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$700 Budget Gaming Build

S

SolitaryTurnip

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Messages
73
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (SC2, TF2, GW2 in the future), Web Design/Coding, Internetting
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Trying to keep it around $700, not including the monitor. Not a real strict limit, but I'd need a pretty compelling argument to go much higher.
3) Where do you live?
Salt Lake City, UT
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.
Case, PSU, CPU, MB, RAM, HDD, CD/DVD, GPU
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?
Probably not
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24" 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the month. Probably going to act fast on time-sensitive combo deals, but I can wait a bit on some parts for better prices.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Nothing fancy, I don't think.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I do have Win7 64bit.


I last built a PC about 5 years ago, and then went to a laptop-only mode for a while. Now I'm finally getting tired of the too-small screens and bad graphics cards, and am itching to build a new desktop.

This is what I have configured currently:

$70 - $10 promo - MSI 870-G45 AM3 AMD 870 ATX
$95 - $15 MIR - CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
$205 - $20 MIR - AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz + XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W
$230 - Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
$20 - Lite-On CD/DVD-RW
$?? - Case. Hopefully around $50.

Total: $665 + case - $35 MIR

Anything stand out as bad news? Any recommendations? I'm going back and forth between the Phenom II X4 and the Althon II X3, do you think it's worth the $60 to get the Phenom? For the case I was looking at the Lian-Li PC-K58, but it went from $50 yesterday to $70 today, so now I'm reconsidering.

Thanks a lot!

Edit: I could combo the RAM + CPU for $220 and the PSU + Lian-Li PC-K62 for $150, which would be about the same as buying a $70 case. Can't say I'm a big fan of the LED fans, but it's a nice combo deal.
 
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$20 isn't that much for a good case. you will have buyers remorse later on. Get the k58.
 
SolitaryTurnip said:
Edit: I could combo the RAM + CPU for $220 and the PSU + Lian-Li PC-K62 for $150, which would be about the same as buying a $70 case. Can't say I'm a big fan of the LED fans, but it's a nice combo deal.
Click to expand...

That case + psu combo is really good. $50 is a lot to save on $200. Ram/cpu combo isn't that great though.
 
Shadowssong said:
That case + psu combo is really good. $50 is a lot to save on $200. Ram/cpu combo isn't that great though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree, but I couldn't find a CPU combo that I liked. There are a bunch with OCZ RAM, but I don't know if it's worth the savings. There is this combo with G.Skill, but it's only $10 cheaper, and when you factor in the Corsair rebate, it's actually $5 more.
 
I would much rather pay $5 more than have to rely on a rebate. Both are good though, but I wouldn't factor in MIR's into your decision. Whatever is cheaper upfront is usually my motto for buying parts.
 
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