$1200 Gaming Rig, need input!

T

TecKniCian

n00b
Joined
Jun 25, 2009
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Hey guys I am building a new and much needed rig. Mine being over 5 years of age and way to outdated.
I have a general idea on what i want but figured i would come to you guys with your greater knowledge!


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Mostly for gaming(WoW, WaW, BF2, SC2 when it drops, etc.) and for web browsing

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

1200 Max shipping included.

3) Where do you live?

Massachusetts

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

Everything besides Monitor, keyboard, mouse and a drive.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Pretty much the things I listed above, 19" LG (will be upgrading later in the summer) Death adder, standard keyboard, I also have a 2.1 cheap Logitech speaker system and headphones.

6) Will you be overclocking?

To begin with no, once i become more experienced maybe a little.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

19" LG atm soon to be upgrading to at least a 22"

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Within the month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Nothing super crazy, the motherboard I had picked out will only support Crossfire.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

Have a Vista x64 I could use or possibly Windows 7 RC


The only thing i am dead set on is a case. The Coolmaster HAF 932, for some reason a fell in love with the case and have plans to case mod it.
Other than that this is what i have come up with so far.


Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower Black Case ($140)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293547

Core® i7 920 Processor Boxed ($230)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0302727

ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard ($210) ($15 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131386

SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 ($200) ($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102830

HDD/RAM - WD 6401AALS 640GB + OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 1600 both for ($168) ($20 MIR on RAM)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.199037

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler ($40)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready ($120) ($20 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=Corsair 750

So far it looks to be about $943(with MIR's) minus a power supply and shipping costs, I wanted to get a Ultra X3 800 watt PSU they run about 180.
My only question? is it even worth it for the modular setup? Thx in advance for you guys help!

Alright I added in the PSU and the total has come out to $1050. Leaving me room to snag that Asus P6T that Shadowghost suggested!
 
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I'm not sure about the quality of the Ultra X3 800. I'd probably go with the Corsair TX750 or PC Power and Cooling 750 ( both around $100 on Newegg), or one of the Corsair modular PSUs if you really want modular.
 
No to Ultra.

Modular is for cable management, if you don't give a shit what your interiors look like then pass on it and get what shadowghost named.

Rest of parts look good.
 
Since you have a bit of room in your budget, you should spend a little bit more on the motherboard, like the regular Asus P6t or Gigabyte UD4 (which both support crossfire + sli).
 
I agree get a good brand name supply like Corsair. Also why not go for the P6T Deluxe V2, its $79 more but a much better board. I have installed many and use one in my personal system. Never had a problem and overclocks the i7 920 very easily. I have mine running at 3.2 GHz with stock voltages.
 
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Thx for the replies guys, Corsair it is then! The HAF has tons of room to hide all the wires anyways. As for the Asus P6T Deluxe its def. looking like ill be able to fit it in the budget!


Just one more Question? What you think is the better option the ATI 4980's or the Nvidia GTX 28x's? This is obviously if I went with the Asus P6T Deluxe which it looks like i will be able to do.
 
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Spend 200$-300$ on a good speaker system (5.1) IMO(ask audio forum). It'll be a really nice upgrade.
 
To Joseph,

Nice name btw! haha im also a Joseph.

Audio really isn't a concern all that much granted this logitech 2.1 system sux, haha

Im usually just rocking the headphones because most of the time im on vent.
 
You can not go wrong with either the ATI 4890 or the GTX 285. The GTX has a slight advantage but may not be worth the extra cost, depending on which one you get the best deal on.
 
TecKniCian said:
To Joseph,

Nice name btw! haha im also a Joseph.

Audio really isn't a concern all that much granted this logitech 2.1 system sux, haha

Im usually just rocking the headphones because most of the time im on vent.
Click to expand...
Jospeh!=Joseph. I guess it doesn't matter much if you are on vent but if you play single player or watch movies or shows it'll make a big difference.
 
Some people just don't care about awesomez theater sound and the money involved in it.

Since the 4890s are like $130-$160 these days and being almost as good as a GTX285 that still hovers at $300, answer is obviously obvious.
 
Thank you again everyone for the advice, will update my build when i get a little more free time!
 
Next gen GPU parts are to be due soon in the fall/winter (I think). If you can find a used or cheap 4870 or 4890 and make do with that in the mean time, you can easily upgrade later. Depends on how often you plan on upgrading, though.
 
tbh honest this new rig looks D-lishes and is making me more and more wanting an i7 build but my wallet seem to be really tough :O
 
To Eli2k,

Its not a big deal if I have to upgrade luckily my birthdays falls right in december, haha

So when the Next Gen GPU's drop I shouldn't have a problem picking one up!
 
Antec 300 case
CORSAIR CMPSU-850HX 850W power supply
Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel i7 920 d0 stepping CPU
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V CPU cooler
OCZ Gold 6GB DDR3 1600 RAM
MSI R4890-T2D1G OC Radeon HD 4890 1GB vid card
WD VelociRaptor 150GB OS drive
WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB file storage drive


that's the system i built for about $1,350.

newegg has my vid card for $200, but with a $20 mail-in rebate. hard to beat that for the HD4890, and factory overclocked to boot.
 
To Boysetsfire,

Ya man that looks like a really nice rig. I dont really have much to store atm so i left out a purely Storage HD, and just opted for the Black.
I really like the HAF so i went with that just because its a badass Full tower and i wanted to do a Punisher theme with it!
 
TecKniCian said:
To Boysetsfire,

Ya man that looks like a really nice rig. I dont really have much to store atm so i left out a purely Storage HD, and just opted for the Black.
I really like the HAF so i went with that just because its a badass Full tower and i wanted to do a Punisher theme with it!
Click to expand...

yeah, i went with more/fast storage and budget case, but i'm happy with it. i do a lot of photo, audio, and video editing, so the large file storage drive was a must for me.

as far as the rest of the gear, i'm really liking it a lot, so far. haven't done any overclocking on the 920 yet, but i plan to get as close to 308GHz on it as i can on air. shouldn't be too hard. :)
 
BoySetsFire said:
as far as the rest of the gear, i'm really liking it a lot, so far. haven't done any overclocking on the 920 yet, but i plan to get as close to 308GHz on it as i can on air. shouldn't be too hard. :)
Click to expand...

find me a 920 that hits that and i'll buy 200 of them.......:p
 
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