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~$1000 gaming rig

F

F3rrum

n00b
Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Messages
45
Hey,

I'm looking to build a gaming rig to last 2 years costing ~$1000. This will be a huge step up from my current rig. Only special restriction is that I definitely want an Intel quad core processor. Specs so far (all prices from Newegg unless otherwise indicated):

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5 (own already)
PSU: Coolermaster extreme power 600W (own already)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9300 - Retail ($270)
Mobo and GPU combo: ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB with ASUS P5Q Pro ($315 - $30 MIR)
Memory:2GB DDR2 PC6400 DUAL BALLISTIX TRACER / CRUCIAL (Fry's $45 - $25 MIR)
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($90)
Burner:ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail ($35)

Total (after rebates and shipping): $730

I plan to get monitor, speaker, keyboard and mouse at B&M because of returns and also shipping prices. With a 22 inch monitor this would be around $350 which gets me to $1080. Most of the parts are retail by choice.

My main concerns are:

This PSU has been sitting around since I got it for free. If it doesn't work what would be good?

Is the mobo + gpu combo a good deal? I am going with the P5Q Pro mainly cuz it bundles with the 4850 but should I be looking at another board?

Is Q9300 the right quad core or should I go up?

Thanks
 
I say everything there looks good. The PSU will be good as long as it works.
For the price you are looking to spend, you won't be disappointed.
If the PSU is dead, just get something similar just don't get a generic brand.
 
Wait till July 20th and Q9550 will drop to $316. I would get an aftermarket HSF as well.
 
Personally, I'd prefer an E8400 or so with the extra money going towards a 24" monitor that uses S-IPS or S-PVA or P-MVA.

Also, I'd go with a Samsung burner. They are pretty much the only recommendation for DVD burners these days.

I think that board might be a little immature still, but BIOS releases should improve on it.
 
Thanks for the tip on the burner. Was looking at SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F. Only problem is that it is OEM. I guess that shouldn't be a problem considering all the open source software that is available.

It is tempting to wait but I am moving to NY on July 20th from NJ. Doesn't newegg charge extra taxes for NY even compared to NJ? Will the Q9300/Q9450 price also be cut? I want to stay ~$250 for the cpu.
 
Q9300 and Q9450 will be discontinued shortly sometime in Q3. So the price will drop a little, but don't expect much change. Q9300 for around $250 after the price cut is a possibility. But Q9450 will hover around $300 as it's still worth more than the soon to be released Q9400.
 
My Samsung burner was OEM and it came with Nero Express or whatever. Though I don't use it; I use CDBurnerXP.
 
F3rrum said:
It is tempting to wait but I am moving to NY on July 20th from NJ. Doesn't newegg charge extra taxes for NY even compared to NJ?
Click to expand...

No not extra taxes. Just taxes. NY recently passed a new law requiring online merchants to charge tax for purchases in their state IIRC. A few months ago, there were no taxes charged in NY. Now there is. So whether you buy in NY or NJ, you'll still get charged tax.

Also, I highly highly recommend replacing that PSU. It's actually a rebadged semi-decent Seventeem 450W PSU that CM thought could do 600W (It can't). I recommend getting this PSU:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $99

Better quality and it can actually provide 750W of clean power.
 
Looks pretty good. But I would change the processor to a Q6600, the hard drive to a Spinpoint F1 750GB (more space for the money, nearly as fast) and, as Danny said, a Corsair TX750.
 
So I did some configuring and found that replacing the ASUS card with HIS 4850 keeps the same price (+/- $5) but then I can buy everything from Newegg and not have to use Fry's since the memory deal is dead. Otherwise to keep the ASUS I would have to switch to Crucial DDR2-800 CT25664AA800 which is a single stick of 2gb ram w/o spreaders and CL6. Since I am not overclocking this doesn't worry me and using up only a single ram slot is attractive.

Is the tradeoff worth it? HIS has only a 1 year warranty while ASUS has 3 year. So basically choice comes down to how much better are the Ballistix tracers (2x1gb) vs the Crucial DDR2-800 CT25664AA800.

PS. I'm going to try and order everything tonight so can have a week to build and test before moving.
 
I'd suggest building it after you move, if you can wait that long.

I'd go with the Asus card over the HIS, simply for the better warranty.

If you need to save money, drop the CPU to the Q6600 instead. The Q9300 isn't much faster than the Q6600, and its only real advantage over it is SSE4.1, which isn't used much in current apps anyways. In two years, just get a new system just as planned.

If you can shave enough off, and have an extra $40 to spend in up-front costs (rebates aren't guaranteed), then upgrade to 4GB of RAM:
$85 - G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
 
Pretty close to what I just built...

I'd go with a Q6600, I'm quite pleased with mine.

Samsung might be the most recommended burner here, but if you are concerned about getting the best quality out of your rips and burns I'd go with a Pioneer.
 
I'd keep the Asus motherboard and videocard by the way... NewEgg still has a 30.00 bundle rebate I believe.

I'd look at the Corsair PSU mentioned, or a PC Power & Cooling.
 
Based on the inputs here I decided to stretch my budget for the extra ram and go with:

Burner:SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F ($27) (shipping not free for pioneers)
Memory:G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ ($84)

Everything else is as below. Hopefully the PSU doesn't die on me. It would be awesome if I could wait a week but my work schedule only gives me the time to build/test before July 20th.

Total (with taxes and shipping): $840.96 (- $30 MIR)

F3rrum said:
Hey,

I'm looking to build a gaming rig to last 2 years costing ~$1000. This will be a huge step up from my current rig. Only special restriction is that I definitely want an Intel quad core processor. Specs so far (all prices from Newegg unless otherwise indicated):

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5 (own already)
PSU: Coolermaster extreme power 600W (own already)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9300 - Retail ($270)
Mobo and GPU combo: ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB with ASUS P5Q Pro ($315 - $30 MIR)
Memory:2GB DDR2 PC6400 DUAL BALLISTIX TRACER / CRUCIAL (Fry's $45 - $25 MIR)
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($90)
Burner:ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T - Retail ($35)

Total (after rebates and shipping): $730

I plan to get monitor, speaker, keyboard and mouse at B&M because of returns and also shipping prices. With a 22 inch monitor this would be around $350 which gets me to $1080. Most of the parts are retail by choice.

My main concerns are:

This PSU has been sitting around since I got it for free. If it doesn't work what would be good?

Is the mobo + gpu combo a good deal? I am going with the P5Q Pro mainly cuz it bundles with the 4850 but should I be looking at another board?

Is Q9300 the right quad core or should I go up?

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
I still don't think the Q9300 is worth the extra $70 over the Q6600 since it only provides minimal performance improvement over it. Its like 10% or less. Its also harder to OC, if and when you decide to do such a thing. :rolleyes:
 
I guess you are right since the power consumption difference doesn't seem to be extreme. I guess I will go with the Q6600.

So total is now $776. Will pull the trigger tonight.

enginurd said:
I still don't think the Q9300 is worth the extra $70 over the Q6600 since it only provides minimal performance improvement over it. Its like 10% or less. Its also harder to OC, if and when you decide to do such a thing. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
Try to replace that PSU as soon as you can. It's of questionable quality....
 
So after my comcast tech saw the extreme power 600W in my house and told me how two of them died on him (one frying his mobo in the process) I have decided to go with

Corsair 650TX ($97 from amazon - $20 MIR)

It's a step down from the 750tx for $20 difference I don't really need that much power I think.


Danny Bui said:
Try to replace that PSU as soon as you can. It's of questionable quality....
Click to expand...
 
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So I built the system based on your input. System boots fine but when installing vista it stalls and the drive continues to click and also makes sounds like short bursts of static and shrieking. Is the drive definitely dead or could there be a prob with the mobo (sata controller?) that could make it act up?
 
If the drive's clicking and stalling, try to replace it via RMA. It shouldn't be doing that... especially since this is the first time you're using it.
 
So I am RMA'ing the drive and meanwhile popped in an old one. Runs fine except for two problems: 1. Crysis crashes every so often. 2. Can't run Fedora or Ubuntu livecds because of "PCI: BIOS BUG #0[49435000]" error. Hopefully future driver and bios updates takes care of this.

FYI 3dmark vantage scores : P6573 3DMarks, CPU 8513, GPU 6109. Time to update the sig...
 
If I was you I'd drop 100-150 bucks off the processor and throw that into a better videocard and more RAM.

Other than that, it looks solid.
 
replace the PSU for a VX450 Corsair unit. Drop the Quad and get an 8400 and then get an after market heatsink. For gaming and not 3dmarks, higher clocked dual core will be better right now.
 
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