BestConfigs - Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC

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bigheadagency

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I realize that 2 6850's would be faster than the 560 ti, but I'd like to stick with Nvidia (for drivers/physx/etc.) and if I need to later on I can add another 560 ti for SLI. I adjusted the price to $29.51, thanks.
 

bigheadagency

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Off Topic:
Having not built a PC since ~1998, I'm simply shocked at how much of a ripoff Apple hardware is. I like my MacBook and have enjoyed using OSX for the past 7 years, but I can't believe at how much they are charging for hardware these days. A Mac Pro desktop unit with WORSE hardware than what I've spec'd out from NewEgg is $3,500! That's for a 2.8ghz processor and a Radeon 5770! Sorry for the rant, but I'm pretty amazed.
 

mlcaouette

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Bigheadagency, is this a real build you're doing or just theoretical like most including myself are posting up? If you did two GTX 560's (non ti) it would put you just over the 1000 dollar mark, still closer to what this thread is all about which is the best Intel based gaming rig you can come up with for $1000.

Only people that don't know better still buy Mac's! Soon Apple will want their customers to go ahead and become indentured apple servants as well as taking all of their money, lol.
 

mlcaouette

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@gammerx do you want closer to 500 or closer to 700 cause thats a big difference. Give me a budget with a 50 dollar range and I will post up the best that I can find
 

gammerx

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I made a thread with stuff I was looking at. I will be going to college in a year so I don't really know how advisable it is to spend alot of money on a good computer, when I could spend like $500 tops now just to have one, then spend $1000+ in a few years when im done with college.

Would you mind doing both? 450-600 range and 600-750 range?
 

ojas

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Macs are like a Ferrari with a VW Polo engine. At the price point of a Ferrari, though...
 

mlcaouette

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Well here is a $740 build:

CPU+M/B: I5 2500k and MSI p67A-G45 $332.98 with a $20MIR
HDD: Seagate 500Gb 7200RPM $43.98
Ram: Kingston 4Gb DDR3 1333Mhz cas9 1.5v low profile $33.99
DVD/CD burner: Lite on $18.99
GPU: Sapphire HD 6870 $182.55
PSU: Thermaltake RX750 80+ bronze $89.99 with $30MIR
Case: NZXT Gamma $39.99

Total with shipping: $742.47 and $50 worth of mail in rebates

Parts for future upgrades (listed in order of suggested priority): Aftermarket HSF, 2nd GPU, More Ram, Better case.
This builds focus would be all about power, obviously some power could be sacrificed in the name of aesthetics if the buyer were to choose so. My goal was fully crossfire ready with a moderately future proof CPU+M/B.

I will have to get back to you on the $450-$600 build
 

ChiefTexas_82

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Actually, It's the logo AND all those programs that come on the Macs or you can get for free, I think...
 

There are few in this thread. I have one around the $550 range (page 2) and the other 2 are around the $625 range or so. I believe that a "Budget" build should be just that, a Budget, not a $1k build, IMHO.
 

ojas

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Their laptops are good actually, very convenient to use (three finger swiping, two finger scroll, etc) but then the MacOS lets me down. There's no cut-paste option, only copy-paste. or so it appears till now. The funniest thing is that Office for Mac is faster to load and easier to use than iWork 09 :D (or so i found).

But really, the OS tries to be an app instead of an OS...which is where it fails. Plus getting anything to go full screen is a real pain. And there are security concerns. The only advantage with Mac OS is that their hardware seems to be integrated with their OS, just like iOS is...so things are quite smooth...

If Macbooks came with windows 7 i'd love them. :D

And, agreed, they cant game.
 

ojas

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I made this (on paper) for a friend:

CPU: Core i3-2100

Mobo: Intel DH67CL

RAM: Corsair DDR3-1333 2x2GB

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 32MB Cache SATA III

PSU: Cooler Master GX 650

Case: Cooler Master Elite 335

Case Intake fan: Cooler Master SickleFlow

DVD burner: LITE-ON DVD Burner

Total: $609
With Rebates: $574

Though i'd like you to note that:
1. It cost him about $150 more than it will cost you, thanks to duties and customs in my country, which suck, really.
2. I linked to a 6770 because i couldn't see the 5770s from sapphire listed anymore, but it's almost the same thing.
3. The hard drive was probably not a 32MB cache in his case, and was his on-the-spot decision.
4. The PSU is overkill for this config, he couldn't find the GX550 or the Corsair GS600.
5. He doesn't overclock, so i thought my initially suggested G.Skill Ripjaws RAM would be overkill. They were a few hundred bucks (rupees, not dollars) more, plus i read about some issues with them on the forums, so i thought these normal RAM sticks should be fine.
6. The front intake fan was a 90 CFM 'Standard' 120mm fan from cooler master, not the sickleflow. Couldn't find it on newegg though, so this became the closest approximation.

Making some modifications to the build, we get:

Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion
Note:No need to buy the sickleflow fan with the Three Hundred, it has enough! :D

GPU: MSI Hawk Radeon R5770 or MSI R6770 Twin Frozr II/OC or PowerColor AX6790 1GBD5-DH for the same price.

PSU: Antec BP550 Plus

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB)

New Total: $610
With Rebates: $565


Cheers! :)
 

bigheadagency

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It is a real build that I'm doing (I'm actually going to pull the trigger and order everything this afternoon) and I'm just going to get a single GTX 560 ti for now because I'm tight on cash. However, in the spirit of what this thread is all about, I've swapped the single Asus 560 ti for 2 Pallit 560 ti's in SLI. I think it's a pretty sweet build for $1,000!
 

gammerx

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So this being my first build, I don't plan on OC'ing (yet anyways) and dont want to SLI/XFIRE on this one. I took some of your suggestions and here is what i got:

CPU - i3 2100 $120
GPU - GTX 460 $160
MOBO - ASRock PRO3 $130
RAM - 2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1333 $40
PSU - Corsair 600W - $50
Antec 300 or 900 case - $50

This comes to about $550, depending on where I buy everything from. Aftermarket I could get a Hyper 212 for OC if I do it but the 900 case should keep it pretty cool. For any future builds I make, the GTX 460 and ripjaws will stay with me, as will the case. Only other things needed in the future would maybe go to an extreme4 instead of pro3? i5 2500k instead of i3, and the samsungF3 for HDD. This would boost the price by about $150 to $700

 

ojas

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^seems pretty fair, GTX 460s overclock well apparently, should you choose to... though overclocking the CPU needs a k-series. I think you know that, which is why you've chosen a k-series i5...though you mentioned the hyper 212 (and the desire to OC) before the i5 so i'm not quite sure...

Check the 12V amps, you need about 36A for that card. if that PSU you mention is the GS600, then rest assured it has enough :)

Though i'm not sure why you'd change the mobo later at all, since you say SLI is out of the question...maybe you want 2 PCs? I dunno...up to you really! :D

otherwise looks good to me, maybe others have better ideas...



....honestly i'm waiting to finish college too! ;)
 

gammerx

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I kind of ordered everything wrong because I just wanted to type it out lol. I was thinking of keeping this computer for a while, in which case I would want to upgrade small pieces, centered around the MOBO. So I was wondering if spending $30 more on an extreme 4 would be better justtttt in case I want to SLI/XFIRE and because they might be better?

Expanding on the upgrading in the future, if I do have money in 2-3 years from now, I would buy an i5-2500k for OCing which is when I would need the cooler. Looking at it now, it all seems pretty fine and basic enough for what I need, which is just a better computer for gaming. the i3 is way better then my core 2 duo, GTX 460 better then my 9500 GT, asrock better then my stock MOBO, RAM better then mine and it is DDR3.

As for the PSU, I wanted to get the 650 TXV2 which is like $80? I mean I don't know where computing will be in 3 years from now but I wanted to be able to bring most of this stuff along. I will most likely go with the build I just posted, in the future I can upgrade my CPU, and go to 8 GB of RAM, also adding a new HDD but I don't need those yet :]
 

ojas

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i agree with you fully on the expanding thingy, because i think that's a better way to spread money. so maybe 30 bucks is worth it...my current build is similar to your current one, so i keep thinking of ways to improve performance. my biggest headache is my case, it's just plain irritating. you really wont have that prob which is good.

though i cant help pointing out, 2-3 years from now you'd probably want to put in an ivy-bridge based chip, i think they should be backward compatible, it's a similar architecture after all, only smaller.

you've got a point there with the PSU, it should handle an SLI GTX 460 config without a prob...though wait, if you're thinking along those lines, ill tell you what striker410 and mlCaouette told me about that PSU: The cards need 2 PCIe connectors each, so you'd want 4 PCIe connectors in total. Check out the corsair TX750 or the GX750 from cooler master for that.

DDR3 will be here for some time, you'll have enough time for those 8 gigs! :D
 

bigheadagency

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I'm going to buy a single 560 ti for now and I'm trying to decide what brand/model to get. Tom's recommends the Asus model, do you guys think that's the way to go?