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Affordable Gaming computer build, need suggestions!

C

celluj34

n00b
Joined
May 27, 2011
Messages
15
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, Minecraft, Fallout NV, SC2) Video Encoding (Ripping from DVD -> AVI) and Dreamweaver

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Soft budget of $500. I'm not made of money lol

3) Where do you live?
Ames, Iowa

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.
Motherboard, RAM, Video Card, Power Supply, and case

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Intel i7 2600k, WDC 3200AAKS 75L9A0 (WD Caviar Blue 320GB). DVD+RW Phillips Lite-On DH-16AAS

6) Will you be overclocking?
I don't plan on it, but I'm not against it. Never done it before.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Dell SR2220L (22-inch 1920x1080)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Right now

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
I require one PCIe 1x for my external RAID drive. On-board RAID would be nice, but I wouldn't know how to set it up. SLI is not important to me, nor is USB 3.0. SATA 3Gb/s for the HDD.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64 bit


My girlfriend works for Best Buy, and they sell cases/psu/ram/gpu/fans. They have a Thermaltake Black Widow 850W that she can purchase for ~$85, PNY 4GB stick of ram for ~$55, and an nVidia 460 GTX for ~$199. Fans she can also get super cheap.
Are any of these a good deal?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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I'm not gonna make recommendations as to the mobo and what not, but I will tell you that those are not good deals your girlfriend can get. With what you're goin for, you don't need 850watts, and the RAM is way overpriced for just 1 stick, and the video card is way overpriced.

Are those with employee discounts? If so, WOW, Best Buy has gotten even worse.
 
She said she wasn't able to get much for a discount for the gpu because best buy sells them at-price. I'm not surprised they're overpriced. I'm not for sure on the prices though because I don't have it written down. The only reason I'd buy stuff through BB is because she can get the 4-year warranty for $5, and it my stuff craps out, BB has to replace it for free.
 
What connection does your external RAID drive use? eSATA?

Do you have a PCI-E x1 card to connect the drive?
 
I'm grateful for the suggestions, but I have a preference for nVidia gpus. I've read a lot around here and it seems like amd is preferred over the comparable nvidia card because the price is lower, but I'd like to stick with nvidia.
 
Hey no problem at all. Here is what I would suggest as the best alternative. The radeon 6870 and gtx 560 trade blows in most games but the 6870 is a little cheaper hence why I suggested it. But here is a great nvidia choice for you which I am sure you will be happy with.

EVGA 01G-P3-1460-KR GeForce GTX 560 $194.99 + fs
 
Awesome! I had a few more questions. How would a 460GTX Ti stand up against a 560GTX? In my earlier post I mentioned I could get the 460GTX Ti for $200. What does the "Ti" mean? Does 560 automatically mean "better than" 460?

As for the motherboard, would I be able to set up RAID 5 using the 4 SATA ports? If so, would someone be able to guide me through it? I have 4 HDD in RAID 5, but there's only 4 SATA ports on the mobo. I imagine I wouldn't be able to have a "boot-up" disk and all 4 HDD in RAID?

One last thing, I was looking to get at least 8GB of RAM. For another $47, would you suggest I purchase another set of 2x2GB of the Corsair RAM, or is 2x4GB going to be any cheaper?

Thanks for all your help! I really appreciate it.
 
GTX 560 is slightly better than the GTX 460 Ti, but you may also want to consider the GTX 560 Ti. "Ti" is used to designate a better version of the GPU in question.The GTX 560, compared to the GTX 460, has more shader cores, faster clock speeds, and a smaller Fermi GPU core (which makes the GTX 560 a bit more energy efficient).

The MSI P67A-C43 has two SATA 6Gb/s ports and four SATA 3Gb/s ports. In short, you'll be able to set up your four-drive RAID 5 configuration and have a separate "primary" drive. The best place to go for information on the board is the user manual (or the board's MSI page).

If you want 8GB of RAM, either buy a 2x4GB kit or two 4GB DIMMs separately. You don't need DDR3 1600 RAM for Sandy Bridge, even if you plan on overclocking. The i7-2600K has an unlocked CPU multiplier that people use to reach speeds around 4GHz (or faster).
 
Thanks for all the information! I just went back to the pictures on Newegg and, sure enough, it does have enough SATA ports. For some reason it looked like it only had 3-3GB and 1-6GB ports.

Will the case have enough space for all 5 drives? If yes, then I'm probably going to go with what I have listed here:

Here's the build so far:

MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard- $115
Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 996770- $80
Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply- $70
EVGA 01G-P3-1561-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti FPB (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card- $245 - $20 MIR
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case- $60

Total- $550 (This price is within the acceptable price limit range)

Does this look good? I'm ready to buy.
 
no avoid that silverline ram like the plague. They are having tons of compatibility issues. You might as well grab this combo seeing as its cheaper than that mobo with a 1333mhz kit,

Combo: MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 + CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $189.98

On the gpu topic, here is a benchmark which shows the gtx 460 and the gtx 560ti. At your resolution with nice eye candy enabled the gtx 560ti does do better but by a margin of 101fps to 80.5 fps. See it here So when you look at the more than $100 difference in price that hardly seems like $ well spent, but you have to decide for yourself. Here is the 460 I was comparing to,

EVGA 01G-P3-1370-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB $169.99 - $40 mir
 
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You hit v instead of ctl+v, lol. I'm sure I'll be able to find it. If I buy the 460, would I be able to overclock it to the 560 Ti speeds with only being air-cooled? Would you foresee I run into any issues with heat?

*EDIT* Found it! Here's the revised build:

Combo: MSI P67A-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 + CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $189.98
Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply- $70
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case- $60

With the 560GTX Ti, the total is $555 - $20 MIR

With the 460GTX, the total is $490 - $40 MIR
 
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ok im looking at the same stuff and I am seeing totals like this

gtx 560 ti build $564.98 - $20 mir

gtx 460 build $489.95 - $40 mir.

Am I looking at different stuff?
 
Oops, you're right. I miscalculated somewhere. What about OC the 460 to 560 levels? Would that be doable with air cooling under stress?
 
Well freq doesnt equal gaming performance exclusively, speed is part of it and shaders etc; Its part but not all. That's why that link I gave you shows the difference. I highly doubt you would see the difference between the 2 while playing. Maybe 2+ yrs down the road you would with new games that are out then but who knows what technology holds. Most people suggest that you should get the strongest components you can afford at the time of purchase. I have found that to be true if you are the type of builder who buys a pc as a whole every 3-4 yrs +, If you upgrade components every year here and there as I do I rarely see the benefit. I will sell off components as newer ones come out and spend a$100-300 per year on my pc so as to keep it current. I find that dropping huge $ every 3-4 yrs is difficult financially. On top of that you deal with the decline in performance in the last 1/2 to 1/3 of that time frame.

I know this is way more than you are looking for in your seemingly simple question but this is how I think and why I suggest what I suggest. :)
 
Alright, I'll go with the 460. If you have any other comments/suggestions I'm gonna go ahead and purchase all this stuff now. Thanks for all your help!
 
celluj34 said:
Alright, I'll go with the 460. If you have any other comments/suggestions I'm gonna go ahead and purchase all this stuff now. Thanks for all your help!
Click to expand...

What's the final build list?
 
Hmm, first time I've seen a semi-reasonable priced GTX 460 in a long while. If you must have Nvidia at all costs and don't care at all about best bang for the buck value, then yeah that whole setup is fine.
 
Dunno if it.matter im def team green... But f I was to choose again I would go witg the amd option this season.... Wasnt on the boards much when I built my last system
 
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