~$1000 art/gaming build

fliplock

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Jun 4, 2010
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Hello all, it’s been quite a while since I built a PC and would welcome any advice you could impart based upon the following information. The machine would be primarily used for art (probably gimp and inkscape) and gaming. I am an amateur artist, so I’m trying to keep things within a bit tighter budget.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within the next week or two
BUDGET RANGE: under $1000 (less wouldn’t hurt my feelings) After Rebates

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: digital visual art creation, video games, music library, surfing the web, some home office

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: monitors (have 2 lcd monitors and a wacom cintiq 21ux tablet), keyboard & mouse, I also have two older 250 GB drives that I’d like to use in addition to a new one

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com (I don’t really have any experience with buying pc parts online) COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe (up front I’d like only the one GPU, I haven’t gamed on a PC in a while, but if I got the bug again I’d like to have the option to upgrade)

MONITOR RESOLUTION: largest is 1920x1200

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

As cool and quiet as possible would be great. Here’s the potential build I was thinking of:

AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor
74.99

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
139.99

SAPPHIRE 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
294.99

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory w/ Red LEDs Model BL2KIT25664TR1337
119.99

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
59.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
89.99 (after rebate)

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
79.99

Cooler Master RR-B10-212P-GP Hyper 212 Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler for AMD AM2/AM2+, AM3 and Intel LGA775, 1156, 1366
29.99

Do these seem like good choices? Are any of them overkill for my needs? They’re mostly selected from TH reviews. I am still in limbo regarding my primary HD, cooler, psu, and tower.

A couple of questions:

• With the graphics card chosen, am I correct in the assumption that I will be able to connect all three monitors simultaneously (given a monitor that supports displayport input or alternatively some sort of displayport to DVI converter)?

• Considering the machine’s proposed usage, would I see any benefit going with a 64 bit OS? If so, how?

Thanks, in advance, for any assistance/information you can provide.
 
Solution

fliplock

Distinguished
Jun 4, 2010
3
0
18,510
batuchka: thanks very much for the link to that video, it was very informative. almost made me want to go out and buy 3 monitors, lol.

davcon: thank you for the sound suggestions, i've added the information you've supplied to my build. they all seem like very strong choices.