2009 Gaming PC

C

Clix

n00b
Joined
Dec 26, 2008
Messages
6
I am looking to build a new PC to play some of the upcoming games for 2009. I have some components and would like some help on selecting some quality parts. I don't really overclock so none of that matters.

I just need it to be powerful, quiet and cheap. Dual video cards would be nice but aren't necessary. I would also like to roll with Nvidia and Intel as they haven't let me down yet.

What I Have:
  • 250GB 7200rpm Samsung HDD
  • DVD-RW Drive
  • Mid Tower Case

Thanks.
 
Answer some questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
 
xenium said:
Answer some questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Click to expand...

1) I am a graphic designer, so Photoshop and games like Left 4 Dead, and newer games coming out in 2009 like StarCraft 2 and others.
2) My budget is as cheap as possible but I CAN go up to around ~$1000 delivered.
3) Ohio, USA
4) Motherboard, Video Card, RAM, Cooling, Power Supply etc
5) SATA Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Mid-Size case.
6) No
7) 1920x1200
8) ASAP
9) Nothing too fancy.
 
$295 - cpu/mobo combo

$74 - memory

$105 - psu

$200 - video card

Just read you aren't overclocking. No need for a cooler then.

Comes out to about $700 + shipping/tax. Good setup that would hold you over for the next year at least, probably longer.
 
Heard that eBay 30% cashback is going to be up on the 28th. Have a plan by then!

Under $700 will get you a pretty nice prebuilt Dell refurb. IMHO: up your budget and get an i7 and you'll be set for a while. PS- the setup from xenium is great for the price.
 
lol, a dell refurb. Definately don't go that route for gaming. i7 would be a nice setup but it would also push his budget to about a grand. A quad is more than enough for the next year so by then he should have enough money to move up to i7.
 
Motaa said:
Heard that eBay 30% cashback is going to be up on the 28th. Have a plan by then!

Under $700 will get you a pretty nice prebuilt Dell refurb. IMHO: up your budget and get an i7 and you'll be set for a while.
Click to expand...

For him to get i7, he will have to up his budget a LOT for the relatively little performance gain. The problem with i7 right now is DDR3 is still pretty expensive for what you get. I suggest going with a Phenom II proc, which is coming out the 8th of January. This will allow you to use a cheaper motherboard along with bang for buck DDR2 memory, while still coming very close/ tieing with i7 performance.
 
^ is true, but he wants to build it asap. If the OP wants to wait a bit, phenom II would probably be the way to go.
 
You can't, phenoms are a different socket type than the mobo that I linked to.

IMO, if you can, wait it out another month and see if prices come down because the phenom II's are beating the q6600's in the tests I've seen. If you need a setup absolutely right now, buy the stuff I posted.

And that promo, if you didn't want to go quad core, you could buy that e7300 towards the bottom. It would still game the same as the q6600 but the quad cores are getting more and more support which is why I suggested it.
 
Here's a different way to go:

$85 - Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 ATX motherboard (free shipping)
$400 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 & HIS HD4870 1GB combo (free shipping on processor & $10 mail-in rebate on video card)
$40 - G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 800 dual channel kit (free shipping)
$67 - BFG LS-550 550 watt power supply (free shipping)
=====
$592 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The Q6600 and 4GB of RAM would benefit you more with Photoshop, whereas the 1GB HD4870 would give you some decent performance in gaming. (As a caveat, you won't be able to reach max visual settings in your FPS games.) Since you're not overclocking, you don't need an aftermarket CPU cooler (unless you want one to keep the processor cooler) or faster DDR2 memory.
 
Buy a used Q6600 for around $140-150 and spend a bit more on the GPU -- A 280 GTX can be had for around $250 AR if you look around now, and is considerably faster than the 4870. Won't cost much more out of pocket.
 
Regardless of what you do (Intel, AMD, new stuff, Q6600 route), WAIT until the phenom II's are released. Prices for everything should drop. We are so close now, there is no reason not to.
 
He's got a $1000 budget, wants it now, but you guys are telling him to wait. At least give him an idea of how much he can save by waiting two weeks to figure out if its worth it or not. For example, 2 weeks to save $50 isn't such a huge deal for some people. 2 weeks to save $200 is much more worth the wait, IMO.
 
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