$500-$700 Gaming Adivce

[Fanattick]

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Approximate Purchase Date: As soon as possible the sooner i buy it the less i have a chance to dwindle the money away on random stuff. lol

Budget Range: Only looking to spend a make of $750. Willing to spend $900 up front if the rebates you all find drop the end price lower than $750.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming!, surfin the net, downloading, watching movies.

Parts Not Required: I own a great mouse and Keyboard. Both are USB or Wireless.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Cheaper is better as far as websites, I have used NewEgg in the past. I am Active Duty Army so i grab military discount wherever i buy most of the time.

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: Would like to grab a 20-24 inch monitor. Im at a cross road with brands have had bad experiences with SLI vid cards thanks to my XPS m1730. Id like a nice processor and a decent vid card.

Overclocking: Yes ----- if i wont be replacing a month or so down the road.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes would like to try crossfire

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200

Additional Comments: I do not want it to be loud. or produce a ton of heat. My last PC i built would heat up the entire room i had it in and made it miserable and costly to keep the room itself cool.

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I have looked myself and found the following - But as told above i suck at knowing whats good anymore. I know i need a great processor and great vid card beyond that no idea. The stuff i found if its great is about $650 But that still leaves me with buying a monitor i saw New egg has vid card/monitor combos but. Help!

DIY kit form Newegg.com I lack knowledge of whats "Good" nowadays.

Phenom II X6 1100T/880G/4GB/1.5TB SuperCombo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.692922&cm_sp=DIY_PC_Combos-_-692922-_-Combo

XFX HD-687A-ZHFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814150561

These items are set in stone. There just things i found and if anyone says that it is a good idea ill buy it. Heh.

I am no hardcore gamer or audiophile. I think the hardest game i play is Section 8: Prejudice and Global Agenda and i use to play a little WoW and Rift. Heh. I dont need tons of lites or anything just something quiet that can play games. Nuthin too special.

 

[008Rohit]

Processor : Intel Core i3 2100 - $125
Motherboard : ASRock H61M-U3S3 - $70
RAM : 2x4GB Gskill Value Series DDR3 1333 - $40
Graphics : Galaxy 56NGH6HS4IXZ GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB - $230
Storage : 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA III - $40
PSU : Corsair CX500 V2 - $55
Case : Xigmatek ASGard II - $30

Total : $590 before rebates

Monitor : Acer S211HLbd 21.5'' 5ms LED-Backlight LCD Monitor - $120

Grand Total : $710 before rebates

 

[mauler184]

^ +1 You cant do better Ohh do you have windows 7 that's a 100 right off the bat. And if your are overclocking a suggest a and aftermarket fan such as the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

I've done a build with it an no regrets so far

 

[008Rohit]

No need of an aftermarket cooler as the i3 2100 is a multiplier-locked processor.

 

[Fanattick]

Cool thanks, everyone i keep asking says go for the X6 or i7 and then get crap after that lol. Thanks i never looked at the i3's. I own 64bit win7 so glad that drops price a lil.

 

[008Rohit]

The 2nd gen. i3 processors beat AMD's Phenom II X6 series processors and nehalem i7's in many games which aren't that multithreaded. It takes a lot of work to code a game to utilise more than 2 processor cores. The i3 2100 beats AMD's quad core Phenom II X4's even in most CPU intensive games such as GTA 4 or Mafia II.

Graphics is what matters the most in todays games. An i3 2100 with a powerful GPU like 560 Ti will beat an i7 with a weak GPU (HD 5770, GTS 450) anyday in any game.

 

[Fanattick]

So why did you choose the i3 and the GTX 560? I dont know enough about computers i like to learn and fix them all the time but couldnt tell ya whats good for gaming. lol. I see the price differences for sure. But was the stuff i put up any good? Trying to see if i am able to choose good enough stuff on my own. I was always told to get the best processor you can afford and then a video card and build around those 2 since there the most expensive stuff. I wouldve never went with an i3 but that price is nice i guess according to Passmark it has the same price rating as an i7 960. So help? heh. I see that you put a similar build up for others in my price range so im wondeirng if thats the best in the $125 price range.

 

[008Rohit]

$125 for processor?

You can get Phenom II X4 955 BE at that price which performs worse in games.

 

[Outlander_04]

$125 for processor?

You can get Phenom II X4 955 BE at that price which performs worse in games.

Actually the Phenom can be overclocked and the i3 2100 cant so even with the stock cooler the phenom runs games faster . Add an aftermarket cooler and the i3 falls further behind .

But if you are building with a Phenom today then make sure the motherboard fully supports future bulldozer processors , and that means a mb with the 970 or 990 series chipsets

Read this
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-overclock-graphics-card,3032.html

and make a few changes , like swapping the RAM to higher quality
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277


and the motherboard with one of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625%20600138080%20600166260&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20970

That gives you a system you can build on for several years , as AMD seldom change platform . That will ultimately save you money , while giving you a better computer than the intel system right now

You can also get a better case for $20 more
I like the Antec 300 most , the the Coolermaster HAF is also a good choice .
Some like the Rosewill challenger , but the build quality is lower

 

[aznshinobi]

955 $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808
Antec 650w $60 ($20 MIR Remember $60 is after promo: EMCKAHK22)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044
Asrock Extreme4 970 $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157262
Lite-on DVD drive + Seagate 500GB $58
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.696127
Gigabyte 560 Ti $235 ($30 MIR + Free Game)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125363
Team 4GB DDR3 1333 $24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313102
Total: $607 before rebates.

 

[zooted]

Yeah I'd take the 955 over the i3 2100 anyday (not to discredit the quality of the 2100, it is a very good processor). You can get a much more feature rich motherboard and oc it (they got what like 3.8 on stock this last sbm?)

 

[008Rohit]

hmm.. Enthusisasts prefer 955 because of its overclocking capabilities.

Though, I don't like to stay bothered about the clock speed etc all the time so bought the i3 2100.

 

[Fanattick]

Thanks for all the great info guys. Like i said above i Dont do the HARDCORE game slike everyone else is running. Not a fan of the Crysis scene. I personally have never owned a pc where i can throw the settings all the way up on a game i play until i got my XPS m1730 that the game was WoW. But all things said i will take all of this information into consideration befor ei make my final purchase. Thanks.

 

[Nim Chimpsky]

Antec Three Hundred Illusion: $44.99

Corsair Builder Series CX500: $59.99 ($39.99 after rebate)

MSI P67S-C43: $89.99

Intel Core i5-2500K: $219.99

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus: $27.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB: $29.99

Sapphire Radeon HD 6870: $169.99 ($149.99 after rebate)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB: $59.99

Total: $702.92 ($662.92 after rebates)

 

[Fanattick]

Best answer selected by Fanattick.