Friend's Gaming Build - $1500 CAD

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kevinzak

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
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This is for a friend of mine. He'll be using it primarily for Everquest 2 and a few other games (Rift, Star Wars the Old Republic, SC2, Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, and Dragon Age 2 when it comes out).

At any given time he might be running 3 instances of Everquest 2, so I guess keep that in mind.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming PC
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Tax included, looking to keep it under $1500 CAD
3) Where do you live?
Vancouver, BC
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, Heatskink, CPU, RAM, SSD, Motherboard, Power Supply, Video Card, optical drive
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Nvidia 9800 GT if it won't hurt overall performance
6) Will you be overclocking?
yes
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
I have a 23" monitor and a 19" secondary display
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
soon as I have the parts sorted out
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Raid and SATA2 would be enough (Raid for future use)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 64-bit
 
What's the resolution of both monitors? Will you or your friend be buying a second 23" monitor in the near future?

Which store(s) do you plan on buying parts from?
 
2048x1152 on main screen, 1280x1024 on secondary.

Plan on purchasing from Newegg and N C I X

I may end up getting a duplicate of the primary monitor, but that may not be for a few months
 
All right I'm just gonna go with some general parts recommendation for now:
- The AMD Phenom II 955 should be the cheaper CPU you should get for that kind of budget. Considering that he's running multiple instances of a MMORPG, he should definitely aim for the six-core AMD Phenom II 1055T CPU. Don't bother with the Phenom II 965, 970, 1075T, or 1090T as those CPUs are grossly overpriced.

- Motherboard wise, stick with Asus or Gigabyte motherboards with the AMD 870, 880G, or 890GX motherboard chipsets.

- Due to that multiple instances and the planned overclocking, go for two of the cheapest 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM sticks that you can find for a total of 8GB of RAM to start with. And I do meana single 4GB RAM stick, not that 2 x 2GB setup.

- PSU wise, stick with Corsair non-Gamer/Builder or Antec's non-Basiq PSU lines. Something in the 650W range at the minimum.

- GPU wise, aim for the HD 6970 or the GTX 580 depending on which card fits your budget.
 
Well this is what I built a year ago for the wife, just wondering if there is something comparable.

Motherboard Gigabyte EX58-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 2PCI-E 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GLAN CrossFireX Motherboard

Processor Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.66GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 -SLBEJ-

Memory Corsair XMS3 TR3x6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit

Power Supply Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan

Heatsink Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H50 High Performance CPU Cooler System LGA775 LGA1366 LGA1156 AM2 AM3

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB Dual Proc 3.5IN SATA Hard Drive

OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition OEM
 
$190 CAD - Intel Core i5 760 CPU
$137 CAD - Asus P7P55D-E LX Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
$57 CAD - G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$385 CAD - Powercolor Radeon HD 6950 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$126 CAD - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SSD
$48 CAD - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$104 CAD - Seasonic SS-750HT 750W PSU
$30 CAD - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
---
Total: $1077 CAD

Disregarding the SSD and GPU, the above setup will provide at least 90% for the performance of that setup you made for your wife when it comes to games.

Choose your own case. I recommend the following:
$55 - NZXT M59 ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
$80 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$80 - Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Case
$80 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$110 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$130 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$160 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case (US Shipping Factored in) (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$160 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium ATX Case (US Shipping Factored in) (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$160 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver ATX Case (US Shipping Factored in) (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$200 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$200 - Lian Li PC-B25F ATX Case
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
$240 - Lian Li PC-A71F Black ATX Case
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
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With that kind of budget, you absolutely want to go Sandy Bridge.

Tentative build, with approximate prices:

Core i5 2500K - $230
Asus P67 board - $140
8GB DDR3-1333 - $80
Corsair 650TX - $100
CM HAF 922 - $90
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium - $100
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB - $120
1TB 7200RPM HDD - $70
DVD-RW - $30
HD 6950 or GTX 570 - $300 or $350

$1310 + HST = $1480. (with the GTX 570...$50 less with the 6950)

edit: forgot the CPU cooler...

add a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ for $30.
 
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard - $190

Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K - $225

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR - $110

Newegg.com - SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - $160

Newegg.com - PNY VCGGTX570XPB GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - $350

Newegg.com - CORSAIR Hydro H70 CWCH70 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler - $102

Newegg.com - Corsair Graphite Series 600T Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $150

Throw in a HD.. maybe an Intel SSD (or wait till next generation, February?) for your OS and frequently used games and a storage drive for less important programs.

Newegg.com - Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G2K5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
 
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I'd go with a Caviar Blue instead of the Green drive for a gaming machine. Other than that it looks pretty snappy. I lost track of heatsinks but $102 for a cooler is a lot - if it's really, really good then it's probably worth it.
 
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