Want a new Desktop Build - $1000 budget

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polive

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 28, 2005
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I've been out of touch in the computing realm a little while as far as new systems.

CPU, Mobo, RAM are the most important. Overclocking ability is somewhat important.

Case secondary, but must be full tower, air cooled.

Want a I5 or I7 Intel chipset with at least 4 GB DDR3.

No video card, no sound card, no hard drives, no PSU, monitor, or peripherals are necessary.

What is the best stuff out now for gaming within $1000, maybe slightly over.

Would appreciate any advice!
 
Please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!"
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, web, etc.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1000 total
3) Where do you live?
Florida
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.
Mobo, RAM, CPU, case
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
PSU = OCZ ModXtream Pro 600W, Windows 7 Ultimate, 8800 GTS G92 512 MB OC, hard drives, monitor
6) Will you be overclocking?
Yes
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Have a 24" 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Late September 2010 hopefully
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Overclocking ability and very stable mobo, SLI/XFire are NOT necessary
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate already have.
 
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polive,

You might have to figure in the cost of a new PSU into your budget. This is because the ModXStream Pro is a mediocre-quality Sirfa-made PSU that's barely capable of 400W under realistic operating conditions.

Also, you may want to upgrade your graphics card since you are planning to have a 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 monitor especially if your 8800GTS is one of the earliest (G80-based) versions with 320MB or 640MB of RAM. Those early 8800GTS's will barely suffice at 1440x900 resolution at anything above medium detail these days. And at 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 you would have to turn the detail level all the way down to the absolute lowest settings just to achieve a consistently playable frame rate in most games.
 
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I have the G92 superclock version. Yes it's not the greatest, and I do plan on getting a GTX 260 soon.

I haven't had any problems with the PSU I have yet. If the 260 will be using more power I'd probably upgrade that as well, and add another hundred or so into the budget.
 
polive said:
I have the G92 superclock version. Yes it's not the greatest, and I do plan on getting a GTX 260 soon.

I haven't had any problems with the PSU I have yet. If the 260 will be using more power I'd probably upgrade that as well, and add another hundred or so into the budget.
Click to expand...

The GTX 260 uses significantly more power than the 8800GTS 512MB. Are you getting the GTX 260 used or something?
 
No, probably a new one in a little while when prices drop a bit. That's not in the budget, that's an extra.

I would like suggestions on mobo, cpu, and RAM combos that do well together. Thinking i5 probably quad core, with 4-8 GB of good RAM.

Mobo and CPU I would like to be easy to OC.
 
polive said:
No, probably a new one in a little while when prices drop a bit. That's not in the budget, that's an extra.

I would like suggestions on mobo, cpu, and RAM combos that do well together. Thinking i5 probably quad core, with 4-8 GB of good RAM.

Mobo and CPU I would like to be easy to OC.
Click to expand...

Umm, GTX 260 cards have gone up in price over the past few months. They're not gonna drop in price at all now that the GTX 4xx series is out. In addition, the HD 5770 is a better bang for the buck card than the GTX 260.

$320 - Intel Core i5 750 CPU + Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 Intel P55 ATX Motherboard Combo
$170 - XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W PSU + G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL Ripjaws Series 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
----
Total: $490 plus tax and shipping.
 
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Stimz said:
Also remember your 32bit OS will not recognize more than 4GB of ram.
Click to expand...

Actually, not even 4GB of RAM. In fact, if you get a 1GB video card, the OP's system might actually see less than 3GB of RAM. In fact, I have read reports that some systems with high-end GPUs and 32-bit Windows OSes actually saw only 1.25GB of RAM maximum.
 
Sorry, I mean a 4xx Fermi card!

Also, I will get an upgrade on my OS to 64 bit.

Consider those extras for the moment.

I am mainly interested in the mobo, proc, and ram. What's good now and can OC, especially a good MOBO!!!

Probably 200 max on mobo, 200+ on proc, and 200 on RAM, case may be necessary considering that I have a midsize now (in sig). I would really like a full tower.

Sorry for any confusion in my original posts. :)

What systems have been working for you guys for smooth gaming, general use?? I REALLY appreciate the input as I have had the same system for a while, with minimal upgrades. Time for a rehaul!
 
polive said:
I am mainly interested in the mobo, proc, and ram. What's good now and can OC, especially a good MOBO!!!

Probably 200 max on mobo, 200+ on proc, and 200 on RAM, case may be necessary considering that I have a midsize now (in sig). I would really like a full tower.

Sorry for any confusion in my original posts. :)

What systems have been working for you guys for smooth gaming, general use?? I REALLY appreciate the input as I have had the same system for a while, with minimal upgrades. Time for a rehaul!
Click to expand...
Read post #8 again. That's been the deafult overclocking build we've been recommending here in forums for quite a while now. If there's a part that you don't like, specify why exactly you don't like it.
 
@Danny Bui

Sorry, somehow didn't see your links there. Thank you for that!

But I notice no triple channel ram on the motherboard. Is triple channel noticeably faster than dual channel mode?
 
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polive said:
But I notice no triple channel ram on the motherboard. Is triple channel noticeably faster than dual channel mode?
Click to expand...

Nope. In addition, the motherboard, chipset, and CPU doesn't support triple channel anyway.
 
Do you have a microcenter nearby?

I suggest 6 gigs ddr3, an i7 930, p6t, and a 5850 if you do.
 
@Zellio2010 - With a $1000 budget and the possibility of having to buy a new PSU and video card, a Core i7/X58-based setup would easily exceed the OP's budget -- especially when you consider the fact that NewEgg has comparatively better prices with RAM, PSUs, and video cards.
 
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