my setup.

The Phenom II 940 offers comparable performance to the Q9400 setup you have but is $27 cheaper. Unless you dislike AMD or love Intel that much, not much reason to go Intel.
 
Danny Bui said:
Here's what I recommend (breaks many of your preferences;))
Click to expand...

If he wants an Intel, why not just offer up a Q8x00 build? I mean I know the 8-series Quads are "gimp" or whatever, much like 7 and 8 series PII's, but for his budget they're not bad.
 
Have you considered pushing a few hundred extra dollars into the system and going budget i7? That would put you on the "tick" of the current tick tock of intel mobo sockets and might be friendly to upgrades longer.
 
TotalLamer said:
If he wants an Intel, why not just offer up a Q8x00 build? I mean I know the 8-series Quads are "gimp" or whatever, much like 7 and 8 series PII's, but for his budget they're not bad.
Click to expand...

- Phenom II CPUs perform on par with, not better than, many of Intel's socket 775 Quad Cores
- Phenom II setups tends to be cheaper due to Newegg's combo deals.
- Socket 775 is pretty much a dead end at this point. Whatever Intel CPU he gets now, he'll be stuck with for several years. At least with AMD's socket AM2+/AM3, future AMD AM3 CPUs will/should be compatible with the socket AM2+ mobo that HardwareGuru and I both recommended.
 
Good feedback.

So if AMD is what I should go with then how about this then:

$270 combo AMD Phenom II X4 940 + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P mobo
$240 combo Antec EA650 650w PSU + EVGA Geforce GTX 260
$35 cooler master GeminII S RR-CCH-PBU1-GP 120mm cpu cooler
$50 OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB 2x2GB DDR2 1066 ram
$63 WD Caviar black 500GB 32mb cache HD (-$7 from promo code)
$55 Antec 300 case
$24 LG DVD+R drive

Total: $736.87 shipped

There's also 2 mail in rebates totaling $35

EDIT: the hard drive is OEM and doesn't come with cables...can someone point out a cheap/good cable on newegg? I'm not too familiar with SATA, do I need SATA,eSATA, SATA II, + power, etc. Confusing :(
 
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The Dark Knight HSF that I recommended cools much better than the Gemini.

The WD6401AALS's significant increase in speed (that is on par with many Raptor drives) is well worth the extra $12 over the WD 500GB drive.
 
Darknight heatsink for $40 w/free shipping. Damn Darknight is Out Of Stock on NewEgg.

Combo RAM/HDD - OCZ Fatal1ty 4gig DDR 1066mhz + WD WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM both for $120 ($10 MIR on Ram)
 
lol the LG dvdr drive went OOS. I also just realized I've never burned a dvd in my life. So I switched it with a regular DVD drive for less $

New set with the recommended changes.

$270 combo AMD Phenom II X4 940 + Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P mobo
$240 combo Antec EA650 650w PSU + EVGA Geforce GTX 260
$112.50 combo WD caviar black 640gb 32mb cache HD + ocz fatal1ty 4GB ram (-$7.50 promo code)
$40 Xigmatek dark knight cooler
$55 Antec 300 case
$20 Lite-on DVD drive

Total: $737.37 shipped

I just need to add the correct SATA cable for the HD and I think I'm all set...
 
The mobo come with two SATA cables, which is enough for your setup.

A DVD burner is only $5 more:
$25 - Samsung SH-222F 22X DVD±R SATA DVD Burner
 
well I just bit the bullet and ordered (minus DVD drive, they are all OOS and I have one lying around somewhere)

Really looking forward to this build - thanks guys
 
DVD burners can be handy if you want to burn home movies, iso's for operating systems, big programs, etc (like if you wanted to burn a windows 7 iso). For 5 bucks more it seems to be a reasonable precaution to have it rather than not having it and wanting it down the road...
 
i agree with you there. I didn't order any sort of DVD drive/burner. All of the sub $30 burners are OOS on newegg. I have other computers with dvd burners so I'll just wait till its in stock to order.
 
Danny Bui said:
- Phenom II CPUs perform on par with, not better than, many of Intel's socket 775 Quad Cores
- Phenom II setups tends to be cheaper due to Newegg's combo deals.
- Socket 775 is pretty much a dead end at this point. Whatever Intel CPU he gets now, he'll be stuck with for several years. At least with AMD's socket AM2+/AM3, future AMD AM3 CPUs will/should be compatible with the socket AM2+ mobo that HardwareGuru and I both recommended.
Click to expand...

Oh I know. I just find that if someone lists AMD / Intel in their preferences, it's usually counterproductive to go against what they've already decided upon / are biased towards.
 
robotlegs said:
... All of the sub $30 burners are OOS on newegg. ...
Click to expand...

I noticed this, too, I think yesterday. Am I the only one who found this rather odd? its like a shortage of dvd burners, lol.

TotalLamer said:
Oh I know. I just find that if someone lists AMD / Intel in their preferences, it's usually counterproductive to go against what they've already decided upon / are biased towards.
Click to expand...

Its good to present all the options to someone, in case they don't know what they're missing out on. If, after reading the explanation, they still hold their preferences, then so be it. If they already knew, then they can just acknowledge that they already knew and that their mind has been made up.
 
yes it worked out well in my case. I was dead set on an intel when i started this thread. I wouldn't touch an X2 proc with a 10 foot pole...however I didn't know about the new phenom II procs. Since they are recommended here a lot on [H] plus I read some positive reviews on them, I'm willing to give it a try.
 
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