BestConfigs Poll - Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC

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Which Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC do you like best?

  • Leo's Favorite Build

    Votes: 39 28.9%
  • techo's Build

    Votes: 52 38.5%
  • Mjmj's $1000 Gaming Great

    Votes: 44 32.6%

  • Total voters
    135
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some people consider them noisy

Have it and not at all. No vibration(which some people experience in the haf 912 case but I had absolutenly not. Very low heat too.
 

mjmjpfaff

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Have it and not at all. No vibration(which some people experience in the haf 912 case but I had absolutenly not. Very low heat too.
how many fans do you have running? sometimes lots of fans or low quality fans make a lot of noise on there own.
 

mjmjpfaff

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i updated it just for the prospective buyers :D
 

ojas

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2win? Er...don't get you...I used two MSI GTX 460 talon attack cards...(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127534)...were for 130 each with rebate which i found to be a steal...deactivated now, i see...
 

ojas

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i see...

some people consider them noisy

i use a caviar blue, it's not noisy...



yeah i think you (or someone) posted this (or a similar) story somewhere else, just didn't mention the company...i remember assuming it to be WD for some reason...hehe i was only a year old in 1994...man you must be my dad's age :p :D

HD Tune does indeed show the expected value, was happy about that after using a seagate drive before...seagate firmaware is bad, CC46 seemed to work the best...



That's why i had used it in the mATX config, I was hitting the budget ceiling :D

However, i had money left in the others, and since i crave balance, used the caviar black, assuming low seek times meant faster random read-writes, which are by far most common. Probably unwise in the budget intel segment since i had crossed the budget cap by a considerable amount (without rebates).

Have it and not at all. No vibration(which some people experience in the haf 912 case but I had absolutenly not. Very low heat too.

Neither have i, though i remember very infrequently hearing a very high pitch noise. Not sure is this the HDD or fan, so i loosened the screws a little, haven't heard it since. I remember my old Barracuda had a note from seagate on it, asking the user not to tighten the screws too much.
 
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I checked before I installed any fans because I checked ahead to see if anybody had problems with the hdd and found out that people did with the haf 912 case. they had vibration problems. No fans and with Hdd installed only made a quiet humm during windows 7 installation. if thumbscrews are on correctly no vibration from case.
 

I think the best is to have these requirements for these builds:

* Have 1 week to build and post.

* 1-2 weeks for the top 3 to be selected and 1-2 weeks to vote on.

* No Mail in rebates equated into build cost.

* No combo deals, unless said vendor will support price combo (for future purchases, sorta like a "TomsHardware" promo code or something like that).

* Stick to strict budget requirements, no builds exceeding budgets.

* Shipping figured into build price (use a standard zip code, so all will entered will have the same shipping costs).

* Should have $500, $750, $1k, $1,500 budget builds. Most people don't spend over $1,500 on builds (except a small percentage). With these builds closer in price, one can possibly see how much $250 more would buy them. This will let the average Joe make a more informed decision, IMHO.

* After the builds have been voted in, than test them out and see how well they do.

* See if a vendor (like NewEgg) will sponsor these builds and offer them up on their own website as "Toms Hardware Readers Build" or something like that. Than they can bundle these builds up and maybe even give a discount to them. Maybe honor the price for 30-60 days or something like that. Than this could be a re-occurring option with updates every quarter or so, so the builds will be up to date each quarter.

* Maybe an additional 20-30% off for winner of each build at an online vendor would be a nice reward or maybe even a Gift Card from a given vendor. This would probably make the amount of builds entered increase??

That about sums up my expectations for these kind of build-offs.
 

ojas

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If the discount will be honored outside the US/Europe, then why not. :)
 

jrwizbang

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I agree 100%
 

justjohn5

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I agree with lunyone as well. 20-30% off would be a huge bonus. And if newegg could make the builds into kits, everything would be a lot easier.
And the $500, $750, 1k, and 1,500 builds would also be a good idea. :) Thanks for the post really has some good ideas. Hopefully someone important will see your post haha ;)
 

Here's for hoping :) I've been building "Budget" gaming systems for years. I entered in the Intel and AMD budget gaming builds here, but my Intel build wasn't good enough (around $550, IRRC) for this poll this time. Maybe if there is enough interest in true "Budget" gaming builds, they will change their requirements.

Tom's has had $500 gaming builds for quite some time, so this shouldn't be any news to them. Their last $500 budget gaming build was quite a joke, IMHO. They used an Intel based build and used a really weak and low optioned motherboard to try and fit into the $500 price range. Let's be honest, AMD is king in the mid-low price range right now and has been since about the Core 2 Duo days.
 

tman2011

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mjmjpfaff : FYI you can unlock techo's 6950 to a 6970, but I agree I would take techo's build and use that 100 dollar margin he left to look at an ssd
 

techo

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Couldn't have put it better myself if i tried
 

Thank you for your support. Hopefully someone at Tom's would consider some of these ideas that I've been thinking about for quite some time. :)
 

techo

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I think newegg, if someone can get a hold of the right person, would be completely down to put together some pre arranged packages and call them a Tom's Hardware special or something.

Not too sure if they can do the whole discount for the winner but that would be an excellent possibility :)
 


I think the subject was broached and the powers that be thought it would be best to not have a lot of rules. Still, I agree with you.
 

mrvhatever

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I havent been messing around with computer building in quite awhile, but is 750 watts enough for 2 SLI'd 560ti's anyway? Assuming you intent to OC's the proicessor already, hence the cooler. That sounds like a helluva power draw for a 750 watt PSU.
 

SquadSystem

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SquadSystem Build



Processor - Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge - $77.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116399

Motherboard - ASRock Z68M/USB3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 - $94.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157270&Tpk=ASRock%20Z68M%2fUSB3

RAM - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $52.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233144

Graphics card - HIS H677FN1GD Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161387&Tpk=H677FN1GD

Power supply - XIGMATEK NRP-PC Series ACXTNRP-PC402 400W ATX12V Ver.2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC - $34.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815007&Tpk=XIGMATEK%20NRP-PC%20Series%20ACXTNRP-PC402

Case - Sunbeam VentMax IC-VM-BK Black Interior SGCC 0.6mm ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 5PCS Case Fans and a Fan Controller - $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811166054&Tpk=Sunbeam%20VentMax%20IC-VM-BK

Hard drive - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

DVD Burner - ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Now: $20.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Total Price: $ 492
 

grody

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Surprised Leo's made the list. Using the microcenter price is unrealistic, since the average buyer doesn't live near a microcenter.
 
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Me too. But its MUCH better than the others who had newegg deals that expires in like a day. The deals that I choose lasted at least a month. Also, I didn't include rebates in the prices.

@badtaylorx
I think this ones over. I'm not sure but I think you'll have to wait till the next one starts.