Want to build a new gaming rig on the cheap -- Worth it?

L

Lime

Gawd
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
903
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, Photoshop, Some video editing, general PC usage
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Cheap as possible? I don't have a set budget, I just want to see if I can build a decent machine for gaming that will last a while, but lets say 700? 800?
3) Where do you live?
Boston
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Not exactly sure, cause I'm not sure what is worth reusing. I've been out of the computer specs game for a while, My last computer I bought was a dell i got for a song on one of their small business sales.

I figure I need at least a new motherboard, CPU, PSU, new HDD (I want another one anyways), Probably RAM, probably new graphics card too, and a case.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have a Dell Vostro 400, with a 24 inch dell flatscreen.

Specs: 160gb main drive, 1tb Barracuda 7200, 8800GT 512mb, e6750 2.66, 4gb Corsair DDR2, and whatever mobo/psu in their midtower case.

Whatever is still usable on that.

I also may be able to have two 8800GT 512mb for SLI if its worth it to keep stuff current for now and then upgrade later with something better - buddy of mine upgraded to SLI cards and still has his 8800GT i can have, so if its still good, I may do that.
6) Will you be overclocking?
I'd rather not, but can be swayed.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24 inch, and I like running games at 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within the next month, if at all.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
Having crossfire/sli support would be nice, in case in the future i want to run it/or its worth it to run the dual 8800GTs. SATA 6Gb/s would be nice for future hard drives, at least one firewire port, USB3 would be nice for future proofing.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, I want 7 64bit, getting sick and tired of Vista 64bit.



Thanks in advance guys. I've been out of the game a while and you guys always seem to be able to steer me in the right direction. I just literally know nothing about whats current, and don't really know where to start.
 
Is the cost of OS part of that $700 to $800 budget?

Also, if you can't buy the PC before November 28th, please come back two weeks from now and bump up this thread. By then, Newegg's December combo deals will be out. Those combo deals make a huge difference in costs savings. For example, here's a build without combo deals:
$145 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
$140 - Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX ATX Motherboard
$205 - XFX HD-685X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$50 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
-----
Total: $745 plus tax and shipping


Here's a similar using the Newegg combo deals for November (they expire at the end of the month):
$244 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + Asus M4A89GTD PRO AMD 890GX ATX Motherboard Combo
$50 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$270 - XFX HD-585X-ZAFC Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card + XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W PSU Combo
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
---
Total: $679 plus tax and shipping

$66 cheaper but you get a faster video card and a better quality PSU.

So yeah, bump this thread up two weeks from now and hopefully there will be equal or better combo deals that month.
 
Not including the OS in there.

Bumping as requested for december deals.

also like the closer to 700 price.
 
Last edited:
Well unfortunately, Newegg's combo deals aren't as good as last month's but still decent enough:
$233 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + Asus M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard Combo
$48 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$195 - XFX HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$90 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
---
Total: $681 plus tax and shipping
 
Keep in mind that the motherboard in the post above, while a good one, won't get you good crossfire performance as it has two PCIe lanes at x16 and x4 (while its true that x8 x8 don't bottleneck too much, x16 and x4 will bottleneck at 1920x1200 and isn't very ideal). Also, it doesn't have a heatsink on the mosfets, which just means you're playing with fire with a 125watt PSU like the 955BE (read up on some horror stories of people's computers nearly setting fire).

Bumping up the total to $700 plus tax and shipping, you can get the ASRock 870 Extreme3, which has a heatsink on the mosfets, x8 x8 crossfire, and is made by a spinoff company off of ASUS, like the motherboard above, and it is receiving stellar ratings online. IMO, ASRock has the best bang-for-the-buck AMD motherboards out there right now, and if I had to choose an AM3 mobo it would either be the extreme3 870, or deluxe4 890fx (a must-have with a Thuban 6 core processor like the 1055t).

And to answer your question: nowadays, for $700 - $800 you can easily build a system that will run circles around your current setup. You can keep the hard drive + monitor + optical drive from your current dell to cut down on the costs of upgrading (maybe even keep the 4gb DDR2 if you're going with an AM2+ motherboard, seeing as how Corsair is a good brand and not many gamers need over 4gb now anyway), but the rest I would scrap/keep for backup.

A cheaper, possible option, though, is to drop in one of the old Core 2 Quads, maybe a used one off of ebay, and upgrade the video card in your build, although I'm not sure how strong the PSU in your computer now is (replacing it may be impossible too due to the proprietary design of Dell systems).

Either way, with your budget you can build a good rig. Good luck!
 
russilker said:
Keep in mind that the motherboard in the post above, while a good one, won't get you good crossfire performance as it has two PCIe lanes at x16 and x4 (while its true that x8 x8 don't bottleneck too much, x16 and x4 will bottleneck at 1920x1200 and isn't very ideal). Also, it doesn't have a heatsink on the mosfets, which just means you're playing with fire with a 125watt PSU like the 955BE (read up on some horror stories of people's computers nearly setting fire).

Bumping up the total to $700 plus tax and shipping, you can get the ASRock 870 Extreme3, which has a heatsink on the mosfets, x8 x8 crossfire, and is made by a spinoff company off of ASUS, like the motherboard above, and it is receiving stellar ratings online. IMO, ASRock has the best bang-for-the-buck AMD motherboards out there right now, and if I had to choose an AM3 mobo it would either be the extreme3 870, or deluxe4 890fx (a must-have with a Thuban 6 core processor like the 1055t).
Click to expand...

Dude, again as I said in your other threads, x4 does NOT noticeably bottleneck current high-end video cards let alone mid-range cards like the HD 6850. Clearly shown in this article:
http://hardocp.com/article/2010/08/25/gtx_480_sli_pcie_bandwidth_perf_x16x16_vs_x4x4/

Note that they're playing at 2560x1600 which is far more demanding than 1920x1080 and there's still not that much of a noticeable difference between x16 and x4. And that's with GTX 480 cards, significantly faster and higher end than the HD 6850.

That Asrock isn't a good choice for the money since it only has a one year warranty whereas the motherboard I chose has a three warranty. In addition, your fears of the CPU blowing up or setting on fire due to the lack of heatsinks on the mosfets are greatly exaggerated as those are extremely isolated occurrences. Not to mention that some of those burnouts still occur with motherboards that have heatsinks on the mosfets.
 
Well, no offense, but in the link you just sent me, the minimum framerate of the x4 x4 build is 5-10 fps lower than in a x16 x16 setup, which could make or break smooth gameplay in a demanding game like Crysis. Although I guess I forgot just how close x4 x4 is to x16 x16, my bad, and you're right that they're playing at a higher resolution so if a few FPS difference in the minimum framerate isn't too important to you, by all means go with the x16 x4 setup.

As for the fire issue, while I'm not saying it happens to every person out there, I've seen enough threads online and newegg reviews to know that it isn't exactly a very rare occurence either, although to be fair it seems to be limited to MSI motherboards.
 
WITH ALL TECH KNOWLEDGE SET ASIDE...... WHY THE CRAP WOULD A MOHTERBOARD MANUFACTURE ONLY PUT AN X4 ... IF IT FREAKENG BOTTLENECKED THE GPU.....

x16/x4 Boards will not be any diffrent from x16/x16 boards russiker. the pci express connection will not be saturated as easy as you think Even if you were 100 percent right WHICH YOU ARE NOT you need to have a little respect.
 
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