$500 Gaming Build

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SLiGuy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2006
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Hey guys. I'm in the market for a new build soon and I was hoping you guys could help me out with this.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly gaming and general use, light video encoding once in awhile but not a priority
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500-600 taxed & shipped.
3) Where do you live?
San Jose, CA (Fry's/Microcenter accessible, Newegg tax FTL)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
The case and everything in it, save for optical drives
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Only the optical drives
6) Will you be overclocking?
I have never overclocked before and I am rather hesitant to do so; I would not mind giving it a try, but stability is my top priority
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
19" widescreen, 1440x990 native resolution. May upgrade to a 22" in the future, probably not larger than that though.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Late August or early September
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Firewire would be nice.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes, Windows XP.


Just a note, I really like the Coolermaster RC-690 case, I've had my eye set on one for quite awhile and would love to have it in my build. I haven't been following any tech related stuff lately though, so if anyone has a suggestion for another case then I'd be glad to hear it.

Thanks in advance and I'll be sure to pop in here often to give updates.
 
COOLER MASTER RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail and COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Combo $150

AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $90

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $85

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - Retail $75

XFX HD-485X-YDFC Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail $110

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM $75

Total before S&H $585 cutting no corners build...
 
 
Thanks for the builds. I have a few questions though if it isn't too much to ask:

1.) Would that 400W PSU last me through future upgrades? Say I wanted to upgrade to a quad-core and maybe a GTX275 or something, would that last me?

2.) I've heard that the performance gap between using DDR2 and DDR3 RAM is very small when it comes to PIIs. Since I'm likely not overclocking, would it be better to just forget about DDR3 for this build in order to save costs?

3.) Would it be worth an extra $20 to get a 550? I hear those are unlockable to 4 cores, not sure about the 545 though.
 
DDR2 is on its way out, DDR3 is for future upgrades. Since the price is getting smaller, go with DDR3.
 
1. Yes but I would get the 700 watt bundle with 690. Its only $30 bucks.

2. performace gap is very small between DDR2 and DDR3 but now the price difference is $35. DDR3 gives you much longer upgrade and replacement path than DDR2 at this time.

3. I don't have any x2 545 at this time to test to see if the unlock will work. You need to flash the bios to F2c for 770T with x2 550 to work with unlocking it to quad core.
 
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Thanks for all the help so far and for answering my questions, I really appreciate it. I've got some more, though! Sorry for all the questions, I haven't built a computer in a couple of years and never hurts to be sure, right?

1.) I recall Intel being the cream of the crop about a year ago. I'm assuming building an LGA755 system would be a stupid move since it's EOL and i7 is out now. i7 is out of my budget as of now, but what about i5? I know it's not out yet, but how does it compare to AMD on the benchies? Would it be better to wait?

2.) I understand that new tech is constantly coming out, and something better is always around the corner. In this case, is there anything BIG coming out soon (1-2 months) that will lower prices on current teach? Or is it going to be awhile before prices drop?

3.) I'm not sure if this matters, but I thought I'd bring it up anyways. This computer is going to be used for mostly WoW. I will play some other games as well (BF2, TF2, hoping to be able to play SC2/D3 when it comes out but nothing crazy like Crysis or SupCom). Considering that WoW is my game of choice, is this build a bit overkill, or is it right where I want to be when considering bang-for-the-buck and future upgrading?
 
1. No i5 bench are out and i can't suggest wait on it as you say their is always better tech around the corner.

2. prices are not likely to drop in the near future, this is normally prices go up as back to school buyers. Go crazy...

3.x2 545 is a pretty fast chip, only games take advantage of quad core will have any big performance gap over it.
 
1) If you need a system now, get a system now. The Phenom II line-up is competitive to the Core 2 series and it would be more than enough for your gaming needs.

2) New video cards are expected to arrive within the next couple of months, but based on your gaming needs, you don't need much for a video card. Due to the constantly evolving nature of computer technology, you can't really future proof your system. You have to personally decided which parts you have to upgrade then and how often do you plan on upgrading (during the entire life of your system).

3) The systems that lt_shiro made for you would each be fine for your immediate needs. However, you can always upgrade the video card later should you feel the need to.
 
I see. How does the GTS250 match up against the HD4850? I believe they were pretty close in benchmarks but I'm not quite sure. I've just always been more of an nVidia guy, I don't quite know why. I don't mind going with the 4850 though.

How do Athlon IIs stack up against PIIs? Reason I ask is that I stumbled upon someone recommending this deal in the mobo section. Not going to go with that due to the motherboard only supporting DDR2, but I was wondering how that processor is compared to the 545 you suggested me. At a glance, the specs are very similar, I'm sure there is more to it though.

One last thing regarding hard drives: I know that the 640GB WD drives are said to be very fast, but I really don't need that much space. I'm using a 120GB drive right now with a little room to spare, I don't think I'd need anything bigger than a 320. Is there a noticeable difference in performance between the 320/640, or should I just go for the cheapest yet still-adequate HD? I know I set out a $600 budget, but why pay more for something I don't need?
 
The GTS 250 uses a variant of the same G92 GPU that NVIDIA used with its 9800GTX (and its revised 8800GTS) cards. The long story short is that its performance level is similar to the HD4850, but the HD4850 is often found at a lower price point. Given your reluctance to spend more than what you feel is necessary, I'd recommend going with the cheaper card.

I can't comment on the Athlon II processors since I've just found out about them. However, DDR2 RAM isn't a bad choice, as none of the current Phenom II processors gain any performance benefit from using DDR3 RAM. (Many people's recommendations for DDR3 RAM are tied to the fact that DDR3 RAM is being pushed to supplant DDR2 RAM at some point in the future. As an aside, I wouldn't be surprised if we still see DDR2 RAM being sold when DDR4/DDR5 RAM finally arrives.) Without reading reviews from sites like here and AnandTech, at first glance, I couldn't tell you the performance differences between the Athlon II and the Phenom II.

The 640GB hard drives that are out today use two 320GB drive platters... theoretically, you should be able to get, say, a WD3200AAKS and be done with it. However, there are some retailers that still sell the old two-platter design... though I can't say whether or not NewEgg has finally exhausted its line-up. (For the longest time, NewEgg mixed-and-matched the one-platter models along with their two-platter siblings and sold them together. It was a crapshoot trying to determine which model NewEgg would send you. But again, I don't know whether or not that has changed recently.)

Having said that, I believe that the Seagate and Samsung 320GB drives are single-platter drives. But that's merely speculation on my part, and I'm a bit too lazy to find out for certain.
 
Ignoring the price on the cards (I believe Fry's actually has a deal right now that brings the GTS250 to the same price as that XFX4850 after MIR), which should I go with? I looked at benchmarks yesterday and they seem to be neck-and-neck. How's driver support on both nVidia's and ATI's side?

I've also noticed the lack of an L3 cache, although the L2 cache is bigger. I'm not quite sure how that works but I'd imagine that it'd make quite a difference when it comes to gaming, yes?

Everyone seems to recommend WD drives, but how are other brands? It seems almost unheard of here on [H] to see a non-WD drive put into a build. There's a 500GB Samsung drive going for $50 at Fry's right now; unfortunately there are no specs listed on the ad so I don't know which drive it is exactly, but just wondering how other brands are.
 
I've heard people trash both NVIDIA and ATI recently for driver issues, but the most recent versions of drivers work fine for the majority of users. Since they're both on par with each other, I personally would look at price (per comparative performance), but I wouldn't factor in MIR amounts as they don't constitute instant savings.

Most retailers tend to "ignore" the L3 cache amount when they list the specs of a product. Regardless, the Phenom II X2 545 would work just fine for gaming. (Given that both processors are relatively new to me, I have to defer to lt_shiro's knowledge in this area.)

Western Digital, primarily through its Caviar Black and VelociRaptor series, recently became the brand known for performance. Additionally, WD has increased the warranty to its Caviar Black series to five years, just as Seagate dropped the warranty to its drives to three years. Seagate is still recovering from the black eye that it gave itself with the firmware issues it had with some of the 7200.11 series HDDs. Samsung is known for its comparatively quieter optical and hard drives. IBM/Hitachi is just there -- it doesn't really stand out performance-wise from the other brands, and its "DeathStar" reputation has long been a thing in the past.

The arrival of the 320GB platter hard drives have changed the picture significantly as well. For example, the single-platter WD3200AAKS was faster than the last-gen Raptor X and the WD6400AAKS is only 10% slower than the VelociRaptor..
 
Alright, I think I'll stick with the PII/DDR3 setup then in case I decide to upgrade in the future. I don't plan on building another system for at least another 2 years after this one so it's always nice to have options further down the road.

Would a lower-capacity drive be slower? For example, comparing the WD3200AKS to say a 250GB equivalent, how would the performance stack up?

I found this deal on the MC website, there's one not too far from here so I can run out and pick it up to avoid shipping costs. Does anyone know anything regarding the quality of the included PSU, though? $80 for that case + a PSU seems good to me, but for all I know the PSU quality could be crap.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0278910
 
The PSU's quality is ok. Not excellent but it is significantly better than many other PSUs that comes with cases AFAIK. It's a pretty good deal for a decent quality PSU + excellent case. I say get it if you can.

Considering that most of the 160GB and 250GB drives out there are based on older designs, yes a lower capacity 7200RPM drive would be slower than the WD3200AAKS and other similar 320GB platter drives. Not to mention, the price per GB ratio is in full favor for WD3200AAKS over the 250GB and 160GB drives. However, there are lower capacity drives that can ouperform the WD 320GB and 640GB drives but they are the expensive Velociraptor and SSD drives. As Tiraides noted, the Velociraptor drives are roughly 10% faster but tend to cost 3-5times as much.
 
Thanks Danny. I was skeptical at first. I remember I posted a topic awhile ago asking if the PSU I currently have could be used in a new system, and you recommended not to do so. The one I have right now is a RealPower 450W. Looking at the RealPower 550W, it looks to be a lot newer and more up-to-date with PSU advancements as of late, I just wanted to be sure though since they are both from the RealPower line.

Quick recap: Going with the DDR3 build lt_shiro suggested except I'm grabbing the case+PSU combo from MC I posted and also downgrading to a 3200AKS drive, it comes out to $489 before shipping and taxes. I'm going to spend the next week or so researching and watching prices and deals but hopefully I'll have this thing completed before school starts (8/25) while I still have a lot of free time.
 
SLiGuy said:
Thanks Danny. I was skeptical at first. I remember I posted a topic awhile ago asking if the PSU I currently have could be used in a new system, and you recommended not to do so. The one I have right now is a RealPower 450W. Looking at the RealPower 550W, it looks to be a lot newer and more up-to-date with PSU advancements as of late, I just wanted to be sure though since they are both from the RealPower line.
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No prob. The Realpower Pro is a good step up from the Reapower PSU line of the past. While not as good as other PSU lines by other companies, with this particular combo deal, it's an excellent choice and deal.
 
Tactical_Strike said:
Wait, save more money and buy the best bang/buck component at that time.
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What's up with your posts? You're here a couple days and in every single thread that someone is looking for help building a PC, you say something about saving for a better bang for your buck system????

This is for threads including a $500, $1200, $450, $300, $800, $600 systems?

:rolleyes:
 
Plus he necro'd a two week old thread. I know it's not that long, but it obviously doesn't have much interest anymore unless the OP posts an update or something.
 
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