$600 Budget Gaming Build

A

alenriq

n00b
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Aug 13, 2010
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Hello there, long time lurker here, finally registered. )

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mainly playing Bad Company 2 & Starcraft 2
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 w/o tax or shipping
3) Where do you live?
NJ, 30mins from Microcenter
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, RAM, Case, Video Card, Motherboard, PSU, dvd drive, and HD
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
monitor, mouse/keyboard/speakers
6) Will you be overclocking?
Possibly
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22' 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Placing order in a week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
sli would be a plus but no biggie
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, windows 64bit

So far the following is what I was thinking of getting:

newegg shopping cart pic

$39.99 - Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

$229.99 - GIGABYTE GV-N460OC-1GI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit

$94.99 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

$79.99 - ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

$76.99 - AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3

$59.99 - Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W

$59.99 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB

= $599.93 w/ combo deals and w/o tax

I was wondering as well if the x3 440 was a good to overclock using the stock fan or would I need a better fan/heatsink? Or instead of the x3 400, I was thinking of getting one these combo deals from microcenter.

Thanks for your time and help.
 
There are several changes that I would like to make to that build:

1. The PSU. That particular Rosewill PSU is an ATNG-made unit - and as a general rule ATNG-built PSUs are mediocre at best. In fact, that "630W" Rosewill PSU is at best a 450W PSU under realistic operating conditions. I'd recommend the Antec Neo ECO 520W PSU instead for the same price as your originally selected Rosewill PSU.

2. Your choice of a case. That Rosewill case is equally as cramped on the inside as the Antec Nine Hundred or Nine Hundred Two cases. Front-mounted SATA ports, which are positioned to avoid the blockage of long expansion cards and an increasingly common feature on newer motherboards, will get blocked by the front drive cage chassis in that Rosewill case (and the two Antec cases that I mentioned in this paragraph). This means that the entire motherboard must be completely dismounted from the motherboard chassis and permanently welded motherboard tray just to access the front SATA ports to even connect your system's main system drive! In addition, that case is significantly narrower than the gaming cases that we normally recommend, so some tower coolers will not properly fit inside that case. These cramped dimensions, along with the less-than-optimal cooling provisions, might result in the potential for your newly-built system to overheat even at stock CPU and GPU speeds. I'd recommend cases from Coolermaster (in general), but there are other brands of cases that you might also consider.
 
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Get in one of those combo deals from MC since you're 30min away from one. Go for the Athlon II X4 635 + any of the socket AM3 motherboards they have.
 
I would avoid Rosewill at all times. It is cheap, off brand stuff remarketed by newegg under the Rosewill label.
 
Thanks for the info E4g1e, didn't know that.

I replaced the case with a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W and the PSU with the OCZ550FTY 550W. I did want to add the antec psu but they had no combo deals that caught my attention like the others did, same with the coolermaster cases. From what I read so far, Lian-li cases are a respected brand and OCZ power supplies are decent?

Total as of now if I get the combo deal from microcenter would be $605+taxes/shipping
shopping cart pic

I could however deduct the $40 from SC2 and add a better fan/heatsink maybe?

Thanks
 
alenriq said:
Thanks for the info E4g1e, didn't know that.

I replaced the case with a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W and the PSU with the OCZ550FTY 550W. I did want to add the antec psu but they had no combo deals that caught my attention like the others did, same with the coolermaster cases. From what I read so far, Lian-li cases are a respected brand and OCZ power supplies are decent?
Click to expand...

The OCZ Fatal1ty series is almost as mediocre as the ATNG-built Rosewill PSUs. This time, that particular OCZ model is a Sirfa-built PSU - and is not one of the better ones at all, even from Sirfa itself.
 
Lian Li cases are pretty good. However that particular Lian Li is part of the Lancool series so it's not as good as the true Lian Li branded cases (the ones without the Lancool name)

I concur with E4g1e's statement about the OCZ PSU.
 
Danny Bui said:
I concur with E4g1e's statement about the OCZ PSU.
Click to expand...

Yes. And not all Antec PSUs are equally good. In fact, some of them are either mediocre values (good units but at average street prices that are quite a bit higher than they are worth; an example is some models in Antec's EarthWatts series) or just plain mediocre (e.g. Antec's Basiq series).
 
Sorry, hoss, but I wouldn't recommend the WD10EALS for $60 when the Samsung F3 HD103SJ is available at Micro Center for $65.

alenriq, get the Samsung, as it's one of the best bang-per-buck hard drives around.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, the WD10EALS is only very slightly slower than the Samsung F3 1TB. Both drives use two 500GB platters. In this particular case, flip a coin.
Click to expand...

Disregard my earlier post, then. I didn't realize that the Caviar Blue 1TB drive had a "model refresh" like its 500GB sibling.
 
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