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$800 for gaming focused build

W

wavewerx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
284
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This'll be my main desktop rig. Gaming - StarCraft II, Diablo III, Steam games; General workstation duties - MS Office, web browsing; Web design; perhaps a VM or two - *nix distro and an internal web host for testing pages.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500 - $80 max, including tax and shipping.
3) Where do you live?
Columbia, SC - No Microcenter nearby
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, motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, optical drive, hard drive
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?
Not a priority but not against it.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
BenQ V2400W - 1920x1200 resolution, would like to run games near this on comfortable settings. Does my budget match this?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within two weeks - after Christmas money comes in.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Nothing special.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I'll need an OS but it doesn't need to be included in the budget. Recommendation? Win 7 64-bit?


Budget is hardware only.

My current computer is my Intel C2D 2.16ghz 2gb Macbook. My HTPC (in sig) is the newest machine I've built, before then it was a Athlon XP 2500+ era machine.
 
For $500-800 focused on gaming, 1920x1200 resolution

Case:
Antec 300 w/ 450w Power Supply: $105 (95 + 10 shipping)

CPU:
i3-540 3.06 GHz $115

Motherboard:
Biostar TH55B HD LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard$90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138186

RAM:
2x2GB DDR3, many to choose from. $50

Video Card:
Asus 5770 w/ custom heatpipe aftermarket cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=hd5770
$140, $20 rebate

HD:
WD Black 640GB 7200rpm $65

Optical Drive:
Many to choose from, $25
----------------
TOTAL: 590 - $20 MIR = $570


For $50 more, an HD 6850 would be 30% faster, and well worth it. Just wanted to make something within your budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121399&cm_re=hd6850-_-14-121-399-_-Product

For $85 more, an i5 Quad core would be spiffy.

For $30 more, and aftermarket CPU cooler could allow lower CPU temps/ better overclock potential. This one is a gem for the price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Obviously an i5 is better than an i3, but when push comes to shove, it would be more worthwhile to spend the $$$ on a better video card than a better CPU in most cases. The i3 is going to power through a lot of games except those that specifically run better with a quad core, and your 2 cores are clocked higher than the 4 cores on most i5 CPUs.

A measly 450W power supply is actually plenty sufficient for an i3 or i5 and either the 5770 and 6850. I like these cards because they are "low power" compared to many others, offering good performance / watt and also performance / $.

You could also look at a 460 GTX or 470 GTX, but then you might think about a beefier power supply. RAM is cheap but most games show little to no improvement above 4GB of RAM currently. Micro ATX motherboards are sometimes more efficient than their ATX counterparts, and are fine for gaming unless you want to run SLI / crossfire.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't go with djkest's setup at all:
- The included 430W PSU of that Antec 300 is of too low quality for most gaming PCs
- The HD 5770 is barely sufficient for 1920x1200
- For gaming, the Core i3 CPUs is a poor choice nowadays considering that many games are now scaling with multiple cores. Considering your budget, I highly recommend aiming for a quad-core of any type.
- That hard drive isn't that fast compared to other drives in that price range.

For your resolution of 1920x1200, I recommend the following:
$226 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard Combo
$55 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$18 - LG Black GH24LS50 DVD Burner
$240 - PowerColor AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
----
Total: $744 plus tax and shipping

Definitely go for Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
 
as usual I agree with Danny Bui. That setup will roll just about anything you throw at it.
 
Thanks guys for the replys. This looks like a good strong build. I've been waiting for a new machine since I got the SC2 beta so it'll be awesome once I finally get it and build it! Thanks Danny!
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
wavewerx said:
Thanks guys for the replys. This looks like a good strong build. I've been waiting for a new machine since I got the SC2 beta so it'll be awesome once I finally get it and build it! Thanks Danny!
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

No prob man! Good luck with the build!
 
Just ordered the new build. Also got a Cannon Powershot SD1000 due to a Christmas present mix up! Expect pictures of this build at the end of the week.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Good Idea / Bad Idea?: With NewEgg's memory deal, I'm thinking about buying the same kit again and doubling my ram. Will I see a worthwhile performance increase going from 4gb to 8gb?
 
it's easy to tell, just pull up your ctrl-alt-delete task manager and look at your RAM usage. if you're using under 2/3 most of the time you should be good.
 
Good Idea / Bad Idea?: With NewEgg's memory deal, I'm thinking about buying the same kit again and doubling my ram. Will I see a worthwhile performance increase going from 4gb to 8gb?
Click to expand...


Go for it! Having more ram is never a bad idea. Take some of the extra and create a ramdisk drive with windows temp. folder on it. Guranteed to increase storage system performance.
 
I let the discount code decide for me and I let it expire out. My case should arrive here today but my parts have been 'rescheduled' until 1/3/2010. I'm hoping by some holiday miracle I get both packages today, because I have the day off tomorrow and planned on playing games all day.
 
Danny Bui said:
I

For your resolution of 1920x1200, I recommend the following:
$226 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard Combo
$55 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$18 - LG Black GH24LS50 DVD Burner
$240 - PowerColor AX6870 1GBD5-M2DH Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
----
Click to expand...


Just a question about this setup guys, how would a cheaper graphics card hold up with a resolution of 1366x768? say something like this: http://www.h-online.com/priceinsight/a496801.html
 
I would make the following changes;

GIGABYTE GV-R685D5-1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB $179.99 + free shipping

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W $58.99 + free shipping

Total: $238.98. vs. your current build the gpu and psu total is $330.

That cpu + mobo combo is no longer available, give this a whirl;

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz + GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 $234.98

the ram kit is now $8 less and the case is down $10 as well. Looks like a good time to pull the trigger.
 
so i just set up my new rig, and now i can't connect to the net

i doubt it's something wrong with the build, and windows is showing error 651.


how the hell do i fix this?!
 
Not me. This guy should start a new thread.... But I still have pictures to post from my build...
 
yea i took bits from wavewex's and dannybui's build and that was the first issue i came across, all sorted now
 
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