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Build Help for Gaming/Media PC

R

RobRod

n00b
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
3
I'm starting my first build in quite a while and was hoping for some quick recommendations. My budget is a bit flexible if I can get a better value by paying a little more. I appreciate any help you guys can provide.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, streaming movies, music etc to my PS3. Web Browsing, Office type work.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1,000 or $1,200 if it's worth upgrading the video card.

3) Where do you live?
Florida
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.

Case
Power Supply
RAM
Motherboard
Processor
Hard Drive
Optical Drive
Sound Card? or is on-board sound enough?
Video Card? I have a GeForce 8800 GTX which was pretty badass forever ago and I'm thinking of using. If I can get something that beats it in the $150-200 range I might upgrade.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Monitor - dell 2407wfp
keyboard
speakers
mouse


6) Will you be overclocking?

Probably not

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

24'

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

As soon as I'm happy with the build

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.

None

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

No

 
The 8800GTX was already outclassed by $150 to $200 video cards four years ago. So virtually any card in the $150 to $200 range will beat the 8800GTX.

I'm gonna list three slightly different builds for ya:

Budget choice:
$330 - Intel Core i5 2500K + Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard Combo
$150 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM + Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU Combo
$188 - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
--
Total: $754 Plus tax and shipping

The HD 6870 is a huge step up over the 8800GTX but it might still struggle with games on near max settings at 1920x1200

Significantly better gaming performance:
$330 - Intel Core i5 2500K + Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard Combo
$150 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM + Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU Combo
$283 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
--
Total: $850 Plus tax and shipping

Comes with a significantly faster video card which is needed at your resolution.

High performance system:
$330 - Intel Core i5 2500K + Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard Combo
$150 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM + Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU Combo
$283 - XFX HD-695X-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card
$135 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 64GB SSD
$65 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
--
Total: $985 Plus tax and shipping

This build now comes with a SSD which will dramatically improve system response time and significantly faster loading. The SSD is large enough for the OS + small sized applicatsions and maybe one or two games. You install large sized applications as well as large amounts of data on the Samsung drive.

For all three builds, choose your own case. I recommend the following:
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$106 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$127 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$165 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
 
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