Need help with a Mid-Range gaming machine

S

safehaven

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
224
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This will be primarily a gaming machine. WoW, Battlefield BC2, and any other great MMORPG and FPS's that may come along.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Around $1000 total, no tax for me, but shipping included.

3) Where do you live?
Oregon - Have a Frys local so I can in store pickup, no Microcenter though

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.
Case, mobo, RAM, hard drive, power supply, GPU, CPU, CD/DVD-RW. Did I forget anything?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mouse, keyboard, monitor. Nothing internal.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No, unless there is some compelling reason why I should. However, it may be beneficial if I got a suitable mobo for OCing, should I ever change my mind.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
25" 1920X1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Soon, maybe 1-4 weeks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
No special needs.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
No, Win7 64 will need to be included in the price. I think that I can get a 3-key version at Costco for around $130, so please take that into account.


I have no loyalty to any brand. So, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and ATI are all acceptable. I want either an Antec Three Hundred or Nine Hundred. I can get the Three Hundred at Fry's for $60. But if a good deal on a Nine Hundred could be found for not much more, I'd definitely be interested. The case needs to be included in the price. I think that I want 8GB of RAM. If that is overkill, I could easily be talked out of it. Don't know if a dual core or a quad core would be better, so I would definitely like your input there. GPU, whatever is best for my budget (I do like XFX, but not dead set on it either), I don't need a lot of hard drive space. 500GB would be plenty, 640GB would be more than plenty. I would like the hard drive to be as fast as possible, but still 7200RPM.

Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT. Seems like 2GBx3 of RAM seems like it might be the preferred setup. 6GB of RAM would be fine if this is the case.
 
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$240 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 Motherboard Combo
$110 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$370 - XFX HD-585X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5530 1GB PCI-E Video Card + XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W Modular PSU
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$25 - LG GH22NS50 DVD Burner
$55 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$130 - 3 Key version of Windows 7 from Costco
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$986 plus shipping

6GB of RAM is only the preferred setup if you're doing extensive photoshop/video editing work, running multiple MMORPG clients at the same time AND if you're going with a Core i7/X58 setup. Same applies to 8GB of RAM as well. So in other words: 4GB of RAM is fine for a gaming PC.
 
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Thanks so much for the reply. I really do appreciate you staying on budget. I do have a couple of questions, though.

In a similar build, 10 or 15 posts down, you recommended THIS MOBO AND CPU. For the extra $50, would it be worth the upgrade for my build. I could forgo the optic drive at the moment and temporarily reuse the one from my current rig. This would negate half of the difference in cost.

I also appreciate the input on the memory. I do have a question about that as well. My uses for the machine are not likely to change in the future, and you said 4GB is plenty for gaming. Would extra memory be useful as a future-proofing feature, or will 4GB likely be adequate for the life on the rig (2-4 years)?

Thanks again!
 
Yeah. opt for the X6 for $50 extra since you're playing WoW + BC2 .

4GB will be enough for most scenarios. If you happen to feel the need for more, you do have more RAM slots on your motherboard- so youre open to upgrades(future proof as you go). Just buy 2 more sticks of G.Skill RipJaws.

And i can see DDR3 still being the standard still in 2-4 years, so even if you decide to upgrade CPU+MOBO in 4 years you can reuse your memory (if they don't mess with the memory voltages again).
You wont need more though. Not now, at least.
 
Thanks for all the help. I am ordering exactly as above with the AMD X6 and Gigabyte mobo. A few things are even a few dollars cheaper today.

I have one last question. I have heard from a few people that a stand alone network interface card performs better than the integrated one on the mobo. Is this true, and should I add one to my order? If so, will the $7 Rosewill be sufficient, or do I need to ante up for an Intel? I do not need 1000Mbps capabilities.
 
Anytime you separate something that is integrated into a stand alone card it will perform better, that being said, no you don't need a stand alone nic for anything you do.
 
safehaven said:
Thanks for all the help. I am ordering exactly as above with the AMD X6 and Gigabyte mobo. A few things are even a few dollars cheaper today.

I have one last question. I have heard from a few people that a stand alone network interface card performs better than the integrated one on the mobo. Is this true, and should I add one to my order? If so, will the $7 Rosewill be sufficient, or do I need to ante up for an Intel? I do not need 1000Mbps capabilities.
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I would ditch that $290 AMD + Gigabyte mobo combo and spend the extra $10 for this combo:
$290 - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T CPU + Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX ATX Motherboard

Comes with onboard video, Definitely worth the extra $10 for backup video.

Dedicated Intel Gigabyte NIC cards are significantly better than many onboard Realtek, Marvel, or Via Gigabit NICs for heavy duty LAN transfer on a full gigabit network. For normal online gaming and webbrowsing, the onboard NIC is enough.

Also, in most cases where a dedicated NIC is recommended, it's usually gonna be an Intel NIC. They're far better than many NICs out there. Thought eh cheapest ones cost around $25 to $30.
 
can I ask why you're recommending the 5830 over a 5850? I see you doing that in a lot of threads, the 5850 gives better performance for a few bucks more, only thing that seems to be good about that combo is that it pairs with an XFX PSU. I'd rather spend the extra money and get a 5850 and more performance and just get a Corsair PSU, but to each their own!

Ok, I strike my question

Edit #1: I noticed that 5830's are a lot cheaper now than they were before when I last looked. That is a big difference in money. I'd still rather the 5850 though.

Edit #2:

DANNY, you say 5830 in your post, you mean 5850 lol, I just clicked the link, I knew something was wrong when I saw that combo and the price it was at.
 
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Fail said:
DANNY, you say 5830 in your post, you mean 5850 lol, I just clicked the link, I knew something was wrong when I saw that combo and the price it was at.
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yeah, I copied and pasted the code for the HD 5830 combo to do the HD 5850 link. Forgot to change the name. LOL!

Post updated with the correct name.

Anyway, yeah the HD 5830s are significantly cheaper than what they were a few months ago. For many builds here on the forums, the extra cash is just not there for a HD 5850.
 
I lied, I need to ask one last question. I was wrong about the Windows 7 3-key deal. That must have just been a promotional deal when it was released.

So, I can get Window 7 Premium 64-bit from any retailer for $100-120. Or, I can get a copy of Windows Professional 32-bit for $29.99 via Microsoft Student Program (I already previously purchased a 64-bit copy). I can't see myself needing any of the added features of the Pro version. So, Premium vs. Pro is, I think anyway, a non-issue. However, I would like to know about 32-bit vs 64-bit. For my use, would 32-bit, be suffice? Or, should I ante up for 64-bit?

I don't want to cheap out if 64-bit will be beneficial. But, if by buying 64-bit, I am just pissing money away, I'd like to know so I can go the more frugal approach.

Thanks again. You all are very helpful. My parts should be here maybe tomorrow. I am super excited.
 
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safehaven said:
So, I can get Window 7 Premium 64-bit from any retailer for $100-120. Or, I can get a copy of Windows Professional 32-bit for $29.99 via Microsoft Student Program (I already previously purchased a 64-bit copy). I can't see myself needing any of the added features of the Pro version. So, Premium vs. Pro is, I think anyway, a non-issue. However, I would like to know about 32-bit vs 64-bit. For my use, would 32-bit, be suffice? Or, should I ante up for 64-bit?

I don't want to cheap out if 64-bit will be beneficial. But, if by buying 64-bit, I am just pissing money away, I'd like to know so I can go the more frugal approach.
/QUOTE]
32bit will suffice for just gaming. Just go for the cheapest of the two OSes.
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peersonally I wouldnt pay for a 32 bit version if you can afford the 64 bit for a gaming machine. Although the 32 bit is fine for gaming persay the 4gb limit on ram is not. So for example the system spec'd by danny above had 4gb of system ram & 1gb of video. The OS will end up only seeing 3gb of system so that it does see the 1gb of video ram. Although that would for sure be fine for now say in the future you wanted to upgrade to a 2gb video card. you then loose another 1gb of system ram.

This being said if you wont be upgrading the system much of any before building another one later then it probably wont hurt you to have the 4gb limit. But if your the type to constantly change & upgrade shit then dont waste the money on the 32 bit.
 
bastage said:
peersonally I wouldnt pay for a 32 bit version if you can afford the 64 bit for a gaming machine. Although the 32 bit is fine for gaming persay the 4gb limit on ram is not. So for example the system spec'd by danny above had 4gb of system ram & 1gb of video. The OS will end up only seeing 3gb of system so that it does see the 1gb of video ram. Although that would for sure be fine for now say in the future you wanted to upgrade to a 2gb video card. you then loose another 1gb of system ram.

This being said if you wont be upgrading the system much of any before building another one later then it probably wont hurt you to have the 4gb limit. But if your the type to constantly change & upgrade shit then dont waste the money on the 32 bit.
Click to expand...

Very good point. I forgot about the RAM limitation. 64-bit it is!

Thanks.
 
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