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Building Replacement Gaming Rig...

L

L33M

n00b
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
35
I've built eight or ten gaming rigs over the last 15 years, but have been out of touch with state of the art for last 2-3 years. Son's gaming rig died (mobo) and I'll be building a replacement with more up-to-date components. Current set-up is:

ASUS P5QL
E8400 (not o/c'ed)
OCZ 6400 2x2GB
EVGA 9800GT
WD 6400AAKS 640GB HDD
TT TR2 RX850 PSU
DVD-RW

Need some recommendations...

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (latest FPSes and RTSes), Illustrator, Blender, video production (at high school level)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Budget not an issue, just want value for my $$$
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Kansas City metro, Kansas, USA (MicroCenter right down the street)
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.
Mobo, CPU, RAM, video card if 9800GT is too old
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
EVGA 9800GT (What do you guys think?)
WD 6400AAKS 640GB HDD
TT TR2 RX850 PSU
DVD-RW
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1920x1200, but may upgrade soon
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
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.
State of the art for future expansion (kid is leaving for college next year)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 Home
 
L33M said:
EVGA 9800GT (What do you guys think?)
Click to expand...
Replace it. I had trouble with the 8800GT, basically an older more power hungry version of rht 9800GT, with newer games like BFBC2 and Fallout 3 at a resolution of 1440x900. So yeah....too old and slow.
L33M said:
TT TR2 RX850 PSU
Click to expand...
I'd recommend replacing this PSU as well since it's of fairly low quality. It's barely capable of 600W under the most ideal of conditions without killing your PC.

Also what case are you reusing?
 
Danny, appreciate the response.

Case is an Antec 300.

You recommend I replace the 9800GT... with what?

You recommend I replace the PSU... with what?
 
So I recommend replacing the PSU with this:
$85 - Corsair 650TX V2 650W PSU

I recommend replacing the GPU with these (Choose one):
$185 - XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card + Deux Ex: Human Revolution Combo
$250 - XFX HD-695X-ZNDC Radeon HD 6950 1GB PCI-E Video Card + Deux Ex: Human Revolution Combo
$280 - XFX HD-695X-CNDC Radeon HD 6950 2GB PCI-E Video Card + Deux Ex Human Revolution Combo

The more you spend, the greater the performance.

As for the CPU, mobo, and RAM:
$220 - Intel Core i5-2500K CPU
$130 - MSI P67A-G43 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard
$90 - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series F3-10666CL9Q-16GBRL 4 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
---
Total: $440.
 
Since I haven't been keeping up with the latest Intel offerings, I don't know much about their current chips. Why are you recommending the i5-2500k as opposed to the i7-2600k? Am I just a victim of their marketing scheme, or is the higher number a better chip?
 
L33M said:
Since I haven't been keeping up with the latest Intel offerings, I don't know much about their current chips. Why are you recommending the i5-2500k as opposed to the i7-2600k? Am I just a victim of their marketing scheme, or is the higher number a better chip?
Click to expand...
In this case, the 2600K is a better chip since it has a feature called HT which helps with video and other media encoding/rendering applications. Doesn't help with games or photoshop. The 2500K doesn't have that HT features.

However since you only mentioned high school level video editing, I didn't think that the extra $100 for the 2600K is worthwhile unless your son plans on doing a lot of video/media editing/rendering in college. If he is, then go for the 2600K if you can afford it.

But for gaming, photoshop related tasks, and everyday usage, the 2500K is more than enough.
 
Yep, he's a film school student, so the best video editing/rendering will be important to him, although by the time he's doing heavy-duty stuff we will have progressed a couple of generations in hardware! :rolleyes:
 
L33M said:
Yep, he's a film school student, so the best video editing/rendering will be important to him, although by the time he's doing heavy-duty stuff we will have progressed a couple of generations in hardware! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Ha.

Yesh go for the 2600K then.
 
Danny, I have quick question regarding your motherboard recommendation.

Given that video editing is involved,
would a Z68 Motherboard, with the QuickSync be a better long term option?
 
L33M said:
[/COLOR]3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Kansas City metro, Kansas, USA (MicroCenter right down the street)
Click to expand...


Micro Center is still having a deal on the 2600K at the moment. You can get it for $279.99 and if you get a Z68 motherboard that takes $80 off your order (only Z68 no others). If you go with the 2600K and the Gigabyte Z68 it will come to $342.26 after tax. The Gigabyte mobo has a $20 MIR on it too if you get around sending that in.
 
if your son is going to be having that type of rig he will probably be doing some gaming as well it happens lol. you might want to invest in a Cpu After Market cooler
 
Orinis said:
if your son is going to be having that type of rig he will probably be doing some gaming as well it happens lol. you might want to invest in a Cpu After Market cooler
Click to expand...

Unless he plans to over clock, which he said he wont be then the stock cooler will do just fine as long as the case is well ventilated.
 
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