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New gaming build help!

Z

zohair

n00b
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
49
Hi guys my tax return just got in and I need stimulate the economy by building a new computer!

I want to use the computer for gaming but also hopefully aiming for a smaller, quiet case, I would rather avoid overclocking. I have a ati 5850 which has been doing pretty well, maybe a build that includes dual video card setup so I can just add a 2nd 5850 when my graphics began to lag... just some thoughts.

Other nifty things, i have a some friends who work for AMD/ATI so I would get a discount for any of their products (something like 10% i believe).


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~500 ish, but flexible

3) Where do you live?
California

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM, MB, case, good primary hard drive, basically everything except monitor/peripherals and power supply

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
500 watter powersupply corsair

To give you an idea of my current specs, I am using G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz, GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L

6) Will you be overclocking?
Would rather not

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1980 x1050 22 inch monitor

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Over the next 2 months.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Don't need RAID/firewire
possible crossfire

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yep, planning on using windows 7
 
Over the next two months? Don't do that dude. Outside of extremely stupid good deals, your best bet would be to wait till you can actually spend that money and then buy all the parts in one go. You simply castrate yourself by buying parts over a two month period as recommendations for computer parts change weekly. So the parts we recommend today probably won't be that good a month from now let alone two.

So if you really can't build/buy the PC before the end of this month, I recommend that you come back 2-3 weeks before your actualy build/buy date and ask for advice again. That way you'll get up-to-date advice on hardware and deals.
 
I guess that 2 months got misconstrued, what I meant by that, was that I am in no particular rush, if there is some amazing sale thats coming in 2 months I can wait, otherwise I could buy everything today, it boils down to I am patient but want a new computer.

So advice for parts right now would be appreciated ! =)
 
zohair said:
I guess that 2 months got misconstrued, what I meant by that, was that I am in no particular rush, if there is some amazing sale thats coming in 2 months I can wait, otherwise I could buy everything today, it boils down to I am patient but want a new computer.

So advice for parts right now would be appreciated ! =)
Click to expand...

Do you happen to live near a Microcenter?

Also which 500W Corsair PSU do you have? Also you said that you have a HD 5850? How come you're not reusing that?
 
sorry for making so much confusion, Yes i was intending on reusing my graphic cards, i really not sure which power supply I have, and I am unsure of a microcenter, I live in West Los Angeles.

Thanks again
 
I tried looking on newegg for my power supply but its not listed anymore, i believe its a corsair 520 watt, it had the same writing/coloring as the current enthusiast series.

I will be reusing my ATI 5830 graphics card, and that microcenter is not really that close to me at all.

Thanks =)
 
By smaller case, do you mean like the mATX form factor? Or just a smaller ATX case? If the latter, what ATX case do you have now?
 
$210 - Intel Core i5 2500
$125 - ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM Intel H67 Motherboard
$40 - Patriot PSD34G13332 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$45 - Cooler Master Elite 341 ATX Case
$27 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
---
$502 shipped

I went with Amazon.com since they do not charge tax to CA residents whereas Newegg does.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Do you have any suggestions with an AMD cpu? I get a 10% discount on them, unless you really don't think the value competes with the intel chips.
 
zohair said:
Do you have any suggestions with an AMD cpu? I get a 10% discount on them, unless you really don't think the value competes with the intel chips.
Click to expand...
At current AMD pricing, I don't think the 10% will help unless your budget was significantly lower. With your budget, you're better off with the Intel route.
 
zohair said:
Do you have any suggestions with an AMD cpu? I get a 10% discount on them, unless you really don't think the value competes with the intel chips.
Click to expand...

Even with the discount, the higher-end AMD CPUs are overpriced for their performance. The only AMD CPUs that are good values are selected lower-end chips at this point.
 
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