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Gaming Computer Build Requested

D

darkwraith007

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 15, 2004
Messages
76
**Note**: I'd like a gaming computer I can use that will remain quiet, as in you barely know its running type of quiet. I'm also a bit out of touch on current technology, google and wikipedia can only tell me so much before my head spins. Please forgive my somewhat-ignorance, but keeping track of technology does get to be a pain at times. I'd rather ask the forum here rather then depending on random internet searches.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
-Using 1280 x 1024 resolution with all graphical settings maxed out
--EXCEPT for AntiAliasing and Antrioscopic Filtering (I can disable them if needed)
--I'll be using Win7 for DX10/11 games that take advantage of it.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$850, with tax & shipping included

3) Where do you live?
Virginia, USA

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.

COMPUTER (TOWER):

Case - looking at an Antec Case here. Would support two 'large' 180mm case fans and possibly up to 4 of those if needed, but I'm trying to keep noise level down.
Power Supply (PSU) - whatever is needed to support one or possibly 2 video cards, depending on what is needed
Case Fan(s) - possibly only one or two, they need to be *quiet* fans...
Motherboard - more details below about MoBo
Processor (CPU) - Should be dual-core or better, total 2.5+ Ghz or higher
CPU Cooler/Heatsink with Fan (HSF) - Should be included with CPU, or cheap to get a better one
Memory (RAM) - DDR3 (or DDR4 if released) fast memory, 8 GB should be fine
Hard Drive (HDD) - Should be SATA2 (or SATA3 if those are available yet), 2 hard drives at least, at least 120 GB (or better), best bang for the buck as they say...
Optical (Disc) Drive (CD/DVD/HD-DVD/BR) - Needs to read and burn CDs and DVDs.
Video/Graphics Card (GPU) - need a sub-$300 graphics card, best bang for the buck, preferably Nvidia but I'm willing to go ATI if they have good drivers...driver recommendations welcome if you can personally recommend some, otherwise I'll just use default ones.
Sound Card - Onboard sound is fine
Additional Cards
-- Wireless (802.11b/g/n) Network - I already have a USB wireless thing so I'm good
-- RAID controller - optional, built into the motherboard preferably
-- IDE/ATA/SATA controller - if needed, must be built into the motherboard
Miscellaneous
-- Floppy drive - hell no, no need, ever.
-- Memory card reader - not needed
-- Fan controller - shouldn't need it, computer should be quiet even when running intensive stuff

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
No reused parts.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Anything 17" or better, best bang for the buck, must have 75 hz refresh rate in 1280 x 1024 native res, at least, or better.
Widescreen monitor *preferred* but not required.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 7-14 days, the sooner the better...

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
I know about RAID, its an optional bonus if I can get it within my budget with everything already on the motherboard. Must have at least 4 USB ports (preferably at least 2 of them front-mounted), and anything else is a bonus, but should have PCI-express 16x slot (or whatever's the newest graphic card spec/speed)

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
WinXP Pro 64-bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I'll acquire them myself, since a friend of mine works for M$ and can get them cheaper than retail for me.

Any information would be appreciated, many thanks!

EDIT: Watercooling info removed, Win7 info added. Other minor edits and additions.
 
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I will be interested in the advice you get, because my wife wants a quiet PC as well. One advice re: monitors. Why don't you check out the Dell Financial Services offers of used Dell Monitors. http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/
I got 3 20" monitors for $90/each. Search for coupons for Dell Financial Services on google.
 
Actually, here's a DFS coupon:
Offer: 15% off monitor
Code: 15Monitor&Monitor
Expires: 2010-09-13
 
Prelim build:

$176 - AMD Phenom II X4 945 CPU + Biostar TA785G3HD AM3 AMD 785G HDMI mATX AMD Motherboard
$80 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$153 - XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$145 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU + Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Combo
$20 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$100 - Silverstone GD05B mATX HTPC Case
$110 - Hanns·G HW-191APB Black 19" DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
----
$814 plus shipping.

That Silverstone case recieved an Editor's Choice award from Silent PC Review:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/silverstone-gd05

So that should be a good indication of the case's noise level.

As clearly shown above, your $850 budget is not enough for any kind of water cooling setup. Your best bet is air. That Coolermaster HSF is a pretty quiet HSF.
 
 
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Forgive me forumites, after much consideration and looking over possible future deals, I'll wait till next year to get a new computer. I've read other threads mentioning a price drop across all vid cards in the near-future, and I also may want to save up my money and bump up the budget to get a nice water-cooled (or even possibly liquid-cooled) setup. I really wanna explore that option sometime and gathering more info will make it worthwhile. My current computer is *barely* bearable (GeFX 5600 video card, yes, its that old), but its enough for internet and such, for schoolwork at least. Lasted me ~10 years, this baby has.

I'm also an idiot because I don't know how to install a heatsink, and I'd rather not have my CPU fry to a crisp if I do it wrong. My plan may be to just get a 'barebones' setup (case, motherboard, and CPU pre-installed) and then add in everything else myself (aka the easy stuff).

Another option I'm considering is to have a system builder just build it for me (minus the OS) if I go with a water-cooled setup, just so that if something fries I have someone that I can go to for warranty services or w/e.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. If I do change my mind and decide to get something now, I'll keep you all posted. Until then, I hope at least the contributions made here will help others. :)
 
darkwraith007 said:
I'm also an idiot because I don't know how to install a heatsink, and I'd rather not have my CPU fry to a crisp if I do it wrong. My plan may be to just get a 'barebones' setup (case, motherboard, and CPU pre-installed) and then add in everything else myself (aka the easy stuff).
Click to expand...

Really? It's not that hard. Anyway, if you do get a barebones, don't be an idiot and use the PSU that's included in those barebones. 95% of the time they have some shitty ass PSU that would do more harm than good.
 
darkwraith007 said:
Forgive me forumites, after much consideration and looking over possible future deals, I'll wait till next year to get a new computer. I've read other threads mentioning a price drop across all vid cards in the near-future, and I also may want to save up my money and bump up the budget to get a nice water-cooled (or even possibly liquid-cooled) setup. I really wanna explore that option sometime and gathering more info will make it worthwhile. My current computer is *barely* bearable (GeFX 5600 video card, yes, its that old), but its enough for internet and such, for schoolwork at least. Lasted me ~10 years, this baby has.

I'm also an idiot because I don't know how to install a heatsink, and I'd rather not have my CPU fry to a crisp if I do it wrong. My plan may be to just get a 'barebones' setup (case, motherboard, and CPU pre-installed) and then add in everything else myself (aka the easy stuff).

Another option I'm considering is to have a system builder just build it for me (minus the OS) if I go with a water-cooled setup, just so that if something fries I have someone that I can go to for warranty services or w/e.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. If I do change my mind and decide to get something now, I'll keep you all posted. Until then, I hope at least the contributions made here will help others. :)
Click to expand...

You are saying you are an idiot yet, you are wanting the most difficult computer setup? Do more research, visit more forums, explore some more. I do not think you know what you want.
 
hossdaddy said:
You are saying you are an idiot yet, you are wanting the most difficult computer setup? Do more research, visit more forums, explore some more. I do not think you know what you want.
Click to expand...

Your right about one thing, it doesn't sound like he knows what he wants yet. Therefore, it's a good thing he jumped to the conclusion of holding off and doing some more research, which is what he said. No need to call yourself an idiot DarkWraith. Alot of people here are experts, that much is for sure. But they tend to be ignorant to the fact that this kind of stuff does not come natural to most people.

Continue to be cautious and ultimately if you truly want that new build, you will make it and I have no doubt you will succeed if you do your research. Best of luck!
 
Well noise level in my opinion is subjective because "quiet" means different things to whoever says it. That being said I have owned an antec 900 and currently have two coolermaster 922 haf. The 900 was a bit noisy at startup but was actually fairly quite in my opinion with the added bonus that it had great airflow. It also had 3 fan speed setting so you could change it depending on what was needed. The Coolermaster is my favorite at the moment though plenty of space, easy to to get your drives in and out of, great airflow, and it is still fairly quiet.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&cm_re=antec_900-_-11-129-021-_-Product - Antec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197&cm_re=cooler_master_haf_922-_-11-119-197-_-Product - Cooler Master
Both these cases do run you 90-110 unless you can find one for a great deal the Combo with the 600W Power supply is a decent deal and it will run 1 GPU fairly well
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.506400
This is just my opinion and I am still just a "noobie" here :D
 
Reviving my old thread, many of the links have become outdated so I'm finally ready for a new gaming computer. Budget is still ~$850 and all necessary info is in the first post I made.
And yeah, I am very glad I waited a few months since a lot of new tech has come out since Sept of last year.

I'm looking to have all the parts ordered and ready to assemble within 2 weeks at most from the date of this post. Unless there's some really awesome deals someone happens to know about that'll be a 50% or greater difference, I'm not terribly worried about waiting too long. Stuff is outdated within months as technology marches onward.

I also am aware I sounded a bit self-conscious before, but my 'idiot' remark was just an attempt at a bit of self-deprecating humor. Whatever works :)
 
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Unfortunately I don't have reliable vendors near me with decent deals. Even with the cost of shipping (if any), the tax-free nature of the net lets me get stuff way cheaper than local stores. Closest I have to computer stores are Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, and that's really about it.
 
 
I love you! =D
I'll give it a whirl and order it once I get a response to this next question of mine.
Its alright to use an AMD processor with an Nvidia card? I'd always been told you always ALWAYS do either AMD processor with ATI graphics, OR an Intel processor with Nvidia graphics, and that it was unwise to mix and match due to incompatibilities.

Of course this 'info' I got from a friend is probably outdated, but any info on the validity of this?
Soon as I get a response I'll proceed to order this stuff.

I also was recommended an aftermarket heatsink in the previous responses, do I need one for this build?
I also decided on this case instead, still within budget but WAY better for extra cooling needs in the future:
Antec 900 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

You rock =D

EDIT: A quick google search shows no serious issues from what I can tell. I'll go ahead and order it now, but a response is still requested as soon as possible. Thanks again :)
I'm also skipping that stupid $10 mail in rebate. Subtracting the cost of postage (about $1 with all the crap they make you cut out and mail), its not worth it for me. Manufacturers should realize their MIR should be at LEAST $20 or more to make it worthwhile. Meh. Its still a great deal though :)
Its a 'rebate card', not a check, WTF!? o_O Is it really cheaper for them to send a damn plastic card instead of a check!? And the typical '10-12 weeks' bullshit.
Just checked my credit union's website. 3.25% APY compounded monthly on balances $1500 or less. Yeah, I can make WAY more in interest, about ~$5 per month.
 
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Order completed, will wait for NewEgg to get stuff shipped out and I'll let ya know how it goes :)
Certain deals go *really* fast. They had a deal on two 4GB sticks of name-brand DDR3 memory for ~$75 and it was 'auto removed due to out of stock' before I could even order it! :(
Early birds catch it...
 
Trouble with NewEgg.

I seriously can't believe the so-called 'legendary' NewEgg would pull something like this.
Thankfully I received all the material goods I ordered, but I didn't receive the coupon for the 'free' game of Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2. After contacting them, the best they can offer me is a $25 gift card, even though they charge $60 for the coupon on their site. Although I wasn't charged for the nonexistant product, it still smacked of being 'ripped off'.

NewEgg has since removed the coupon offer from their site, though not prior to my order (I should've taken a screenshot but didn't feel I would have to, now I know).

I contacted NewEgg via phone and after waiting about ~5 mins (short wait time! not bad!), they had a customer service person help me out. I explained my issue (and he pulled up my info instantly almost since I was logged into my account). He offered me a $25 credit to the credit card I used to pay and I said that was an acceptable compromise.

So now, if I take out $5 for s&h, I got a $20 'discount' on the video card plus I can just borrow the games from my friends who have them and play them on console.

I'm very glad I got the aftermarket heatsink, since the stock heatsink came with a stupid 'thermal pad'. Yuck!!! Thanks for that tip that saved me a bit of grief! :)

I'm having a friend of mine help me with installing the CPU onto the motherboard since its a very precise and fine art of applying the thermal paste and installing the heatsink onto the CPU. I do NOT want to mess up anything since this is my first time doing it with such expensive components! O_O

I even read about 'lapping', or using fine-grit sandpaper to file away and smooth the CPU even moreso for a better seal and heat transfer, however the effort involved will exceed the benefit to me. Unless my friend wants to do it or has a lot of patience, I won't bother. A mere 5 degrees Celsius benefit isn't worth it IMHO, especially when I'm not even OC'ing it.

EDIT: I got a problem. Does the heatsink even fit on the motherboard? Its HUGE!!! The BioStar motherboard that you linked before is also a Micro-ATX board! There's a stock heatsink that came with the CPU I could use without issues but I'd still have to return this aftermarket one. Any help guys? O_O

EDIT2: I should mention that I could've just 'downgraded' to a lower-priced processor and just used the ASUS motherboard I purchased to 'unlock' the extra cores already present. Would've saved me about $30. *sigh* I got the ASUS motherboard cause they're excellent quality and cause of all the negative reviews regarding that 'BioStar' motherboard and the lack of support by that company. No thanks, if I want cheap asian parts I'll just grab me a Dell or prebuilt shit of a system.

EDIT3: Going to use a dual-boot setup of 2 partitions, one with a vLite'd Win7 Ultimate 64-bit, and one with an nLite'd WinXP SP3 32-bit. I'm turning off as much 'OS Eye Candy' as possible. If I want eye candy I'll save it for games. I feel an OS is just a tool to use for whatever purpose as quickly and efficently as possible with maximum speed and performance regardless of eye candy.
 
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darkwraith007 said:
Trouble with NewEgg.
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that man.
darkwraith007 said:
I'm very glad I got the aftermarket heatsink, since the stock heatsink came with a stupid 'thermal pad'. Yuck!!! Thanks for that tip that saved me a bit of grief! :)
Click to expand...
Umm, that thermal paste pad isn't bad at all. It's actually effective.

darkwraith007 said:
EDIT: I got a problem. Does the heatsink even fit on the motherboard? Its HUGE!!! The BioStar motherboard that you linked before is also a Micro-ATX board! There's a stock heatsink that came with the CPU I could use without issues but I'd still have to return this aftermarket one. Any help guys? O_O
Click to expand...
It should fit. I don't see how it couldn't.

darkwraith007 said:
EDIT2: I should mention that I could've just 'downgraded' to a lower-priced processor and just used the ASUS motherboard I purchased to 'unlock' the extra cores already present. Would've saved me about $30. *sigh* I got the ASUS motherboard cause they're excellent quality and cause of all the negative reviews regarding that 'BioStar' motherboard and the lack of support by that company. No thanks, if I want cheap asian parts I'll just grab me a Dell or prebuilt shit of a system.
Click to expand...
Wait, what motherboard did you buy

darkwraith007 said:
EDIT3: Going to use a dual-boot setup of 2 partitions, one with a vLite'd Win7 Ultimate 64-bit, and one with an nLite'd WinXP SP3 32-bit. I'm turning off as much 'OS Eye Candy' as possible. If I want eye candy I'll save it for games. I feel an OS is just a tool to use for whatever purpose as quickly and efficently as possible with maximum speed and performance regardless of eye candy.
Click to expand...
Yeah from everything I've read, the last thing you want to do is vLite Windows 7. It doesn't do anything at all but introduces potential problems.
 
I'll respond a bit here.

-I'll probably end up selling off the stock heatsink on these forums to whoever wants it and is willing to pay shipping. I'll do that in another thread though, when all else is handled.

-I've read tons of issues about thermal pads not working as well as advertised and failing early. Considering I've got premium pricey parts here, I want this comp to last me at least a decade like my current comp has done. I'll just sell it alongside the stock heatsink equipment. I don't doubt thermal pads can be effective but thermal paste does the job better :)

My Rig:
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case = 99.99
AMD Phenom 2 X4 840 Quad-Core Processor = 109.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 - 120mm CPU Cooler = 34.99
ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard = 84.99
Thermaltake TR2 W0379RU 500W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply = 54.99
Corsair XMS DDR3 SDRAM 1600 - 4GB = 54.99 x 2 (since I got 8 GB)
MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card = 249.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive = 64.99
LITE-ON Black 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM = 17.99
ASUS VW225TAA Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 ASCR 8000:1 Built-in Speakers = 149.99

Combo Discount: $20.00
SubTotal: $952.89
S&H UPS 3-day: $11.53
Semi-Total: $964.42
Rebates of $40 minus ~$2 in postage and gas = $38 plus around 20 mins of my time to do everything and cut out UPC codes.
Plus cost of $35 paid to have an expert at the local computer shop install that aftermarket heatsink (I wasn't gonna risk cracking my motherboard)
Almost-Total: $961.42

**Update**
Sold the shitty TR2 ThermalTake to some sod for $30 (thank you CraigsList!) and bought this PSU instead:
Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 Power Supply = 89.99 shipped
So the *new* total is:
[H]ardTotal: $1,021.41

I also got another hard drive, but that was more for my thing and it was ~$35 shipped so I won't include it in the [H]ardTotal since its just a completely optional thing.
**/Update**

About $161.42 over budget, but I got a much better motherboard, 4 GB more of premium-quality RAM at a higher clock rate, a better hard drive, and a better case. Not bad, IMHO. I could've downgraded to a dual-core AMD X2 and just unlocked 2 more cores to get a quad-core, saving me about $30, but the guy at the computer shop let me know this only after I'd already NewEgg'd everything. Should've consulted with him first before ordering, he's [H]arder than many people here, no offense intended. I also probably could've shopped around a bit more and squeezed *MAYBE* $15 or so off prices if I waited for special deals or 'shell shockers' or w/e. Tech gets outdated quickly, plus my time is more valuable then the money I'd otherwise save, so meh. I got what I needed from one place for one price at decent prices. Biggest wallet-pain was the vid card and memory, but it'll be worth it after everything is setup and ready to rock!

Here's some more info on core unlocking. It seems its better for me to just spend the extra money for guaranteed-stability rather than risk it crapping out on me unexpectedly. Its a tradeoff of convenience and guarantee versus uncertainty. I don't regret my purchase, especially with about ~$30 price difference not really worth it. Now if I'd happened to have been able to get the unreleased X4 960T processor, I could unlock that into a hexa-core (hopefully) if everything went well. Since its a $100+ or so difference, it would be well worth the effort. I'll at least in the future be able to hopefully upgrade my CPU later on when necessary w/o having to do a full rebuild, although I doubt there's a huge performance diff between 4 and 6 cores in all but a few applications and possibly games. They only recently have started supporting dual-cores for gaming, goodness knows how long it'll be for 4 or even 6 core support.

I've heard at least a dozen people warning against nLite and vLite of OS's. I appreciate the input but I'm a vet when it comes to customizing software installs. I know what I'm doing at least as far as software is concerned. :)

(Ninja-Update: Due to how Windows 7 works with 'disabling' unneeded 'features' for myself as a power-user, things like Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and so on, as well as unsatisfactory issues arising from attempting to vLite things, I ended up just making a Win7 SP1 slipstreamed 'vanilla' install disk and just using that then LATER customizing things how I wanted them to work. Still running and haven't yet needed to reinstall, though I may do so when Win7 SP2 is released).
 
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Need a response on this quickly, fate of my rig depends on it. Nvidia says 500W is the MINIMUM system power needed for a system build with this card.

So what's the deal? Will I fry my system if I actually try to play games? Is the power supply sufficient or do I gotta grab a replacement?

EDIT: According to a few power calculators, I'm about 100W short of the power that I need, at the minimum. Things are ok for now only cause I haven't stressed my system. This is such a pain in the arse...ugh. Time to RMA it. >_>
 
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Whoever told you to get the Thermaltake TR2, they didn't know anything about PSUs. From the looks of it, no one here in this thread told you to buy a shitty PSU. While yes a good quality 500W PSU would be enough for that setup, you happen to buy a shitty 500W. The Thermaltake TR2 series are well known to be pieces of shit power supplies. So yes you will fry your system if you play games and yes you do need to grab a replacement.
 
I am a moron. Hossdaddy, you linked a pretty good corsair PSU which I completely ignored for some odd reason. I believe it was newegg's combo deal thing that got me that shitty ThermalTake PSU...ugh.

In any case, its my bad. Thanks to all who contributed! I'll update this thread next once I get everything running awesome and stable and OS fully installed/customized. Pics to come soon :)

Caveat Emptor indeed...
All you ever wanted to know about power supplies, and then some.
Hopefully some newbies can come across my experiences and avoid non-ToughPower ThermalTake brands in the future.

EDIT: Instead of bumping my thread (which might anger mods and others), I'll just edit this post to include pics once I get off my arse and get them taken. Gonna clean out the computer soon so that'll be a great time for me to get some pics in :) Also will update the signature to bump up the total closer to ~$1k where it should be.
 
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darkwraith007 said:
Hopefully some newbies can come across my experiences and avoid ThermalTake in the future.
Click to expand...
Well if you had read the thread you linked to, there are very solid Thermaltake PSUs out there and they're all part of one brand: Thermaltake's Toughpower brand. Any non-Toughpower Thermaltake PSU is pretty much shit however.

So just avoid the non-Toughpower Thermaltake PSUs and you'll be fine.
 
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