Seconday Gaming PC -or- Upgrade/Replace Main PC

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soul555top

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2010
Messages
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I am interested in building a secondary gaming PC for friends who come over. This PC does not have to be state of the art and I imagine it being lower quality than my current PC (in sig). I would like to spend only $5-600 on it and will build it myself. I plan on picking up a cheap LCD to go along with this, which will not be included in that budget. My dilemma is that I also wouldn't mind putting together a new machine for myself, and use my current as the secondary. Obviously I would imagine it being superior to my current. The budget for that would be roughly $1000 for only the box. I have no complaints with my current PC as it handles BC2 very well, among other games, and I have been looking for a Q9550/9650 and 4GB more RAM (or possibly 8GB 1066) to upgrade it. I would prefer to stick with Intel CPU and Nvidia EVGA GPU, but am open to the new 5xxx ATI cards.

I have seperated the needs for the two PC's as A=lower priced secondary PC and B=new main pc.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
A) Gaming, Web Browsing
B) Gaming, Web Browsing, Video Editing, Itunes, General Work/School
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
A) $5-600
B) $1000
3) Where do you live?
Bellevue, WA 98006 (Close to Seattle, Fry's within driving distance)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
A) CPU/FAN, Mobo, GPU, PSU, HDD, RAM, Case, Sound Card (Monitor/Speakers seperate)
B) Everything except mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, headphones
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
A) Have mouse, keyboard, gaming headset (my extras)
B) Would reuse mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, headphones
6) Will you be overclocking?
I don't have to. My last 2 overclocks were super easy e6550 (selecting to boost it to e6750 speed) and e8400 (boosting fsb speed to get 3.6). If its that easy and the processor allows for it, why not? I don't have experience oc'ing GPU but figure it is similar.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
A) 20-24" LCD @ 1920x1080 (Not against 1920x1200 but don't know if budget will allow a GPU to power it well)
B) 27" LCD 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Can start as soon as I get some direction.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Don't need Raid, Firewire, eSATA, prefer a single GPU setup (no experience with multi-gpu and prefer single due to less power/heat/noise)
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
I will be getting Windows 7 Pro 32/64 via student discount (I believe this is $75 now...)
 
Last edited:
soul555top said:
Just found this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.343620

Would need a video card still, but $400 seems like a decent deal. Don't know much about i3, will research them tomorrow during work (because after work is for BC2...).
Click to expand...

Not that good since due to the low quality PSU.

Here's a prelim build for A)
$158 - AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU + Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 Motherboard
$105 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$160 - XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$110 - Antec 200 Case + Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
----
Total: $589 plus tax and shipping
 
If Fry's has a good deal on an i7 920 I would build yourself a new system and use your current as the backup. I would go 920 + GB X58A + 6gb G.Skill ddr3 and then use your gtx 285 with it. Then grab a 5770 and throw it in your old system and that would be perfect for your guests.
 
Danny Bui said:
Not that good since due to the low quality PSU.

Here's a prelim build for A)
$158 - AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU + Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 Motherboard
$105 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$160 - XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$56 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$110 - Antec 200 Case + Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU
----
Total: $589 plus tax and shipping
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good. I have no idea about AMD cpu's...reviews say that the cpu is good though. Am I looking at unlocking the 4th core and (without me looking into it yet) is it something that is pretty simple? I read that people were successful using the listed mobo. Also, I am thinking of just using a spare 320GB 7200rpm Seagate HDD for seconday build A. I could either just pocket that money (towards monitor, fan etc) or apply that $60ish back into the build....do you see anywhere in that listed build I could add $60 for a decent upgrade (better cpu maybe?).

@Shadowssong: Yeah that has been on my mind for a while, a 920. However, do you think if I spend 2-300 on a q9550/9650 and 4GB RAM (to bump total to 8GB) would hold me over until the next major releases? Maybe the 6+ core i's and Fermi in a year? As mentioned above, my current build handles everything @ 1920x1200 really well, even BC2.
 
Very simple to unlock the core: change ACC to auto and EC Firmware to Hybrid, reboot. Keep in mind, its YMMV. I believe the unlock rate is around 70%. I had a success rate of 75% until my last try, lol; was 3/4, but now 3/5.

Yah, you could bump the CPU up a bit with that extra $55...
$223 - COMBO: AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz + GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3

Since this is a secondary PC, I'd simply buy all these parts used. :p Though, normally, I'd highly suggest upgrading your current rig and demoting it to the secondary, but you say your current rig performs perfectly. If you don't like used, then I'd highly suggest waiting for a good Fry's CPU/Mobo combo, since the mobo's typically end up being free or around $20 or less... the deals this week are ok:

$110 - Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7500 & BioStar G41-M7 mATX DDR2 Motherboard ($10 MIR)
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com...ocessor-E7500-BioStar-G41-M7-mATX-Motherboard

$120 - AMD Athlon II X4 635 Processor & BioStar A770E3 DDR3 Motherboard ($10 MIR)
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com...I-X4-635-Processor-BioStar-A770E3-Motherboard

In case you go with option (B):
$370 - Intel Core i7 Processor 930 & MSI X58 Pro-E Motherboard ($20 MIR)
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com...re-i7-Processor-930-MSI-X58-Pro-E-Motherboard
 
So I am definitely going to go with option A. I found some more RAM and will be awaiting a decent deal on a q9550/9650 to toss into my sig rig. That should be plenty to hold me over till a major main pc upgrade.

Looking for any more build options for secondary gaming pc. I will not be needing a HDD for it anymore. Can we try to get this build from the 5-600 range to 4-500?
 
Went to Fry's Saturday morning ready to purchase all the components but they were sold out of the chip in that combo deal. They wouldn't give me any discount or any type of deal to compete with that and also no rain check. I even tried to have them give me the x3 chip (lower price than the x4) for the same combo cost and they would not. Knowing how Fry's ads work, I decided to just hold off till their next deal (assuming this week...).

They did have plenty of 5770's from $160+ and 4GB DDR3 from $100+. They had the Antec 300 for $10 less than the 200 (300 for $49.99), but was unsure on a "quality"psu. Is the Antec Basiq series ok, like a 500ish watt? If I remember correctly it was $50 for the 500W Basiq.

Anyways, will be keeping an eye out on the Fry's cpu/mobo combos.
 
$50 for the 500W Basiq is too much considering that that there are significanty better quality PSUs for that price. I.e Corsair 400CX, Antec EA430, Antec EA380, etc.
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