Moderate gaming build/upgrade ~$600

S

Sayth

Gawd
Joined
Oct 7, 2001
Messages
618
I'll answer questions first:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Moderate Gaming (Crysis, Left 4 Dead 2, Fallout 3, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 [when they come out] ) and Photoshop, Lightroom
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Approximately $600 give or take. Tax and shipping included.
3) Where do you live?
Ontario, Canada
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM, MOBO, Power Supply, MAYBE GPU. See below.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec Sonata III case. 250GB Seagate SATA HDD. LG Multi Disc Drive, Maybe Asus EN9800GT Ultimate
6) Will you be overclocking?
Mildly maybe.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
21" Viewsonic (1680x1050) would like to get 1080p by mid summer.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within 1-2 months Merry Christmas ME!
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
SLI if I keep my current GPU. But that is up for debate. Is SLI/Crossfire really needed anymore?
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes Windows 7 64bit

So the answers are pretty straight forward but I just can't decide between AMD, i5, or i7. I think i7 is way more than I need but the future-proofing of it would be nice.

I used to be an AMD fanboi, but I'll take anything. Mainly because I'm an nVidia fanboi due to its support for linux. Are newer ATI cards well supported under linux now?

Should I upgrade my GPU or simply add another (if I can find one) and SLI them?

Thanks in advanced! I look forward to your suggestions.
 
Yup, the Antec Earthwatts 500 is a good PSU. You should be fine. Stick with that. I have one question though. You have a ASUS 9800GT PCI-E video and your system is an Athlon 64 3000+ with DDR Ram??? How is that so? What is your mobo?
 
DFI LanParty Ultra D I believe... some combination of those letters but yeah I tried to future-proof my mobo, but never upgraded the cpu
 
That 9800GT must be really choking with that Athlon 64 3000+ single core cpu. Here's what you can do for now

Reuse your existing Antec Sonata III case w/500 Earthwatts PSU

Reuse your LG Optical Drive

Reuse your ASUS 9800GT video card for now and see how it performs with the Core i5 quad cpu upgrade. This should guarantee increase in FPS over your single core Athlon 64 3000+ cpu. You can always upgrade your video card later if not satisfied.

Intel Corei5-750 for $219.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

ASUS P7P55 for $134.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131604

G. Skills Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600 for $83.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Seagate Barracuda 500GB Sata Drive for $59.99 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

You might as well upgrade the HDD since 250GB is pretty small these days considering that games and photos take up space. Use the 250GB as a storage drive for your photos. Plus the newer Sata drives will be faster than your older 250GB Sata drive.

Total: $498.96
 
Hmm I like it. I know my 9800 is so bottlenecked, but it was the begining of an upgrade this spring that ended up having to be put on hold. Kinda bought a house heh. After I buy this new build I might put an x2 4200 in my current pc for a media server.

Thanks for the recomendations. I hadn't realized newegg.ca became so competitive. Last time I looked they couldn't match canadacomputers.com.
 
You can get a video card, if you minus the Seagate 500GB Sata HDD and get a Radeon HD 4870 or 5770 video card. But, I would not bother right now. I rather see how the 9800GT will perform first under the new build and then decide whether you want to get another video card. I would just enjoy the 9800GT card for now and get a 1080P monitor later. Then, upgrade the video card to a 5850 video card or even 5870 1GB. By then, at least the 5800 series video cards will be more available and at a more decent price. You still can play those games you listed. I'm still on my 8800GT and I was playing games with resolutions of 1440 x 900 - 1920 x 1200 depending on the game.
 
So I came close to what you specd for me HardwareGuru.

I bought:
Intel Corei5-750 $209.99
Asus P755D LE (lx not in stock at canadacomputers) $139.99
G. Skills Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600 PC3 12800 $99.99
WD Caviar Black 500GB $64.99

Paid a little more but I couldn't wait for shipping. And I know I got raped on the mobo, but it was worth getting it ASAP. Also, thanks for recomending the new HDD. Average speed is almost double according to HDTach.

Total = 514.96+tx

Win 7 64bit Rating:
CPU = 7.3
RAM = 7.5
Graphics = 6.9
Gaming Graphics = 6.9
HDD = 5.9

Very happy! Built in 1 hour and ran first boot! That NEVER happens with my builds.

HardwareGuru you ARE the MAN!
 
How fast is that 500GB? can you post the HDTach and/or HDTune screenshot?

No pics of the build?!
 
Isn't the "9800GT" Ultimate the one with 128 shaders?

You'd probably have to get to the 5800 series to get a significant improvement on your framerates and such, so I'd stick with what you have now.
 
Yeah you're right it is the 128 shaders.

Graphics are fantastic.

Here are a few pics of the build.

cimg496703.jpg

The case and my 3 or 4 year old 20.1" Viewsonic that came with 2 dead pixels :( Store wouldn't replace it. Can't see it in games though.

cimg496905.jpg

The parts... :D

cimg497006.jpg

The old yellow DFI Lanparty nf4 Ultra D and AMD Athlon 64 with 4x Kingston 512MB DDR

cimg497107.jpg

Cables removed

cimg497208.jpg

Size comparison of my older Gecube ATI Radeon X700 vs. my newer Asus 9800GT Ultimate. Poor thing has been soooo bottlenecked for the last year or so.

cimg497612.jpg

Empty Antec Sonata III. absalutely LOVE this case. Classy and functional. Quiet too.

cimg497713.jpg

The new Assus P7P55D LE. I like the blue better than yellow!

cimg498016.jpg

Secured. It's much smaller... hmmmm

cimg498218.jpg

RAM and both HDD installed

cimg498319.jpg


Everything connected! Works great! I was even able to connect my fron USB, eSata and Audio connectors. Not possible on the DFI . All the ports were underneath the Goliath of a Video card.:rolleyes:


Here's the comparison of the 9800GT vs 9800GT Ultimate.
9800gtroundup.jpg


HDTach coming in a few minutes.

Again props to HWGuru.

And yes I will get around to changing my sig now.
 
Here are the HDTach results:

httach250.jpg

My old Seagate Baracuda 250GB.

httach500.jpg

My new WD Caviar Black 500GB.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top