Under $600 gaming pc build

A

agamid

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Dec 29, 2008
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Looking to make a new gaming computer, budget is around $650 with shipping.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

1. Gaming (left 4 dead and the witcher for example), web browsing
2. $600 approximately before taxes and shipping
3. Arlington, VA
4. Need CPU, Mother board, RAM, Power supply, Graphics card and Cooling fan.
5. Reusing Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, Case, DVD burner and hard drives
6. Probably not.
7. I have a 19in wide screen - 1440x900
8. Plan to purchase in the next 2 weeks.
9. Just need something that has both sata and ide support

I'm looking at picking up this stuff from newegg -
Mother Board - ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Power supply - BFG Tech LS SERIES LS-550 550W Continuous @ 40°C ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.8 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400

Cooling Fan - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

Graphics Card - EVGA 512-P3-N873-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

With the combo deal for the processor and mother board it's around $601 before taxes and shipping. So just wondering if any one has any thoughts on better components or better deals. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks.
 
I would only change two things:

CPU: Intel Q6600 - $189.99 shipped ($15 more than an E8400, but more and more games are starting to utilize more than 2 cores, plus with photoshop it will help too)

GPU: MSI GTX260 - $199.99 shipped ($15 more than a 9800GTX+, totally worth it)
 
Thanks for the input guys, I had no idea the GTX260 cards where so cheap. I'm still on the fence about the quad core but it might be worth it for $15. Any idea if the power supply I have would be enough for the configuration I have in my first post or with the GTX260?
 
The BFG LS-550 PSU is a good PSU. It is more than enough to power a GTX 260, HD4870 or even a GTX 280 1gig. Since you don't need a mobo with extra features etc, this build should be very strong expecially for 1440 x 900 res.

PSU - BFG LS-550 for $66.49($20 MIR) w/free shipping
http://www.buy.com/prod/bfg-tech-55...-eps12v-power-supply/q/loc/101/207955009.html

CPU/Video Card (Combo Deal) - Intel E8400 + Sapphire Radeon HD4870 512MB($20 MIR) both for $365
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.149461

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L for $85 w/free shipping
http://www.buy.com/prod/giga-byte-s...rd-intel-p43-express/q/loc/101/208344187.html

Memory - 4gig G. Skills DDR2 800 for $40 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

Heatsink - XIGMATEK HDT-SD964 92mm Rifle for $28($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233014

Retention Bracket - XIGMATEK ACK-I7753 Retention Bracket For 4 heatpipes for $15.19 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233020

Total: $599.68 before shipping & taxes

Not sure what case you have as the 120mm Xigmatek may not fit in your case but, the 92mm will do just fine.
 
So one vote yes and one vote no for the BFG LS-550 PSU , I'll have to do more research on that one then.

I do like your build hardwareguru, though I don't care for ATI cards, last one I had was a nightmare (not that that means this one wouldn't be fine).

Since one thing every one seems to be swapping out is the motherboard, is the one I picked in my initial build not that great or is it just more features than I need? I ask only because I used to be a Abit person and since they seem to be dead Asus was always recommended to me in the past and I've never used MSI or Gigabyte before.

Again thanks for all the info everyone. The last PC I built was the one I'm using now which was 5 years ago so a fair bit has changed since then... man that makes me sound like an old person.
 
In my opinion, both the BFG and the PCP&C should be good.

I would go for the Q6600 over the E8400 and get the Xigmatek S1283 instead maybe, but that might push you over your budget.
 
agamid said:
So one vote yes and one vote no for the BFG LS-550 PSU , I'll have to do more research on that one then.
Click to expand...

Another vote for the BFG LS-550. That PC Power & Cooling 610 will take a big bite out of your budget since it costs $105. That BFG PSU is a good quality PSU as SixtyWattMan showed.

agamid said:
Since one thing every one seems to be swapping out is the motherboard, is the one I picked in my initial build not that great or is it just more features than I need?
Click to expand...

HardwareGuru just chose the DS3L since it was the only mobo that fit in his $600 setup. Nothing wrong with the Asus P5Q Pro. Also, according from what you answered in the questions, it doesn't look like you need all of the features of the Asus P5Q Pro.
 
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