$1200 or under gaming build...

[Matt141]

Approximate Purchase Date: As soon as I get my tax return so, around the end of Jan.

Budget Range: $1200-$1400 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming

Parts Not Required: I need everything

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com or amazon.com

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel for the CPU...everything else I am open to

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: Not at first...but will likely be upgrading the PSU and GPU with possible Crossfire/SLI around the same time next year. But for value sake, lets just so I wont be doing SLI or Crossfire for this build.

Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1080 would be preferable

Additional Comments: No special needs with this. It could look ugly as I am more about performance rather than looks.

 

[sadams04]

How does the build below strike you? Plenty of budget left to go larger on the GPU or add an SSD...

MB - GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $123
CPU - i5-2500k - $220
CPU Cooler - Hyper 212+ - $30
GPU - XFX HD 6950 2GB - $250 after MIR
MEM - Corsair CMX3 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 - $30 after MIR
HD - Seagate 1TB - $125
OPTICAL - LG Black 24X DVD-RW - $18
PSU - XFX PRO850W - $90 after MIR
CASE - Rosewill Challenger - $50
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium x64 - $100

$1036

 

[9_breaker]

does this include a monitor

 

[sadams04]

No.

Monitor - ASUS VS248H-P Black 24" HDMI LED Backlight LCD - $210

 

[Matt141]

Would you recommend the 6950 over this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127578

 

[sadams04]

I would lean toward the HD 6950 2GB simply because of more memory, but choosing between it and GTX 560 Ti is almost like flipping a coin. Either of those would be fine.

 

[Matt141]

I was think either the 560 ti or the Sapphire 6970. I think I may used a 120gb SSD as my main drive right now for the OS and 1 or 2 games installed on it then get a 500 gb HDD a few months after building the computer.

All in all, though, adding what you suggested with the 6970 and the SSD in place brings me to $1347...very manageable. All I have to do is add in a keyboard and mouse which might bring me to $1400.

 

[sadams04]

Do you already have the SSD, or which one were you looking at?

 

[Matt141]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226152

 

[9_breaker]

heres my build

http://www.diigo.com/item/image/203mi/kme7

 

[sadams04]

Not bad, but older SandForce controller. The OCZ below is $12 more after rebate and will perform better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227726

 

[Matt141]

Best answer selected by Matt141.