€ 2500 Build // 3200 $

F

Felcore

n00b
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Messages
7
Hello Hardforum

I need help for my new gaming rig and i'm from Netherlands so my budget is 2500 Euro around 3200 $. If you want you can set-up a build with a USD budget but don't make it more then 3200 $. :)

This will be my second gaming rig and here is some information:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This rig is 90% for gaming but except for that i do some vector art, web browsing and other basic stuff.
2) What's your budget?
€ 2500 without taxes or shipping
3) Where do you live?
Netherlands, Almere
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
- CPU
- Motherboard
- RAM
- PSU
- HDD
- SSD // For booting my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
- Case
- Monitor
- CPU Cooler
- Graphic Card // Radeon 5850
- Sound Card
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes in the future
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Need 24"-27", at least 24"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Next month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I want Crossfire because i already have Radeon 5850
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I'm using Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate, so no i don't need OS

Parts i have in mind:
187 EURO - Motherboard | Asus Crosshair IV Formula AM3
155 EURO - CPU | AMD Phenom II X4 965 3400Mhz / 3.4Ghz
160 EURO - PCU | Corsair CMPSU-850w MOD
165 EURO - RAM | Corsair 4GB DDR3-1600 kit
94 EURO - CPU cooler | Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H70
153 EURO - Case | Antec DF-85
288 EURO - Graphic Card | XFX HD5850 Alien vs Predator
126 EURO - Sound card | Asus Xonar D2X/XDT 7.1 Sound
302 EURO - Monitor | Samsung SyncMaster P2770H 27"inch HDMI
222 EURO - SSD | Kingston SNV425-S2 / 128GB
226 EURO - HDD | Western Digital WD2002FYPS 2TB

Total = 2087 EURO

If you need more details just place a comment below and i will reply asap!
 
Last edited:
Right off the bat: With that budget, you should not be looking at AMD at all. AMD is not a high-end/high performance platform that'll justify costs of $1500 let alone $3200 USD.

Go for this faster Intel setup instead:
$200 - Intel Core i5 750 CPU
$140 - Asus P7P55D Pro Intel P55 ATX Motherboard

Second, I do not recommend the Antec DF-85 case since there are significantly better cases for the money. I recommend these cases over that Antec DF-85:
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$130 - Cooler Master Storm Sniper ATX Case
$130 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$150 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$170 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$170 - Lian Li PC-B25F ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$210 - Silverstone FT01-B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
Cases (ATX w/PSU):

Third, ditch the Kingston SSD and go for these better quality SSDs instead:
$200 - Intel SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SSD
$280 - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G 2.5" 120GB SSD
$400 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SSD

Fourth, ditch that 2TB hard drive: That's a hard drive meant for servers and true hardware RAID controllers. For you, the extra costs are not worth it. Go with the cheapest 2TB hard drive you can find.

Fifth, your answers to question 5 and 9 conflict: What did you mean by you "already have Radeon 5850"? If you already had a HD 5850 already, why not list that under question 5? Or did you meant that you already chose the HD 5850 as your video card of choice?
 
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Danny Bui said:
Fifth, your answers to question 5 and 9 conflict: What did you mean by you "already have Radeon 5850"? If you already had a HD 5850 already, why not list that under question 5? Or did you meant that you already chose the HD 5850 as your video card of choice?
Click to expand...

Actually, the OP wants two graphics cards in that same system. Hence, the second HD 5850.

On the other hand, CrossFire scaling is rather poor compared to NVIDIA's SLI scaling. Therefore, if two identical GPUs are necessary to boost gaming performance, you'd be looking at two GTX 460s or two GTX 470s, rendering dual HD 5850s in CrossFire overpriced for the performance.
 
Danny Bui said:
Right off the bat: With that budget, you should not be looking at AMD at all. AMD is not a high-end/high performance platform that'll justify costs of $1500 let alone $3200 USD.

Go for this faster Intel setup instead:
$200 - Intel Core i5 750 CPU
$140 - Asus P7P55D Pro Intel P55 ATX Motherboard

Second, I do not recommend the Antec DF-85 case since there are significantly better cases for the money. I recommend these cases over that Antec DF-85:
$70 - Cooler Master CM690 II ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$130 - Cooler Master Storm Sniper ATX Case
$130 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$150 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$170 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$170 - Lian Li PC-B25F ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$210 - Silverstone FT01-B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$270 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
Cases (ATX w/PSU):

Third, ditch the Kingston SSD and go for these better quality SSDs instead:
$200 - Intel SSDSA2MH080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SSD
$280 - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G 2.5" 120GB SSD
$400 - Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SSD

Fourth, ditch that 2TB hard drive: That's a hard drive meant for servers and true hardware RAID controllers. For you, the extra costs are not worth it. Go with the cheapest 2TB hard drive you can find.

Fifth, your answers to question 5 and 9 conflict: What did you mean by you "already have Radeon 5850"? If you already had a HD 5850 already, why not list that under question 5? Or did you meant that you already chose the HD 5850 as your video card of choice?
Click to expand...

Now i use my Antec 1200 it's a great case but i want a better case with better airflow. I see your options but i don't know if any of those can make better airflow then the Antec 1200, is the HAF-X better or should i maybe pick the 800D from Corsair? Would you pick the i5 over the i7 and thanks for the help with the SSD drive!
 
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Felcore said:
Now i use my Antec 1200 it's a great case but i want a better case with better airflow. I see your options but i don't know if any of those can make better airflow then the Antec 1200, is the HAF-X better or should i maybe pick the 800D from Corsair? Would you pick the i5 over the i7 and thanks for the help with the SSD drive!
Click to expand...

The biggest problem with the Antec gaming cases such as the something-Hundred and the DF85 is that they are relatively cramped from front to rear. (In this case, the airflow isn't the problem; the undersized interior is.) This means that if the motherboard that you choose has SATA ports mounted on the front edge, they can be potentially blocked by the permanent, nonremovable drive cage bracket. This can cause major problems with the SATA plugs potentially not fitting the space between the bracket and the ports at all. It also means that the entire computer sometimes must be completely disassembled just to get at any of the internal SATA ports to simply add an additional hard drive to the system.

Worse, the cramped front-to-rear dimensions mean that longer graphics cards won't fit the case at all - and even some upper-middle class graphics cards might require the PCI-e power connectors to be bent so sharply that the connections might potentially fail in use. That could lead to the premature death of the graphics card and the PSU.

By the way, the DF-85 is only about an inch and a half deeper than the notorious Nine Hundred. So, the DF-85 still has a problem with very-high-end cards. That is rather unacceptable at that $160 price point. Especially since the much cheaper Cooler Master CM 690 II has about an inch more room on the inside (from front to rear) than the DF-85.
 
Last edited:
Felcore said:
Now i use my Antec 1200 it's a great case but i want a better case with better airflow. I see your options but i don't know if any of those can make better airflow then the Antec 1200, is the HAF-X better or should i maybe pick the 800D from Corsair? Would you pick the i5 over the i7 and thanks for the help with the SSD drive!
Click to expand...

The HAF-X is better. I personally would go with the Corsair mainly due to aesthetics.

Yeah I would pick the i5 over the i7.
 
E4g1e said:
The biggest problem with the Antec gaming cases such as the something-Hundred and the DF85 is that they are relatively cramped from front to rear. (In this case, the airflow isn't the problem; the undersized innards are.) This means that if the motherboard that you choose has SATA ports mounted on the front edge, they can be potentially blocked by the permanent, nonremovable drive cage bracket. This can cause major problems with the SATA plugs potentially not fitting the space between the bracket and the ports at all. It also means that the entire computer sometimes must be completely disassembled just to get at any of the internal SATA ports to simply add an additional hard drive to the system.

Worse, the cramped front-to-rear dimensions mean that longer graphics cards won't fit the case at all - and even some upper-middle class graphics cards might require the PCI-e power connectors to be bent so sharply that the connections might potentially fail in use. That could lead to the premature death of the graphics card and the PSU.

By the way, the DF-85 is only about an inch and a half deeper than the notorious Nine Hundred. So, the DF-85 still has a problem with very-high-end cards. That is rather unacceptable at that $160 price point. Especially since the much cheaper Cooler Master CM 690 II has about an inch more room on the inside (from front to rear) than the DF-85.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this useful information
 
Danny Bui said:
The HAF-X is better. I personally would go with the Corsair mainly due to aesthetics.

Yeah I would pick the i5 over the i7.
Click to expand...

I'm a AMD user and i have never tried Intel so can explain the difference between the i5 and the i7 and why i should pick the i5 instead of the i7. And should i Crossfire with a 5850 or a 5870 ?
 
Felcore said:
I'm a AMD user and i have never tried Intel so can explain the difference between the i5 and the i7 and why i should pick the i5 instead of the i7. And should i Crossfire with a 5850 or a 5870 ?
Click to expand...

The i7 had HyperThreading which comes in very handy with audio and video editing work. That's pretty much the biggest difference. In games, it's been shown that there's very very little performance difference between a Core i7 and Core i5 quad-core CPU.

If you already have the HD 5850, crossfire with a HD 5850.
 
Danny Bui said:
The i7 had HyperThreading which comes in very handy with audio and video editing work. That's pretty much the biggest difference. In games, it's been shown that there's very very little performance difference between a Core i7 and Core i5 quad-core CPU.

If you already have the HD 5850, crossfire with a HD 5850.
Click to expand...

How can i mount a water cooling system like this: Corsair 800D But with a 360 radiator at the top?
 
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