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$3000 Budget Building Gaming PC

How willing are you to help?

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kogawolf

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Jun 3, 2011
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What if you had up to $3000 to burn on a gaming pc? Post part by part what you would use? Go. The best build with the most power will win, and be what i use to build my PC. Have fun, and thank you. :D

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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$3000 max including tax and shipping.
3) Where do you live?
Currently stationed in Guam
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Tower, Prossers, Ram, HardDrive, Motherboard, Sound card, Graphic's cards, Eithernet card, Blueray/dvd drive, power supply, hope i didn't miss anything.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
This will be a ground up build all new parts.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Overclocking will happen
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Any size x2
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Your choice
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Will be buying software personally. ((windows 7 ulitmate))
 
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Just built a new one for about 2 grand, and it rocks.
So, you dont need to spend that much for a good one.
 
I know but, I really would like a god like computer..Something that can crush all other PC’s completely even if it is just for a short time. And I am having issues deciding what parts I really want. I was looking into the new P67 chipsets as well as the new i7K Intel Sandy Bridge 2600Kprossers(intel, Quad-core). Just not sure between the new MSI N580GTX Lightning Video and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580... As well as DDR3 ram... and cooling.. Just so many decisions
 
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If you want us to play along, you gotta play by the rules yourself.

Answer the questions in the "Asking for Build Help?" sticky so we know what type of system we need to make.
 
Unfortunately your time frame is what is preventing me from listing any parts. A lot can change in the PC hardware world in a month let alone two months from now. So much change that I cannot guarantee any build list I make to be the same build list I'd recommend later in a month let alone two months from now.

If you can't move the time frame up to this month only, then I recommend just waiting till 2-3 weeks before your actual buy date and ask for advice then. You're gonna get better and up-to-date advice that way rather than asking so far ahead of time. You're gonna get saddled with an outdated build list that way.
 
Assuming that "as soon as possible" means within this month, I recommend the following:

$505 - Intel Core i7 2600K CPU + Asus P8Z68-V PRO Intel Z68 Motherboard
$80 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$195 - G.Skill Ripjaws F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM + Windows 7 Professional 64bit OEM Combo
$580 - MSI R6950-2PM2D2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$255 - Intel 510 Series SSDSC2MH120A2K5 2.5" 120GB SSD
$150 - Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - Samsung SH-S222AB SATA DVD Burner
$300 - Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200 1200W Modular PSU
---
Total: $2086 plus tax and shipping.

Notes:
- Two HD 6950 2GB in Crossfire provide a significantly better price to performance ratio than a single GTX 580
- That Antec HCP-1200 PSU is one the highest quality PSUs out there.
- That WD 2TB Black drive performs roughly the same as often recommended Samsung F3 1TB drive
- Went for Windows 7 Pro since it wasn't that much more than Windows 7 Home Premium. I don't see Windows 7 Ult being worth it besides giant epeen.

Case wise, choose your own case. I recommend the following:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$127 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$165 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$220 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
$220 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$220 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$290 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
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Wait... do speakers, keyboard, mouse, and monitors have to be included within that $3000 budget?

Outside of gaming, what programs will be used on this system?
 
Here's what I'm building. I honestly have no idea what I have spent because I don't think I want to know. I'm guessing that I'm spending about what you are looking at.

i7 2600k
eVGA P67 FTW
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)1866 F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL
2x Intel 120GB 510 SSD
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Internal Hard Drive
2 x eVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB in SLI
SAMSUNG SH-222AB SATA CD/DVD Burner
Corsair Obsidian Series 650D
Antec High Current Pro HCP-1200
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
Samsung PX2370 23" Monitor
Cyborg V.5 Keyboard
RAZER DeathAdder
 
Given such an insanly high budget my advice would be to wait for LGA2011.
 
Well, Under my circumstances I ended up building and buying a new lap top I think what i built is good, what do you all think?

intel Core i7 2820QM 2.4GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8M cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled
intel Advanced-N WiFi Link 6250 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology with WiMax
Internal 60GHz WirelessHD Transmitter
Internal Bluetooth 3.0

Thank you all for your help.
 
kogawolf said:
Well, Under my circumstances I ended up building and buying a new lap top I think what i built is good, what do you all think?

intel Core i7 2820QM 2.4GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Mode, 8M cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
14.0" High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s
Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled
intel Advanced-N WiFi Link 6250 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology with WiMax
Internal 60GHz WirelessHD Transmitter
Internal Bluetooth 3.0

Thank you all for your help.
Click to expand...

LMAO. 3000 budget and you got a 900p 14" screen? Good luck with that.
 
Blu-ray burners have just started becoming affordable, the x4 drives are running for around 100 bucks now. I'd throw that in the budget over a 20 dollar DVD burner. The OP had a 3K stated budget, why not, it still burns DVDs and would've acquired Blu-ray playback benefits, too.

edit: ooh, i see he already bought it, heh. /dead thread
 
Hey guys I have a 3k budget and I want the super best! Oh u know what il just buy this lame laptop
 
Danny Bui said:
Assuming that "as soon as possible" means within this month, I recommend the following:
Click to expand...


At least this thread wasn't completely wasted, Dannys ~2k build is solid advice for anyone building something right now. And the Ram+OS combo was a nice touch.
 
It wasn't just for myself, it was for any gamer that had alot of money to burn. I ended up buying a laptop for reasons at home and i am sorry for wasting your time but, I hope this helped someone out there at least.
 
Do you know how many people ask for help here? How many "help me build a rig" threads are created per week?

You didn't need to create a thread for a hypothetical situation.
 
kogawolf said:
It wasn't just for myself, it was for any gamer that had alot of money to burn. I ended up buying a laptop for reasons at home and i am sorry for wasting your time but, I hope this helped someone out there at least.
Click to expand...

Glad to see that more than one person just pissed a bunch of money down the toilet.
 
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